7. Colleague

Sherlock pulls out his phone and calls the circus. "Yes, I'd like to reserve two tickets for tonight's performance. The name ... Holmes."

This fits the profile. In town for one night. Not easy to get exit visas from China especially on short notice. John can report back to me. Tell me who in the circus can climb like a spider. His date is perfect camouflage. He'll get his day off, and still be working for me.

How could he possibly schedule a date during a case? We have all of these books to go through.

A date? Why does he need to date anyway? Aren't we perfectly happy here as it is? What could he possibly need from her anyway?

Is he planning on getting married? Dull.

And if he leaves, where else am I going to find such an agreeable flatmate? Does he have no consideration at all?

Sherlock turns as John walks into the room. He is well groomed and neat. Truth be told, he looks very nice. "Well Sherlock, I'm off. Do you have the address of that circus?"

Sherlock reaches into his coat pocket passing the crinkled red flyer to John. He had already memorized the address.

"Well, thanks, Sherlock. Don't wait up." John pulls the coat around him and marches down the stairs. Sherlock listens as the outer door closes and he sits in his chair steepling his hands.

Something stolen.

A Chinese acrobat.

Two men dead and one woman. Her brother. Size eight feet. Hands around my neck.

And Sebastian telling me to focus and only solve the boring case of how they got into the Director's office. Through the window. It was so obvious as to be hardly worth mentioning. Five figures. Ha! Sebastian always had more money than brains.

He didn't have to tell John that they hated me. Always looking down their noses at me. Laughing because they had their ...gang, and I was alone. Laughing when I called John a friend.

'Colleague', John had said, not 'friend'. I still don't understand these distinctions. I would think that if someone kills someone for you that they would graduate to becoming a friend, but then ...I guess not.

But 'colleague'. It means a partner in an office. Someone that one works with. Related to legare 'to choose'. Someone that one chooses to work with. I suppose that isn't inaccurate. I'd certainly choose to work with John over Anderson or Donovan, or even Lestrade.

But he doesn't know that I suspect the circus members of being the Black Lotus. He doesn't know what to look for. He'll probably spend all of his time looking at his date's cleavage and he'll miss all the important clues. I should tell him.

Sherlock pulls out his phone. Then stops.

And what will he say? 'Go to hell, Sherlock, I'm on a date!'

But... I do need to get out of this flat, and he is my colleague.

Sherlock dials. "Hello, yes? You have a reservation for a Mr. Holmes...two tickets, that's right. Can you change it to three?"