Sans Voir -- Middlegame I
Opening
“You solved Lestrade’s case, then?”
John was following Sherlock up the steps to the flat, carrying the bag of takeaway.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, it’s only been two hours and you’re back for tea.”
“Brilliant observation, Doctor. Would you like to tell me the color of the coat I’m wearing as well?”
“It didn’t go well, then.”
“Of course it went well. It took me minutes to see what Lestrade and his dimwits could not. I examined the corpse, and tomorrow morning I am going to Regent’s Park to confirm my deductions.”
“Regent’s Park?”
“Yes. There was a dead body there.”
“Where I run every day!?”
“Lucky for you, you don’t bring a dog.”
“Just tell me what happened!”
“Are you making tea?”
“Yes.”
“The police have found a body buried in Regent’s Park, about thirty-five meters from the edge of the lake. You’ve walked past it every day since you moved here. It’s really remarkable how blind you people are. It’s almost as if you’re trying to be…”
“Okay, okay. Get on with it.”
“Yesterday, right around the time of your morning stroll…”
“Run.”
“During your morning stroll, a Miss Alison Waite’s West Highland Terrier ran off the path and started digging furiously until he unearthed a human hand. The body was identified as that of a man most recently known as Randall Osterling, though he was born Roy Paul-a minor hit-man for the Russian mob, who was put under witness protection after he gave information that led to the arrest and imprisonment of six very important mobsters.”
“They got him, then.”
“Randall Osterling, formerly known as Roy Paul, was declared to be burned to death in a stolen car two years ago.”
“Identity thief, then?”
“John, you must learn how to suit your theories to your facts, not the other way around. It is just as likely to be some unfortunate enemy of Mycroft’s government whose death was used to protect Roy Paul. What is most likely, however, is that the Russian mob killed the man they were after, and the government assumed that the body was Paul’s when he disappeared at about the same time.”
“I don’t see that it’s any better than my…”
“That is because you do not observe. Once I had learned the story from Lestrade, I went to the morgue to examine the body. As I expected, there was a peculiar odor. I must go to Regent’s Park in the morning to confirm my hypothesis. I am going to my room to play my violin. I want to think in peace for a few hours.”
“Sherlock, what hypothesis?”
But Sherlock had already closed the door to his room.
John wished he had thought of some clever insult to snap at Sherlock after he flashed that bloody ID badge at the policeman in charge of the crime scene in the park. Something along the lines of “surely the world’s only consulting detective could deduce that the sergeant knew DI Lestrade quite well” might have worked, but he’d taken too long to think of it. Besides, Sherlock would have had a cutting answer. And frankly, after being dragged out of bed far too early for someone who had been kept awake until five o’clock AM by a shrieking violin, a quick trip to New Scotland Yard in handcuffs wouldn’t have made the morning that much worse. At least if it had been inconvenient for John, it would have been inconvenient for Sherlock, too.
But John’s irritation was quickly fading as he watched Sherlock whirl around the scene, mystifying all the policemen there. In fact, he was beginning to feel smug, because he had been following Sherlock to crime scenes for only three weeks, and he could already interpret much of what Sherlock was doing (looking for prints in the ground, smelling for chemicals…) better than any of the policemen. Then Sherlock reached a hand out to him without even turning to look.
“Tic Tac box.”
“What?”
“I want your Tic Tac box.”
“What? Why?”
“I need to take a sample of this dirt.”
“But… but I just bought it.”
“Get another. Hand it over.”
John tried to think as he slowly took the nearly full box out of his coat pocket. There had to be a reason that…
“You can’t use this. The mint on the container will contaminate your sample!”
“Nonsense. I’ll take that into consideration when I run my tests.”
“But-” and Sherlock had grabbed the box out of his hand and dumped them all on the ground.
“Sherlock! You could have at least let me have a few before…”
“Perfect! Take this. Get a cab. I’ll be there in two minutes.”
John looked at the box of dirt in his hand, and walked back towards the road.
“It’s exactly as I thought!”
John was beginning to get bored after three hours of trying to amuse himself while Sherlock measured and mixed and occasionally barked out an order. He wanted to go home, but it would take him over an hour if he didn’t take a cab, and Sherlock might summon him back at any moment. Besides, for all his other faults, Sherlock did generally pay the cab fare.
