Text, Context and Subtext - Part 3 - Sherlock/Hawaii 5-O crossover
Title: Text, Context and Sub-text Continued - 3/?
Author: shao_fu
Rating: PG-13 for language and some sexual references, nothing too explicit
Word Count: 3,030
Pairings: Danny/Steve; Sherlock/John; Danny/John friendship
Disclaimer: Don't own them, no harm intended, no profit made etc.
Warnings: Slash; m/m sex; angst; h/c - major spoilers for Season 2 of Sherlock!
Spoilers: References to seasons 1 & 2 of H5O and Season 1 and 2 of Sherlock
Summary: John turns to Danny and Steve for help and finds himself helping them with a case instead.
Notes: A sort of sequel to Text, Context and Sub-text
A massive jump forward in time to deal with the events of The Reichenbach Fall. I may get around to the other episodes at some point but this one just demanded to be written. I have assumed a time line and, as with the end of The Great Game, have written an ending which is probably far from the brilliance of Moffatt and Gatiss but will have to do until Sherlock returns for a third season!
Many thanks as always to the lovely sharpiesgal for the beta.
Part 1
Part 2
“Who’s Irene Adler?” Steve asked.
John took a deep breath and told them a carefully censored version of the story of ‘the woman’. He finished by saying,
“I think we can all agree that the only conclusion to draw is obvious: Wo Fat is trying to take over Moriarty’s criminal network, if he hasn’t already done so. I’m afraid I don’t recognize the other man. I’m assuming that’s Moran but I know nothing about him.”
“He’s associated with Mrs. Norton - I mean Irene Adler - and she appears to have introduced him to Wo Fat but that’s not confirmed,” Chin replied. “They arrived in Hawaii on the same day but separate flights and they’ve disappeared off the radar since then. We had no reason to watch them and it’s only because we maintain routine surveillance on Wo Fat that we happened to get these photographs soon after he arrived back in the country. That was a week ago and the blackmail threats started soon afterwards.”
“I’m pretty sure that has a lot to do with Irene Adler,” John said. “It has her M.O. written all over it, although I wouldn’t have thought she would have demanded money. She usually wants influence or to be able to call in a favour, rather than resort to straight blackmail. Perhaps Moran is running this particular operation and she just provided the information.”
“Wo Fat is running the operation, have no doubt of that,” Steve replied. “He may not be hands on but he’s behind this somehow.”
“Moriarty was never hands on either,” John said. “He never wanted to get his hands dirty or leave a trail that would lead back to him. Sherlock described him as a spider in the centre of a criminal web and, now that he’s dead, it looks like Wo Fat wants the position. But it would be unwise to count out Irene - she could be a spider, too - a black widow. Wo Fat and Moran better watch out; they could end up being eaten alive!”
“We need to find out more about Moran,” Danny added. “He’s the complete unknown in this equation.”
“Yes, that’s a good next step,” Steve agreed. “Chin, Kono and Lori take Moran; Danny, John and I will see what we can find out about Irene Adler’s connection to him and Wo Fat.”
John chewed his lip for a second and then nodded as if coming to a decision.
“I need to make a phone call,” John said. “If Irene Adler knew Wo Fat in the past, it would have been on her old camera phone. If it was, Mycroft will know. There might be something about Moran as well. One thing I do know, he’s not going to be very happy to discover she is alive.” He paused and looked at Steve. “Since it’s Mycroft, I’m afraid this is going to have to be confidential.”
“Go ahead,” Steve said. “Use my office if you like.” John nodded and went off to make his call. Danny and Steve watched from a distance, guessing from John’s body language how the conversation was going. It didn’t last long and John came back to the computer with a smirk on his face.
“Mycroft is sending the relevant information to me,” he said. “He is - how shall I put it? - somewhat aggravated to hear about Ms. Adler. He was the one who told us she was dead and he hates to be proved wrong.”
“So there is information about Wo Fat and Moran?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know yet. Mycroft is going to go through the files and send me anything relevant. He won’t send everything but that’s understandable; the information she had could wreak havoc if it fell into the wrong hands.”
“So does this mean she still has access to all of it?” Steve asked.
“No, I’m sure she doesn’t,” John answered. “The information on that phone was unique and she lost it when Sherlock figured out the password. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t acquired more; she’s had a year to start over after all.”
“But who on earth is she?” Danny asked. “And how does she get hold of this sort of information?”
