Silence In Belgravia
Silent Companions
A further ten minutes later - after the laptop had decided to play up a little - they were connected to Sherlock's own laptop back at the flat.
"You realise this is a tiny bit humiliating." John said to the folding devise.
Rose just shrugged and looked to her doctor friend. "I've been in more humiliating situations than this." John just turned his head back to the laptop, trying not to think of what could be more humiliating than having your friend solve a crime through a laptop; through his own sheer laziness.
Sherlock appeared on the screen then, looking worse than John had first thought he would. He was only wearing a bed sheet by the looks of things. John just threw Rose a look, to which she just shrugged, face still saying, yeah, still worse. Sherlock however was saying something different; that was after he had yawned largely and grabbed a mug off the side. "'S ok, I'm fine. Now…" He picked up his laptop and made his way to the living room. "…show me to the stream."
John just sighed, clearly uncomfortable. "I didn't mean for you…" He muttered. Rose rolled her eyes though and picked up the laptop, looking around for the best place to view the stream from.
"Look, this is a six." Sherlock told them. Rose thought she heard something in the background, put when Sherlock didn't react, she ignored it. "There's no point in my leaving the flat for anything less than a seven. We agreed." Rose held up the laptop, trying to get a good view for her boss. "Now go back." She heard, so she took a step back. "Show me the grass." Rose crouched down.
"When did we agree that?" Asked John, frowning out to the landscape.
"We agreed it yesterday…" He said absently. "Stop! Closer."
John appeared on Sherlock's screen then, instead of the ground he had wanted. "I wasn't even at home yesterday, I was in Dublin!""And I was out for most of the day, checking up on Joe and Zach. They're being little bastards again…" She muttered, throwing in her two cents to the conversation, complaining at the antics that her brothers had gotten up to. And they thought she had a bad life; at least her time was spent productively!
"Well, it's hardly my fault neither of you were listening!" Sherlock retorted, looking as though it was actually their fault. Rose just lightly glared at the screen, but it soon turned into a frown; she was sure she heard a noise on the other end again. This time Sherlock turned away from them, shouting toward their front door. "Shut up!"
Rose sighed. "Sherlock, answer the door."
The Consulting Detective ignored her though and John had started to frown again, speaking to his crazy friend once more. "Do you just carry on talking while we're away?"
This got a response out of the insane genius. "I don't know. How often are you away? Now, show me the car that backfired."
"How can you not notice when we're gone? You?" Rose asked, lifting the laptop above her head, pointing it at the road where the car was.
"That's the one that made the noise, yes?" He asked instead, once again ignoring her.
Carter just watched the whole thing going on, wondering when people became so obnoxious as to ignore the young woman asking reasonable questions and running around being a set of eyes for you. Probably the same time they became so unprofessional, he thought dryly.
"Yep." She answered Sherlock, starting to make her way back up to the road again.
John followed her and the laptop, leaning over her shoulder to get his say in. "If you're thinking gun shot, there wasn't one. He wasn't shot. He was killed by a single blow to the back of the head by a blunt instrument."
"Which then magically disappeared, along with the killer." Rose finished. "It's got to be an eight, at least." Sherlock just pulled a face at her.
Carter spoke up then. "You've got two minutes, they want to know more about the driver."
Sherlock disagreed though, waving his hand dismissively at the camera giving them the feed. "Oh, forget him. He's an idiot. Why else would he think himself a suspect?"
Carter pushed Rose slightly then, getting closer to the camera. "I think he's a suspect."
Sherlock just leaned forward. "Pass me over." He said into the camera, appearing to be annoyed, but Rose knew it was just a façade.
"Alright, but there is a mute button, and I will use it!" She warned. "I mean it Sherlock. No funny business."
Sherlock saw the laptop change hands and started his usual fast explanation of why the man was wrong and why he was right. "Having driven to an isolated location and successfully committed a crime without a single witness why would he then call the police and consult a detective? Fair play?"
He was being sarcastic again and Rose could tell Carter was loosing his patience. "Sherlock…"
Carter was sure though. "He's trying to be clever. It's over confidence!"
Sherlock just hung his head before looking back up again, a look of obviousness on his sharp features. "Did you see him? Morbidly obese, the undisguised halitosis of a single man living on his own, the right sleeve of an internet porn addict and the breathing pattern of an untreated heart condition. Low self esteem, tiny IQ and a limited life expectancy and you think he's an audacious criminal master mind?" Sherlock turned around, showing them that the man in question was sitting right behind him. "Don't worry, this is just stupid." Rose brought her hand up to her face, burying said face into the palm of her hand.
"What did you say?" The man in the background started. "Heart what?"
Sherlock had turned back to them though and left the man worrying in the background. "Go to the stream." He instructed them.
"What's in the stream?" Carter asked, but Rose and John both knew he wouldn't get an answer.
"Go and see!" Came the predicted response.
Carter handed the laptop over to Rose again with a sour face and she watched the screen, hearing other voices in the background. "Sherlock! You weren't answering your door bell!" It sounded like Mrs Hudson.
Then new voices came, muttering something about clothes. Sherlock was looking off screen at the new people. "Who the hell are you?"
There was a "Sorry" somewhere in what the stranger said, as well as a "You're coming with us." That was moments before Rose saw a dark hand come towards the camera on Sherlock's laptop, the hand in question closing the device, cutting off the feed. The screen had gone blank.
"Sherlock? What's going on…?" Rose tried asking, but it was too late, the feed had cut off before she had even finished.
John saw that she had lost the man and came up to walk next to her. "What's the matter?"
"Not a clue. Someone just closed his laptop." She looked over to him. "And I don't think it was Mrs Hudson."
John just frowned, pulling out his phone. "I'll call him." Rose waited but after a while, John frowned, pulling the phone away from his ear. "Not answering."
"He doesn't always answer his phone though..." Rose said, but she didn't sound too confident in her answer.
Just then the officer that they first met jogged up to them, a mobile at his ear. "Doctor Watson?"
"Yeah?" John replied, taking the laptop off Rose, trying to call up Sherlock again through the computer.
"It's for you." The officer said simply.
John held his hand out for the phone, eyes still on the laptop though. "Okay, thanks."
The officer seemed to have other ideas though. "Oh. No sir." Rose looked up now, wondering what was going on. "The helicopter."
"You're kidding me…" Rose muttered, eye widening at the sight on the helicopter parking on the grass.
John just blinked. Then blinked again. "What?"