"Okay," Thea was catching her breath, much like Sherlock and John. "That was ridiculous." John stated as the three of them leaned against the wall. "That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever done." John added.
"And you invaded Afghanistan."
John chuckled, getting Thea and Sherlock to laugh along with him. Honestly, Thea could count the amount of times she went running after cars, but that was the most fun she had a long time.
"That wasn't just me." Sherlock chuckled. John began to straighten himself out. "Why aren't we back at the restaurant?" John asked.
"Oh, they can keep an eye out. It was a long shot anyway." Sherlock said, waving off both of them.
"So what were we doing there?"
Sherlock cleared his throat, "Oh, just passing the time." Sherlock looked at John. "And proving a point."
"What point?"
"You." Sherlock began to yell to Mrs. Hudson when Thea's phone buzzed in her pocket. As she pulled it out, she began to walk up the stairs. In mid-step she froze. Lestrade texted her saying that they were currently on a drug bust, on Sherlock. Thea looked over her shoulder to Sherlock, before bolting up the stairs. She went in through the kitchen, seeing the damage that had already been done.
"Lestrade, the hell is this?" She asked, looking at everything that was getting destroyed. "A drugs bust." Thea looked around at everyone who came out for the event. "Do you think Sherlock Holmes seriously does drug, Lestrade?" Thea asked. Lestrade just gave her a look.
"Seriously?" Before Lestrade could respond to the detective, Thea heard footsteps echo towards the flat.
"What are you doing?" Sherlock asked the moment he entered his flat.
"Well, I knew you'd find the case, I'm not stupid."
"You can't just break into my flat."
"And you can't withhold evidence. And I didn't break into your flat." Lestrade stated.
"Well, what do you call this then?" Sherlock asked. Lestrade looked around at the officers, then back at Sherlock. "It's a drugs bust." Lestrade commented.
"Seriously?!" John nearly had the same reaction that Thea did. "This guy , a junkie? Have you met him?" John asked.
"John,"
"I'm pretty sure you could search this flat all day, you wouldn't find anything you could call recreational." John said. With what little time Thea spent with Sherlock, she wasn't sure if she'd agree with him.
"John, you probably want to shut up. Now." Sherlock warned.
"Yeah, but come on-" John stopped, looking at Sherlock. Sherlock glanced between him and Thea. Her mouth fell open. "No."
"What?"
"You?"
"Shut up!" Sherlock snapped at John, turning his attention to Lestrade again. "I'm not your sniffer dog."
"No, Anderson's my sniffer dog." Lestrade told Sherlock. The consulting detective turned towards the kitchen, watching as Anderson raised his hand at Sherlock.
"Anderson, what are you doing here on a drugs bust?"
"Oh, I volunteered."
Sherlock looked beyond pissed at this point. Thea pressed her lips together. "They all did. They're not strictly speaking on the drugs squad, but they're very keen." Lestrade stated.
Sally came into the room, holding up a jar. Thea turned her head, turning it away instantly. It was a jar full of eyeballs! "Are these human eyes?" Donovan asked.
"Put those back!"
"They were in the microwave!"
"Mental note: never use the applications in Sherlock's flat." Thea stated to herself, having Sherlock shooting her a glare.
"It's an experiment."
"Keep looking, guys." Lestrade told the officers, standing up from Sherlock's chair. "Or you could help us properly and I'll stand them down." Lestrade told him.
Sherlock began to pace back and forth, definitely going to wear a groove in the floor. "This is childish."
"Well, I'm dealing with a child. Sherlock, this is our case. I'm letting you in, but you do not go off on your own – clear?" Lestrade asked. Sherlock stopped his moving, shooting a glare at the detective inspector.
"What, so-so-so you set up a pretend drugs bust to bully me?" Sherlock asked.
"It stops being pretend if they find anything."
"I am clean!" Sherlock yelled.
"Is your flat? All of it?"
"I don't even smoke." Sherlock opened the left sleeve, showing the patches on his arm. "Neither do I." Lestrade did the same, showing Sherlock the same patch on his arm. Sherlock's eyes rolled, pushing down his sleeve.
