Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 71: Anonymous

A few weeks later was when the next stage of the plan was to take place. One of Jim's clients had contacted him about a certain someone he wanted dead, so, Sebastian was sent to find the lucky person and, well, kill them. Then make it look like a suicide. The first victim was a man in his late thirties, found in an office building with a bullet wound to the side of his head and a pistol in his dominant hand.

The police, as usual, were baffled, so, Sherlock Holmes was brought into the scene to sort things out, but all he could say was that it was still a 'poor attempt to scare us'. Astrid found out about the body through Sherlock contacting her. He told her about the body and how it was linked to Jim Moriarty, and Astrid gave a weak reply of understanding before hanging up the phone, looking to her husband, who was sat at his desk looking up at her with expectation, and producing a terrifyingly terrifying smile.

"They've found suicide Number 2.1 at the location, they've told me to watch my back... and Sherlock even apologised for nothing." She leant on the desk in front of Jim, looking at her phone, "I'll tell Seb to prepare the next victim."

Jim nodded and tilted his head, "what time is it?"

"Half nine."

"Okay, tell Seb to have the next body in place by midnight, but no earlier than eleven o'clock."

Astrid frowned and smiled, "that's what I was gonna do anyway."

She lifted her phone to her ear, smirking at Jim as the number rang out.

"Hello Sebby," she then pushed herself off the desk and exited the room, keeping her conversation with the tiger private from Jim. He chuckled and shook his head, moving his chair closer to the desk to watch the press conference that was streaming live. A few seconds later his attention was drawn to the door.

His confusion immediately morphed into a smile as he saw his daughter, dressed in her blue baggy pajamas. She waddled towards her father, who scooped her up in his arms and let her sit on his lap.

"What 'cha doing up?"

"I can't sleep," she answered then turned to face the computer, "Can I watch?"

"Sure," Jim said, making he comfortable on his knee. The pair watched the news intently as Detective Inspective Lestrade was being bombarded with questions. Sat next to him was the great Sherlock Holmes, whilst John was stood behind his chair, like a protective dog.

-

"Jack Brannon was found with a self administrated bullet wound to his head from a gun that has his fingerprints, and only his, on it. We originally assumed that it was a regular suicide, however," he gestured to Sherlock, who was looking at his phone. He smiled at the screen before putting it in his pocket and paying attention to the rest of the room, "Mr Holmes has recently brought to our attention, the fact that the suicide took place in the exact same building as that of a suicide eleven years ago as a result of the consulting criminal, James Moriarty."

-

Upon hearing his name, Jim smirked and nodded his head, whilst his young child continued to look at the screen with full interest.

-

"We are still investigating this next theory, but there could be a connection to the devastating events of this New Year. Both are almost exact replicas of events that happened around a decade ago."

One of the reporters spoke up.

"Does this mean that James Moriarty is still alive."

Lestrade firmly shook his head, "we don't have much to go on, but it is still unlikely that he is alive."

"How would he be able to plan so much so accurately before his death?"

"Because he's clever... and he has many loyal followers. However, we don't believe that his network is behind this."

"So he is definitely dead?"

"James Moriarty is dead," this was the voice of Sherlock, who was still sat with his coat wrapped around himself, "he shot his own brains out. No-one can survive that. If this was Moriarty, which it isn't, he would not be as lousy. If he were to replicate his plans," he seemed to be piecing this together as he went along, "he would make everything completely one hundred percent accurate."

"Mr Holmes," began another reporter, "what is there that you can do to prevent anything else like this happening?"

He smiled, seeming to have a confident answer, "we have the assistance of an anonymous client who was once very close to Moriarty's network and the people who looked up to him."

Lestrade continued for him.

"This person has supplied us with the name of a man who was very close to Moriarty in their youth, as well as being a popular supplier of hardware for him. His name is Ciaran Walsh," as he said his name, pictures of said arms dealer appeared on the screen behind him, "he was born in Dublin to two Italian parents, Lucia and Lorenzo Rosetta, both deceased, and is brother to Arabella Rosetta. His father was sent to prison after he murdered an entire family in their Italian village. This was, we can assume, the reason his mother wanted to change their names and their living area. His sister was spoken to last week, and revealed that she and her brother hadn't spoken for a while. As of today, we are setting out a worldwide search for this man."

After he finished, a silence fell around the room and Lestrade nodded, "anymore questions?"

After a little bit of time, a woman in the front row spoke up, "what can people do to stay safe?"

"Well," he began, "we don't really know how it's all happening, but, if it is not suicides," he glanced at Sherlock and then back to the woman, "then everyone has to make sure to stay safe, don't speak to people who you don't know, travel in groups, just be careful." Lestrade nodded, "thank you."

-

With that, the broadcast switched onto a reporter and Jim shut down his laptop then looked at the child in his arms, who was smiling at him sleepily.

"I remember him, he was nice." She smiled, "what does anonymous mean?"

"Unknown."

He stood up and picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his upper hips and hugged him tightly, yawning into his shoulder. Jim chuckled, pressing a kiss to the back of Grace's head, before walking out of the study and up the stairs.

(A/N I promise you this is gonna start wrapping up in the next like 10 chapters XD)