Sherlock's POV
"Sherlock," Lestrade called as we walking in the door.
"What do you want. " I snapped. My patience had already started to wear thing. All I wanted was to go back to the hospital and be with Grace.
"I heard about Grace, how is she doing?" He asked
"She's doing better; the doctors want to keep her in the hospital just for observation." John said.
"What are we doing here?" I sighed.
"We have some evidence we need you to look at. Also would you want to question Jake Clay?"
"Are you kidding!" John said.
"Let's go, now!" I yelled and I followed Lestrade to a small room. We stopped in front of the door.
"John keep Sherlock in check." Lestrade said.
"I don't need to be watched!" I snapped reaching for the door handle but Lestrade stopped me. "What!" I groaned.
"Don't lay a finger on him Sherlock." Lestrade said.
"No promises," I said under my breath. I walked in the room and I saw him just sitting there. I wanted so badly to grab him by the collar and throw him across the table. He had something to do with all these deaths and I was determined to prove it. "Mr. Clay, how are you this fine morning?" I asked smiling.
"What do you want Mr. Holmes," He sighed. "I have already told you and basically everyone else in this bloody town. I didn't kill Gabby or any of the other people. "
"Well you see, I don't believe you!" I said slamming my hands on the desk. "You killed them and you were the ones sending us the threats."
"Threats, what threats?" He asked.
"The threats you sent telling us to stop working on the case because you knew that I could catch you."
"I didn't do anything!" He snapped.
"How did you do it, did you use your keys to get into the security office to change the security tapes."
"What! No!"
"I bet if we were to look at the tapes we could see you going in and out of the office."
"I'm a security guard of course I go into the security office!" He snapped.
"How did you sneak past the guards last night to come attack Grace?" I asked.
"What! I never left my house until they brought me here. And who is Grace?"
"Oh don't give me that shit!" I said grabbing him pulling him up so his face was level with mine. "You came to our flat last night and you attacked Grace and you tired to kill her!"
"Sherlock! Put him down!" John snapped.
I did as he said and dropped Jake on the floor. Without saying a word, I walked out of the room.
"What was that all about Sherlock, you found out nothing?" John said.
"Did you notice how skinny he was?" I asked.
"What?"
"Yesterday he was muscular but today he looked like he hadn't eaten in a few days."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"How do you lose muscle over night?"
"Uh," John said and I saw that he was starting to understand what I meant.
"Let's go find Lestrade." I said.
We walked around the building until we found Lestrade standing in front of a table covered in papers.
"Oh good you're here." Lestrade.
"What is all of this?" John asked.
"This is some evidence we have found from both Gabby and Thomas's apartments. We need you two look at them.
I nodded as I sat down in a chair grabbing a handful of papers. "I need you to look up someone." I told Lestrade. "Look up Jake Clay and see if he has any siblings."
"Why didn't you just ask him while you were in there?"
"I don't think he would have given me a straight answer." I said as I grabbed another handful of papers. "Where is the evidence from the little girl's place?" I asked.
"We sent some men this morning but we haven't heard anything from them."
"Can you go look him up now!" I snapped throwing some useless papers onto the table.
"Why do you need it?" Lestrade asked.
I slowly looked up glaring at Lestrade. He threw up his hands in surrender and walked away.
"Sherlock, what are we doing?" John asked.
"Looking for something, anything that can make this case actually make sense."
"Sherlock I think you are just going to have to accept the fact that you might not be able to solve this one."
"No!" I snapped throwing the papers that were in my hands across the room. "I have to solve it, I have to! I promised her I would," I sighed.
John stared at me, his eyes soft and almost sad looking. "You really do care about Grace don't you?" He asked me.
"Yes I do John," I said. "More than anyone I have ever met."
John looked as if he was going to say something but he didn't.
For hours we sorted through papers in the unbearable quiet. John sorted through Thomas's papers and other evidence while I looked through Gabby's papers. There was nothing of importance in any of the documents. They were just bills, and letters from her family in Cardiff. She also had documents about each painting that was in the museum. She had how the paintings got to the museum, who they were painted by, how much each cost, and what paintings would be shown soon. I finished reading through my documents and proceeded to throw them across the room in anger. It was around dinner when John finished looking through his pile.
