After The Fall || A Sherlock Fanfiction

Chapter 7 - The Case Of The Pissy Note

Jemima woke up to the sound of an argument. She couldn't hear what was being said but she recognised the muffled tones as Sherlock and John. She heard Mrs Hudson rush upstairs, then quickly back down again, she was muttering something about a 'domestic'.

Jemima had been in Baker Street a month now and had got to know Sherlock a little bit but she was still surprised to find him standing in her doorway a few hours after his 'domestic'.

"Hi! Didn't expect to see you here!" She said cheerfully.

"I live here." He replied bluntly.

"Yes but, you never come to see me."

"Why would I? I'm always busy with cases."

"Ok, why are you here now then?" She asked, a bit put out.

"I need your help. Um... Would you like to... Um...Solve crimes with me?" He asked tentatively, stuttering on his words.

"Definitely." She replied. Sherlock breathed a sigh of relief. A rejection would have just been awkward.

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"Who's that?" Sally Donovan questioned, looking Jemima up and down.

"She's with me. It's fine." Sherlock replied, ducking under the police tape.

"You can't expect me to let you in every time you want to drag a stranger onto a crime scene, freak." Sally said to Sherlock's back as he was walking away. Jemima saw him roll his eyes. She giggled.

The pair walked swiftly to the crime scene. A man was hanging from a rope by his neck, blue faced, glassy eyed and very, very, dead. Another man, very much alive, walked over from the other side of the room as he saw Sherlock walk in.

"Hello! Who are you?" Lestrade addressed Jemima first.

"Lestrade, this is Jemima, she moved into 221C a month ago. Jemima this is Lestrade, he says he's a detective, I'm not sure I totally believe him. I've been working with him on cases for years." Sherlock said, taking the trouble of introducing everyone.

"Greg." Lestrade extended his hand "Nice to meet you Jemima."

"Good to meet you too." She replied, shaking his outstretched hand.

"Where's John?" Lestrade asked Sherlock.

"Hmm..?" Sherlock said, not looking away from the body. "Oh, um.. Well we had a bit of a disagreement. "

"Ah ok, I see."

"Was there a note?" Jemima asked suddenly.

"What?" Sherlock looked confused.

"Well it looks like a suicide. It obviously isn't one because there isn't any bruising on his neck but if it was supposed to look like a suicide then there should be a note." Jemima explained briefly.

"Actually, come to think of it, there was a note." Lestrade walked over to a table full of various bits of evidence and collected a slightly crumpled piece of paper covered in sloppy handwriting. Jemima took the piece of paper and looked it over quickly.

"It wasn't written by the victim. The victim was right handed, the writer was left handed. The victim has chewed nails on his right hand but his left ones are untouched. You tend to bite the nails on the hand you use the most so he's probably right handed. The author for the letter is obviously left handed though. He's smudged the writing across the page because he's writing with his left hand and smudging everything he's already written." Jemima explained. Suddenly, she gave a confused look and sniffed the page. She flipped it over and sniffed again. "I think he's used his piss as invisible ink!"

"Oh come on!" Sherlock laughed in disbelief, knowing it was all true but not wanting to let on, he didn't want to people to know that she'd beaten him to it.

"The Romans used to do it with their spies. You heat it up and it reveals a message. Anyway, just a bit of the piss itself can lead you straight to him. I'll leave it with you." Jemima said, handing Lestrade the note. He took it gingerly, at arm's length.

"Well that seems to be it then." Sherlock said awkwardly, leading Jemima out the door. He didn't speak to her again until they were both in a taxi.

"How did you do that?" Sherlock asked.

"I don't know, I sort of just, did." She replied.

"I've never met another person who can do that."

"Well don't get your hopes up if we do this again. It was sort of a fluke to be honest." She confessed.

"You'd do this again?"

"Yeah! It's been, fun."