John realized he was going to have to tell the whole story but Steve forestalled him. He had been conducting a search on the computer and Irene’s new website suddenly popped up on the big screen. Danny blinked and then he went a delicate shade of pink as Steve clicked on ‘Enter’ and the content of the website became more obvious. John knew what to expect and he was amused to see Danny and Steve’s reactions. Danny swallowed visibly and said,
“Well, that explains the blackmail material.” Steve was staring at the screen, looking intrigued.
“So she’s a dominatrix, is she?” he said. “You’re right, Danny, that’s where she’s able to get the compromising photographs, at least. Can we use this against her, do you think?”
“Unwise,” John said before Danny could do more than splutter. “At least, not until we have the blackmail material safely in our possession.”
An hour or so later, John received Mycroft’s email and quickly opened it, Danny and Steve leaning over his shoulder to read what he had said.
‘Dear John, I thought you had gone on vacation for some well-deserved R&R! I am still somewhat confused by your request but have attached what information I could discreetly forward to you. Please treat it with the utmost confidentiality. I would advise you to stay far away from Ms. Adler but I am not in the habit of wasting my breath. I have no intention of pursuing her at this time but, should your investigation lead to information of interest to me, I trust you will share. Mycroft’
“That was quick,” John commented as he opened the first of the attachments. This was a report on Irene’s ‘death’ and John did no more than save it for the time being. “We can get to that later,” he explained, “but we know she’s alive so it’s hardly relevant.”
The second attachment was of much greater interest, being a detailed summary of Moran’s connection to Moriarty. It appeared that Moran was Moriarty’s natural successor; he had certainly been his right-hand man. John made a rude noise when he read that Moran was a sniper; both he and Sherlock had been at the other end of his laser sights on more than one occasion. John made a mental note to have a word or two with Moran when they caught him. He had absolutely no doubt that they would.
The final attachment was fairly short and not terribly helpful but indicated that Moran had introduced Irene to Wo Fat, not the other way round as they had assumed. The reason for the introduction was unclear at first but some of Irene’s notes regarding Wo Fat made John’s hair stand on end.
“Oh my god!” he exclaimed. “Wo Fat is or was one of her clients!”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Steve said. “Maybe Moran is playing a deep game with Wo Fat to see who takes over Moriarty’s network.”
“Makes sense,” Danny commented. “I’d say they were pretty evenly matched, wouldn’t you?”
“Irene’s the wild card,” John added. “She’ll side with whoever can serve her purposes best; although what those purposes are is anybody’s guess.”
Chin and Kono joined them at this point and were brought up to speed by Steve. Kono then took over and added what they had found to the information on Moran.
“He’s ex-SAS,” she said. “A qualified sniper who saw service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was dishonourably discharged for his part in a drug smuggling ring and seems to have joined Moriarty soon afterwards. There’s no information on how the two of them met but he’s been involved in some unsavoury activities over the last two years. There’s never been enough evidence to bring him to trial as witnesses have a habit of disappearing. He was definitely Moriarty’s lieutenant and it would be logical for him to take over when Moriarty died.”
“His connection with Wo Fat could be to do with the drug smuggling,” Lori mused.
“That’s it!” John exclaimed and began typing rapidly on his laptop.
“What’s it?” Danny asked. “John, what are you thinking?”
“The case,” John said distractedly. “The case we worked with you last year. We didn’t get Wo Fat or Moriarty but the captain of the freighter gave a statement and - here it is - he kept talking about Moriarty in the plural. We thought at the time that it was just his poor English but what if he meant there was more than one? What if Moran had been there, too?”
“Moran was on the dock?” Steve asked.
“How else did Moriarty and Wo Fat escape?” John demanded. “We knew nothing about Moran at the time but he could have been there. Sherlock was targeted by a sniper and we caught the man we thought it was but it could have been Moran all along.”
“It’s going to be hard to prove but it makes a lot of sense,” Danny said. “Wo Fat must have met Moran then if not before, which makes the involvement of this Adler woman even more confusing.”
“And it still doesn’t explain the blackmailing scheme,” Chin added. “Why draw attention to themselves in such a fashion?”
They all looked at each other but no-one could come up with a plausible theory.
