Warning: This chapter contains adult themes, sexual abuse, swearing and physical harm.
Chapter 13: You'll Find Me in The End
For the next three days Sherlock didn't eat, barely drank, did not sleep and did not speak. He simply paced the room trying desperately to figure out here she could be, he needed to save her, more than he need anything in his life.
He seemed even more depressed than Bruce, Scarlett's dog who was being looked after by Mrs Hudson, but he didn't take much looking after as, he no longer wanted to go for walks or even eat much, pining for his owner Mrs Hudson said. But Sherlock barely heard what she or anyone had to say any more he brain focused on the only thing he care about any more. Scarlett and more precisely, finding her.
The camera was expensive, professional even. The video was clean and though the image was dark, Sherlock could tell the capture new how to use the camera. But of course they had already worked this out he was a photographer on one of Scarlett's shots.
"Sherlock I know you don't want to speak, or even really stop pacing but I have some letter I think you should see" Said John quietly and he was surprised when the detective stopped and looked at him, his face hard.
John held out a bundle of postcards and an envelope. Sherlock took them from John's grasp and looked through them quickly. They were postcards of places in London, on the back messages were written such as 'having the time of my life, Scarlett'. Were written but they were not in Scarlett's handwriting. They were worthless, he tore the envelope open and took out the paper in the folds of the letter were four photographs. Scarlett in a clearly near unconscious state had been posed around in different positions like a life size doll, he had superimposed her body on the sands of the beach so as to look as though she was laying on a towel or she was sat at a table her arms behind her and her head pushed back on her neck as she clearly found it to difficult to hold up. Glasses of wine and a plate of food was placed in front of her, though the food looked nearly rotten, her face was thinner and clearly she had not eaten since she was taken.
Sherlock discarded the photos with the postcards on the floor and unfolded the letter.
I think I should make this point very clear to you all, I will not kill Scarlett she is the love of my life and we could not be happy. We are planning to marry soon so never again must I watch her talk to and flirt with other men. Especially the like of a certain lanky detective.
Now this is were I must be stern and you must understand that this is the truth. You will not come looking for us, Scarlett is happy with me, we are happy together, we are made for each other. And just between you and me the sex is great.
If however you decide to look anyway I will kill you, have no doubt I will kill you and all your friends. If you try to take Scarlett away I will kill you.
If you come here I will kill you.
Now I think that my message is understood, good day to you all and I hope never to see your ugly faces again.
With a growl Sherlock threw the letter to the ground with the others and continued to pace his brain to angry to focus properly.
Scarlett begged.
She begged and she cried but he never stopped.
"Say my name" he said as he leered over her she shook her head and he hit her hard across the face, she struggled away from him but she had been handcuffed to a pipe and she was far to weak to break here hand to get out of the cuffs. He had forced himself upon her 6 times now this would be the seventh and every time, he as her to say things and sometimes she did because then after he would not beat her and she was not sure how much her body could take. Her stomach was black from bruises and she not eaten properly in days, he feed her small amounts or water and bread but nothing else as he claimed he did not want her to lose her figure, but then screamed at her when her womanly curves began to fade. She was nearly always naked now, her rarely allowed her clothes unless she begged and he was in a mood to listen.
"Say my name" he said again as he pulled her legs towards him, he was completely naked and Scarlett tried not to look the sight of his body was to much for her and she could not afford to vomit.
"Say it" he screamed and she whimpered, somewhere deep down she wanted to fight but most of it had been beaten down, most of it was to quite to her now and even if she listened she did not want to die and she was sure if he beat her again she would not wake up.
"Theo please" she begged him to stop. But her choice of words just seemed to encourage him.
He pulled her body round as he spread her legs, she was not kneeling on her knees in front of her face of the floor as she body cried in agony she tried to move but the force he was appling to her ankles felt as though he would break them and so the pain won over and she stayed still.
During he would ask her to say things like "you are the best lover, I've ever had" "I love you" "You are so sexy" "You are so amazing". And to the most part she would comply.
