The Baker's Detective

| The Concern and the Brother |

"Murder! Murder! I'm being threatened!" Sherlock shouts, sounding unconcerned — because he is. Despite the fact that Mr. Cunningham is holding him with surprising strength for a man his age and that his son, Henry, is pointing the gun used to kill Will Kirwan at him, he's unconcerned.

Mr. Cunningham continues to attempt to cover his mouth, but by that time, the door knob is shaking as if someone's frantically trying to open it. The person then turns to banging on the door as if trying to push it in. It's certainly not John, as he can't run very fast right now, so it must be Lestrade.

But then Lestrade shouts, "Out of the way!" It must've been Lily then.

Lestrade kicks the door in, sending it flying back on its hinges to hit the wall, which definitely has a hole in it now. Sherlock doesn't have time to dwell on this though, as Lily pushes into the room, and Henry turns the gun onto her.

Sherlock's concern heightens immediately, especially seeing her terrified face, her shaking hands raising, her eyes pleading with Henry not to shoot her.

"Drop the gun, now!" Sherlock shouts, feeling his panic rising. "You're outnumbered!" Lestrade's gun is pointed at Henry, while John's is pointed at Mr. Cunningham.

"Anyone fires off of a shot, I'll shoot her, I don't care!" Henry shouts, obviously not knowing what he's doing.

"You're a rat backed into a corner," Sherlock says, almost laughing. They've got him; he's just panicking — but a panicked man might shoot. "The cat's pounced, Henry. It's too late. Do you really want two murder charges?"

"Drop your weapon!" Lestrade orders, his voice tense. "I'll shoot much faster than you, I guarantee it."

Henry looks at them, then at Lily, who hasn't moved except for shaking. Her eyes are wide, locked on Henry, who finally drops the gun.

Lestrade quickly arrests the Cunninghams and calls for back up. Lily's still standing there, shaking, and Sherlock feels an apologetic tug in his chest and walks over to her.

"You're alright now," he says softly, trying to calm her with a voice he sometimes uses on panicked clients to get them to give him details. "Come sit down; we don't want you to really faint this time." He leads her to a chair in the corner of the room, then turns to Lestrade. "Get her a blanket. And take the laptop in the office for evidence. They might have been smart enough to delete that note, but then again..." He shrugs.

"Note?" Henry says, surprised — and obviously worried. "What note?"

"You know what note," Lestrade replies dryly, finding a heavy blanket in a trunk in the corner of the room and giving it to Lily. She wraps it around herself as she shakes.

"So, why did you do it?" John asks. "Why kill your own gardener?"

"They definitely wanted to meet him at 4:45 in the morning," Sherlock says. "Under what pretense, however, isn't completely certain as of yet. What happened to rest of that note, anyway?" He's looking at Henry, but Mr. Cunningham answers lowly.

"Burned."

Sherlock turns to him. "Ah, so you're smart enough to do that."

Mr. Cunningham looks up at him. "It wasn't my idea to try and kill you, Mr. Holmes."

"It was your idea to kill Kirwan," Henry pipes up.

"What, did he have blackmail on you?" John asks with a hint of dry amusement in his voice. Henry just looks at him, while Mr. Cunningham looks at the floor.

Lily, despite her shock, seems to have been listening. "The robbery," she says quietly, her voice unsteady.

Sherlock turns to her, wanting to smile but waiting for her to finish her thought. "Which one?" he asks.