“Let’s take a short break,” Steve said. “We need to think this through and follow up on any leads that occur to us. And we need to locate Moran and Ms. Adler, get them under surveillance. If they are behind the blackmail, then we need to get sufficient evidence to be able to arrest them and without any of this becoming public. If we can tie Wo Fat to the blackmail, too, then that’s an added bonus.”
~
John was sitting at a desk gazing blankly at his laptop’s screensaver. The team had all dispersed to their own offices to start the search for Moran and ‘Mrs. Norton’, checking hotels, all ports of exit, contacting informants, doing the regular police work to track down suspects. John was mentally reviewing the information, puzzling over the details. What would Sherlock do? Time and again, the thought rose to the surface of his mind but the answer eluded him. “Think, John, think!” Sherlock’s voice prompted him. “As always, you see but do not observe.”
And then it came to him. He got up and knocked on the door of Steve’s office. Steve was on the phone but waved him in. He hung up and John said,
“How did you find out about the blackmail?”
“The Governor called me about it. There had been an anonymous tip and further enquiries revealed the extent of it.”
“And there were no leads to the source?” John asked.
“We assumed it was one of the victims trying to be discreet. Why? Where are you going with this?”
“I’m just following up on a thought; it might be nothing. How was the tip given? A phone call, a note, what?”
“It was a call to the Governor’s office. We tried to trace it but without success.” John frowned.
“Was it recorded? Do we know if it was a man or a woman?”
“I have the recording here but the caller used a voice changer so we couldn’t i.d. them.” Steve led the way back to the computer table and brought up the recording. The voice was unrecognizable, even after the message had been scrubbed, but the content made John sit up and take notice:
‘You should know that someone has information about a lot of powerful people; damaging information. Someone wants to become very rich, very quick. You should look close to home, people at the top, people who have something to hide. People who wouldn’t want the world to know what they like.’
“It couldn’t possibly be her!” John exclaimed. “Why would she tip you off?”
“Her?” Steve asked. “You mean Irene Adler? Why would you think it was her?”
“I might be wrong but it’s too much of a coincidence. If it’s not her then it’s someone who knows her very well.”
“John,” Steve said, “you’re not making sense. Why do you think the voice belongs to Irene Adler?”
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t make the call,” John answered, “it sounds more like a man’s voice; maybe Moran? The voice isn’t important, the message is and she must have something to do with it. She had a little catch phrase she used all the time. When Sherlock and I questioned her she said it a couple of times: ‘I know so-and-so; well, I know what he likes’. I don’t believe in coincidence so it’s either her behind the tip or someone who wants us to think so.”
“Great! That’s the first concrete clue we’ve discovered. Now we need to find her and question her.”
Steve called the team together and explained John’s theory. So far, they hadn’t been able to trace either Moran or Norton/Adler but the realization that they were on the right track added extra incentive. Instead of hoping Moran and Norton were the people behind the blackmailing, based solely on their meetings with Wo Fat shortly before the blackmailing began, now, thanks to John, they knew this was more than a hunch. And knowing that Mrs. Norton was Irene Adler and her history also helped considerably. Steve smiled with satisfaction as he spelled it all out and Danny elbowed him sharply.
“Ow, what was that for?” he demanded, rubbing his side.
“You’re taking all the credit,” Danny said. “John has cracked this case wide open and it was my idea to bring him here, so why are you looking so damn smug?”
“It was my idea to ask him about the case,” Steve protested. Danny just rolled his eyes. John, meanwhile, had missed this exchange, although Chin, Kono and Lori were highly amused. John was deep in thought again and Steve shooed everyone away to continue the search for the suspects. He perched on the side of a desk and waited for John to unravel the next step.
John was still missing something, he was sure of it. He could understand Wo Fat blackmailing politicians and the like; he could even hazard a guess as to Moran’s motivation but Irene Adler didn’t fit into the picture. She had probably met Moran through Moriarty and definitely met Wo Fat through Moran but her connection to Wo Fat was different. If he really was a client - and John had no reason to doubt the information Mycroft had sent him - then she had the advantage over him. Why then was she working with the two of them? And why would she have tipped off the authorities?
