The Great Game (Sherlock x Female!Reader)

Chapter 4: The Case of the Makeup Queen

The next day, you and the boys are sitting at a table in a cafe', John sitting on one end while you and Sherlock sit across from him. "Feeling better?" Sherlock asked John, who has tucking into a cooked breakfast. "Mmm. You realize we've hardly stopped for breath since this thing started?" He asked as he eats another forkful of food. You, who had a cup of coffee, turn to Sherlock as he drums his fingers, impatiently  waiting for the phone to ring.

"Has it occurred to you....?" You asked.

"Probably." Sherlock said.

"No--has it occurred to you that the bomber's playing a game with you? The envelope; breaking into the other flat; the dead kid's shoes--it's all meant for you." You said.

Sherlock smiles slightly before replying "Yes, I know."

"Is it him, then? Moriarty?" You asked.

"Perhaps." said Sherlock.

The phone beeps a message alert and Sherlock switches to on and it sounds two short Greenwich pips followed by a longer tone, and a photograph of a smiling middle age woman appears on the screen. She seemed familiar but you couldn't place where you've seen her.

"That could be anybody." Sherlock said. "Well, it could be, yeah. Lucky for you, I've been more than a little unemployed." John said.

"How d'you mean?" You ask.

"Lucky for you two, Mrs Hudson and I watch far too much Telly." John replied as he gets up and walk over to the counter and picks up the remote and switches on the small TV hung on the wall.

He changes channels a couple of times until he finds what he wants. The woman from the photograph is on screen, you then realize why she was familiar as you remember that you saw your aunt watch her show from time to time.

As the woman starts talking, the pink phone rings. Sherlock picks up the phone and holds it to his ear. "Hello?"

"This one...is a bit...defective. Sorry. She's blind. This is...a funny one. I'll give you...twelve hours." said a voice of an old woman.

"Why are you doing this?" Sherlock asked as John walks over to the table and sits down.

"I like...to watch you...dance." The woman said and she starts to sob until the phone goes silent.

Sherlock lowers the phone and shakes his head at you and John, then drops the phone onto the table as he turns to look at the TV. As the footage continues, a voiceover replaces her voice and a news headline at the bottom of the screen reads:

Make-over Queen Connie Prince dead at 48.

​​​​​​​You, the boys and Lestrade arrive at Bart's morgue and approach a table that had the body of Connie Prince. "Connie Prince, fifty-four. She had one of those make-over shows on the Telly. Did you see it?" Lestrade asked.

"No." Sherlock said as you shook your head.

"Very popular. She was going places." Lestrade said.

"Not anymore." You replied.

"So: dead two days. According to one of her staff, Raoul de Santos, she cut her hand on a rusty nail in the garden. Nasty wound." Sherlock said as he looks at the deep cut in the webbing between her right thumb and index finger.

"Tetanus bacteria enters the bloodstream-good night Vienna." said Sherlock.

"I suppose." John said.

"Something's wrong with this picture." You said as you scanned Connie's body.
"Eh?" John asked.
"Can't be as simple as it seems, otherwise the bomber wouldn't be directing us towards it. Something's wrong." You reply as Sherlock bends closer to look along Connie's right arm as he takes his magnifier from his pocket.