And then there was three; a Sherlock Fanfiction

Five

John Watson met Lilly and Sherlock at the hospital like Sherlock told him to, arriving as the pair exited a nearby cab. He waited for them to join him at the door impatiently, yelling at Sherlock as soon as they'd reached earshot.

"Sherlock Holmes, what the hell was that about?" Sherlock ignored his question, pushing the door open. Lilly followed behind quickly; the two walked in front of him with purpose, and a sense of eagerness.

"Sherlock?" John called angrily, trailing behind the two, "Are you going to answer my question?"

Sherlock answered without turning around, still weaving through the hospital, a destination in mind, "it's a murder John, the first interesting case in months. This killer is good, sophisticated," he turned a corner, nearly knocking a thin lipped, brown haired woman to the ground as he did so.

"Ah Molly, just who we were looking for," Sherlock said, brushing himself off and giving Molly a tight lipped smile.

"You- you were?" She tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear, blushing a light shade of red. She smiled at Sherlock and John, but her smile faltered when her gaze shifted to Lilly.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked not unpleasantly, forgetting momentarily about Sherlock and John.

"Lilly Harper," Lilly held her hand out for Molly to shake, "an old friend of John's. I'm visiting from America, obviously,"

Molly shook her hand, smiling brightly, "Molly Hooper, I work with Sherlock in a way. I supply him with body parts and such."

"Yes," Sherlock said, clapping his hands once as to regain everyone's attention, "Speaking of bodies, Molly I need to see the body of Gracie Brown,"

"Gracie Brown?" Molly flipped through the pages on the clipboard she was holding, stopping at one particular paper, "I'm not sure I can pull her out for you, I don't think-"

"Did you do something new with your hair?" Sherlock asked rather abruptly.

"Well, yes," Molly blushed a deeper shade of red, fiddling with her pony tail "I had it trimmed up a bit-"

"It looks nice," Sherlock's tight lipped smile returned. John glared at him, while Lilly stared incredibly at Sherlock's blunt manipulation.

"Well, I guess you can have a quick look her," Molly replied eventually, "follow me,"

Lilly regained her composure promptly, following Molly and Sherlock to where the body was kept eagerly. John muttered from behind, saying something about 'sociopaths' and 'jealousy'.

•••

"Here she is," Molly said, pulling the sheet from the face of the body laid out in front of them.

To say that she was badly burned was an understatement; Gracie Brown was almost unrecognizable. Her face was red and blistered; her hair singed. The naked body looked like something from a horror movie, covered in more burns. She still smelled faintly of smoke. It was a sad sight, but Lilly couldn't tear her eyes away.

"Cause of death?" Sherlock asked, pulling on disposable gloves and examining the burns.

"Smoke inhalation," Molly said, looking at Sherlock curiously, "she showed signs of a concussion. She must have hit her head pretty hard when she hit the ground." Molly moved some hair from the dead woman's face, touching her forehead softly with her gloved hand, "Her skull dented and there was a small fracture even,"

Sherlock ran his hand along the woman's forehead carefully, thoughts racing as he examined the unnatural shape.

"Any ideas?" John asked, forgetting about his anger,

"Four," Sherlock replied, pulling off the gloves and taking a step back, "maybe three,"

Lilly took a step forwards, taking a pair of the disposable gloves from Molly and pulling them on with a snap. She and John both studied the damaged scull, paying close attention to the severe indent about an inch above her left eyebrow.

"Wait," Lilly pulled back as well, giving John room to fully analyze Gracie Brown. "The dent in her head caves grossly inwards, if she'd just fallen, wouldn't it be more... flat?" Sherlock nodded yes, waiting to hear what she thought, "This makes it seems more like she'd been hit with a blunt object, rather than just falling to the floor in her haste." She removed her plastic gloves as Sherlock watched her, intrigued.

John looked at her too, a little less surprised than Sherlock, but shocked all the same, "Lilly, when did you get so..." He trailed off.

"I've always been analytical John," she gave him a strained smile, "that's why you and Harry were my only friends, remember?"

John stiffened a bit, until Lilly spoke again, this time to Sherlock, "are you thinking she was knocked unconscious, and then someone started the fire, making it look like an accident?"

"Possibly," he was thinking rapidly, "the shape suggests the murderer was right handed," he said, reviewing the facts in his head, "but what could have been the weapon-" Suddenly his eyes lit up, "I think we should revisit the crime scene,"

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Hello!! Exams are officially over and today was the first day of semester two at my school. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I should be updating more often again as well.

Bye bye
M