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Sherlock’s favourite saying surfaced and John let it settle into his mind. What about this situation was impossible? John looked at the facts from every angle and he kept coming back to Irene’s motivation. Just why was she taking the risk of being involved with Moran and Wo Fat? What did she have to gain? If they weren’t already locked in a power struggle to take over Moriarty’s organisation, then they soon would be. Providing blackmail material so that either of them could extract money from Hawaii’s elite was not what she would do. She would use the information she had to ‘make her way in the world’ but she wouldn’t just volunteer her power base to men she didn’t really know and certainly didn’t trust. So what was she playing at? It was a dangerous game, whatever it was. If Wo Fat and Moran didn’t form an alliance, which was an unlikely scenario, then they would be on opposite sides and Irene would be crushed between them. John knew she was far cleverer than that so what was her game plan? Could she outwit these two titans of the criminal world? Of course she could; she had outwitted Sherlock after all. She wouldn’t be crushed between them; she would wait on the sidelines while they destroyed each other!
Improbable, yes, but not impossible: almost as improbable as her tipping off the authorities! John chewed on his lip and debated about his theory. Either Irene had called or someone who knew her extremely well had done so. If it was Irene, she was risking arrest to alert the police to Moran and Wo Fat’s activities and, despite her ability to wheel and deal, John didn’t think she would go that far. If it was someone else who wanted to stop Wo Fat and Moran, then they had successfully concentrated the 5-O task force’s considerable resources on the problem and used Irene Adler’s presence to do so: someone who knew Irene very well, how she thought, what she would do, how she would protect herself. John gasped as the obvious answer, however improbable, came to him.
“John?” Steve asked, startled, as John leapt to his feet.
“We have to talk to Irene Adler,” John said. “No, I have to talk to her. Where the hell is she hiding?”
“We’ve got everybody looking for her and Moran,” Steve said, trying to soothe John’s obvious agitation. “We’ll find something soon, I’m sure.”
“It’s absolutely critical I talk to her first,” John said. “And we should avoid tipping off Moran if we do find her; or her if we find Moran first. I don’t want them talking to each other.”
“Are you going to explain this any time soon?” Danny asked as he joined the conversation.
“It’s just a theory,” John said, backpedalling rapidly. “I have an idea but it’s way out there; it’s so improbable, I can scarcely believe it myself. Once I talk to Irene, I’ll know more and then I’ll explain.”
“But - ?” Steve started to ask another question and Danny interrupted, speaking over him.
“That’s fine, John, we’ll wait until you have it all worked out. You haven’t steered us wrong yet. I came to tell you, we have a lead."
Author: shao_fu
Rating: PG-13 for language and some sexual references, nothing too explicit
Word Count: 3,030
Pairings: Danny/Steve; Sherlock/John; Danny/John friendship
Disclaimer: Don't own them, no harm intended, no profit made etc.
Warnings: Slash; m/m sex; angst; h/c - major spoilers for Season 2 of Sherlock!
Spoilers: References to seasons 1 & 2 of H5O and Season 1 and 2 of Sherlock
Summary: John turns to Danny and Steve for help and finds himself helping them with a case instead.
Notes: A sort of sequel to Text, Context and Sub-text
A massive jump forward in time to deal with the events of The Reichenbach Fall. I may get around to the other episodes at some point but this one just demanded to be written. I have assumed a time line and, as with the end of The Great Game, have written an ending which is probably far from the brilliance of Moffatt and Gatiss but will have to do until Sherlock returns for a third season!
Many thanks as always to the lovely sharpiesgal for the beta.
Part 1
Part 2
“Who’s Irene Adler?” Steve asked.
John took a deep breath and told them a carefully censored version of the story of ‘the woman’. He finished by saying,
“I think we can all agree that the only conclusion to draw is obvious: Wo Fat is trying to take over Moriarty’s criminal network, if he hasn’t already done so. I’m afraid I don’t recognize the other man. I’m assuming that’s Moran but I know nothing about him.”
“He’s associated with Mrs. Norton - I mean Irene Adler - and she appears to have introduced him to Wo Fat but that’s not confirmed,” Chin replied. “They arrived in Hawaii on the same day but separate flights and they’ve disappeared off the radar since then. We had no reason to watch them and it’s only because we maintain routine surveillance on Wo Fat that we happened to get these photographs soon after he arrived back in the country. That was a week ago and the blackmail threats started soon afterwards.”
“I’m pretty sure that has a lot to do with Irene Adler,” John said. “It has her M.O. written all over it, although I wouldn’t have thought she would have demanded money. She usually wants influence or to be able to call in a favour, rather than resort to straight blackmail. Perhaps Moran is running this particular operation and she just provided the information.”