When it was over he rested his head on her bare back, his weight causing the cuffs to cut into her skin. He placed slow soft kisses along her spine the way a lover would.
"I love you" he said kissing her back.
"Then why do you do this to me" she said quitely her voice hoarse from screaming.
"Because you don't understand yet, you don't but you will in time and you will love me back" Theo said standing up and Scarlett move to huddle her body into a ball.
"In time you will learn to love me and then we wont need all the restraints and drugs but until then I won't let you go because you don't understand yet and you will just ran away back to that floppy haired cunt" he said the word so happily as though it had not been that word at all. He picked up a blanket from the stool and threw it at her, before leaving the room. She sat in silence to weak to try and escape and to tired to cry. She was sure she was going to die here she had convince herself of it, he had told her he would not kill her and strangely she believed he would not but she did not believe he would not beat her again and her body was to broken to survive another beating.
It was almost 4o'Clock in the morning when the idea came to Sherlock. He snatched up the postcards from where they lay on the floor and inspected each on again. Yes!
In the corner of each postcard in very small print was Harrison's priting co.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and googled the name they were a company that supplied shops and such with tourist mechanise of London, postcards being part of that.
He quickly looked through the list of shops that supplied their goods. Two-hundred and Fifty in total and all in the London area. Next he would narrow them down in turn he googled each area with the fraise 'house fire in …' for hours he did this writing down small notes when something came up.
At 8 John got up and when he saw Sherlock on his laptop, he made his way over to the detective quickly.
"What have you found" asked quickly as he looked over the detectives shoulder.
"The house she is in, has extensive fire damage, the postcards he sent are only sold at 250 stores across London. That is only a few different areas, I am searching for an area with a shop and a house that burnt down recently." the detective explained quickly to his friend.
It took until lunchtime to go through them all and Sherlock sat back and looked at the list of 70 stores and 40 houses he had narrowed it down to. He shut his eye and thought about the video call playing it over and over in his head trying to see something he didn't see before.
"Sherlock are you going to eat its been 4 days" said John as he placed a cup of tea in-front of Sherlock.
"I'm not hungry" said Sherlock his eyes still closed.
"You need to eat" said John quietly begging his friend, he knew that Sherlock must be in love with Scarlett to act this way but he was being a fool.
"No" replied the detective.
"Sherlock" John began but Sherlock cut him off.
"I said no John, I can't think if I eat and if I can't think I won't her and I honestly don't know what I'll do if I can't find her. I need to find her, OK, so I'll eat when she's back safe with me, then I'll eat" Sherlock said loudly standing to look at his friend before he took a deep breath and sat back down in silence.
At 1oclock the silence was broken as Sherlock stood his eyes wide before pulled on his coat and ran out the door. John quickly pushed his laptop away and ran after the tall man.
"Where are we going" shouted John after the lanky man running in-front of him, John hobbled to keep up.
"Lap post" should back Sherlock and simply kept running before stopping dead and pulling out his phone, John nearly crashed into to as he struggled to slow down fast each.
Sherlock's eyes flicked across his phone.
"none of the reports about the burnt house mentioned who lived there so I couldn't use that as a reference but when he video called us it was clear there was a light directly outside the window. Not just near right outside, the house we need has a lamppost right outside, or any light right outside the window." Sherlock explained.
He looked through reports most were so small there was no picture attached but the ones that did had not got lampposts near enough so that cut the houses down to 34.
"The needle and the drug" Sherlock exclaimed suddenly as the cogs in his brain finally started running at full pace. The drug must have been gotten from somewhere and Sherlock suspected illegally, which narrowed it down to a few drugs and heroin and some sort of tranquillizer were the most likely. Luckily for Sherlock he new most of the drug dealers in London. He took off down the road again in search of one of the dealers in particular.
Danny was a skinny things, he wore a tracksuit that seemed to big and baseball cap, he looked up as Sherlock entered the alley were he was dealer to another kid who didn't look much older than 17.
"I haven't got any of the stuff you like I'm afraid Mr Holmes" Danny said to Sherlock and Sherlock quickly shook his head.
