Sherlock: The Monuments of the Heart
Chapter 3
"Start from the beginning...just don't make your murderous secret, look boring and tiresome when you come to explaining the how and why you helped to or killed your husband's brother."
"Sherlock!" John shouts at him, he can't believe what his friend had just said to the woman, whether she was guilty of murder or guilty of being an accomplice.
Greg shook his head in slight disbelief before speaking to Lawrence Barnes' wife. "Sorry about him. He has certain ways of trying to work out how boring you may show yourself to be, when you're telling him a few truths. You might as well tell us everything before guilt starts to get the better of you, the more longer you deny everything." He at least was acting professionally.
"And if I tell you what you need to know. Can you tell me how many years am I looking at spending in prison for, for what I'm guilty of?"
"Up to 25 years maximum."
"I see. The truth of matter is, I was having an affair with Paul, his brother. Brian was onto us within three months, threatened to tell Lawrence everything, even said he would blackmail me, if I didn't end the affair. I could never find the right moment to tell Paul I wanted to end things between the two of us. So a few nights ago, Brian was with Lawrence at a venue in Hammersmith." She starts to open more, baring her soul with simple results. Sherlock chose to take it upon himself to intervene during this moment of her confession .
"Yes and what with you being desperate and at breaking point, with your brother-in-law watching over you like a hawk. You came to a decision, a decision you knew you couldn't back out of. You had to kill him. You poisoned his drink. That had to be the only way you could weaken him, without him ever suspecting you would resort to desperate measures and it worked...only you don't kill him in the end, did you? Lawrence did."
Both John and Greg expressed surprise upon hearing this unexpected revelation. Lawrence's wife couldn't quite believe, how this presumptuous man had unraveled the truth from her.
"Oh you were glad he had. You'd convinced him, his own brother was trying to attack you and he believing this, found the nearest object and struck Brian on the back of the head twice. Lawrence was devastated with what he had done. Then your moment of comforting your husband was short-lived by Peter Macnair, who just so happened to walk in to the room and spotted Brian's body on the floor. You acted fast, knocking him out from behind. You see he was lucky because your conscious told you to spare his life. You dragged him back to his dressing room and basically you took care of everything else - wrapping Brian up in a carpet roll, telling your husband you would protect him no matter what and that you would say it was him, if the body was ever discovered because of the fact both brothers resembled each other in looks. Lawrence must have been too vulnerable enough to question your reason for this. Oh, with Paul having been sent to Dubai for three weeks, for a last minute holiday because you wanted him out of the way, while you plotted Brian's murder. It all worked out well for you in the end until you made the mistake of sending him away. Surely it wouldn't have taken him long to put two and two together."
"Wow" is all Greg can think of saying, as he processes the information Sherlock has just shared with everyone.
"The game is up for you Helen." Sherlock tells her, revealing he knows - well he happened to remember seeing the name written down on A4 paper back in Lawrence's office.
"What about Lawrence? What happens next, now you know it was accidental murder?" Helen asks Sherlock, a question he decides to leave to Greg to answer instead.
"He'll put through a mental assessment, next he'll be questioned and then from there it will be determined whether he'll be fit enough to stand trial in around 6-12 months time." The detective thought she ought to know what would happen following the couple's arrest. She was clearly a woman beginning to regret the mistake she made of, putting the man who was led to believe she loved him, through plenty of heartbreak and torment.
"Where is your husband?" John asks her. He found it odd, she hadn't told them where he was hiding, whether it was in the attic or in the converted shed, which he spotted outside, from the kitchen window.
"He hasn't run away if that's what you're thinking. He's not here in the house with me either! " So Helen claims, whether she's telling the truth or not, John and Greg weren't sure. Sherlock however, had already sussed her out because of her mini outburst.
"No he isn't. Of course you couldn't keep him in the house, no you couldn't risk the thought of him being discovered in the attic. He's in Paul's house isn't he? because you've got spare keys. You thought by, ushering his brother off to Dubai at the last minute, you would keep the keys on you, believing the affair would continue once Brian was out of the picture. Yet Lawrence threw a spanner in the works but in a perfect way, your plan changed somewhat. He thought about asking you why you owned spare keys to his younger brother's house but he didn't. Shame because if your husband knew the truth, his conscience might not have been as vulnerable because he would have taken it upon himself to go to the nearest police station and confess to accidentally killing Brian and as well you taking care of disposing the body." Sherlock shared his final thoughts before Greg got one of the unformed officers to handcuff Helen and lead her out of her house, in view of three nosy onlooking neighbours.
"So how are we going to get to talk to Lawrence? He might be too scared to open the door to us." John asks.
