∘˙Dusty roses˙∘『a sherliam fanfic 』

Letter

"I'm so bored! Where are all the good criminals when I need them?!" Sherlock complained as he kicked over a pile of books he had been reading. According to him they were as dull as the Yard's way of working.

This had been going on for a while. Sherlock's boredom. It seemed like no one could put up a challenge that would make him interested.

"'Oh, but Sherlock? Didn't you just solve a series of kidnappings a few days ago?'" Sherlock said mockingly to a mirror.
"No! Sam was even barely hiding the victims! He didn't even resist when he got arrested! Acted like he was getting to go to some five star luxury hotel-" Sherlock responded to himself while angrily pointing at himself in the mirror. Though, he was cut off by John walking in.

"Back at it again? You know, some fresh air might do you wonders", John stated, letting his gaze wander from Sherlock to the pile of knocked over books.
"What's special about outside?" Sherlock asked with a sigh.
"It's a beautiful day. The sun is shining", John responded.
"John, I don't need the sun. I'm not a plant. I don't do photosynthesis", Sherlock stated and walked over to the curtains, closing them dramatically.
"I'm just fine here", he added.

"Lestrade is here to visit you", John changed the subject.
"Another case? Is it boring or tedious?" Sherlock asked, plopping down to a comfy armchair.
"The yard couldn't solve it so it has to be at least a little difficult", John defended.
"Oh please. The yard couldn't even solve their shoelaces", Sherlock scoffed.

John moved out of the doorframe to let Lestrade in. Lestrade looked annoyed at Sherlock's words. Or maybe that was just Lestrade's face. Or both.

"Sherlock", Lestrade said as a greeting and Sherlock nodded.
"This arrived to my office", Lestrade stated as he handed an envelope to Sherlock who took it with slight curiosity.
"Who sent it?" Sherlock asked.
"Absolutely no clue. It was on my desk when I arrived to work. No signs of break in, no footprints, no nothing", Lestrade responded.
"Not like it's a challenge to break in your office", Sherlock muttered as he pulled out a letter from the envelope.

Sherlock folded the letter open, not even giving a glance to Lestrade who scoffed at his words. The letter had just one simple question followed by a row of letters:

'Just how good are you? H.E. folder 7'

Sherlock's brows furrowed in confusion. Who was the letter from? He wasn't all that famous, only taking cases by the yard and giving all the credit to them. So who knew? But given the context, the letters were clear. H & E was the initials of the most recent 'interesting' case Sherlock had solved. They were even written mimicking the style the victim used to write them. But the rest of the note had a different handwriting.

"Lestrade? I would like to have a look at some old case files, please", Sherlock stated as he stood up. Something about the letter felt different from the dull recent cases. Something was telling Sherlock to go and investigate a bit further.

"What for?" Lestrade asked. He had moved to beside Sherlock, also having the chance to read the letter. It wasn't hard for Lestrade to understand the letter as well but he had no idea what the question meant.
"To solve this case you brought me", Sherlock stated.

Sherlock ran his fingers along the boxes and big folders on a shelf. He stopped at a box with a tag that said: 'Harvey Evergreen's case'. Before taking the box off the self, Sherlock quickly looked at the shelf it was on. The dust didn't have any marks. The box either hadn't been moved or it had been picked directly up.

Sherlock slid the box off the shelf. He took a folder with a '7' on it and put the box back. Sherlock opened the folder, inspecting every document inside of it incase something had changed from what it used to be.

The folder mainly contained information about the people related to Harvey but most likely weren't associated to his murder. Everything seemed normal except for one page.

It was about a nephew of Harvey's. A wealthy man, whose success only seemed to grow when everyone thought it was at it's peak. The picture that was supposed to be of the nephew's house was different. It definitely wasn't a wealthy aristocrat's house. No, it was some small shed that had a clock outside it. Set to a few hours from the current time.

"Why is this here?" Sherlock muttered to himself as he detached the picture and put the folder back in the box, holding the picture between two of his fingers.

As soon as the box was back on it's place, a strange ticking noise started. It didn't sound like anything dangerous like a bomb but more like a clock. Like Sherlock was being timed to do something. To save the nephew of Harvey before the time that was on the clock on the picture.

A/N
Bit short of a chapter, I know :') We got to almost a thousand words though, so let's just roll with it.

What's that? Oh, is that a perfectly fine bed you could go and sleep in? Seems like a good offer for you to accept, yeah? Go sleep.

Take care!! <3