Sherlock Holmes: REDBEARD

Chapter 1

Dr. John Watson unlocked the door of 221 b Baker Street and stepped into the flat. He immediately stepped on a stack of mail.

"Jesus." He muttered picking up the mail. Most of it was a week old.

John climbed the two flights of stairs and stepped into the small sitting room area of Sherlock Holmes flat. The blinds were drawn and it was dark. John clicked on the light. A couch sat directly to his right with a curled up figure in a robe laying on it.

John sighed, "Holmes, what are you doing?"

"Go away." Came a muffled reply.

"How long have you been lying there?"

Sherlock rolled over, "How long has Mrs. Hudson been gone?"

John racked his brain, "She left last Tuesday. So a little over a week."

"Then I've been laying here a little over a week." Sherlock replied rolling back over.

John slapped the mail onto the table in front of the couch, "You have mail so get up and look through it."

A muffled no was all John got.

"Bloody hell Sherlock. When was the last time you've even seen a client? Probably well before Mrs. Hudson left on vacation. I can't drop by as much with the baby coming and you know that."

John heard a rustling and turned and found Sherlock looking through the mail.

"I thought you weren't going to look at that?"

Sherlock answered without looking up, "I changed my mind."

John groaned in annoyance and walked off to the kitchen.

He went to the fridge and opened it. What he found inside made him want to hurl.

"For God's sake Holmes, please don't put body organs in the fridge! Do you ever have drinks?" John shouted.

John's attention was drawn to the sitting room by a bang and a crash. John dashed into the room to find an overturned coffee table and Sherlock standing by the window gazing out onto the street below. John knew Sherlock did this when he was processing a deep piece of information.

"Sherlock what's wrong?" John asked.

In answer Sherlock simply pointed to a letter lying by the couch. John went over and picked it up, opened it, and looked at it.

It had one word written in all caps on the middle of the page: REDBEARD

"Redbeard? Why is your dog's name written on this page?" John asked.

Sherlock didn't move an inch but gave an answer, "John for the safety of others and just so I wouldn't speak of them I stored some secrets so far down in my mind palace I forgot about them. Redbeard is one. Yes, it was the name of my dog growing up, but it was also the codename of a secret Mycroft and I share between us."

"And what is the secret?"

Sherlock spun around and looked John in the eyes, "A third Holmes brother."

Almost immediately a knock came at the door. John looked towards the stairs, "I wonder who that is?"

Sherlock threw off his robe, "That would be Redbeard."