Dark trees surrounded the clearing, looming over the scene and blocking out the sky. The pale body lay face down in a thick pool of mud. The girl's auburn hair was tangled with sticks and grass, splaying around her shoulders, covering her neck and upper back.
Several men and women in blue hazmat suits crowded around her, taking hair samples and photographing her body. A flood light was set up a little way away, shining a harsh white light on the scene.
"Georgia Middleton," Lestrade whispered from John's side.
"Is she in the same year as Lucy and Rebecca?" enquired the doctor.
"Yes."
"Is there anything else that you've found out about her? Her relationship with Rebecca and Lucy, maybe?"
"Not a thing."
"They're getting careless!" Sherlock called from beside the body.
The two men squelched their way to the detective, coming up on either side.
"There," Sherlock pointed. "The pentagram was carved into the side of the stomach. The ring had started to heal, but the star is bleeding."
"Started to heal?"
"It was done while she was alive," Sherlock replied simply. "And some weeks ago."
"What about Rebecca? Hers would have been done after she died."
"It is simple to re-cut a wound and sprinkle something on it to make it look fresh. As I said, they're getting careless."
"She looks like she's been dead for a while," murmured Madeleine, from the other side of the body.
The curly haired man crouched down, flicking his coat out behind him. He outstretched a finger to the stomach of the girl, and then to the surrounding dirt.
"Footprints," he said gleefully.
"Footprints?" asked Lestrade.
"All of them are different. At least six pairs. A lynching."
"A lynching?"
"Where a group of people kill one person," Madeleine informed them.
"I've seen everything I need to see. If you find another body, text me." Sherlock strode off into the woods.
xsherlockx
"Have you been at Saint Mary's long?" John asked Madeleine as they walked back to the school building behind Sherlock.
"Since first form," she replied.
"Where were you before that?"
"My uncle's country estate, near Oxford," Madeleine's head tilted to the side as she spoke, seemingly to look for any response from Sherlock. The man in front of them did not even pause.
"With your mother?"
"A governess," she answered stiffly.
"What about your mother, though?" John continued.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Madeleine incline her head to look up at him with a furrowed brow. He turned to glance at her, but found her face completely blank of any emotion.
"I don't have a mother." She twisted back around and kept walking.
None of them spoke until they returned to Baker Street.
xsherlockx
When they got through the door of the flat, Sherlock immediately strode over to the book shelf, not bothering to put any of his things down or to hang his coat on its hook. John wandered into the kitchen to find a clean kettle to boil some water. Madeleine was left by the door.
She took off her own coat and placed it on her black suitcase next to the couch. Pulling down the sleeves of her jumper, she went to stand next to her father.
"You didn't have a governess," Sherlock muttered.
"I did."
"I think you've done enough lying for the moment, Madeleine," he whispered, walking away. The girl stayed where she was.
"Oi! Where are you going?" John cried, when Sherlock was halfway out the door.
"To the bookshop!" was the loud reply. The door closed with a 'thud', and he was gone.
"Cup of tea, Madeleine?" the other man asked from the kitchen.
"No thank you, Doctor John," she replied, still facing the bookcase.
For a few minutes there was nothing but silence, save for the slowly growing noise of the kettle. John took out a mug and a tea bag, adding sugar. He returned to the living area to find the girl sifting through her suitcase.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Madeleine shot up, and spun around. A smile that would have been believable to anyone that did not know better donned her features.
"I think I'm going to go and help Daddy," she told him.
Quickly, she snatched her coat from the couch where it had been thrown, pulled it around herself and went for the door.
"Do you know where the shop is?" John called after her.
"I'll find it!" she shouted from the base of the stairs.
The doctor watched from the landing as Madeleine crossed the hallway to the front door of the building, shoving her hands in her pockets as the black wood slammed behind her.
John shrugged to himself and returned to the flat, closing the door behind him. He picked up a novel he had been reading recently and sat down in one of the arm chairs by the fireplace. Finding his page, he began to read.
About two chapters in, he heard a low buzzing noise from Sherlock's desk. Confused, he pulled himself up and went over to the wood table. John looked between the papers, books, and other knick knacks lying on the desk for something capable of making such a noise.
His own phone sat proudly under yesterday's newspaper, buzzing away. He quickly pushed the paper away and snatched it up from the pile of books.
1 New Message.
He opened up the message, wondering what on earth someone would be doing texting him at such an hour. He looked up to see the clock reading quarter past two. He frowned; the bookshop Sherlock had gone to would not be open.
The phone screen changing brightness caught his attention, and he averted his eyes to the screen.
It was from Sherlock.
Ran into the Coven. I require assistance. Sherlock.
He had been kidnapped.
John paused briefly, puzzled at how such a man as a Sherlock could get himself caught.
However, he wasted no time grabbing his jacket and running out onto the street. John started running when he hit the pavement, sprinting for the bookshop around the corner. It was dark, but the street lights helped John see where he was going. The street was practically deserted, save for a drunken few on the opposite side of the road.
He rounded the corner, and came in sight of the small bookshop painted a chocolate brown colour. Its lights were off and no figures stood around it.
John stopped himself and looked around. Not a soul in sight.
His phone came out of his pocket, and he was suddenly speaking to Lestrade.
"What is it, John? Sherlock had a breakthrough?"
"No, actually... he, uh... went missing."
"I'm sure he just went for a walk, John. No need to panic."
"He's been taken. Madeleine too, I think."
"What do you mean, taken?"
"Kidnapped!"
I hope you enjoyed chapter four.
The chapter was going to be updated sooner, but my lovely beta-reader (Who I love) decided that there was some serious grammar mistakes, and I disagreed.
NEVER EVER ARGUE WITH YOUR BETA! THEY SEND EMAILS THAT ARE LONG AND HARD TO READ!
Anyway, I also bought the DVD of Sherlock today. So I'm going to watch them all, and get a better feel for the characters. I'm also finding that all the guessing I did with half the stuff all of them say is quite exact... very very quite exact. I scared myself even.
Please Read and Review as I like reviews.
Thank you.