"Do you want anything to eat?" He asked me as he got up heading towards the door.
"No," I replied as I began looking through John's pile. It mostly consisted of the same as Gabby's. Bills, letters, more bills. He also had many sketches of the different paintings and on the back of each drawing was some information about each painting. Still there was nothing useful. I began pacing trying to run every scenario in my head. I tried to place Jake as the murderer, but every scenario was improbable. Nothing made any sense there was no connections, no logic in this case. I couldn't even go into my mind palace because every time I did, all I could think about was Grace lying in that hospital bed. Her beautiful skin deathly pale and the feeling I felt when I thought she was gone.
"Sherlock," someone said and I looked to see John standing next to me. I must not have noticed when he came in. "Lestrade said he hasn't found anything yet about Jake Clay but he said that his men are bringing the evidence from the little girl's house." Almost as soon as he said that, two men came in carrying handfuls of papers. As the men set the papers on the table John picked up one of the papers. "Well this girl loved Madame de Pompadour." He said.
"What!" I asked looking at John.
"All of these papers are drawings of the painting Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame."
"That's it!" I yelled grabbing the paper from John.
"Sherlock what are you talking about?"
I quickly ran over to Thomas's pile, looking through the papers, throwing the useless ones across the room.
"Sherlock!" John yelled.
I grabbed the paper I was looking for and then I ran over to where I had thrown Gabby's paper looking through them.
"What are you doing?" John asked.
Quickly I picked up all the papers running back over to John. I pushed all the other papers off the table laying the three papers on it.
"This is the connection John, the painting. Gabby would have know where each painting should be placed and every little detail about each painting. Thomas knew about each painting just as much as Gabby did and this was the painting little girl always came to see. That is how the murderer knew where she was going to be. And this is the painting that everyone was murdered in front of. It was never about the murders it has always been the painting." I told him.
"Sherlock," Lestrade said coming into the room. "What did a hurricane come through here?" He asked looking around the room.
"What did you find out?" I asked.
"Oh, well Jake did have a twin brother who was arrested a couple of times for theft."
"Ha!" I said, "Wait, did?"
"Ya, he died while in prison a few months back."
"Perfect," I smiled.
"Perfect?" John asked. "How is that perfect?"
"I have a feeling that the twin was miraculously resurrected." I said as I headed to Jake.
When I walked into the room, the scared weakling that I had interviewed was gone instead he sat there staring at me, his eyes cold and a wicked smile across his face.
"I wondered how long it would take you to figure it out."
"We know about the paintings and your brother." I said.
"Oh that's good Sherlock," He said sarcastically.
"How did you do it?" John asked.
"It's not that difficult to fake someone's death."
"Where is he?" I asked.
"Oh somewhere, but I just wanted to let you know that just because my brother failed to kill that bitch the first time does not mean he will this time." I felt my stomach drop as he laughed. "Run Sherlock, run!" Jake laughed.
I took off sprinting, running out of the room. Past Lestrade and I heard John call my name but I didn't stop running as I ran out the doors. I didn't stop to grab a cab I just ran all the way. As I ran through the dark streets, I hoped that I wasn't too late." I bolted into the hospital running around people who tried to stop me. I continued to run all the way to Grace's room. I threw the door open to find Grace sound asleep, no one else was in the room. I sighed leaning against the wall.
"Sherlock!" I heard someone yell down the hallway. John came barreling down the hall. "Is she ok?"
"Shh," I said shutting the door behind me.
"Is she ok?" John whispered.
"Yes she's fine, she's sound asleep."
"Jake tricked us."
"Yes," I sighed, suddenly it clicked. "Oh, idiot," I said.
"What?"
"Come on." I said running all the way out of the hospital.
I stopped as I waved down a cab.
"Will you please tell me what we are doing before we go running off again?"
"Just get in the cab," I said opening the door. "National Gallery!" I yelled as we got in.
"Hey it's almost 11 p.m. I don't think its op…" The cabbie said.
"Just go!" I yelled.
"Sherlock what is going on?" John asked as the cab took off.
"He tricked us because his brother is stealing the painting and he knew that if he threatened Grace that that is where I would go."