"So let's work together. We've found Rachel."
"Who is she?"
"You did? And where was I?" Thea asked Lestrade. "Doing your job. And she's Jennifer Wilson's only daughter." He told her and Sherlock.
"Her daughter? Why would she write her daughter's name? Why?" Sherlock asked with a frown. "How about when you have kids and you are worried about dying, your last thought should be them." Thea commented, crossing her arms. Sherlock noticed her change in tone, and her chewing at her bottom lip.
"Never mind that." Thea turned her attention to Anderson. "We found the case." Anderson pointed to the pink case on the floor by Sherlock's chair. "According to someone, the murderer has the case, and we found it in the hands of our favorite psychopath." Anderson said. Thea's eyes narrowed at him, she didn't like his tone.
"I'm no a psychopath, Anderson. I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." He told Anderson. Anderson rolled his eyes as Sherlock turned back to Anderson. "You need to bring Rachel in. you need to question her. I need to question her." Sherlock ordered.
"She's dead."
"Excellent!"
"Sherlock!" Thea gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. John looked startled as well.
"How, when and why? Is there a connection? There has to be." Sherlock said. "Well, I doubt it, since she's been dead for fourteen years. Technically she was never alive. Rachel was Jennifer Wilson's stillborn daughter, fourteen years ago." Thea closed her eyes, trying not to cry in front of everyone right now. John turned away, sadly.
"No, that's-that's not right. How… Why would she do that? Why?" Sherlock asked.
"Why would she think of her daughter in her last moments? Yep – sociopath, I'm seeing it now." Anderson stated.
Sherlock turned towards him again, "She didn't think about her daughter. She scratched her name on the floor with fingernails. She was dying, it took effort. It would have hurt." Sherlock explained, pacing again.
"You said that the victims all took the poison themselves, that he makes them take it. Well, maybe he… I don't know, talks to them?" John suggested. Thea opened her eyes, looking at the doctor. "Maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow." John said.
Sherlock stopped short, turning his attention to John. "Yeah, but that was ages ago. Why would she still be upset?" Sherlock asked. Thea groaned loudly, making Sherlock looked over at her. Her expression told him everything as he turned back to John, who had a similar look. The flat was eerie quiet. "Not good?"
"Bit not good, yeah."
Sherlock walked over to Thea, grabbing her arm. He dragged her over to John, staring at both of them intensely. "Yeah, but if you were dying…if you'd been murdered: in your very last few seconds, what would you say?" Sherlock asked.
"'Please, God, let me live.'"
"Oh, use your imagination!"
"I don't have to."
Thea could hear the pain in John's voice from that. She glanced to Sherlock for a second, seeing that he hit a nerve. "I wouldn't use my voice, I'd…do something – like crave my child's name into the ground. In order for someone to know that I left something behind, almost like a clue itself." Thea explained. Sherlock went to say something but stopped. "I'm clever too."
Sherlock began to pace the room again. "She's trying to tell us something." Thea and Sherlock were on the same page.
Mrs. Hudson came into the room. "Isn't the doorbell working? Your taxi's here, Sherlock." She told him.
"I didn't order a taxi. Go away."
"Oh, dear, they're making such a mess. What are they looking for?" Mrs. Hudson asked. "It's a drugs bust, Mrs. Hudson." John explained.
Her eyes slightly widened, "But they're just for my hip. They're herbal soothers." Mrs. Hudson stated.
"No, no, not you, Mrs. Hudson. This isn't for the entire building – just Sherlock's flat." Thea explained.
"Shut up, everyone; shut up!" Sherlock yelled. The room went silent, watching Sherlock. "Don't move, don't speak, don't breathe. I'm trying to think. Anderson, face the other way – you're putting me off." Sherlock ordered, pointing to Anderson, not looking at him.
"What? My face is?!"
"Everybody quiet and still. Anderson, turn you back." Lestrade ordered.
"Oh for God's sake!"
"Your back, now, please!"
"Come on, think. Quick!"
