"When angels can no longer fly, they fall to their deaths..."
Four months after their first confrontation in the swimming hall, bored Sherlock Holmes is recontacted by none other than Jim Moriarty and forced into offering his consultations on a rath...
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Tuesday 24/08/2010, 01:50 a.m.
Time was dribbling by, and the ticking of Sherlock's internal clock extended seconds into a wretched hell. The dusky evening had long ago crescendoed into the black of night, and he tossed on his bed, in his silent abyss, accompanied by a tussle of conflicting thoughts circulating like draining water within his brain. He thought about the Moriartys and everything that had spiralled Jim Moriarty into madness, Otto and Anna Richter, the cigarette case, Magnussen, Mike Brown, the half-empty paper in Darcie Evans' mouth and the two murders, both of which happened in the space of two hours. Moriarty had packaged it all into one hell of a show.
He wouldn't let his awareness of the criminal's deeds be lost under the thrill of mental stimulation. That man was a villain of the worst kind. He knew how to fire up his synapses without resorting to tedious and predictable movements. Moriarty's games were rousing, and his power was like a large shadow on the wall cast by his small figure, creeping across each room in Sherlock's mind palace, making every strand of the dusty cobweb of insanity quiver.
Paulo Santos' faithfulness to Anna Richter had been an irreversible decision, like walking through a one-way door; it would cost his life, and there was absolutely nothing Sherlock Holmes could do. He had zero idea where the victim was kept or if he was dead or alive. To maintain control over the situation and hammer his point home, Moriarty had demanded him to return to Baker Street, but the phrasing of his text message revealed that he hadn't spied on Sherlock all the time. It had been a rehearsed script the man had performed to cover up the fact that he'd lost track of him. Or...
Sherlock weighed in on the three most viable options. One: Paulos Santos had betrayed Moriarty by feeding him incorrect information on Anna Richter all these years, and he caught wind of it yesterday when Santos didn't report on Sherlock's movements. By torturing him, Moriarty gleaned Anna Richter's real location and hunted her down. Chances were she was dead. Two: Moriarty used the traitor to lure Anna Richter out of her hiding which Santos refused to divulge. Depending on her course of action, she could be dead or alive. Option three: Paulo Santos was on Moriarty's side and was "kidnapped" to strike more fear into Anna Richter in her final moments. Sherlock wouldn't have put it past the flamboyant criminal. If one was to believe in the third theory, one would've predicated it on the fact that there were no injuries inflicted on Santos in the picture Moriarty had sent. Sherlock was afraid that Anna Richter's sentimentality and misplaced trust were now going to be the end of her, but he could have been wrong as well. He hoped he was.
The scars on Santos' arm were a sign of his connection to Darcie Evans who, in turn, had a feeble connection with Mike Brown and his chain of brothels. The 'x' marks meant something. They were some kind of a code or secret language of... a cult? A gang? Or maybe even a secret society?
