The Autobiography of Mycroft Holmes

Chapter 5: Assistant Detective Inspector Lestrade

*The picture above is not mine. However, it is one that should set the scene for this chapter of the story.*

We hailed a cab and climbed into the back seat. I told the driver to take us to the New Scotland Yard building on Broadway, and he drove us there quickly.

Upon arriving at the building, we were forced to pass through airport-style security and take a restricted access elevator to the floor where Lestrade's office was located. Sherlock looked at me, as if to ask if whether or not what we were doing was legal. I did not know, but I had done this multiple times before without reprimand, so I decided that I'd take the risk once more.

Lestrade's office floor was interesting, to say in the least. There were cubicles and science labs next to each other, people in suits and people in lab coats interacting. This was a part of Scotland Yard that I had seen only a few times, and that many people have not had the pleasure of experiencing in person.

Gina Lestrade was interesting as well; more so even than the place she worked. Her office was not really hers; it was her boss's, but she had a small desk inside it placed to the side. It was messy, messier than my office space in 221B. Papers were scattered about the office, and the trash bin next to the desk was tall enough to be turned upside down and used as more desk space.

Assistant Detective Inspector Lestrade sat at her desk, typing loudly on her laptop, then attempting feverishly to make a bun in her hair and hold it with a pencil that she grabbed out of her cup holder, nearly knocking it over. At this moment, seeing her in this state, I could see why she left the Club. If she had been doing these things in the sanctorium, she would have been kicked out before she would have had a chance to silently defend herself.

"Gina!" I yelled to her from the door.

"Hi, Mycroft," her boss said to me from his chair. He looked up, and smiled at me.

"As I live and breathe, it is Mycroft Holmes! Outside of the Diogenes Club for the first time in ten years! How's that chair side lamp tan coming? Not well, I see. You're even less tan than I am, and I haven't been outside in years," she said in her thick British Accent. I had gotten used to it over time, but I sensed that it was shocking poor Sherlock, who had no idea who Lestrade was at the time and had not had a chance to get used to her yet.

"Gina, this is my younger sister, Sherlock Holmes."

"Hello, smaller Mycroft."

"She's here because she's unemployed, and she wants to help me with the deductions that I am about to make. She is under my tutelage, and I am trying to show her what I can do, and how she herself can do it."

"Well, you can try it out on this case that I am going over right now. It is a murder case, but it is very interesting since none of the suspects were in town at the time of the murder. One of them has to have been, because it was a shooting. But, in fact, they were all at least three thousand miles away at the time of the murder. In East Asia. And they seemed confused as to why they were being questioned when they were."

"That's nice," I said. "They all have very interesting jobs... They have a policeman in their family, and he's not a suspect..." I was beginning to put together pictures in my mind of these people, the suspects, as I looked at their descriptions. "Any features about these people that I should know?"

"Yes, they all have children and they are all related to the victim by marriage. They are all either his brothers or sisters-in-law."

"Physical, Gina."

"Oh, well I could just give you the tapes of the interviews so you can see them for yourself."

"Fine, but I wanted to know what you yourself noticed about these murderers while interviewing them."