"I'll call Lestrade and tell him to meet us there."
"Tell him to hurry." I said as John took out his mobile.
"Lestrade, come to the National Gallery now… wait what…" Suddenly John went silent. I looked over to see that John looked very frustrated. "Greg are you serious?"
"John what is going on?" I asked.
"Well get to the museum soon, Ya… Ya I'll tell him, ok bye." John hung up the phone.
"What is going on?"
"Jake killed himself a few minutes ago." He sighed.
"What!"
"Yeah, he had a cyanide pill in his mouth and he must have broken it right after we left."
"Well crap," I sighed.
"Lestrade also says that you need to wait until they get here to go in."
I gave John a look like "Ya right."
"I tried to tell him but he wouldn't listen."
The cabbie pulled over and John and I hurried out and up the stairs. When we reached the doors I tried to pull them open but they were locked.
"What do we do?" John asked, "If we break the door open or pick the lock we risk setting the alarm off and warning him that we are here."
I quickly pulled out a pair of keys. Putting them in the lock, I turned them and pushed the door open.
"Where did you get those?"
"I took them from Jake when I grabbed him." I whispered as the door slowly shut behind us, "John I want you to go the back way and all go the front way." I pulled out his gun from my jacket and handed it to him.
"How did you…" He said, "Oh why do I even try." He grabbed the gun and then walked away.
As I slowly walked through hallway after hallway, all I thought about was Grace and how it would be hard not to kill this guy for hurting her. All I wanted to do was rip him to pieces. I finally turned that last corner and entered the room where I could see a dark figure removing a painting from off the wall.
"Jake Clay!" I called causing him to turn towards me, the painting in one hand and a gun, which was pointed at me in the other.
"Well if it isn't Sherlock Holmes, I was starting to doubt that your deductive skills were as good as I had heard." I saw John come into the room, but I quickly gestured for him to hide behind the wall. "How did you figure it out?" Jake asked.
"Oh your brother told us everything speaking of your brother Lestrade is probably on his way to take your brother back to prison."
I watched as Jake's face fell and the gun in his hand started shaking.
"No," He gasped. "He can't go back to prison. It nearly killed him last time."
"Well don't worry; he won't be going to jail." I smiled.
"What do you mean?" His finger went back on the trigger.
"Your brother killed himself about a half hour ago."
Suddenly he pulled the trigger. The bullet narrowly missed my shoulder as I hit the ground. "This is your fault!" He screamed.
"Drop the gun!" I heard John yell. Jake quickly dropped the gun, which I grabbed standing back up.
"Oh I see you brought your side kick along, how adorable," He said sarcastically. "But not the girl, I bet the bitch was to dead tired to come along." He laughed, "You know she tried to call your name, she tried so hard as I strangled her."
"She's alive," I snapped stepping towards him.
"What!"
"Yes she's alive, you failed!"
"No, I killed her, I know I did."
"Well you didn't and let me tell you, you had better start running, now because you hurt someone I cared about and there is no way in hell that I am letting you get away."
Jake looked at me and then smiled before he threw the painting at me. I caught it landing on my back my head hitting the floor. I looked up just in time to see Jake ram John into the wall. I quickly got up gently setting the painting down and then I took off after Jake. "Come on John!" I yelled as I passed him. I sprinted down the halls faster trying to catch Jake. "You can't get away." I yelled as I turned the corner. I skidded to a stop as I stared down the hall. At the end Jake stood. Even from the other end of the hall I could see how bad he was shaking as he held the gun against his temple.
"I can't go to prison, I can't."
"Well killing yourself is not a good way out."
"Like you care!" He snapped. "You would be glad if I just pulled the trigger."
"Just don't do it." I said as I inched closer to him. I didn't know why I was trying to save this bastard.
"Do you know what I did to take care of my brother? To get him out of jail. I have taken care of out of jail. I have taken care of him since we were little and now he is dead because of you." He screamed pointing the fun at me.
"Yes, remember, that it was my fault, mine." With each step I took, I see his finger move off and on the trigger.
"It was Jack's idea to leave clues and to kill Grace. He said he wanted to beat the great Sherlock Holmes but I think he knew that you would catch him. I think that's what he wanted to be caught." Jake placed the gun back on the side of his head. "Well you have beaten us, Sherlock."
