After a taxi ride, they are outside a block of flats and Sherlock presses the door buzzer marked ‘Van Coon’. Releasing it, he looks into the security camera above the buzzers, waits a couple of seconds, then presses the buzzer again. There’s no response.
"So what do we do now? Sit here and wait for him to come back?" John asked.
"He's dead." Vaness said.
"Wait what?" John asked.
"Well, I couldn't have done anything to prevent it, so I didn't. And telling you now won't change anything." Vaness explained.
"We need to go inside." Sherlock said.
Sherlock has looked at the number of buzzers on the wall and steps back to look up the front of the building, presumably calculating the layout of the flats inside. He comes back to the wall and looks at John triumphantly.
"Just moved in." Sherlock said, pointing to the buzzer which has a handwritten label Wintle written on paper.
"What?" John asked.
"The floor above. New label." Sherlock explained.
"Could have just replaced it." John said rationally.
Sherlock presses that buzzer, then looks at John again.
"Ask her if I'm right." Sherlock said nodding to Vaness.
"He's right." She simply said.
Sherlock grinned as a woman’s voice comes over the intercom.
"Hello?" Ms. Wintle said.
Sherlock turns to the camera and smiles, Vaness didn't like that smile, it was fake.
"Hi! Um, I live in the flat just below you. I-I don’t think we’ve met." Sherlock said.
He grins prettily into the camera.
"No, well, uh, I’ve just moved in." Ms. Wintle said.
Sherlock turns to throw a brief ‘told you so’ glance at John, and Vaness looked at John expectantly, Sherlock then turns back to the camera. John sighs and gave Vaness the 'I believe you now' look.
"Actually, I’ve just locked my keys in my flat." He grimaces and bites his lip plaintively. It was cute Vaness admitted to herself.
"D’you want me to buzz you in?" Asked Ms. Wintle.
"Yeah. And can I use your balcony?" Sherlock said abruptly and Vaness chuckled silently.
"What?" Ms. Wintle asked, thinking she heard wrong.
Not long afterwards, Sherlock has flirted his way into the lucky Ms Wintle’s flat and is standing on her balcony.
John and Vaness was left outside as Sherlock was the only one buzzed in by Ms. Wintle. They stood quietly for a minute when John spoke, "So you really are..." he trailed off.
"Yes." Vaness said smiling. "I know it's hard to think about, much less live through," she muttered the last part to herself, "but I really am."
"I have a lot of question, but for now, why hasn't Sherlock buzzed us in yet?" John asked pointing to the door that remain closed.
Vaness chuckled then said, "Told you Van Coon's dead, he's investigating there."
"Oh," John said, "how did Van Coon died?" He finally asked.
"Murdered but it will look like suicide. You know what, when Sherlock asks you if he should go on explaining here's what you'll say..." Vaness said grinning.
Not a while later, they walk inside and finds a man in a suit and overcoat lying on his back on the bed, dead. There is a pistol on the floor, and the man has a small bullet hole in his right temple. John has a look on his face like he's waiting for Sherlock to explain. Vaness stayed beside John, not wanting to restrict Sherlock.
Later, the police have been called and a photographer is taking pictures of Van Coon’s body lying on the bed. A forensics officer is dusting for fingerprints on the nearby mirror, and distant voices suggest that other forensics officers are elsewhere in the flat. Sherlock has taken off his coat and is in the bedroom putting on a pair of latex gloves. John stands beside him while Vaness stood behind them.
"It does look like suicide." John said.
"We don’t know that it was suicide." Sherlock said.
"The door was locked from the inside, so it looks like suicide. But Vaness said it's not." John said.
"You believe her now?" Sherlock asked, surprised as he looked at John.
"Yes, hard not to." John said.
Sherlock has squatted down by a suitcase on the floor near the bed and has opened the lid and is looking at the contents.
"Been away three days, judging by the laundry." He said as he sees that there’s a deep indentation in the clothing inside the case, then straightens up and looks at John then at Vaness.
"Look at the case. There was something tightly packed inside it." He said.
"Thanks – I’ll take your word for it." John said.
"Problem?" Sherlock asked. Vaness chuckled at them and shook her head.
"Yeah, I’m not desperate to root around some bloke’s dirty underwear." John said indignantly.
Sherlock walk towards the foot of the bed.
"Those symbols at the bank – the graffiti. Why were they put there?" He as asks John then looked at Vaness expecting her to answer.
"What, some sort of code?" John asks.
"Obviously." Sherlock said then gave Vaness a questioning look.
"I don't think you'd want me to spoil you of the answers." Vaness said.
As Sherlock looked closely at Van Coon’s legs – or possibly his shoes – he moves up and carefully opens the man’s jacket to look at his inside pockets.
"Why were they painted? If you want to communicate, why not use e-mail?" He asked John.
"Well, maybe he wasn’t answering." John guessed.
"Oh good. You follow." Sherlock said.
"No."
Sherlock throws him a look before moving on to examine Van Coon’s hands.
