Hello Detective

The Empty Hearse Part 4

"This isn't a lead, it's an errand." I whined once Sherlock had come home and told me where we were headed. We weren't tracking down a terror cell, we were returning an ugly hat.

"Oh hush, you never would have agreed to come unless I told you it was a lead." He argued, but he was right.

"You know I might have something more important to be doing." I argued.

"What could be more important than me?" Sherlock smirked as I rolled my eyes.

"Well it's good to know you haven't changed." I said as I approached the flat of the hat owner. He smiled down at me as he rang the doorbell.

"Mind the gap." The bell tolled, and I cracked a smile.

The door swung open and Sherlock subsequently stuck out the hat.

"Oh. Thanks for hanging onto it." He said, taking it.

"No problem." The hat man then lead the two of us inside the flat. "So, what's this all about, Mr. Shilcott?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, so this was more than just an errand. God I loved being kept out of the loop. I stepped into a room full of trains and corresponding memorabilia.

"My girlfriends a big fan of yours." He said, sitting behind his computer.

"Girlfriend?" Sherlock chuckled and turned to me hoping to share in his amusement. Instead he was met with a raised eyebrow and disapproving look. "Sorry, do go on."

"I like trains." He stated.

"Yes..." We both spoke, wasn't it blatantly obvious, just taking a quick glance around the room could have told you that.

"I work on the Tube, on the District Line and part of my job is to wipe the security footage after it's been cleared. I was just whizzing through, and I found something a bit bizarre." Howard Shilcott said, moving to his chair in front of the computer. He adjusted the screen so that we could see it better. "Now, this was a week ago. The last train on the Friday night, Westminster Station. Now this man gets into the last car."

"Car?" I asked. Didn't everyone here call them carriages?

"They're cars, not carriages. It's a legacy of the early American involvement in the Tube system." He answered, seems like he had to tell a lot of people this.

"Well naturally I'm all for it." I smirked.

"Didn't you have to renounce your American citizenship?" Sherlock asked.

"Not yet, but now that Trump's President I'm tempted to." I answered truthfully, the man behind the computer muttering 'moron' in response and shaking his head. I chuckled.

"I'm sorry, Donald Trump is President? What happened to your bloody country?" Sherlock asked.

"Oh honey, what happened to yours? Have you heard of a thing called Brexit?" I returned.

"No..." Sherlock raised an eyebrow.

"When we get home I'm going to have to brush you up on what's happened in the last two years. Because you've obviously missed a lot." I rolled my eyes, glancing back towards the computer screen.

"Ok, here's the next stop, St. James's Park station." Howard spoke. I watched as the empty car opened and closed its doors with no one getting off. Sherlock and I shared a look. "He gets into the last car at Westminster, the only passenger, and the car is empty at St. James's Park station. Explain that, Mr. Holmes."

"Well he couldn't have just jumped off. Isn't there some kind of mechanism that stops the doors from opening mid-transit?" I asked.

"Exactly. But there's something else. The driver of that train hasn't been to work since. According to his flatmate, he's on holiday. Came into some money." Shilcott said.