The Other One *Editing*

Chapter 7 - Warning Shots

"You like the funny cases, don't you?" Lestrade finally said.  "The surprising ones."
"Obviously." Sherlock said rudely.
"You'll love this. That explosion-"
"Gas leak, yes?" Sherlock interrupted, glaring at a female officer as he walked past. Lizzie looked at her desk. It towering with case files all signed, Sally Donavan."No."
"No?" Sherlock said startled.
"No."
"Made to look like one." Lizzie said unsurprised.
"What?" John said confused as they entered Lestrade's office.

Sherlock stared at an envelope lying on the desk ignoring John's question."Hardly anything left of the place except a strong box – a very strong box – and inside it was this." He said pointing to the envelope on the desk.
"You haven't opened it?" Elizabeth asked.
"It's addressed to him, isn't it?" Lestrade said as though manners was always his top priority.  "We've X-rayed it. It's not booby-trapped." He added as Sherlock put his hand towards the envelope obviously hesitant.
"How reassuring." He said sarcastically but he picked the envelope up and took it to the other side of the room, examining it under a lamp.

Lizzie could see his brain speeding into action as he inspected each element of the envelope. The stationary was top quality, beautiful. She couldn't tell preciously where from, but definitely the Czech Republic. Even though the expense of the paper the pen had bled into each tiny indenture and crack. So the pen used must have been a fountain pen, a Parker Duofold, iridium nip to be precise and she was always precise. The writing struck Lizzie's interest the most, the elegant curvature of each letter. Women's hand writing. As she finished her 'deductions' as Sherlock would call it. She preferred the less dramatic observations (but he always was a drama queen) she heard John say. "She?"

"Obviously." Her and Sherlock said in unison.
"Obviously." John repeated under his breath. Sherlock, satisfied with his analyse of the envelope began opening it with a pen knife. He peeked inside before pulling out a phone in a pink case that Lizzie had only read about before. "But that... that's the phone. The pink phone."
"What, from the Study in Pink?" Lestrade and Lizzie said at the same time. Lestrade glanced at Lizzie who was now sitting cross legged on his desk. She carried on staring at Sherlock, waiting for some kind of a reaction and she didn't have long to wait.
"Well obviously it's not the same phone, but it's supposed to look like- A Study in Pink." Lizzie grinned in pleasure at his look of annoyance. "You read his blog?"
"Course I read his blog! We all do. Do you really not know that the Earth goes round the Sun?" Lestrade said. Sally Donavan who had walked in to deliver paper work sniggered. Which earned a dirty look from Sherlock before he looked at Lizzie inquisitively. "I need to keep a track on what you're up too." She shrugged.
"You could call."
"You'd lie."

Sherlock ignored this and turned his attention back to the phone. "It isn't the same phone. This one's brand new. Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like the same phone, which means your blog has a far wider readership." He said giving John an accusatory look before switching the phone on. Straight away the phone got a voice message. 5 beeps. The first four identical the last one long and drawn out but unmistakable the Greenwich pips.
"Is that it?"
"No. That's not it."  Sherlock said. Apparently deciding he didn't want to share with everyone else he stared at the screen. John and Lestrade looked over Sherlock shoulders. Lizzie decided to go under his arm to get a front row seat.

The screen showed a photograph of a room she'd never seen but it looked familiar- like she'd been in the building. The room had little furnishing. There was a fireplace on one wall with a small mirror balancing on its mantel. The place was dark and dingy with peeling wallpaper. The only other feature in the room was a taller mirror propped up against a corner of the room.

"What the hell are we supposed to make of that? An estate agent's photo and the bloody Greenwich pips!" Lestrade called as the squashed group disbursed. Sherlock thought for a few seconds before saying "It's a warning."
"A warning?"
"Some secret societies used to send dried melon seeds, orange pips, things like that." Lizzie said in a nonchalant tone, starting to walk out the room. Stopping at the door to say.  "Five pips. They're warning us it's gunna happen again."

Sherlock looked down at the phone again before realising what she'd noticed.  "And I've seen this place before." And starting to leave. "H-hang on. What's gunna happen again?" John said following. Sherlock turned around dramatically raising his hands in the air and cried. "Boom!" Both John and Sherlock start to leave quickly followed by Lestrade. It wasn't until they got to the bottom floor that they realised Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen."Err, where's Elizabeth?"
"Come on John, where do you think?" John gave Sherlock a look that could kill and Sherlock continued. "Think about it. You're a young girl with superior knowledge of London." John, shocked to hear Sherlock say anyone else had superior knowledge, didn't interrupt. "You have no cash on you and need to get somewhere fast. Where do you go?"
"I don't know? Home? A police station? A- a- bus stop!"
"Exactly." He said checking his watch. "Lizzie will be on the twenty-four bus in four minutes."
"We need to go get her then." John said walking away.
"What?" Sherlock said confused. "She'll be fine!"
"She's a young girl who's in your care we need to go get her."
"She doesn't need our help and you won't change her mind." Sherlock called.
"Then we'll have to get on the bus."
"What?" Sherlock said again.
"You heard." Lestrade said joining John.
"Oh for God sake." Sherlock said. "Fine. But the bus stop is this way." He said walking in the opposite direction to John.

Yay 500hundred views (well 555 now!) I promised I'd give you a new chapter this week if I got to 500 and here it is with about 40minutes to spare. Next chapter should be funny!! Imagine Sherlock on a bus! It will be great!!
~EK xx

Catch you later