“What is it?”
“This is wolf urine.”
“Why…”
“People use it in America to repel animals from crops or gardens.”
“Ah.”
“But this is a particular kind. Klein Laboratories, a small venture in Idaho, has been working on a urine that will repel or attract wolves using wolf pheromones. They’ve been working on it for eight years now, but so far the only useful thing it’s done is attract a West Highland Terrier.”
“And how did you know…?”
“A case last year. Some Klein Laboratories products were being put into cheap cologne that was advertised as having wolf pheromones. A gang member from America was using it, and the scent was all over a crime scene. I thought I recognized the smell, but I had to test this chemically to be sure. Do you know that your mouth is hanging open? And you’re absolutely correct, you should try a new brand of mouthwash.”
John shook his head. “Okay. So, the American gang member…”
“No, no. That is how I recognized the scent. It was put on the dirt so that a dog would dig up the dead body. Someone wanted the body to be found.”
“By you?”
“No, by the police.”
“Oh… but you knew the chemical… so couldn’t it have been meant for you?”
“That is coincidence. You need to learn to distinguish between patterns and coincidence. It’s very important in my line of work.”
“So, who wants the police to find the body?”
“That is the question, isn’t it? But when Lestrade’s forensics experts get him the identity of the original victim, it will be someone with deep political connections, just as I said at first.”
“What do you mean Martin Mills isn’t … You know I would never call you unless I had to, Mycroft … No it isn’t!” Sherlock hung up his phone and glared at nothing in particular.
“What was that?”
“Lestrade just texted that the man who was killed in 2008 was Martin Mills. But my brother says that he has no political connections.”
“You were wrong, then?”
“No, my brother is not as omniscient as he would like to believe. I will have to look into Mills’s background myself.”
“Well, before you try and justify yourself, don’t you think you could do something more for that woman with the blackmail problem… Thomasina?”
“Theresa Brewer was involved in illegal insider trading. She’s up for promotion now, and if her employers are made aware of it, she will lose her job, and probably never be hired by a respectable firm again. But we know she did what she’s being blackmailed about. I told her that her case was of no interest to me, and don’t worry-she would never have been interested in you.”
“I wasn’t…”
“Yes you were.”
“That doesn’t change…”
Sherlock opened John’s laptop and started typing. “If you care so much, why don’t you try and do something about it? Let me think in peace.”
John made a mental note to add a password to his account, grabbed his computer, and started for his room. “I will!”
Four hours later, John thought his eyes were going to burn out of their sockets from staring at the computer screen, and he really hadn’t had any ideas better than googling. Besides, even he knew that googling “blackmail” and “insider trading” wasn’t any good. He kept trying to think of new ideas, if for no other reason than to show Sherlock that he cared about helping Theresa, but he had to admit that he was relieved when Sherlock called him downstairs.
“Mills was an identity thief.” Sherlock looked brilliantly smug.
“That’s what I said three days ago.”
“Yes, well, you had no evidence for it at the time.”
“Doesn’t make me less right, or you less wrong for thinking…”
“Actually, it does. A crime without evidence may as well not have happened. Now listen: Mills ran an internet café in central London. He collected information from his customers over the wireless network. Quite simple, really. He made a mistake when he stole Roy Paul’s identity, though, because the mob was tracking him. For that he has paid a very high price. The interesting question is who would want us to find out about him now? But that can wait until we finish this case with Hope. I am going to start looking into the case files for anything regarding this “Moriarty” figure, as well as for any connections between Scotland Yard cold case files and Hope.”
“Here, John. Take a look at these files. Tell me anything you notice.”
John picked up one of the three files that Sherlock had handed to him. Srivarsha Pradeep, age 29. He could see from the picture that she’d been strangled. He put it aside. Treating military casualties did not give him the stomach for this. Next, Alison Wright-Takashi, 47. He tried not to look at the picture, as he read the report. Also strangled. Evidence of rape. Married with two children ages ten and twelve at the time of her death. A Vice-President of Barnet-Jones Industries. Body found in a skip on Marshgate Lane… John felt as if he should know where that was. He looked at the last. Catherine Needham, age 35. Also strangled. Worked in Marketing for Harit Energy (UK). Unmarried. Body found in the carpark near her workplace in Borehamwood.
