𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘪𝘥𝘦 | 𝘖𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘬 2 ✔︎

Chapter VII - THE MAN OF MANY DEATHS

"Sherlock?" I call out into my seemingly empty flat. "Sherlock?"

I hear a shuffling noise coming from the bedroom and seconds later Sherlock walks out and sits back at his desk. I exhale a breath I didn't know I was holding and finish unpacking the groceries.

Once all of the food is in the fridge, I go over to visit Sherlock at his desk. Pulling up a chair, I ask him, "So. How's the Network coming along?"

"I'm not working on Moriaty's Network." he says simply.

I raise my eyebrows. "What are you doing, then?" I ask.

"What I do best. Solving a case." he says monotonously, in his baritone voice.

"Where did you find a case?"

Sherlock faces me with eyes that scold, you ask an awful lot of questions. "Not everyone assumes I am dead. This is a local case. The credit for solving it will go under Mycroft's name."

Interesting... I remember Mycroft being mentioned in the websites about Sherlock. Mycroft was his brother.

"So... what are you solving, then? A puzzle?" I joke.

Sherlock doesn't laugh. In fact, he doesn't react at all. "'Marcus Sawyer, 31, Was claimed to have died of a heart attack in the obituary section of London's local newspaper. His wife, Jacqueline Sawyer, 29, claimed that he died when their house burned down. Both of Marcus's children, Jamie Sawyer, 7, and Lila Sawyer, 9, claim that they saw their father murdered by the Sawyer's neighbor, Carson Lee, age 42. Jamie and Lila are currently in shock and hospitalized, both harboring knife wounds on their left arm, that they claim were also inflicted by the neighbor.

"Mr Lee denies ever having even met Mr Sawyer, as Mr Lee moved into his new house across the street the day the Sawyer children claimed he attacked. Mrs Sawyer agrees on the fact that her family has never met Mr Lee, whereas the Sawyer children deny their father being in their house on the day of the fire. Mr Lee claims he saw Mr Sawyer get shot by a mysterious, unidentifiable figure dressed in black in the Sawyer's back yard, before the fire started.'

"The one thing all of the claims have in common is this: according to the witnesses, all of the killings happened on September 17 at 2.00pm." Sherlock reads out of an open file.

I stare at the file. "The Man of Many Deaths..." I absent-mindedly say aloud.

"What was that?" Sherlock asks me.

"What?" I say, "Oh, I just gave the case a title. 'The Man of Many Deaths.'"

"Why?" he asks me.

"I just... like naming things, I guess." I answer.

Sherlock pauses. "Well," he says, "that name does suit it well." he gives me a thin-lipped smile.

Did he just compliment me? Yeah, the Web pages were definitely wrong to say that he was rude and uncaring, I scoff.

"So, how are you going to solve this one? Seems pretty complicated. Don't you somehow need access to the body of Marcus to figure it out?" I inquire.

"I had an associate of mine, Bill Wiggins, examine the body, under Mycroft's name, of course. And apparently, Marcus' body shows the signs of a fire, shooting, stabbing, and heart failure. So now I just have to determine which wound is real." says Sherlock, shuffling through some papers.

"But wouldn't it be more logical to believe the Sawyer's children? They received cuts too."

"Yes, but who's to say Mr Lee cut them? It's even possible that they cut themselves." he counters. I exhale.

"Couldn't you use a Lie Detector when interviewing the witnesses?" I ask.

"My associate did," Sherlock responds, "and all of them were telling the truth."

~~~~~

I am so bad at updating.

But hey, guys, you are so amazing for reading and sticking with me on this, and I promise I'll try to get better.

So... Maybe I was thinking about some fluff for this book? Tell me how you feel about that in the comments.

So, you know the drill. Vote! Comment (I seriously love to hear from you <3)! Recommend? :) Thank you all!

And 'til next time,

-O xx

(Also I looked up 'sherlock and clara' on Google and I saw a picture of my GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT book and I screamed. OML XD)