Under the Downs Chapter 6

A/N: message for Kida - sorry about the cuteness crisis - never provoked one of those before! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. Please keep your comments coming.

Joshua Bennett lives with his parents in a plush barn conversion at the end of the village, nearest Arundel. They are the classic middle class, wealthy family.

Mrs Bennett shows us into her garden room and invites us to sit on white linen sofas.

'Josh is a very quiet boy,' she says in a gentle voice. She is blonde, very similar to the woman I lusted after in the street earlier, well kept and well dressed. 'He doesn't make friends easily. He and John-Matthew just seemed to get on together.'

'But you had reservations about their friendship,' I say, raising an eyebrow to probe. As usual, I am asking the bulk of the questions because Sherlock is looking around the place like a magpie in search of sparkly things. Mrs Bennett casts him a curious look but still answers my question.

'The Allens are, well, a bit eccentric, shall we say?'

'Very religious, I understand.'

'I'm not sure that they really approved of John-Matthew associating with Josh, but they were in the same class, and its hard, really, when you aren't quite like the other kids...'

Her words trail off into a regretful silence.

'They were both at the Grammar school?'

'Yes, John-Matthew got a scholarship. His parents struggled a bit, you know, the uniform and everything. It all adds up, and I don't think he earns much.'

'And you pay full fees?'

'Yes, all our three went there. My husband Malcolm went there too, so he feels it's only right.'

'Do you think being the poor kid in the class made John-Matthew feel particularly alienated?'

'It definitely set him apart, of course.'

Just then, the front door bangs, and the hall fills with the petulant sounds of a teenager coming home from school.

'Would you like to talk to Josh?'

'That would be very helpful, if he's willing.'

'I'm sure we'd be happy to do anything if it helps John-Matthew. Joshy?' She calls to her son in a soppy, sing-sing voice. 'Come on in, there's some gentlemen here who want to talk to you about John-Matthew!'

Josh comes in and flops down on the sofa opposite us, beside his mother. He eyes us sullenly from under his dark fringe. His pout is impressive, even for a sixteen-year-old. There is a vague air of unwashed t-shirt about him. Oh, I remember those years fondly.

I introduce us both.

Sherlock gives the boy an enigmatic nod, and receives another in return. For a moment I wonder if I am seeing another Sherlock sitting before me, whether Sherlock himself is looking back in time, through the lens of memory, and seeing himself. Then he gets up in an explosion of limbs and coaxes Mrs Bennett into showing him the garden.

'Not too subtle, your mate,' Josh observes.

'Subtle as a brick through a windscreen,' I agree. 'We're trying to find John-Matthew and we wondered if you could help.'

'You the detective, or him?' He speaks with that bastard cockney accent that many middle class teenagers affect.

'Oh, him,' I say, before I've even thought about it. 'But sometimes I ask the questions.'

'Because he's as subtle as a brick, right?'

I nod, smile. 'Yep.'

'What do you want to know?'

'Whatever you want to tell me. You were friends with John-Matthew?'

'Yeah.'

'Good friends?'

''Spose. We like the same things. Music. Books. Jonny likes to read a lot.'

'Was he worried about anything in particular, do you know?'

'Not worried as such. Apart from the usual things.'

'Like?'

'You know. How often you can masturbate before you get RSI. How you get a girl to fuck you, that kinda thing.'

I grin and nod. I remember that too. 'Wasn't worried about sex, then? I mean, more than anybody your age would be?'

'You mean, was he gay?' He gives me a shrewd look. 'No. Definitely not.'

'Sure?'

'Yep. Wanna ask me how I know?'

'Because you are?'

He grins.

I say, 'Fair enough.'

He relaxes back into the sofa. 'Jonny just wanted know about stuff really. He was interested in everything. Chemistry. Botany. Religion. Philosophy. Quantum mechanics.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, like, he read all that Stephen Hawking stuff when he was about 12. I don't get it, but he was really into it. That's why people didn't like him much at school. Too clever for 'em.'

'Yes, I can imagine.' My thoughts are not far away, on another such person, and when I glance over my shoulder, I can see him talking animatedly with Mrs Bennett by a clump of purple salvias that are buzzing thickly with insects.

'I think he just wanted to find out,' Josh goes on, following my look. 'Like your mate. Wanted to find out about the world. His mum and dad weren't too keen on him doing that. They wanted him to have a good education, yeah, but like, it was only so's he could go and be a missionary somewhere. Jonny dint want to be a missionary.'

'No, I don't suppose he did.' Not if he was interested in quantum mechanics, at any rate.

He fiddles with a stray thread that has worked its way out from under the piping on the arm of the sofa.

'So you and him,' he says. 'Are you, like, mates?'

'Yeah.'

'Best mates?'

'I suppose so, yes.'

He nods. 'Like me and Jonny. He's all I've got.'

'Yeah,' I agree, seeing this boy's youthful wisdom. 'Yes, Sherlock's all I've got too.'

And then Josh looks up at me, and for a moment I think he will cry. 'When you find him,' he says, 'tell him I said hi.'

'I will.'

At that moment, Sherlock and Mrs Bennett come back into the house, chattering away about the amount of traffic on the A27 these days. Josh looks at me and rolls his eyes comically, and I can't help laughing.

Sherlock perches on the edge of the sofa and looks at the lad carefully.

'So, Josh, where did you last see John-Matthew?'

Josh examines him just as shrewdly in return. 'Usually they ask, when did I last see him.'

Sherlock sits back and raises an eyebrow. He peaks his fingertips together.

'And why do you think that is?'

'Because they want to know how long he's been gone. To create a time frame for his activities. In case he's already dead.'

I'm impressed. So is Sherlock, apparently. He nods sagely.

'Do you think he's dead?'

'Nope.'

'Why not?'

'You want to know if I know where he was going. I don't. I just think he went off to discover stuff. Find out more about the world. Knowing Jonny, he's thought about it a lot, planned it. Got himself a place to live and everything. Knowing Jonny, you won't find him either. He's clever. He'll have worked it all out.'

Sherlock nods, presses his index fingers to his voluptuous lips (don't think about those lips, John, don't!) He knows everybody in the room is looking at him now, and he just loves that.

'What we have here, I think, is a young man who is extremely talented. One day, Master Bennett, you will make one of this country's finest forensic psychologists, if I am not mistaken.'

Josh eyes him warily, and then says, 'last I saw of him, he was up Tipsy Copse, on the Down. He used to go there to read. Get out of the house. Get away from the hymns.'

'Hymns?' I ask, puzzled.

'Yeah, his mum and dad sing hymns all the time, they say it scares off the demons.'

'Oh rational thought!' Sherlock crows with delight. 'Isn't it adorable!'

Tomorrow, Sherlock and John explore Tipsy Copse...