Chapter Seven: The Deadly Minister
Disclaimer: You know the drill; I'm not making monetary profit off of this, so on and soforth.
Reviews and PMs are always welcomed and given a good home.
Acknowledgments: I have to thank all of the betas for helping me with grammar andpunctuation, brit-picking, suggestions and remindersof what they liked.Sloggingthrough this on my own would have been impossible. TheDubliner, MeiHitokiri, xXMildredXx, thisisforyou,SapphireElric, Sianco, Kanna-chan94, and LosGatos.
Sherlock had on his jacket and soon was out the door. He had a taxi take him to the police headquarters. They were all waiting. Lestrade stood behind his desk, that pensive look on his face.
"How many?" Sherlock asked.
"Ten. You have a plan?"
"If I didn't I would think of one fairly fast; safe bet to always say; Yes. I do have a plan."
"Yeah, sure." Anderson scoffed.
"Lestrade, tell him to shut up would you?" Lestrade gave them each an unimpressed look.
The interview rooms had been set up. Suspects had been subjected to a preliminary interview by the police. Lestrade asked Sherlock as the consulting detective went in for the first interview, "How do you know the actual killer showed up?"
"Because the killer has something to hide, they couldn't risk not showing up."
"But then all these people have something to hide." Lestrade expressed.
"Lucky day for you isn't it?"
"Four of them lawyered up," Lestrade warned.
"Probably best for them, though I do hate lawyers. They so often think their clients tell them everything and that they're right."
Lestrade looked to Sally Donovan; could she believe that sentence, coming from him, a man who thought he was right 24/7?
Armed with a background check Lestrade had supplied him with; Sherlock spoke with Charles Stonearch first.
He was guilty of car theft, but had only needed to pay a fine after a few evenings in a prison cell. Not likely to be the killer, but Sherlock needed to do a bit of stageing.
Charles Stonearch had gotten his lawyer to come in, a squat man with large eyes in a cheap suit and an appreciation for fine foods judging by the stains on his jacket lapels.
Sherlock remained standing for the interview.
"You got a call last night instructing you to turn yourself in for murdering three women." Sherlock studied Charles Stonearch, he was a neat man, with neat clothes that had been tailored. His white-blond hair had been cut so that it added to his overall features; it wasn't an entity of its own, it was a part of a whole.
"Why did you come in?" Sherlock asked.
"I was told to, like you said- this guy says he'll tell the tabloids it was me if I didn't-I want to prove I'm innocent."
"And yet you brought a lawyer," Sherlock pointed out.
At being mentioned, the lawyer spoke for the first time. "Mr Stonearch has done nothing wrong; if that is how you are going to treat a man who has come to you for help after being falsely accused and threatened over the phone-" The rest of the interview went much like that. Which was fine, because at the end of it, he released Charles Stonearch and made sure all the other potential killers could hear him leaving in a huff.
Next he spoke with Nadine Richards, a woman in the military whose name had been on the list of 'anonymous' clients. She was more frightened than anything, of course she didn't want it to get out that she went to see prostitutes. "Why would that woman need to go see prostitutes?" Lestrade wondered aloud as she left.
"Because the women won't get attached, it's just business, it's fornication and nothing more," Sherlock answered.
After her he saw Pattar Tasovar, a fashion designer who had recently hit it big. He wasn't the type to ruin his career over murder, but he also wasn't the type to ruin his caree getting caught hiring for sex.
Before he went in to speak with William Marble he asked Lestrade who had called their lawyer first, and who had followed his example, in precise order please.
"Danielle Vottwoth, Charles Stonearch, George Karrier and then Elaine Forest."
He spoke with William Marble at length, who soon admitted to seeing a woman, but insisted it wasn't like that. She was a friend he had been helping out. "Why not just give her the money?"
"She insisted on something, so that she wasn't taking from me, she didn't want to just take the money. So I got her to give me a neck massage. I know, I know! It sounds like the excuse you give to your wife if you're cheating on her or something, but I don't have a wife, though not for lack of trying... there's this girl I really like but... I don't know she's- ah, sorry," he looked embarrassed that he had gotten off track.
"Anyways, so she's been giving me neck massages and I give her money for them, I mean, I pay for a few hours of... Of... Well, other things but only get the neck massages. It works out for both of us."
Later that week William Marble told the story on his radio show, ending it with; "It was just a massage, why should I be ashamed of that.
In fact, why should any of us be ashamed even if it isn't just a massage?"
Sherlock spoke with George Karrier next, who was not impressed with the situation and muttered to his lawyer about how he was never going to hire a woman to do something he could convince one of the girls who worked at his company to do.
