~~~
"You'll need to wear one of these." Sherlock says to John gesturing to the blue clean suits.
"Who's this?" Lestrade questions gesturing to John as he puts on his clean suit.
"He's with me." Sherlock replies curtly.
"But who is he?"
"I said he's with me." Sherlock repeats with a small edge of anger in his voice.
"Aren't you going to put one on?" John questions and Sherlock just stares at him for a minute before Greg breaks the silence.
"So, Sherlock, have you met Kat?" Greg asks.
Kat opens her mouth to reply but Sherlock beat her to it.
"Seeing as we both came in here together, the answer is, yes we have been acquainted."
"Sherlock." Kat bumps his arm lightly. "Be nice."
"Sorry." Sherlock mumbles.
Greg just looks at John with a look of surprise on his face.
"He's never apologized for anything. Ever." Lestrade tells John when Sherlock and Kat weren't listening.
"Really?" John questions. "What, do you think he fancies Kat?"
Lestrade laughs. "Sherlock Holmes? Fancy a girl? Like that will happen."
"Why would you say that?" John asks but right before Greg could answer Sherlock and Kat walk back with their gloves on.
"So where are we?" Sherlock questions.
"Upstairs." Kat answers for him.
"I can give you two minutes." The detective inspector informs him on their way upstairs to the victim.
"May need longer." Sherlock answers as Greg leads them up the stairs to the body.
"Her name's Jennifer Wilson, according to her credit cards. We're running them now for contact details. Hasn't been here long. Some kids found her."
When they finally get into the room with Jennifer's body, Sherlock walks up to the body and stares at it while Kat, John, and Greg wait by the door. The women is wearing a bright pink coat, pink shoes and is laying face down on the floor.
"Shut up." Sherlock suddenly snaps.
"I didn't say anything." Lestrade replies defensively.
"You were thinking. It's annoying." Sherlock snaps.
Then Sherlock bends down and examines the body. He looks at the jewelry, her clothing, and the message she left scratched on the floor. 'Rache.' In Sherlock's head words are flying everywhere as he deduces the dead women.
The message is by her left hand and her once perfectly manicured nails are destroyed: Left handed.
The message: RACHE- German (n.) revenge. That doesn't make sense so he quickly erases those words. Sherlock then goes through the alphabet putting every letter at the end of the note until he finds a real word. Suddenly he finds it: She was writing Rachel.
Sherlock bends down closer to the body.
He rubs his hand over her back: Wet
Umbrella in pocket: Dry
Under coat collar: Wet
Sherlock then pulls out his pocket magnifier and holds it to her jewelry.
Bracelet: Clean
Earrings: Clean
Necklace: Clean
Wedding ring: Dirty
This dirty wedding ring make Sherlock look closer: Unhappily married 10+ years he realizes.
He takes the ring off of her finger and looks at the inside of it: Inside- clean; outside- dirty.
That means: Regularly removed.
He puts the ring back on her finger. All of those signs point to one conclusion: serial adulterer.
Smiling he stands up.
"Got anything?" Greg asks.
"Not much." Sherlock replies with a shrug, taking off his gloves with a snap and getting on his phone.
"She's German." Anderson says standing in the doorway. "Rache. It's German for revenge. She could be trying to tell us-"
"Yes, thank you for your input." Sherlock says not looking up from his phone and slamming the door in Anderson's face. Sherlock looks up the UK Weather maps trying to find a place that had heavy rain in the past few hours.
"So she's German?" Greg asks.
"She can't be." Kat suddenly cuts in before Sherlock could answer.
"What makes you say that?" Sherlock asks with genuine curiosity in his voice looking up from his phone and studying Kat intently.
"Well, obviously she doesn't really work with her hands so she, just like me, either does her nails or has them done." Kat starts explaining and gestures to her own perfectly manicured black nails. "Judging by her clothing I'd say she gets them done, so why would she, a women who doesn't work with her hands and is in a place she very clearly has no reason to be, scratch 'revenge' in Germen in the ground. Especially when she supposedly took the pill herself, who would she want revenge on? I don't know about you, but unless she was getting revenge on someone who cared about her, she can't really get 'revenge' on somebody if she'd dead." After she finishes nobody speaks and they all stare at her.
"What?" She questions looking around alarmed at John's awed face, Greg's surprised face, and Sherlock's almost unreadable impressed face. "Did I completely mess up? Is there something on my face?" She reached up unconsciously to touch her face.
"N-no its just that, well, I didn't know you were, well like him." Greg tells her gesturing to Sherlock who still hasn't moved and doesn't seem to be listening.
"What do you mean like him? I just thought it was obvious." Kat says. "Plus, you know Anderson thought she was Germen and he doesn't seem get a lot of things right so," Kat trails off laughing lightly.
"So, she isn't Germen?" Lestrade turns to Sherlock.
"O-of course she's not. She's from out of town, though. Intended to stay in London for one night before returning home to Cardiff." Sherlock says really quickly. "So far, so obvious." He adds slowly.
"Sorry, obvious?" Greg asks. "How is it she obvious that she is returning home to Cardiff? What about the message, though?"
"Dr. Watson, what do you think?" Sherlock turns to the doctor.
"Of the message?" John questions.
"Of the body. You're a medical man."
"We have a whole team outside." Greg cuts in.
"They won't work with me."
"I'd work with you." Kat jokes and Sherlock actually cracks a smile.
"I'm breaking every rule letting you in here." Lestrade ignores Kat.
"Yes, because you need me." Sherlock points out.
"Yes, I do." Lestrade breathes out. "God help me."
"Dr. Watson!" Sherlock says impatiently.
"Hm?" John looks to Greg.
"Oh, do as he says." Greg concedes. "Help yourself." He walks to the door opens it and walks out. "Anderson, keep everyone out for a couple of minutes."
Kat starts to walk out of the door behind Greg when Sherlock speaks up.
"Not you, Kat." Sherlock says a little sheepishly and Kat stops surprised, Greg's steps even falter a little.
"Me?" Kat questions. "You want me to stay?"
"Umm, yes, if uh, that's alright with you."
"Yeah, yeah sure." Kat nods and Greg leaves the room fully.
"Well?" Sherlock asks John.
"What am I doing here?" Dr. Watson asks Sherlock in a low voice.
"Helping me make a point."
"I'm supposed to help you pay the rent."
"This is more fun."
"Fun?" John replies incredulously. "There's a woman lying dead."
"Perfectly sound analysis, but I was hoping you'd go deeper." Sherlock jokes seriously and Kat coughs to cover up her laugh. Sherlock turns to her slightly confused. People don't usually find him funny, yet she did. Another mystery for him to solve.
~~~~~~~~~
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