“What am I looking for?”
“Connections.”
“I don’t see any.”
“Try.”
“Well. Three women. Died in similar circumstances. That’s all I see. They’re different ages, different races, even, so it doesn’t seem like serial murders…”
“No. There is much more. We have three women, all of whom were raped and then murdered before their bodies were disposed of. They were all raped and killed in the place where their bodies were left, and all three came there willingly. Furthermore, all three were up for some sort of promotion in their companies when they were murdered.”
“That hardly seems to connect their deaths.”
“But their companies are connected.”
“What? One woman worked at some industry company, and the other at an energy company!”
“Yes, and Srivarsha Pradeep, whose file you didn’t bother to read, worked for JM Heppler.”
“Who’s that?”
“Not ‘who’ but ‘What.’ JM Heppler is a well-known chemical company.”
“Oh. That still doesn’t…”
“JM Heppler and Harit Energy are subsidiaries of Barnet-Jones.”
“I see. But does that mean it was the same killer? A serial killer?”
“Perhaps. It is obvious that either the same man killed them, or three men of a very similar build. That’s what I noticed immediately. I’m surprised that you didn’t, doctor.”
“I don’t specialize in garroting.”
“I’ll bear that in mind. For now, though, we keep looking into these women’s pasts for a connection.”
“Mr. Takashi, I need you to tell me everything that you didn’t tell the police. How had your wife been behaving in the days leading up to her murder?”
“How do you mean…”
“Was anything different?”
“I…”
“She was under a tremendous amount of pressure. Maybe she was embezzling funds… blackmailing her boss… You must have noticed something! Think!”
“I don’t…”
“She was doing something differently, Mr. Takashi, wasn’t she. Tell me! What was she doing differently?”
“I didn’t notice anything. And frankly…” He glared at Sherlock. “…I don’t see that it’s any business of yours, anyway.”
“Yes. I’m a Detective Inspector.” Sherlock waved the badge in front of Takashi’s face.
“Let me see that.” He grabbed it out of Sherlock’s hand. “‘Gregory Lestrade.’ Didn’t he call you ‘Sherlock’ when you came in?”
“Sorry,” John mumbled.
“It doesn’t matter. I will find out whether you tell me or not.”
“Then find out. But you’re leaving now.”
Sherlock gave him a scathing look and swept out of the room. John lingered for a moment. “Sorry… erm… pressure of work. He’s not usually…”
Takashi glared at him.
“Bye.” And he caught up with Sherlock just as he flagged down a the cab.
“Sherlock, you can’t just bully people like that. That man was the victim’s husband, not a suspect. He’s probably still grieving!”
“If I don’t track down the person responsible for his wife’s murder, soon other husbands will be grieving. Even you should be able to see that.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to be a complete git.”
“He knew something, John. You saw him-the way he snapped at me as soon as he’d collected himself. He wasn’t acting like a grieving man. He was acting like a guilty man-a man who had something to hide.”
“But you were implying that his wife was somehow responsible for her own death. It was a defense mechanism, maybe?”
“Yes, but a defense mechanism because he had something to hide. There is a difference between the two reactions. I’ve interviewed enough people to know.”
“You do this often?”
“Rarely without success. But then I don’t usually have you there to make a mess of it.”
“Yeah…”
“But I do have enough information now. He has something to hide. And I have discovered that both Catherine Needham and Srivarsha Pradeep had committed indiscretions that they were very afraid would be revealed before they were promoted.”
“When did you find that out?”
“I found information on Catherine by searching some social networking sites. The things people say when they believe they have secured their Myspace accounts… It shouldn’t really be surprising, I suppose… And I met several of Srivarsha’s friends at Soho Solo last night.”
“You were at a club last night? You could have brought me.”
“The clientele is very young…”
“I’m not that much older than…”
“… and fashionable. You would never have fit in.”