“Wo Fat is running the operation, have no doubt of that,” Steve replied. “He may not be hands on but he’s behind this somehow.”
“Moriarty was never hands on either,” John said. “He never wanted to get his hands dirty or leave a trail that would lead back to him. Sherlock described him as a spider in the centre of a criminal web and, now that he’s dead, it looks like Wo Fat wants the position. But it would be unwise to count out Irene - she could be a spider, too - a black widow. Wo Fat and Moran better watch out; they could end up being eaten alive!”
“We need to find out more about Moran,” Danny added. “He’s the complete unknown in this equation.”
“Yes, that’s a good next step,” Steve agreed. “Chin, Kono and Lori take Moran; Danny, John and I will see what we can find out about Irene Adler’s connection to him and Wo Fat.”
John chewed his lip for a second and then nodded as if coming to a decision.
“I need to make a phone call,” John said. “If Irene Adler knew Wo Fat in the past, it would have been on her old camera phone. If it was, Mycroft will know. There might be something about Moran as well. One thing I do know, he’s not going to be very happy to discover she is alive.” He paused and looked at Steve. “Since it’s Mycroft, I’m afraid this is going to have to be confidential.”
“Go ahead,” Steve said. “Use my office if you like.” John nodded and went off to make his call. Danny and Steve watched from a distance, guessing from John’s body language how the conversation was going. It didn’t last long and John came back to the computer with a smirk on his face.
“Mycroft is sending the relevant information to me,” he said. “He is - how shall I put it? - somewhat aggravated to hear about Ms. Adler. He was the one who told us she was dead and he hates to be proved wrong.”
“So there is information about Wo Fat and Moran?” Danny asked.
“I don’t know yet. Mycroft is going to go through the files and send me anything relevant. He won’t send everything but that’s understandable; the information she had could wreak havoc if it fell into the wrong hands.”
“So does this mean she still has access to all of it?” Steve asked.
“No, I’m sure she doesn’t,” John answered. “The information on that phone was unique and she lost it when Sherlock figured out the password. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t acquired more; she’s had a year to start over after all.”
“But who on earth is she?” Danny asked. “And how does she get hold of this sort of information?”
John realized he was going to have to tell the whole story but Steve forestalled him. He had been conducting a search on the computer and Irene’s new website suddenly popped up on the big screen. Danny blinked and then he went a delicate shade of pink as Steve clicked on ‘Enter’ and the content of the website became more obvious. John knew what to expect and he was amused to see Danny and Steve’s reactions. Danny swallowed visibly and said,
“Well, that explains the blackmail material.” Steve was staring at the screen, looking intrigued.
“So she’s a dominatrix, is she?” he said. “You’re right, Danny, that’s where she’s able to get the compromising photographs, at least. Can we use this against her, do you think?”
“Unwise,” John said before Danny could do more than splutter. “At least, not until we have the blackmail material safely in our possession.”
An hour or so later, John received Mycroft’s email and quickly opened it, Danny and Steve leaning over his shoulder to read what he had said.
‘Dear John, I thought you had gone on vacation for some well-deserved R&R! I am still somewhat confused by your request but have attached what information I could discreetly forward to you. Please treat it with the utmost confidentiality. I would advise you to stay far away from Ms. Adler but I am not in the habit of wasting my breath. I have no intention of pursuing her at this time but, should your investigation lead to information of interest to me, I trust you will share. Mycroft’
“That was quick,” John commented as he opened the first of the attachments. This was a report on Irene’s ‘death’ and John did no more than save it for the time being. “We can get to that later,” he explained, “but we know she’s alive so it’s hardly relevant.”
The second attachment was of much greater interest, being a detailed summary of Moran’s connection to Moriarty. It appeared that Moran was Moriarty’s natural successor; he had certainly been his right-hand man. John made a rude noise when he read that Moran was a sniper; both he and Sherlock had been at the other end of his laser sights on more than one occasion. John made a mental note to have a word or two with Moran when they caught him. He had absolutely no doubt that they would.
The final attachment was fairly short and not terribly helpful but indicated that Moran had introduced Irene to Wo Fat, not the other way round as they had assumed. The reason for the introduction was unclear at first but some of Irene’s notes regarding Wo Fat made John’s hair stand on end.
“Oh my god!” he exclaimed. “Wo Fat is or was one of her clients!”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Steve said. “Maybe Moran is playing a deep game with Wo Fat to see who takes over Moriarty’s network.”