"The message was a threat." Vaness finally said and Sherlock smirked.
Sherlock gently prises open Van Coon’s mouth and pulls out a small black origami flower from inside. Air hisses out from the dead man’s lungs.
"Yes. He was being threatened." Sherlock said.
John looked closely at the paper flower as Sherlock lifts an evidence bag to put the paper into.
The man – a plain clothed police officer who looks young walks into the bedroom. Sherlock turns and walks towards him.
But before Sherlock could greet him, Vaness raced her to it. She didn't want their pride over this matter.
"Detective Inspector, nice to meet you." Vaness said with her charming smile. She moved to shake his hand and was surprised when he accepted.
"Dimmock, Detective Inspector Dimmock." The man introduced. The frown on the man's face was gone, but the moment Sherlock spoke it came back.
"Sherlock Holmes. Where's Lestrade is he on his way?" He introduced himself.
"Yeah, I know who you are; and I’d prefer it if you didn’t tamper with any of the evidence. Lestrade's busy. I’m in charge." D.I. Dimmock said.
Sherlock frowns and handed him the evidence. Dimmock walks out of the room. They follow him into the living room where he hands the bag to one of the forensics team.
"We’re obviously looking at a suicide." Dimmock said.
Sherlock takes off the latex gloves and turns back to him.
"Wrong. If you actually look closely at all facts maybe you wouldn't be so wrong." He turns to Dimmock.
"You’ve got a solution that you like, but you’re choosing to ignore anything you see that doesn’t comply with it." He continued.
Vaness walks straight at John and whispered, "Memorised your lines?"
"Oh yes." John said grinning.
"Like?" Dimmock asked Sherlock.
"The wound was on the right side of his head." Sherlock said.
"And?" Dimmock asked.
"Van Coon was left-handed." He goes into an elaborate mime as he demonstrates his point, pretending to try and point a gun to his right temple with his left hand. "Requires quite a bit of contortion."
"Left-handed?" Dimmock asked confused.
"Drum roll please..." Vaness whispered to John.
"Oh, I’m amazed you didn’t notice. All you have to do is look around this flat." Sherlock said sarcastically.
"Coffee table on the left-hand side; coffee mug handle pointing to the left. Power sockets: habitually used the ones on the left. Pen and paper on the left-hand side of the phone because he picked it up with his right and took down messages with his left. D’you want me to go on?" He asked John and was surprised as John answered.
"I know there’s a knife on the breadboard with butter on the right side of the blade because he used it with his left. We saw Sherlock." John said seriously but inside he was laughing at the look on Sherlock's face.
"You didn't. She just told you that." Sherlock frowned. He turns to Dimmock with an impatient look on his face.
"It’s highly unlikely that a left-handed man would shoot himself in the right side of his head." Sherlock said.
"Conclusion: someone broke in here and murdered him. Only explanation of all the facts." Sherlock concluded.
"But the gun: why..." Dimmock looked confused and Sherlock looked exasperated.
"He was waiting for the killer. He’d been threatened. There was a warning at the bank." Vaness said softly answering before Sherlock. Dimmock seemed to believe her more.
"He fired a shot when his attacker came in." Sherlock said.
"And the bullet?" Dimmock asked looking at Vaness.
"Went through the open window." Sherlock answered.
"Oh, come on! What are the chances of that?!" He said.
"Wait until you get the ballistics report. The bullet in his brain wasn’t fired from his gun. I guarantee it." Sherlock said.
He looked like he really didn't like explaining to someone who doesn't understand him, much less believe him.
"But if his door was locked from the inside, how did the killer get in?" Dimmock asked.
"Good! You’re finally asking the right questions." Sherlock said condescendingly.
He turns and flounces out. John looks round at Dimmock and then points apologetically towards the departing drama queen before following him. Vaness looked at Dimmock then said, "Just believe him." She then followed after the two.
RESTAURANT.
Sebastian is having lunch with some clients or work colleagues. Vaness didn't care which. They walked over to the table, Sherlock leading the way.
"It was a threat. That’s what the graffiti meant." Sherlock announces.
"I’m kind of in a meeting. Can you make an appointment with my secretary?" Sebastian asked.
"I don’t think this can wait. Sorry, Sebastian. One of your traders – someone who worked in your office – was killed." Sherlock said.
"What?" Sebastian asked surprised.
"Van Coon. The police are at his flat." John said.
"Killed?" Sebastian said still shocked.
"Sorry to interfere with everyone’s digestion. Still wanna make an appointment? Would, maybe, nine o’clock at Scotland Yard suit?" Sherlock said sarcastically.
Shortly afterwards, Sebastian and the boys have relocated to the toilets in the restaurant. Vaness stayed outside of the restaurant. She really needed a plan. She can't go on making decisions as things happen.
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Because I'm lazy...
I used Transcript by Ariane DeVere aka Callie Sullivan. For the some parts of this. And will use it again on the next chapter likely for the original dialogue.
https://arianedevere.livejournal.com/45111.html