Sometimes John wondered why he even tried…
When the taxi pulled up to 221 Baker Street John noticed a woman smoking a cigarette while she paced in front of the door. The wet blotches of makeup under her eyes were obvious enough that even John could deduce that she had been crying recently. It was Theresa Brewer.
Sherlock walked over to her with a sympathetic smile.
“Ah! Ms. Brewer…”
“You! You…” she dropped the cigarette to the ground and glared at Sherlock through her puffy red eyes.
“Ms. Brewer, you seem to be distressed. Please come up to the flat. Perhaps we could get you a cup of tea? Is there anything we can do to help?”
Theresa looked at least as taken aback as John felt.
“I… I…”
“Tea, then. We do not buy our tea from Harrods as you do, but you don’t mind PG Tips. And John does make excellent tea.”
John rolled his eyes, led the way into the flat, and started making the tea. He could hear Sherlock and Theresa’s conversation from the kitchen.
“Can I take your coat, Ms. Brewer? And John will get you some biscuits. John?”
“Yes, I heard.”
“Now, tell me what happened.”
“This… this morning. I received this letter with the post last night…”
“May I have it, please?”
“…And when I went in to work, and they knew. About… about the insider trading… and they… they fired me. I was so young when I… and now I won’t be able to find another job… and… and… I’m lucky they won’t press charges and…”
John walked back into the living room. Theresa was sniffling into a man’s handkerchief. (John hadn’t realized that Sherlock carried a handkerchief, much less offered it to damsels in distress.) Sherlock was ignoring her in favor of the letter she had handed to him.
John coughed a little. “Sherlock.”
Sherlock looked up, and shaped his face into a look of (very convincing) concern. “How did this happen?”
The damsel in distress disappeared. Theresa jumped out of the chair and started shouting. “How did this happen? I came to you and told you everything! You know perfectly well what happened. I didn’t give in to this wretch’s blackmail, because I thought that you would be able to tell me who was doing it! I should have paid him… and not wasted my time hoping that you would be able to help me.”
“I did not accept your case, Ms. Brewer, so you were indeed wasting your time. Furthermore, I did not force you to do anything illegal seven years ago. But you would not have paid him. You would have been raped and then murdered, and someone would have found your body in a skip somewhere a day or two later.”
“Wh-what?”
“Yes. So, if you’ll just let me keep this letter, I’d appreciate it if you’d show yourself out. I have quite a few things to do today.”
At that Theresa grew suddenly calm, but white as a sheet.
“I’ll take that, please,” she said in a dangerous voice, and grabbed the letter from him. “And I can do that myself.” (John had been about to get her coat for her.) She put on the coat, and turned around.
“Thank you for destroying my life, Sherlock Holmes. I hope you’re satisfied.”
“As I said…”
“No. Goodbye!” She slammed the door and was gone.
John stood stunned. He thought even Sherlock looked thoughtful. After a few minutes he heard the kettle turn off, and he went to brew two cups of tea.
“So that wasn’t very… good.” He handed a cup to Sherlock, who was staring thoughtfully at the floor. “Sherlock?”
“Hm? What? What wasn’t good?”
“Theresa coming in here like that? Losing her job?”
“Oh, that. Perhaps. Doesn’t matter.”
“What? What are you talking about? Didn’t you hear what she said? She’s been ruined. And you might have helped her.”
“John, stop being so dramatic. She lost her job because of something foolish she’d done. That’s justice.”
“It was years ago. She was young.”
“People must pay for the decisions they make when they’re young.”
“What would you know about it? Not everyone’s brother is the government.”
“My brother wasn’t always the government.”
“What? What does that…”
“The point is, John, that we now know the connection between Srivarsha Pradeep, Alison Wright-Takashi, and Catherine Needham. And Theresa Brewer is the key.”
“How is that?”
“You remember that I told you that they all worked under the same umbrella company?”
“Yes.”
“Theresa Brewer did as well-she worked in the same company as Alison Wright-Takashi-Barnet-Jones. I should have seen it earlier! The practical connection between those companies-one of them anyway-is that Computer Tech Plus provides tech support to all three of them. Between the information I was able to glean from that letter and their employee records, I will be able to identify the blackmailer easily.”
Middlegame II