"No I'm not here for that, I need info" he said quickly.
"Well I still the need the cash for that too" Danny said as he took the money from the boy who then quickly left. Danny pushed the twenty pound note into his pocked which already appeared to be bulging with cash.
John kept his mouth shut he want to shout at Sherlock and the boy for there behaviour but if this would get Scarlett back, if this would save her he would keep quiet.
Sherlock pulled a fifty from his pocket and handed it to the young boy.
"What do you want to know" said Danny taking the money with smile.
"I looking for a guy buying heroin possibly tranquillizer" said Sherlock and Danny smiled.
"I got plenty of them". Danny simply shook his head.
"About 30, long grown out dirty blonde hair. Mark just about his left eyebrow looks like a capital D. Brown eyes" said Sherlock and the Danny seemed to think.
"Yeah I know the guy, photographer right, sometimes gives me pictures of birds he used to take photos of, naked stuff you know. Buy a load of tranqs from me" said Danny.
"Yes where does he live" said Sherlock excitably.
"No idea, I meet all over the place" said Danny
"What's his name" said Sherlock
"Oh I dunno I don't remember stuff like that, people don't usually tell me stuff like that and I don't ask and before you I don't keep their numbers either" said Danny.
Sherlock let out a yell and rubbed his hands over his face.
"Wait you said he gave you pictures have you go any" said Sherlock and Danny simply nodded and pulled out a folded up piece of paper, I contained a picture of a blonde on one side and a young Scarlett on the reverse.
"Gave me that the other day said he didn't need it any more" said Danny with a shrugged but Sherlock wasn't listening.
There on the bottom left corner Photographer: Jovan Theo Riley.
"Thanks Danny" Sherlock said pocketing the picture and running off out the alley way.
"Hey that's mine" shouted Danny after him but Sherlock did not stop.
Quickly the floppy haired detective hailed a cab and John barely made it inside it in time, with his eyes on a wikipedia page on his phone concerning a Jovan Theo Riley who apparently went mostly by his middle name Theo in his later shots.
The cab driver drove to the area which Sherlock had said as the place on which the wikipedia page said Theo currently lived. A few time they got caught at the lights or stopped in London traffic which caused Sherlock to yell angrily. But the cabbie seemed to not be concerned by his passenger merely peering strangely at him in the rear view mirror. Finally though the cabbie drop at the side of a road and Sherlock jumped out and stared around himself then back at his phone before running off again, John struggled to keep up as he paid the cab and got out the cab after his friend and room mate.
"The wikipedia entry says he lives in this area of London which narrows down the houses to just ten, all of which were still burnt down when I checked on Google street view earlier" called Sherlock to John as he ran.
When Theo returned it was clear Scarlett had been trying to escaped and had cut into her hand with the cuffs hoping her own blood would lubricate her hand enough to pull it free.
Theo looked at her as she looked up at him defiantly before trying to pull her hand free again.
"Stop that, you hurt yourself my love" he cooed at her crouching down next to her and looking at her the way a parent does a child.
Scarlett turned to look at him her face full of fire again, and she spat in his face. Theo shut his eyes slowly and wiped his face with his dirty hand.
"That wasn't very nice" he said his patronising tone continuing.
"Fuck you" Scarlett growled her mind had sobered up and although her body was even weaker than before she could feel the fire in her again and she would fight if she could in any way she could.
A fist connected with her jaw as Theo let out a growl he stood with a yell and looked at down at her broken body.
"You make me so angry sometime, why wont you just listen to me and do as I say it will make your life so much better" he said pacing the room slightly, his voice angry.
"This isn't life, you took my life and made it this, this is barely surviving. I was happy things were going well till you decided you wanted me and killed those poor girls to prove it" Scarlett screamed at him and he shook his head.
"Happy! What with him, that floppy haired idiot" Theo growled.
Scarlett smiled a small sad smile.
"I could have been, he's most incredible man I've met in my life. I could have been with him" Scarlett said as she realised now as her fate faced her she had fallen for Sherlock and she had fallen hard. It was funny how face pain and death and really put think into perspective.
