Dancing with the Devil (part one)

Chapter 16: Call me

After a few hours of searching for details on Connie Prince's background and relatives, the found information of her brother who lived in a fancy looking area. The two new partners in work, if that is right to say, knocked on the front door, and a few seconds later a tall, dishy looking, young man opens the door.

"Hello?"

"Hello," John spoke up, "we're looking for a Mr. Kenny Prince, we want to talk to him about his sister."

"Are you with the police?"

"Basically, yeah." Astrid replied.

Before the tall boy could say anything else a slightly plump man in a purple shirt came running to the door.

"Police?" he shouted as he appeared at the front door, "Did you say police?"

"Yes." John smiled, "Are you Kenny Prince?"

"I am," he answered, "you want to talk about Connie?"

The two nodded and the well dressed Mr. Prince got the tall boy to let them in. He ushered them through into the grand house, to what Astrid would have thought was the living room and escorted them to a small sofa in the middle of the room.

"We're devastated, of course." He said as the two sat down on the sofa where to the surprise of the kind doctor, there was a hairless cat crawling around the place.

"Can I get you anything?" he chimed in.

"Oh no thanks." both John and Astrid said in unison.

"Raoul is my rock," said Kenny sadly, "don't think I could have managed."

The hairless cat began to climb onto John's knee causing Astrid to giggle. Never the less, Kenny carried on.

"We didn't always see eye to eye, but my sister was very dear to me." he said, regretful, as John smiled uncomfortably as the cat proceeded to crawl all over him.

"And, to the public?" Astrid asked as John fought the cat of his knee.

"Oh, she was adored. I've seen her take girls who looked like the back end of Routemasters and turn them into princesses."

As he continued to talk about her pitifully, Astrid's phone beeped on, she looked at John who hadn't seemed to notice and then looked down at her phone...

Call Me

JM

Astrid frowned and looked up as John uncomfortably replied to Kenny saying something about a veil of tears.

"Sorry, my manager is calling me, d'ya mind if I step into the corridor and take it?"

"Not at all, please." Kenny said Astrid got up.

"Everything okay?" John said curiously and Astrid smiled.

"Don't worry about it." she said before walking into the rather large hall area and calling back her boss.

"Everything okay boss?" she said as she heard Jim mumble something.

"That's what I wanna ask you," he said uninterested, "where are you?"

"With Watson, at Connie Prince's brothers house."

"Brilliant, what have you found out?" he said, suddenly seeming more excited.

"Not a lot from Connie's bro, but John has noticed the smell of disinfectant and I don't know how they are gonna get back from there." she informed.

"Right, where's Sherlock?"

"God knows. I think he's at the flat."

"Must be, he got my call and he spoke to the blind old bat."

"Ah, the recipient of your third bomb vest, no?"

"yes." Jim replied flatly.

"Sherlock knows Prince didn't die from the rusty nail, but John was just on the phone, probably to Sherlock, and Kenny Prince seems to be doing his hair-" she paused as the door bell rang.

"His hair?"

"yeah, um, you know, you didn't have to call, I could have just messaged Seb-" She saw the door open and Sherlock walk in, "shit, gotta go. Sherlock's here."

"Alright, enjoy."

Astrid hurriedly stuffed her phone in her pocket as Sherlock stormed into the house with two large cases swung over his shoulders he glided passed Astrid and down into the front room. Astrid followed him in as Raoul politely stood at the edge.

"Ah, Mr. Prince, is it?" Sherlock exclaimed striding in.

"Yes."

"Very good to meet you."

"yes; thank you."

"Very, very sorry to hear about..."

"yes, yes, very kind." Kenny rolled his eyes as Sherlock began to empty his bags.

"Shall we, er," John stuttered as Kenny continued to fix up his hair. John leant over to Sherlock and Astrid who was frowning.

"You were right, the bacteria got to her another way."

"Really? How?" Astrid frowned

"Of course I was right." Sherlock smirked as he fixed up his camera and gets closer to a very posh looking Kenny Prince and began to take several different pictures of him from different angles. Despite Astrid supposing to be professional, it was an extremely amusing sight. Sherlock was messing around taking pictures from all positions, even including the hairless cat who happened to be named after an Egyptian Goddess.

 After a few seconds of flashes and confused statements from Prince, the boys decided that they had what they came for and were soon rushing out of the house giggling their heads off followed by a confused, yet smiling Astrid.

"Yes, oh yes." John chuckled as they left the drive and walked down the road.

"You think it was the cat." Sherlock said smiling, "It wasn't."

"What?" Astrid said as she caught up with them.

"What? No, yes. Yeah, it is. It must be. It's how they got the tetanus into her system. Its paws stink of disinfectant." John argued, defending his case.

"Lovely idea." Sherlock grinned

"No, he coated it onto the paws of her cat. It's a new pet – bound to be a bit jumpy around her. A scratch is almost inevitable. She wouldn't have-"John continued to argue.

"I thought of it the minute I saw the scratches on her arm, but it's too random and too clever for the brother."

"No," Astrid said, considering the facts she 'knew' "he wanted his sisters money."

"No, it was revenge."

"Revenge?" John frowned

"Yes, Raoul, the houseboy. Kenny Prince was the butt of his sister's jokes, week in, week out, a virtual bullying campaign. Finally he had enough; fell out with her badly. It's all on the website. She threatened to disinherit Kenny. Raoul had grown accustomed to a certain lifestyle, so..."

"No, wait." John stops and Sherlock and Astrid follow suit, "the cats paws stunk of disinfectant."

"Raoul keeps a very clean house. You came through the kitchen door, saw the state of that floor, scrubbed to within an inch of its life. You smell of disinfectant now. No, the cat doesn't come into it." he said as they carried on walking, and Astrid frowned in disgust as she sniffed the edge of her sleeve. "Raoul's internet records do, though. Hope we can get a cab from here."

Sherlock strode off to the main road followed by a very disappointed John Watson who was followed by Astrid who was trying hard not to laugh at the doctors failure to solve yet another case.