A few minutes later, thanks to some surprisingly quick-thinking from Greg, he was able to get one of his colleagues back at the station, to look up Paul Barnes' address. The address itself was in Brighton, right by the promenade. Any plans they had once this case was wrapped up, would have to wait for another day or two at least. Sherlock's hopes of speaking to Molly alone as soon as possible, weren't looking likely to happen for the rest of the day or tonight.
"She wanted to him kill himself!" Sherlock experiences a Eureka moment.
"Sorry?" Greg asks.
"What?" John's trying to follow what Sherlock means.
"That's why it was perfect for her, to choose Paul's house. She knew she what she was doing, by letting Lawrence lose his mind over killing his brother. Of course her first plan changed, however this second plan was destined to work for her. We need to get there right now before Lawrence's conscience gets the better of him, the longer he's left alone and in doing so, her plan ends up succeeding." Sherlock seemed to be the only one, who was seeing the bigger picture.
"What now?"
"Yes now. Do I have to write down or draw it out as a picture flow chart for you?" Sherlock looks annoyed.
"No, I understood what you meant. I'm just surprised you're worried about a man you haven't met before."
"Well I guess, doing the right thing for once, actually matters a lot more than I first realized." Sherlock tells both John and Greg, as they're leaving the property.
xxxx
As the sun shone brightly in Brighton especially across the coastal resort, Sherlock certainly wasn't enjoying the sun reflecting and flashing at his eyes through the passenger window of Greg's car.
"It's bad enough having the sun bouncing in your eyes, while walking along Baker Street, here it's even worse. Baldy aged men walking their dogs along the seafront, while displaying far too much of their pot bellies, they make it look like it's acceptable."
John and Greg both burst out laughing because of the insightful tone of Sherlock's behaviour. "Oh this will go down well on my latest blog. You do know, the men of Brighton will be calling you nicknames soon enough...hopefully not bad ones though, after they've read my blog." John tries not to poke too much fun at Sherlock's expense, while Greg is trying to find a useful spot to park the car.
"Well it's not worth typing then is it? if you think mine or your comments won't go down too well with people who live here." Sherlock insists.
"Okay I won't. I'll only refer to us, having solved the Brian Barnes' murder case and how the three of us decided to take it in the sights and sounds of Brighton afterwards...and so on." John didn't wish to give too much detail away, as to what he was thinking of explaining in his next blog.
"Before you to go any further...with your squabbling, I'm just letting you know you can both take the train on the way back and oh I believe that's the house right over there, that belongs to Paul Barnes." Greg isn't happy with the two of them constantly going off topic and temporary forgetting why they were in Brighton, seeing as it was Sherlock's idea in the first place to visit here, to talk to Lawrence Barnes.
"I'm fine with taking the train back." Sherlock smiles.
"I'm not." John on the other hand, disagrees.
"I'll make sure Brighton police, co-operate with us on this investigation. Lawrence will have to stay here in Brighton, if it looks as though he might be still too emotional. So just go easy with him Sherlock, if it's not too much to ask for you to do, just this once." Greg is hoping Sherlock won't put a foot wrong with his style of questioning and listening, when he meets Lawrence.
"Why the long faces? Okay I promise I will give the same listening techniques as any normal therapist likes to give while listening to many of their patients' problems." Sherlock's promise doesn't sound too reassuring but Greg feels he shouldn't repeat himself, so he decides to trust Sherlock on this.
The cream colored house that belongs to Paul Barnes is situated in a block of four houses, which overlooked the beach.
"Nice view, nice homes." John took quite a liking to the houses, as he walked past them.
When they did manage to find the house number for Paul's address, Greg was the one who ended up knocking at the bronzed letterbox. Meanwhile Sherlock's eyes were carefully studying the likelihood, they may be being watched from one of the windows above. Since Euros had mentally punished him and Mycroft, he had recently become more eagle-eyed when it came to monitoring the latest surroundings he had the misfortune of finding himself in, as well as whenever random people were around him.
"Hello Mr Barnes, my name is DI Lestrade. Can you open the door, I promise me and my friends won't hurt you. We just need to talk to you about your brother."
John, with a curious expression look across his face, silently mouthed "Friends?" to Sherlock. It was unusual for Greg to admit this out loud, while he was making every effort possible to get Lawrence to trust him.
"Leave me alone!" A man's voice believed to be Lawrence's, shouted back.
"We just want to help you. We're not armed."
Sherlock and John both knew Greg's negotiating techniques weren't getting them anywhere, so Sherlock decided to take it upon himself, to at least try and reason with Lawrence.
"Lawrence my name is Sherlock Holmes. Emotions can cloud one's judgement after a tragic accident, believe me I know... I've seen it myself - the 'not knowing when torment is going to end' and the 'seeing someone who means the world to you, their life being threatened'. Gut instinct can either be the making of you or the undoing of you. If you continue to hide yourself away, your chances of finding redemption will no remain available to you." Sherlock's words are more thought provoking and truthful than Greg's.