"I was around long before that cunt but you ignored me. I tried to get your attention every other way and I was killing those girls anyway thought I might as well send them to you and see if that would finally get you to notice me because every other way didn't seem to work" he said looking at her, his eyes wide and mad.
"Ignore you, I haven't see you for years" Scarlett said
"Maybe not seen me in person but I tweet you everyday, I message you on Facebook everyday and you never replied not even once. For years I followed you online and even hacked your web-cam just so I could see you" he said as though she had forced him to these measures and it was all her fault for ignoring him.
"Your insane" she cried.
"No I'm not" Theo roared as he launched a kick at her. Before he threw himself at her, he grabbed her by the throat and began to pushed the air out of her, she thrashed under him as the pressure he held on her throat only got tighter.
He began to bang her head against the wall behind her, his hold on her throat not loosing, and as her vision began to black, Scarlett knew she was dead.
Sherlock and John had now checked 7 of the houses on the list and it was not starting to get dark the sun was beginning to fall and John was losing faith in Sherlock. Five of the houses they had checked had been refurbished, 3 were up for sale and were too clean inside to be the house Scarlett was being kept.
The next two though burnt down Sherlock had decided were not right as they did not have a lamppost in the right position to the window.
As they reached the first house of the the last three on the list, Sherlock looked to John and they shared a look, the lamppost was outside the window. Sherlock took off again and John shouted after him as he dialled Lestarde's number. With his phone to his ear he took off after Sherlock who now entered the house which possible belong to a raving psychopathic murder.
Sherlock searched the front the house calling for her the whole time before he burst though the door to the lounge, three teenage druggies sat around the walls staring at him as their drug melted brains tried to process the man in the door way. John was entering the house as a defeated looking Sherlock pushed past him and out into the afternoon light.
"Lestrade is on his way to the second house, I've given him the address from your list" said John but Sherlock said nothing as he walked off to find a cab.
The journey to the next house was quiet and Sherlock was sat forward his elbows resting on his knees his hand clasped together and his forehead resting on his knuckles, John allowed him the silence.
The second house was another bust and police had been there to watch Sherlock break down as he yelled angrily, the last house was the last chance he had before having to go back to the drawing board.
When they arrived the street lamps were on and the burnt out house's boarded up windows were eliminated by its rays of light. The house was far more dilapidated then the rest and brick work was crumbling away in places.
The police pulled ahead of them but Sherlock pushed his way through much to the distress and annoyance of Lestrade and John.
The house was far more quiet and under orders the police entered quietly, the door to the living room was slightly ajar and Sherlock made his way to it a person moved behind the door and suddenly the door was slammed shut. Sherlock rushed it pushing against the door and suddenly the door was opened Sherlock fell threw and landed on his side, his face was close to someone's bare foot and at he looked up slightly he saw Scarlett she was dressed in nothing but a pair of dirty knickers and her body was skinny and bruised, her ribs looked broken and her matted at the back of her head with blood, she looked dead and Sherlock couldn't be sure at this moment that she was not.
He got to his feet as he looked at the man in question. Theo stood by Scarlett head he hand a hand gun in his hand and he pointed it straight at Sherlock.
"I told you not to come, I told you what I'd do if you came" Theo said his voice high as he cocked the gun and held it steady. Sherlock could feel the presence of the armed police behind him in the door way. He looked down and Scarlett's head twitched as she appeared to come too, she seemed confused at first as she looked down at her hand and feet, she was surprised not to be bound. Her eyes went wide as she finally noticed other feet in the room, her eyes looked up and met with Sherlock's stare and he felt himself falter, she looked so broken.
"Put down the gun or we will fire" shouted Lestrade at Theo his own weapon facing the murder.
In a second Theo had lunged at Sherlock, and as if by instinct alone Sherlock tackled him, the two men fought as Scarlett tried to dragged her broken body to safety.