“Makes sense,” Danny commented. “I’d say they were pretty evenly matched, wouldn’t you?”
“Irene’s the wild card,” John added. “She’ll side with whoever can serve her purposes best; although what those purposes are is anybody’s guess.”
Chin and Kono joined them at this point and were brought up to speed by Steve. Kono then took over and added what they had found to the information on Moran.
“He’s ex-SAS,” she said. “A qualified sniper who saw service in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was dishonourably discharged for his part in a drug smuggling ring and seems to have joined Moriarty soon afterwards. There’s no information on how the two of them met but he’s been involved in some unsavoury activities over the last two years. There’s never been enough evidence to bring him to trial as witnesses have a habit of disappearing. He was definitely Moriarty’s lieutenant and it would be logical for him to take over when Moriarty died.”
“His connection with Wo Fat could be to do with the drug smuggling,” Lori mused.
“That’s it!” John exclaimed and began typing rapidly on his laptop.
“What’s it?” Danny asked. “John, what are you thinking?”
“The case,” John said distractedly. “The case we worked with you last year. We didn’t get Wo Fat or Moriarty but the captain of the freighter gave a statement and - here it is - he kept talking about Moriarty in the plural. We thought at the time that it was just his poor English but what if he meant there was more than one? What if Moran had been there, too?”
“Moran was on the dock?” Steve asked.
“How else did Moriarty and Wo Fat escape?” John demanded. “We knew nothing about Moran at the time but he could have been there. Sherlock was targeted by a sniper and we caught the man we thought it was but it could have been Moran all along.”
“It’s going to be hard to prove but it makes a lot of sense,” Danny said. “Wo Fat must have met Moran then if not before, which makes the involvement of this Adler woman even more confusing.”
“And it still doesn’t explain the blackmailing scheme,” Chin added. “Why draw attention to themselves in such a fashion?”
They all looked at each other but no-one could come up with a plausible theory.
“Let’s take a short break,” Steve said. “We need to think this through and follow up on any leads that occur to us. And we need to locate Moran and Ms. Adler, get them under surveillance. If they are behind the blackmail, then we need to get sufficient evidence to be able to arrest them and without any of this becoming public. If we can tie Wo Fat to the blackmail, too, then that’s an added bonus.”
~
John was sitting at a desk gazing blankly at his laptop’s screensaver. The team had all dispersed to their own offices to start the search for Moran and ‘Mrs. Norton’, checking hotels, all ports of exit, contacting informants, doing the regular police work to track down suspects. John was mentally reviewing the information, puzzling over the details. What would Sherlock do? Time and again, the thought rose to the surface of his mind but the answer eluded him. “Think, John, think!” Sherlock’s voice prompted him. “As always, you see but do not observe.”
And then it came to him. He got up and knocked on the door of Steve’s office. Steve was on the phone but waved him in. He hung up and John said,
“How did you find out about the blackmail?”
“The Governor called me about it. There had been an anonymous tip and further enquiries revealed the extent of it.”
“And there were no leads to the source?” John asked.
“We assumed it was one of the victims trying to be discreet. Why? Where are you going with this?”
“I’m just following up on a thought; it might be nothing. How was the tip given? A phone call, a note, what?”
“It was a call to the Governor’s office. We tried to trace it but without success.” John frowned.
“Was it recorded? Do we know if it was a man or a woman?”
“I have the recording here but the caller used a voice changer so we couldn’t i.d. them.” Steve led the way back to the computer table and brought up the recording. The voice was unrecognizable, even after the message had been scrubbed, but the content made John sit up and take notice:
‘You should know that someone has information about a lot of powerful people; damaging information. Someone wants to become very rich, very quick. You should look close to home, people at the top, people who have something to hide. People who wouldn’t want the world to know what they like.’
“It couldn’t possibly be her!” John exclaimed. “Why would she tip you off?”
“Her?” Steve asked. “You mean Irene Adler? Why would you think it was her?”
“I might be wrong but it’s too much of a coincidence. If it’s not her then it’s someone who knows her very well.”
“John,” Steve said, “you’re not making sense. Why do you think the voice belongs to Irene Adler?”