Danielle Vottworth had something to hide, but it wasn't murder. She also had her planner, which she kept more meticulously than John kept his bureau drawers. She had been out of the country on a business trip for the past three months, it turned out. Sherlock pointed out that she shouldn't sleep with her lawyer.
Elaine Forest was next, she had been the last to call her lawyer and she had not needed to. She could confirm her alibi on her own with her pay stubs.
He interviewed Oliver Brigs next, who owned Transport for London. He did not have a lawyer; he felt having one would be an admission of guilt. His advisers had advised against him not contacting his lawyer; he told them he had nothing to hide but that he preferred this did not get out to the press.
Next was Zachery Lee, a government Cabinet member. Sherlock knew this had to be the man. He had no lawyer but had the most to lose, and his background check revealed that he was a fine art lover and had a gallery room at the Bankside Gallery where he undoubtedly had met Arden Wolff. Sherlock and Irene had stood in that room. It also explained why Mycroft had wanted the case dropped. He went through the show of interviewing Andrew Catten, and hours into the night after Sherlock had arrived at the station, he emerged to tell Lestrade that it was time to send them all home, except for Zachery Lee; he was their man.
"Prove it," Zachery Lee said when they presented him with the charges. Sherlock did, and he did it well.
"I can place you at each crime scene, your car drives by that lake every weekend when you go to visit your uncle. He gave you that tie, didn't he? Don't bother with an answer because we already know I'm right. You took Zoe Malone there thinking no one would find the body. You left Maria Fisher in the hotel room because, well, you're unimaginative and watch too much television."
"This is all just speculation," Zachery Lee sneered.
"You met these ladies at a charity event the Bankside gallery was hosting just a few weeks ago. I saw the pamphlets left over when I stopped there. You grew fond of Arden Wolff, killing her in her apartment suggests something personal. One night after a meeting you followed her home. Later, in your fondness you told her a secret, something you didn't want getting out, something-" He pulled Arden Wolff's timetable out of his jacket-"like stealing money from the government-" He opened to the page that held the evidence.
Zlee takes winnings from Big B.
"She disguised it to look as though she had been keeping track of the races, yet there are no other mentions of horse races in this book or anything in her apartment to show she had an interest in it. She's talking about people, as soon as I saw your name I pieced it together. Big B is 'Big Boss', the government that you are a part of."
"You have yet to show me any solid proof!" Zachery Lee said. He was a broken record wasn't he?
Sherlock turned to Lestrade, "Three murders proof enough?"
"You have no proof I killed them!" Zachery Lee shouted.
"Yes we do, I have placed you at every crime scene and made your motivations clear. I am sure a look into your financial records will reveal the stolen money somewhere. Do you think you wouldn't be convicted by a judge or a jury of your peers?" Sherlock asked coldly.
When Zachery Lee found himself unable to respond, Sherlock continued in the same cold tone, "As we've been talking, the police have been going through your house."
Lestrade dialed the squad he had sent as if on cue and put it on speaker. "You find anything?" He barked.
The officer on lead kept his response to the point, voice filtered but there was no mistaking his words. "We got 'im. Syringes, the drug, he even had each victim's rough schedule figured out."
Sherlock Holmes had been watching Zachery Lee's face the entire exchange. He saw something there that he knew too well. Pleasure that someone had finally caught on.
"Check deeper into his man's past Lestrade, I reckon this man is no stranger to killing."
He left the police to deal with it now. His job was done. He walked out to a blustery four a.m. London.
As he walked back to his home he was not surprised to get a call from Mycroft.
"What have you done?" Were the words of greeting. Mycroft did not bellow or roar, he didn't even sound surprised. He sounded disappointed.
"My job."
"You know this will cost Irene Adler, I cannot make idle threats."
A lie came easily to his mind and just as easily off his tongue. "Irene Adler is already gone. She was gone as soon as that little chat you had with me was finished." He made sure to work in annoyance, disgust and condescension into his tone. It was almost a reflex to lie. Some situations demand lying to survive.
~Those with such attachments don't survive~
"I'll see you soon Mycroft. I still owe you those five cases." Sherlock said and hung up.
Sneak Peek One:
"Let's move this to the bedroom, shall we?" She suggested.
As they quickly made their way to the more appropriate room, it was difficult to tell who was in control.
Authors Note: So very sorry for the delay my dears! I have been working a great deal and wanted to give this a good read over before posting; I am very happy I did. As some have been asking "what happened in Karachi?" I will be posting a follow-up fic shortly after this one is complete.
Don't forget about my character giveaway! Just find the three names a use in the stories (they've all now been mentioned a few times) and I'll put a character that you create into my upcoming case!fic