"Alright, I'll talk to you...only you. Tell your copper friend, I'm not willing to listen to what else he's got to say...until I've spoken to you Mr Holmes." Lawrence gave out a clear instruction, for both Sherlock and Greg to follow.
"Oh I'm sure he's got the message already." Sherlock smiles understandingly as he looks up at Greg.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, talking to Lawrence alone?" John isn't sure whether the businessman should be speaking to Sherlock alone, which is why he decided to follow behind Sherlock, as he entered the house.
"John, for goodness sake. I'm hardly likely to cause another breakdown for him." Sherlock, completely understood the reasons for why John had accompanied him inside the house or so he thought. As ever his manners were making him look as though he believed a person's looks/responses told the truth more so than emotions that laid within a person's feelings. It was very likely this usual assumption acted as a stumbling block for him also, for whenever Molly made her present known while being in the same room as him.
"Well let's hope you're right, otherwise it'll up to me, to calm things down." John says with a half serious look.
Meanwhile Greg heads off to the nearest cafe for a cup of coffee and some food.
xxx
One of Brighton's finest detectives, DCI Murphy greets Greg with a handshake, upon his return to the block of houses.
"You must be DI Lestrade. Mr Holmes has told me a lot about you. Anyway regarding the Brian Barnes murder case, me and my team need to question his brother before we can allow him to be transferred in your custody."
"But he's in no state of mind to be questioned. He's need evaluating first because if you bring him straight away for questioning, he's unlikely to co-operate with you and claim you're wrongly breaching his human rights. Is there a chance, I can at least, sit in while you're questioning him?"
"That's fine with me. I can interview by this evening at the latest. I've radio'd my station to contact the local therapist, who usually works with us on cases." DCI Murphy suggests.
Sherlock and John feel Greg deserves to take over the case. Thanks to John's experienced knowledge of him having dealt with a few previous patients at the surgery he works at, it had only taken a little more than 15 minutes to convince Lawrence Barnes, to come round to the idea to trusting Greg and to take a few breather moments, anytime he felt he needed to.
"I'm sure Lestrade can manage things from here, without either of us criticizing the way he prefers to use his softly softly method with witnesses, suspects or other detectives."
"He doesn't seem to be having a problem with DCI Murphy, as far as I can see." John suggests this.
"Wrong. The longer you know Lestrade for, like I have, the more you can read his body language - which is currently telling me, he doesn't look happy with playing second fiddle to DCI Murphy." Sherlock jokes, harmlessly.
"How is it you seem to know what makes Lestrade the detective he is, all because you can read his body language? and yet you've never known why Molly looks at you the way she does? She's clearly in love with you Sherlock and probably has been ever since the moment she first met you." John tells the truth on how he sees things from his point of view.
"Yes..." Sherlock whispers, with a thoughtful look. "I've been a horrible fool." He surprisingly admits - a very rare acknowledgement by him.
John bursts out laughing. "You can say that again, I'm sure Mycroft would back me up on this too, if he was here with us."
Sherlock sarcastically shot his friend a laugh-all-you-want-but-i-will-prove-you-wrong look. He didn't wish to know what exactly Mycroft would have to say about his little brother's finally making a decent effort at having a proper love life. His big brother was hardly what some would call 'a specialist on the subject of romantic relationships' himself. Over the years he had managed to do whatever he can, to avoid any likely romantic dalliances with female colleagues.
"Sherlock we should probably get the train back to London...unless you plan on standing here, unless you're thinking long and hard over what you want to tell Molly when you see her next." John can read him like the pages of a well read book. He believes he's taught Sherlock enough advice, something which every first-timer needs to master before entering a relationship.
"John stop trying to gain entry into my mind palace. Honestly, I can't even hide myself away in there, like I use to do, without you snooping around on the other side of it. Okay I'll talk to Molly tomorrow morning. If it isn't any trouble with you, I need some alone time right now to gather my thoughts." The sparkle in Sherlock's left eye was notable, as he finally reveals what he's planning to do next.
"Okay you know, it's just me wanting to make sure you don't go off the rails again. Performing my best friend duties whenever I feel it's important to do so." John tells him.
Greg walks over towards them. "Boys you're seriously leaving me here with Mr Showboat?"
"Yes. Unless you want us to be in the way while you're waiting for Mr Showboat to finish questioning Lawrence Barnes." John smiles knowingly.
"No. Go back to London. I'll phone you Sherlock and update you, if anything comes up while I'm at Brighton Police station." Greg feels they're right to want to go back to London and says his goodbyes before walking back to where DCI Murphy is standing, talking to one of the Police Constables.
Sherlock and John both then headed off to the nearest train station.
End of Chapter
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