"No!" I yelled running towards him as he suddenly pulled the trigger.
"Sherlock!" I heard John yell as I fell to the ground checking Jake's pulse even though I knew it wouldn't be there.
"I tried," I sighed turning towards John.
3 weeks Later
"Why do I have to go to this stupid thing?" I asked as John fixed my purple tie. We had been informed a week after the events at the museum that we were to come to a dinner at the museum to thank us for helping to keep their painting safe.
"You have to, you promised Grace." John replied. Ever since grace had been release from the hospital, I had been very protective of her. Not that I wasn't before but now I treated her as if she were a glass doll. "Why purple?" John asked as he handed me my jacket.
"I don't know," I replied putting it on. "Grace just told me I had to wear something purple. Is she ready?" I called up the stairs.
"Hold on Sherlock," Mrs. Hudson yelled down.
I sighed as I walked over the couch and sat down. "Are you sure you are ok with Grace and me?" I asked John.
"Well I have known from the very beginning that there was something going on so I am fine as long as you two are happy. Although I will have to kill you if you break her heart." John said.
"I won't," I said when suddenly I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I quickly walked over. As I looked up my jaw dropped. Grace was coming down the stairs in a floor length purple dress. A black belt was around her waist and a string of pearls around her neck. Her hair was pulled up into a bun on the top of her head.
"You look gorgeous," John said as he elbowed me in the side.
"Yes, you look beautiful." I smiled offering my arm to her.
She smiled as she took it leaning her head on my shoulder.
"Oh you two are just the most adorable thing I have ever seen." Mrs. Hudson said and I laughed a long with Grace. "I need to take a picture."
I groaned as Mrs. Hudson ran out of the room.
"You clean up very nice Mr. Holmes." Grace said.
"So do you Miss Watson," I said as I kissed the side of her head.
"Wait, now we agreed…" John started "We agreed none of this lovey dovey crap in front of me."
"John," Grace sighed.
"I am your older brother and as long as you are staying with me I have some rights."
"Since when!" Grace said.
"Since you came here and we started babysitting yo…" John said his voice raising.
"No, no," Mrs. Hudson said running into the room. "You two are not going to ruin this night."
John sighed defeated.
"Alright smile," Mrs. Hudson said as she clicked her camera. "Now go have fun."
"I want her back by midnight." John said which made me smile. "Keep her safe Sherlock."
"My smile faded away as I said seriously, "I will, always."
"You guys treat me like such a baby, let's go." Grace said as she dragged me down the stairs.
As we got outside I quickly hailed a cab wrapping my arm around her waist. The cab pulled over and we piled in. My hand intertwined with hers.
"I love you Mr. Holmes." She sighed.
"And I love you Miss Watson." I said as I leaned in and kissed her.
We spent the night talking to strangers. Usually all of these people would have irritated me, but with Grace at my side I couldn't have been happier. We ate dinner and then we walked though the museum arm and arm looking at the paintings. However, I wasn't looking at the paintings I was looking at Grace. She was so beautiful. Her smile her laugh everything about her I found indescribably beautiful. Every once and a while she would blush. Lestrade was there and I talked with him. Sally and Anderson were there as well; surprisingly I had a nice talk with them as well. We didn't get back into the flat get back into the flat until well past midnight.
"John is going to be pissed." Grace whispered as we walked up the stairs.
"Oh Grace." A voice called from behind us. We turned around to find Mrs. Hudson. "Someone came and delivered a package for you while you were gone."
"What!" Grace gasped as she ran up the stairs.
"What did the person who delivered it look like?" I asked Mrs. Hudson.
"Well he was wearing a cap I couldn't see his fa…" Mrs. Hudson started when suddenly Grace screamed.
I ran up the stairs to find Grace holding her knees up to her chest rocking back and forth. Next to her was an open package. I quickly walked over to the box looking in. In the box was a red cape and a note attached that read; "It has begun, M."
The End
Well that's all she wrote folks please review and I will have the next book up soon it shall be called Game of Blood. Hope you enjoy everything. You guys are amazing and I wouldn't be anywhere without you. Please Review :)