"Don't shot, you'll hit Sherlock" shouted John over the shouts of the two fighting men. With great enough Sherlock finally over powered the other man punching him in the hard in the face before pushing him away, but with scrambling fingers Theo grabbed the gun from the floor and fired. Sherlock was confused as Theo appeared to have missed. The police bundeled him and began to restrain him as Sherlock heard a weezing noise from behind him. There in the corner of the room sat Scarlett her face confused as she touched the area or her stomach which now bore a large hole and was oozing thick dark red blood.
She looked at her bloody hand and then to Sherlock who was nothing but shocked. "John, Lestrade call an ambulance, Scarlett's been hit" Sherlock shouted to his friend, John rushed back in and looked towards Lestrade who seemed busy with his prisoner, he pulled out his phone and dialed 999.
Sherlock crawled to her on his hand and knees her body was crumpled, he stared down at her
"I knew you'd find me, in the end" she said and Sherlock suspected he knew she did not mean alive.
"Your gonna be ok" Sherlock said as John approached his sleeves pulled up and his doctor face on. He pulled Sherlock's scarf from him and held it to Scarlett's wound he looked down at her sadly.
"Stay nice and still for me Scarlett, ambulance is on its way, I'm just gonna apply some pressure to your wound, to slow the bleeding, your gonna be fine" Said John those to Sherlock it sounded as though he was lying, but Scarlett didn't speak she just gazed at Sherlock a small smile on her face. John checked her pulse and looked to Sherlock.
"We need to keep her awake, keep her talking" said John as he shifted his position on his knees slightly.
Sherlock knelt beside her and reached down for her hand, he felt like he had a lump in his throat as he stared down at the woman, with a shuddering breath she smiled at him.
Slowly tears began to trickle down her face; she didn't make a noise as they silently fell into over her cheek.
"I'm sorry" she whispered to him "I'm so sorry".
"What for" he asked, he felt her lose her grip on his hand
and he pulled at her arm slightly to hold her there, her hand hung weakly in his grip. He could sense her slipping
"Scarlett stay awake, please stay awake" he beg his voice was urgent, she couldn't die, not now, , not when he had just found her, not when he hadn't told her.
"There are so many horrible people in the world" she whispered looking up at the ceiling the tears still rolling
"Yes but there are good people to" John said and Sherlock thought he could see the life draining from her beautiful eyes.
"Like you" she said a small smile forming on her face at she looked at the dark haired man again.
"Sherlock" she said her last breath becoming difficult as blood dripped from he lips.
"I" she seemed to stutter
"Don't talk just breath" Sherlock begged
"I" she said again her eyes shut now "I Love you".
She didn't speak again after that and Sherlock watched as her breathing slowed more and more. John began to shake her to wake her but when she made no response he moved pushing Sherlock out the way, John checked her pulse and her breathing before beginning chest compressions.
Sherlock sat off to the side watching as John tried to keep Scarlett's heart pumping manually. Sherlock just watched his face ghostly white and his mouth slightly agape. He touched his face as water ran over his lips, he looked down at the wet on his fingers, he was crying.
Sherlock looked back over to John and Scarlett as the paramedics rushed into the room.
"I Love you too" Sherlock whispered as the tears folded down his face.
The paramedics took over from John who shirt was covered in her blood, John stood and looked down at Scarlett and then to Sherlock who still was sat on the floor. After a while one paramedic left only to return a minute later with a stretcher, the paramedics rushed her out into the ambulance, John watched Sherlock.
He sat on the floor staring at the place where she had lain
"I think she going to die" he said not looking up at John.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, the doctors will save her, don't you want to go to the hospital. I'm sure she'll want you there when she wakes up" John spoke positively he told himself he was doing it for Sherlock but he knew he was doing it for himself as well, he couldn't believe it, Scarlett could not die. John was a doctor he knew her chances were slim, but he wouldn't believe he was still in denial.
"I don't want to watch her die" Sherlock said he didn't care that John had seen him cry.
"Well I'm going and I hope to see you there" John left his friend, there was nothing he could do for Sherlock but he needed to do something he felt so helpless, so he would go to the hospital and wait, wait to be told Scarlett Clio Monroe was dead.