“I’m pretty sure she didn’t make the call,” John answered, “it sounds more like a man’s voice; maybe Moran? The voice isn’t important, the message is and she must have something to do with it. She had a little catch phrase she used all the time. When Sherlock and I questioned her she said it a couple of times: ‘I know so-and-so; well, I know what he likes’. I don’t believe in coincidence so it’s either her behind the tip or someone who wants us to think so.”
“Great! That’s the first concrete clue we’ve discovered. Now we need to find her and question her.”
Steve called the team together and explained John’s theory. So far, they hadn’t been able to trace either Moran or Norton/Adler but the realization that they were on the right track added extra incentive. Instead of hoping Moran and Norton were the people behind the blackmailing, based solely on their meetings with Wo Fat shortly before the blackmailing began, now, thanks to John, they knew this was more than a hunch. And knowing that Mrs. Norton was Irene Adler and her history also helped considerably. Steve smiled with satisfaction as he spelled it all out and Danny elbowed him sharply.
“Ow, what was that for?” he demanded, rubbing his side.
“You’re taking all the credit,” Danny said. “John has cracked this case wide open and it was my idea to bring him here, so why are you looking so damn smug?”
“It was my idea to ask him about the case,” Steve protested. Danny just rolled his eyes. John, meanwhile, had missed this exchange, although Chin, Kono and Lori were highly amused. John was deep in thought again and Steve shooed everyone away to continue the search for the suspects. He perched on the side of a desk and waited for John to unravel the next step.
John was still missing something, he was sure of it. He could understand Wo Fat blackmailing politicians and the like; he could even hazard a guess as to Moran’s motivation but Irene Adler didn’t fit into the picture. She had probably met Moran through Moriarty and definitely met Wo Fat through Moran but her connection to Wo Fat was different. If he really was a client - and John had no reason to doubt the information Mycroft had sent him - then she had the advantage over him. Why then was she working with the two of them? And why would she have tipped off the authorities?
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Sherlock’s favourite saying surfaced and John let it settle into his mind. What about this situation was impossible? John looked at the facts from every angle and he kept coming back to Irene’s motivation. Just why was she taking the risk of being involved with Moran and Wo Fat? What did she have to gain? If they weren’t already locked in a power struggle to take over Moriarty’s organisation, then they soon would be. Providing blackmail material so that either of them could extract money from Hawaii’s elite was not what she would do. She would use the information she had to ‘make her way in the world’ but she wouldn’t just volunteer her power base to men she didn’t really know and certainly didn’t trust. So what was she playing at? It was a dangerous game, whatever it was. If Wo Fat and Moran didn’t form an alliance, which was an unlikely scenario, then they would be on opposite sides and Irene would be crushed between them. John knew she was far cleverer than that so what was her game plan? Could she outwit these two titans of the criminal world? Of course she could; she had outwitted Sherlock after all. She wouldn’t be crushed between them; she would wait on the sidelines while they destroyed each other!
Improbable, yes, but not impossible: almost as improbable as her tipping off the authorities! John chewed on his lip and debated about his theory. Either Irene had called or someone who knew her extremely well had done so. If it was Irene, she was risking arrest to alert the police to Moran and Wo Fat’s activities and, despite her ability to wheel and deal, John didn’t think she would go that far. If it was someone else who wanted to stop Wo Fat and Moran, then they had successfully concentrated the 5-O task force’s considerable resources on the problem and used Irene Adler’s presence to do so: someone who knew Irene very well, how she thought, what she would do, how she would protect herself. John gasped as the obvious answer, however improbable, came to him.
“John?” Steve asked, startled, as John leapt to his feet.
“We have to talk to Irene Adler,” John said. “No, I have to talk to her. Where the hell is she hiding?”
“We’ve got everybody looking for her and Moran,” Steve said, trying to soothe John’s obvious agitation. “We’ll find something soon, I’m sure.”
“It’s absolutely critical I talk to her first,” John said. “And we should avoid tipping off Moran if we do find her; or her if we find Moran first. I don’t want them talking to each other.”
“Are you going to explain this any time soon?” Danny asked as he joined the conversation.
“It’s just a theory,” John said, backpedalling rapidly. “I have an idea but it’s way out there; it’s so improbable, I can scarcely believe it myself. Once I talk to Irene, I’ll know more and then I’ll explain.”
“But - ?” Steve started to ask another question and Danny interrupted, speaking over him.
“That’s fine, John, we’ll wait until you have it all worked out. You haven’t steered us wrong yet. I came to tell you, we have a lead."