The Science of Blood, Bombs and Brothers//BOOK ONE

Chapter 9~ Blood Deductions

Lestrade's P.O.V

Last night Sherlock had solved the puzzle the bomber had given him only to be chucked another one this morning. Every fiber in my body was tense, even more so knowing that Teddy was still wearing the bracelet the bomber had left her. I was worried and annoyed at not being able to do more for the hostage. I had to put all my faith in Sherlock and even though i knew he would be able to solve these puzzles it still got to me. He seemed to be treating this as a game. Plus i felt like he was doing my job for me which made me feel in the background.

Perhaps that's how Teddy felt when she was younger, I thought. She's always saying that Sherlock was better at this deduction stuff then she was, did she ever feel overshadowed by her older brother?

I walked towards the reported car, looking at some notes.

"The car was hired yesterday by an Ian Monkford," I say to Sherlock as John and Sally followed behind us.

"Banker of some kind; city boy. Paid in cash," I continued.

Teddy walked over to the driver's side of the car, peering in through the window.

"Told his wife he was going away on a business trip, but he never arrived."

Sherlock and I stopped on the passenger side of the door while on the other side Teddy opened the door and looked inside. Sherlock does the same on our side and i watch as he opens the glove box.

"Blood, Teddy. Your kind of thing," I hear Sherlock say.

"Hmmm..." Teddy's head looks up to stare at Sherlock.

"A pint, wouldn't you say?" she asked.

"Your the expert with blood," he said.

"Before you ask, yes its Monkford's blood. The DNA checks out," I said. Teddy nodded as Sherlock straightened, getting out of the car.

"No body," he says.

"Not yet," Sally adds. Sherlock ignores her, continuing.

"Get a sample sent to the lab," he says and i nod. Sherlock then walked off and I look at Sally. Her brown eyes stare back indignantly but i don't turn away. In the end she grunts in annoyance and stomps off. In the car Teddy chuckles. I open the car door and lean inside, watching as Teddy stares closely at the blood.

"The expert, Sherlock said," I told her. She smiles, pulling out what appears to be Sherlock's magnifying glass.

"He's letting me borrow this," she said looking at the blood, "And yeah, blood's my area."

"How?"

"I've just always had a natural talent with blood, you know, the patterns it makes which tells me if it was murder or manslaughter, how much there is, if it was intentionally spilt which tell me that it was suicide."

"You just know these things with blood?" I asked, amazed. She looks at me and grins.

"I studied it a bit, tried to learn more but other then that yeah, i've got a natural talent with crimes including blood. Gives me a major step whenever there's blood involved. Anyway, don't you think there's quite an even pattern?"

"Um.... yeah, maybe. Why?"

"Do you think this man is dead Lestrade?" she asked.

"Well, i hope not. We don't know exactly, there hasn't been a body that's turned up."

"He's not dead."

I looked at her carefully.

"And you know this-"

"Because the blood patterns and how much blood there is here told me."

I raised an eyebrow. Teddy might be good with her blood but i still didn't really understand what she was trying to say. With a sigh she gestured at the blood between the driver and passenger seat.

"This is too clean for an attack."

"Meaning?"

"Well, obviously it means that he wasn't attacked." she said, getting out of the car. I did the same, watching as Teddy came to stand beside me.

"Tell me what you've found out then so i can get a better understanding," I asked. She looked from me to Sherlock- who was currently talking to Ian Monkford's wife- then back to me.

"If he was attacked there would be signs of a struggle, correct?" she said. I nodded.

"If he was attacked there would be a more grisly scene that we would be facing."

"Unless the attacker wanted it to be clean," I said.

"Please, this Ian Monkford guy would've put up a fight, nobody want's to die. He has a wife, a good job, friends, he would've fought for survival, the attacker would've struggled keeping this clean. There are no blood splatters on the chair, nor on the windshield or doors, meaning that he wasn't attacked."

"So you've proven that he wasn't attacked."

"Course he wasn't. And he's not dead."

"Because it's not messy enough for you?" I asked. She looked at me, face grim.

"I've seen murder scenes just like you Lestrade. Suicides too. Ian Monkford is not dead and he wasn't attacked because there was no sign of a struggle and because it's not messy like other crime scenes. Not a suicide because his body isn't here. All that tells me that something else has happened."

I looked at her, frowning.

"Its his blood though, it checks out," i reminded her.

"Yeah, still trying to figure that part out. Its his blood, but he wasn't attacked. How'd the blood get in there in the first place?" she murmured, shaking her head. "Ugh, i bet it'll be really obvious once i actually figure it out. Look, once you've gotten the blood sample i'll take it down to the lab, call Sherlock and we'll take a quick look at it. We'll figure this out soon enough."

"Your not going to go with your brother?" I asked, nodding towards the direction where Sherlock and John were now walking away. She watched them walk and then shook her head.

"Na, i know where they're going. Janus Cars, the company who gave Monkford the car. Sherlock showed me the card."

We began walking away from the car, discussing other reasons why Teddy believed Ian Monkford was not attacked or murdered or suicidal, but the whole time i was thinking about how Teddy didn't seem to give herself enough credit. Sherlock was good with the people deductions but when it came to blood, well, Teddy took the prize there.

Author note: I really hope that made sense to you guys. When i first watched this scene i kept wondering why there wasn't much blood. They thought that perhaps Monkford had been killed or attacked but in my head i was just like 'There's not much blood for it to be an attack, is there? Not very messy.'
But then again maybe that's just me expecting things to be really gruesome when it comes to attacks or murders. Maybe sometimes they can be quite clean. Oh well, hope you guys got what i was trying to say.

Comment and Fave! Thanks!
~DM