Here's Chapter 2! It's really long... but I had a lot of fun writing it. Enjoy!
2 Years Later
"Matt, I need that report on foreign trade policies!" You shout as you enter your private office. You won the election and now have two Liberal party researchers and interns of your own. You find your job very difficult at times, but you love being in politics.
"Matt!" You shout again, as you sit down in your desk chair. Your other researcher, Tabitha, is sick today, so Matt has double-duty. "Matt, I need that report!" after a minute of no reply, you get out of your chair to enter the intern office, but the door is locked.
"Matt, honestly, I can fire you! Don't make me do it!" You yell through the door. You would never fire him, but you need that report now. You shuffle for your keys. Finding it, you unlock the door and push it open. A large pool of blood is on the floor, blood dripping from above. Fighting the urge to throw up, you lock up. Matt's mangled body is pinned to the ceiling by knives, a bullet hole through his forehead.
You scream, and run back into your office to call the police on your cellular. Jane runs into your office, and you tell her what you saw. She looks over, then comes back to comfort you.
In five minutes, the police arrive to inspect the scene. One of the detectives comes up to you, still shaking in your office chair.
"Detective-Inspector Lestrade, at your service." He holds his hand out to you. With a very shaky hand, you take it, and greet him. "I have a man on the way who might be able to help solve the case, but he'll have to talk to you. Are you okay with that?" You nod at him, and as if on queue, a tall man with black hair enters your office. You recognize him from somewhere, but you can't quite put your finger on it, even when an equally familiar man walks in behind him, short and blond.
"Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective." He doesn't offer you his hand.
"John Watson, his colleague." The blond man holds his hand to you, and you shake it with a weak hand.
"Ms. Calder, you found the body five minutes ago. What about the crime scene have you disturbed yet?" Sherlock Holmes asks you coldly, already making his way to the other office.
"All I did was open the door." You reply, glaring at him for being so insensitive.
"John, stay with Ms. Calder while I look at the body." You shudder when Sherlock says "body" as you realize that Matt is actually dead. He turns away from you and walks to the intern office. John takes the chair in front of your desk and sits down next to you.
"So." John starts, "Do you know if he had any enemies?" John asks you.
"No, I don't know." You shake your head. "He was always so nice. Never said anything rude things to anybody, or anything." You bend your head down, so John can't see the tears falling down your face.
"Does he have family?" He asks you.
"He's got a girlfriend, I've heard him talk about his mother…oh, I'll have to call his mother." You bury your face in your hands. "The only person who could hate him would be his sister, but he's never said much about her."
"Do you know where she is?"
You shake your head. At that moment, Sherlock comes into your office and approaches you.
"Where's your other intern?"
"At her flat, she's ill." You reply, wiping your face. Sherlock seems like an arrogant git, and you don't want to appear weak to him. When you think if him being a git, something inside your head clicks. "You were the man who was chasing Jason Northwood on the street! You caught him, and that's why I have my job!"
"You're welcome. Now, back to the dead body in the office, did you hear anything? There is a bullet through his head."
"No, I was at a parliament meeting. All the MP's were there, the only people in the building today were the interns, researchers, and other basic workers. I only got back a minute before I went in to check on Matt."
"Well, I'd place the time of death at about three 'o' clock, just two hours ago." Sherlock says to you.
"I need a drink." You stand up, only to sit back down out of light-headedness.
"Lestrade, check the building to make sure that all interns, MP's and researchers are still in the building. If they aren't, go to their addresses. I thi–" Sherlock is cut off by a scream from down the hall. You suddenly find the energy to get up and run down the hall after Sherlock, to Jane's office. Jane was still with you, and the two of you look through the open door to see Jane's intern, Imogen, standing in the open doorway, looking up at the body of Allison pinned to the ceiling with a bullet hole through her forehead, just like Matt. "Let me through!" Sherlock directs you, Jane and Imogen. He inspects the room.
"Oh my god." John says, catching up to them.
"Everyone, shut up, I'm thinking!" Sherlock pulls out a small pocket magnifying glass, inspecting the ground. He stands up, then inspects the bottom of Allison's shoes. You're surprised to see Allison dead, and your heart feels empty. She was your best friend for the last two years, and seeing her dead leaves you feeling empty and alone.
"Sherlock–" Lestrade came in, but Sherlock shut him up.
"I am deducting, Lestrade, I need perfect silence." His dedication to his work inspires you, but he seems like such a jerk that you still dislike him. "Okay. Matt's body has been there for two hours, leaving a large pool of blood, correct?" Sherlock asks, but he doesn't wait for you to answer. "This body is fresh, theres no smell, and look, only a couple of drops of blood. The body was pinned to the ceiling only minutes before your scream was heard." He says to Imogen. "The murderer is still in the building."
"Call for backup!" Lestrade yells into his radio, and the officers leave the room to seal the doorways. You clutch your chest, scared to be in the same building as a murderer. Although, you think, you did fancy a murderer/rapist who worked in the building.
John tries to comfort Jane and Imogen outside the door, while you just stand shell-shocked in the doorway, watching Sherlock look at the body.
"She was my best friend." You say, your voice hollow and empty. Sherlock hardly glances at you, and continues looking around the room. "She told me about some research she was doing. Said it was going to change everything. I asked her about it, but she didn't tell me what it was."
"Did she speak with Matt much?" He finally speaks to you.
"Only at lunch. Matt always tried to leave early for lunch, and always took with him some paperwork that I didn't give him. Whatever it was she was doing, Matt was probably working on it with her."
