After a few minutes of bickering John rejoined his sister.
"Is it okay if I asked you some questions about Melissa on Sherlock's behalf?" John asked.
Behind him Sherlock groaned.
"Why are you asking her that? If she says no then I'll be back where I started!"
John turned to glare at his flatmate.
"And where's that?"
"Bored, in the flat."
"Sherlock why don't you go talk to the mortician and let me deal with my sister." John replied.
"Fine."
Sherlock humphed and started to walk away.
John took a seat beside Harry.
"Sorry about him."
"John it's fine. I want to find out who did this to her." Harry said in a determined voice.
"Okay, well first things first: who found the body?"
"Me." she replied.
John winced in sympathy. He was glad Sherlock wasn't here to make some inappropriate comment.
"Where was – "
"Toilets. She'd got a promotion at work so we went to get a drink in celebration."
"You went down the pub?" John exclaimed indignantly.
"Well we couldn't exactly have one at home where you clean out all my supplies once a week!" Harry snapped. "Don't lecture me John. How's this supposed to help anyways? The police have already asked me this."
John took a deep breath to calm himself and spoke.
"Sherlock isn't the police. You were the one who wanted his help."
"HIS help John not yours!" Harry shouted.
Her raised voice attracted a few curious stares.
"Okay then." said John, a new hardness breaching his tone. "When you're ready to talk go ahead. Just talk to Sherlock, not the bottle."
And with that he stood, turned on his heel and headed towards Lestrade.
"Hey John, Sherlock said you'd be done quickly."
"Of course he did." John muttered.
It didn't take a Sherlockian level of genius to know that any civil conversation between the patient doctor and his stubborn sister would last a total of approximately ten minutes.
"He said he'd be in the morgue when you needed him."
"Okay." John sighed.
"What harm is there in letting me see a body!?" Sherlock yelled.
"Well for starters I don't know 'oo you are." said the nervous mortician.
Sherlock narrowed his eyes.
"Are you new?"
The man nodded.
"Started las' week."
"Great! Fantastic! Where's Molly when you need her?"
"Sherlock what's going on?" John asked wearily walking into the morgue.
"Ah John nice of you to join us. This imbecile won't let me examine Melissa's body!"
"Oi!" exclaimed the mortician. "I already told you, I don't know 'oo you are!"
John stepped forward to defuse the situation.
"Hello, I'm John Watson." He held out his hand and the mortician reluctantly shook it. "My irritating friend is Sherlock Holmes."
The mortician visibly blanched.
"Oh."
Sherlock smiled.
"I take it you've heard of me?"
"Yes sir. Right this way sir."
The pair followed the mortician as he led the way through the depths of the morgue.
"You could've introduced yourself you know." John hissed.
"Why should I do it when you can do it for me?" Sherlock replied. "I take it you had no luck with Harriet."
"Nope." said John popping the 'p'.
"How many minutes did you managed this time?"
"Six."
"You're getting worse." she detective commented.
"I know. Can we focus on the case Sherlock?"
Sherlock sighed but changed subject.
"Did you at least ask her the questions?"
"I only had time for the one."
Sherlock groaned.
"Well what did you find out? Was this Melissa's first meeting with drugs?"
"Sherlock I could've told you that. Harry and Melissa first met at an addiction support group. We both thought she'd quit and if she hadn't we would've noticed. Melissa had an acquired taste - she used to take some quite serious stuff."
"Here we are gentlemen." said the mortician coming to a halt outside Melissa's morgue drawer. "I'll leave you two to it shall I?" said the man.
"Ta. We'll come find you when we're done." said John.
Sherlock pulled out the drawer as the mortician left.
"Well he was acting suspiciously." the detective remarked.
"Sherlock just because he didn't recognise you doesn't make him a suspect." John replied.
"That's not what I meant."
John folded his arms and gave Sherlock an enquiring look.
"Go on then."
"When you told him who I was he became instantly polite."
"So? Maybe he was embarrassed."
"If you are embarrassed you turn red not white." the detective dismissed.
"Well you've got quite a reputation Sherlock; maybe he was just being respectful."
"I doubt it. Did you see the way his shoulders were hunched?" he asked, mimicking the body language.
"Perhaps he was cold?" John supplied.
"No that's a clearly defensive stance and did you see the way he was fiddling with his jacket?" John nodded. The mortician had been seemingly unaware of it but had been painfully obvious to the onlookers. Even John had to admit that it had looked strange.
"If a detective makes him nervous then he is definitely hiding something." Sherlock announced and started examine the body. "The question is: what's he hiding?"
"Your guess is better than mine." John replied with a shrug. He tried to not look at the body. It was one thing looking at dead strangers but this case was a lot closer to home. He'd met Melissa. She was nice. She'd been just what Harry needed.
"John?" said Sherlock.