"What about your taxi?" Mrs. Hudson asked. Sherlock spun suddenly, shouting Mrs. Hudson's name. She quickly hurried out of the flat. Just then, Sherlock was hit with an idea.
"Oh." He began to smile. "Ah! She was clever, clever, yes!" He turned to the other people in the room. "She's cleverer than you lot and she's dead. Do you see, do you get it? She didn't lose her phone, she never lost it. She planted it on him." Sherlock explained. Beginning to pace again, Sherlock continued his thoughts, "When she got out of the car, she knew that she was going to her death. She left the phone in order to lead us to her killer." Sherlock explained.
"But how?"
Sherlock stopped short, turning towards Lestrade. "Wha…? What do you mean, how?" Lestrade gave a shrug. "Rachel!" As Sherlock looked at everyone in the room, the only one who seemed to be keeping up was Thea. But she was confused as much as the rest of them. "Don't you see? Rachel!" The group was still blank. "Oh, look at you lot. You're all so vacant. Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing."
Thea's eyes narrowed at him.
"Rachel is not a name."
"Then what is it?"
"John, on the luggage, there's a label. E-mail address." Sherlock said. John walked over to the case, looking at the e-mail on the label. "Er…jennie dot pink at mephone dot org dot uk." John said.
Sherlock sat down at the table, using his computer. "Oh, I've been too slow. She didn't have a laptop, which means she did her business on her phone, so it's a smartphone, it's e-mail enabled." Thea walked over to Sherlock as he brought up the site. "So there was a website for her account, the username is her e-mail address…" He typed the e-mail address into the bar. "And all together now, the password is?" Sherlock asked.
"Rachel." Thea said, having Sherlock look at her. "It's Rachel."
"So we can read her e-mails. So what?" Anderson asked. "Anderson, don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street. We can do much more than just read her e-mails. It's a smartphone, it's got GPS, which means if you lose it you can locate it online. She's leading us directly to the man who killed her." Sherlock explained.
"Unless he got rid of it."
"We know he didn't." John said.
Sherlock was getting impatient. "Come on, come on. Quickly!" He ordered the computer. Thea shook her head at him as Mrs. Hudson came into the room again.
"Sherlock, dear, this taxi driver…"
Sherlock quickly got up from the chair, going over to Mrs. Hudson. "Mrs. Hudson, isn't it time for your evening soother?" He asked. John sat down in the chair, watching the computer with Thea. Sherlock turned to Lestrade, "We need to get vehicles, get a helicopter." Thea lost interest in the conversation between Sherlock and Lestrade. Her eyes were locked on the computer.
Her eyes widened when the location popped up. Her and John exchanged looked. "Sherlock…" John stated. Sherlock was arguing with Lestrade. "Sherlock!" Thea snapped, making him look at her. She gestured her head towards the computer. He moved quickly to John and Thea.
"What is it? Quickly, where?"
"It's here. It's in 221 Baker Street."
"How can it be here? How?"
"Well, maybe it was in the case when you brought it back and it fell out somewhere." Lestrade suggested.
"What, and I didn't notice? Me? I didn't notice?"
"Guys, we're also looking for a mobile somewhere here, belonged to the victim." Lestrade explained. Thea straightened up, staring down at the keys of the laptop in front of John. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Sherlock heading towards his jacket.
"Sherlock, you okay?" She asked, turning her full attention to him. He stopped in the middle of putting on his jacket.
"What? Yeah, yeah, I-I'm fine."
"Oh…kay. Uh, how can the phone be here? You said the phone wasn't in the case." Thea asked.
"Dunno."
"You don't know?"
"I'll try it again."
"Good idea." Sherlock began to head towards the door.
"Oi, where are you going?" Thea asked, placing her hands on his hips. "Fresh air. Just popping outside for a moment. Won't be long." Sherlock said. Thea looked over at John.
"You sure you're all right?"
"I'm fine."
Thea watched him leave. Something was wrong.
Yes! Another chapter! We are almost done with the first case! OMG! Eight chapters, that's more than the first time around, I'm pretty sure. :D