"Does Jane know?"
"Of course, she assigned Allison the project. Every project must be repeated daily until completion…" You answer. The both of you share a knowing look, before a gunshot is heard. Before you hear anything else, Sherlock has run past you out the door. Jane lies on the floor, blood already pooling out of her chest. "Oh my god!" You scream. Sherlock spreads his arms to protect you from any further attacks, but there are none. John is already off, looking for where the shooter was hiding. Other MP's and interns poke their heads out the door, but close them again when they realize that there are dead bodies around.
"Where does Allison keep her project files?" Sherlock says to Imogen. She leads the way inside, eyes bright red with tears. She opens a file cabinet under Allison's desk, and lets Sherlock look through. "no…no…no…no…" he says continuously, while looking through the file names. "None of these raise any flags. Her computer!" he leans over the desk to look. It's password locked, but Sherlock simply types something in and he is in.
"How do you do that?" You ask.
"She wrote it on a sticky note." Sherlock pulls a sticky note off the computer monitor saying "cupcake45#A" You nod, agreeing to apparently nothing, and watch as he pulls up file after file after file.
"Looking for a specific one?" You ask, Imogen still crying at her desk.
"Just anything password protected. Wait–" he scrunches his eyebrows when he finds a word document titled "Goodbye." He opens it, and you lean in to read it. Your short brown hair just barely brushing Sherlock's shoulder.
The letter reads:
To whomever finds this,
I'm going to die. I've already accepted the fact. This document is my farewell note. Jane has given me a project, and the both of us did not now at first the magnitude of what it is about. My researching this was a mistake, and now they're after me. I have shared too much with Matt, who himself investigated on his own. I have no idea as to when they will come for me, but when they do, I know that whoever finds this will know that they are in grave danger. I've embedded a code at the bottom of this page, linking you to my work. I had to scan every document I'd gotten then burned it, or I would be long dead by now. Please take into consideration that by clicking on the link below, you are now subjecting yourself to die at their hands. They're here, in the building. It's only minutes before they find me.
Sherlock clicked on the link below, without even asking you or Imogen if you were okay with it.
"You've doomed us now, you arrogant git!" You glare at him, whispering.
"Imogen, is it?" Imogen, please shut the door." Sherlock doesn't look up, while Imogen gets up to close the door, but John, Lestrade and other police officers enter the room.
"Sherlock, they've sealed off the exits." Lestrade storms over to where Sherlock is reading the documents. You refuse to look at them.
"Ms. Calder–"
"Just call me Sophie."
"Sophie, where is the office of Robert Claymore, MP?"
"Two floors up, why?"
"He's next." Sherlock looks to you, them emails the documents from the computer to himself. He pulls it up on his phone. "Show me the way."
"Sherlock, what the hell is going on?" John says, blocking yours and Sherlock's exit.
"A national emergency in which anyone involved in the nuclear warheads being built in Russia will die and London will be nothing more than a radioactive hole in the ground!" Sherlock explained and pushed John aside. You lead the way for Sherlock, and John follows you both. Lestrade and his officers stand in confusion behind, and they take care of Jane's body.
"Nuclear bombs in Russia?" you ask, leading the way up the stairs. "Is that what all this is about?"
"It says here that they're meant for London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, New York City, Beijing and Tokyo." Sherlock replies, looking at his phone.
"Those are all the biggest cities of the world's superpowers."
"Yes, and Russia wants to take over the world. Now would you please hurry, Mr. Claymore may be dead already." You run up the stairwell faster. Sherlock and John are directly behind you, eager to get to Robert Claymore before he's dead. A bullet whizzes past your ear.
"Get down!" Sherlock grabs you and John by the collars and pulls you both down to the floor. "Sophie, right now you are the most important person to keep alive. So it would be very kind of you KEEP DOWN."
"It's not like I wanted him to shoot me!" you retort. Sherlock pulls out his phone.
"There is an itinerary in these documents. 3:00–Matt, 5:00–Allison, 5:00–Jane, 5:10–Robert, 5:30–Sophie." Sherlock read from his phone.
"Why me? I don't know anything!" your eyes water. John places a comforting hand on your shoulder, but Sherlock keeps looking into your eyes.
"You must know something. Allison wrote about you in the documents, you are the post important piece in the puzzle. What can that possibly mean?"
"I don't know! She hardly told me anything! And now I'm going to die in twenty minutes and I don't know anything!" That's when you break.
"Sophie Calder, I promise that I will not let you die today, you got that?" You only nod in reply. "I got my first death threat at 21. I'm 33, and very much alive. How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight."
"Sophie, you will live to be at least twenty–nine. So since Mr. Claymore is most likely dead by now, will you please show me where I can call my brother in a location where I won't get shot?"
"What could Mycroft do?" John rolls his eyes.
"John, you forget that he is the British Government." Sherlock says. You stand up on weak knees, but not tall enough to be seen over the railing of the stairwell. You lead John and Sherlock down to a utility closet on your floor.
"Hello brother…well, it's a matter of national importance…are you aware that the parliament building has been taken hostage by Russian terrorists?...goodbye Mycroft." Sherlock's brief conversation with his brother leaves him with an aura of confidence.
"Why didn't you call the police?" You cross your arms.
"I told you, my brother is the British Government." Sherlock puts his phone away. Hen he does, your cellular goes off. You answer the call.
"Step out of the closet, Ms. Calder."