Authors Note: Alright then! Chapter 5 coming up for you! Hope you enjoy! Thank you so, so much to those who have stuck with me for this long! Sorry for the delay! I hope you all had a wonderful time watching Sherlock series 3 :)
As surprising as it may seem, sleeping at 221B Baker Street wasn't absolutely as hellish as one may think. Believe it or not, there were no mad experiments at 5 in the morning, or gun shots being fired through the flat. It was all sort of… peaceful. Relaxing.
Everything just sort of stopped, which left a moment for Molly to finally think through this whole… whatever you wanted to call it. John had gone over to her apartment earlier to grab some of her belongings, which was actually very helpful, considering Sherlock had insisted she go nowhere without either John or himself present. As far as they were concerned, Molly was under witness protection at 221B Baker Street.
"I take it you didn't sleep at all last night?" Molly asked Sherlock, who lay unmoving on the couch.
"No. I've been looking into everything that Mycroft has given me regarding this organization." "Is that good or bad?" she asked. "Terrible. All he's given me is one file, and a list of unsolved murders that may or may not have had anything to do with the assassins." Sherlock snapped angrily. Molly walked quietly over to the bulletin board where Sherlock had various lists and photographs tacked up, and studied them quickly.
"Are these the current members of the assassination group?" Molly asked, as she looked the photographs up and down.
"Yes."
"Have you gotten any ideas as to how their operating?"
"Define operating." Sherlock asked. The question was more of a challenge to test Molly's wits, rather than to explain the term to him.
"How are they choosing their victims, how often are they completing successful assassinations, and how many victims have they killed on estimate within the past… say… 20 years?" She asked. Sherlock smiled, "They usually choose their victims based on things like their career positions, occupations, wealth. That's the only pattern I see so far, but I doubt the past killing methods will help seeing as now they're targeting strictly government officials and their loved ones." He explained.
"Wait," Molly paused, "the last 4 victims; about how much money did they have put away in their bank accounts?"
"They had thousands at the very least, why?"
"And they were all married to people involved in some way, shape, or form to the British government?" She asked. Sherlock nodded.
"Did Lestrade interrogate the husbands and family members of the 4 victims?" "Yes, will you tell me what you're getting at here?" Sherlock asked, obviously growing impatient.
"I'm not certain yet… all I know is that I need to see the tapes of the interrogations."
"And you're sure this is going to help us?" Sherlock asked. "Yes, just… trust me." She begged.
Sherlock smiled. "John?!" he yelled. "Yeah, Sherlock?!" John called from downstairs.
"Get your coat. We're going to Scotland Yard!"
SsSsSsSs
John and Sherlock watched as Molly explained as best as she could why she needed to see the interrogation tapes. "I'm breaking the rules for you here. You better be one-hundred percent sure that this is necessary." Lestrade reluctantly explained. "I'm sure." She confirmed. Lestrade nodded and motioned towards the monitor.
"Help yourself. Press play whenever you're ready."
"Thanks again for this." Molly smiled as Lestrade exited the room. "Alright, tell me again why we need to look at these tapes?" John asked.
"I may be on to something. I need to see the husband's reactions when they tell them that their wives were found dead." Molly explained. John looked at her for a moment, and then looked to Sherlock, who looked just as confused as he was.
The three sat in silence as Molly worked her way through all 4 tapes. She studied each of them carefully before she silently cheered to herself.
"What did you find?" Sherlock asked. It was the first thing he had said since they'd arrived at Scotland Yard.
"The husbands were all lying. All 4 of them." she said, smiling. "How do you know?" John asked. "Their reactions were all the same after they received the news. If you paid attention, all of them buried their face in their hands, almost like it was rehearsed." She explained.
Sherlock's face lit up with realization. "Oh, of course! It makes sense now!" he exclaimed.
John eyed the pair, still obviously confused.
"Greif comes in waves. In most to any situation, the first stage of grief is denial." Sherlock began.
"So?"
"So, all of the husbands just accepted the fact that their wives were dead, almost like they expected it. If they were truly upset, their reactions would have varied from person to person." Molly explained. "So the husbands were all in on it?" John clarified. Molly nodded.
Sherlock smiled, "Molly Hooper, I could bloody kiss you! John, go tell Lestrade to bring the 4 men back here immediately for questioning. I need to talk to Mycroft." Sherlock turned towards the door, but Molly grabbed him by the wrist.
"I'm coming with you." She said. "No, you'd be safer here." "I'm not getting into this with you again. Either it's John who goes with you, or me. End of discussion." Molly said.
"Fine, let's go, John." Sherlock motioned towards his friend, who was grinning at the pair as Molly put Sherlock in his place.
"No, you two go ahead. It's safer if she's with you, actually." John insisted. Sherlock rolled his eyes at him.
He knew Molly would be of more help at Scotland Yard. Regardless, he quite enjoyed teasing his friend.
"Fine. Let's find a cab." Sherlock said as he held the door for Molly, and took out his phone.
"Mycroft," he began, "we have additional information you may be keen to hear."
MmMmMm
"Lestrade has found the 4 men, correct?" Mycroft asked.
He sat across from Sherlock and Molly, who had placed themselves at the foot of a beautiful mahogany table that could seat at least 10 people at once.
"No. It appears your trusted agent, Mr. Joshua Montenegro has left the country and gone to America, for, business purposes." Sherlock's tone was dripping with sarcasm, which Mycroft didn't take to very kindly.
"We'll have to contact the American government and have them take Mr. Montenegro into custody. I'll ship any files and computer hard drive to your flat, if that's of any help to you." Mycroft offered.
"Yes, that would be lovely." Sherlock said. "Oh, and brother, do try to keep a low profile. I've just gotten word that you may have yourselves another murder victim." Mycroft stated as he scrolled through the recent emails on his laptop.
Sherlock was already up and heading for the door when Molly stood to walk after him. She turned to Mycroft, "Will do, thank you!" She said hurriedly.
"Okay, something's obviously wrong." Molly said after they were out of earshot. "Nothing's wrong." He snapped. "See, now I know you're lying. Tell me." she urged.
"My brother wanted us off the case, remember?"
"Yes."
"So why is he all of a sudden accepting the fact that we're working the case, no matter what he says?" Sherlock asked. "I don't know? Maybe he really does need us." Molly suggested.
"No, this is something else. Something's wrong. It's like he's trying to waste our time by sending us either minimal information, or excessive information." Sherlock explained. Molly shrugged. "I think you need to rest. You're stressing out about this case way too much. I'm actually getting worried."
Sherlock shook his head, but kept staring straight forwards. "I'm fine."
Molly sighed. "No, you're not. When was the last time you slept for more than 8 hours at a time? Or eaten a proper meal?" "Speak for yourself. You look like you haven't slept in days." "Well I haven't, but at least I'm not awake all night solving murders and fighting crime." Molly teased.
Sherlock tried to hide the smirk on his face. "Would you like to go out for lunch, then?" he asked. "W- what?" Molly stammered. This had taken her off guard.
"Well if me eating will satisfy you, than why not?" he said kindly.
Molly stopped and stared at the consulting detective. "You're being extremely nice to me lately." She teased. "And it's getting quite scary."
"So is that a yes?" he asked, now openly grinning at her sarcasm.
"I'd love lunch right about now." She said happily.
Sherlock held out his arm to Molly, much to her surprise, which she gladly accepted.
Authors Note: Okay! Threw a bit more of the really confusing plot at you! Again, hope you liked it! Also: ***LINKS FOR SERIES 3 OF SHERLOCK HERE*** ( folderview?id=0B3IWcV7kpCOuR0VsbG1HVVd5RlE&usp=sharing)