Sherlock: My Way (cancelled)

Study in Pink pt. 1

Rudy

My cane clicked against the tile floor of the morgue. Why Mike had brought me here I had no clue. He had mentioned something about a potential flatmate but why would I find one here?

He pushed open the door at the end of the hall and I walked inside. At a table, looking into a microscope was a man. He had a mop of curly brown hair and glasses that were pushed up so he could put his eyes to the microscope.

He glanced up slightly when we came in but said nothing. He wrote something down on a pad of paper.
"Could you hand me my phone? Front pocket of my coat beside the door."

It took me a moment to realize he was talking to me.
"Oh sure."
I pulled the phone out of a long black trench coat and handed it to him.

Mike pointed to me.
"This is an old friend of mine, Rudy Watson."

The man nodded to show he had heard. He punched in a quick message and hit send before setting it down again. The three of us stood silent for a bit.

"Afghanistan or Iraq?"

I was a bit taken aback. Mike just smiled.
"What?"

He repeated the question.
"Afghanistan or Iraq?"

"Afghanistan," I stuttered. "How did you-?"

I was interrupted by a woman. She had long dirty blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore a simple white lab coat.

"Ah Penelope."

She handed the man a cup of coffee and he took a sip.
"You were wearing lipstick earlier what happened?"

She glanced at her feet.
"It wasn't working for me."

"Oh. Well that's too bad. It was a big improvement."

She didn't respond and left quickly. The man returned to his work.
"How do you feel about the violin?"

Mike smiled again. I was very confused.
"I'm sorry what?"

"I play the violin when I'm thinking and sometimes I don't talk for days on end. Would that bother you? Potential flatmates should know the worst about eat other."

"You told him about me."

Mike shook his head.
"Not a word."

"Then who said anything about flatmates?"

"I did," he said, pulling on his coat. "I told Mike this morning I must be a difficult man to find a flatmate for and now here he is just after lunch and with an old friend. Clearly just home from military service in Afghanistan."
He glanced over at me.
"Wasn't a difficult leap."

I was a bit skeptical at this point.
"How did you know about Afghanistan?"

He didn't answer the question.
"Got my eye on a nice little place in Central London. Together we ought to be able to afford it. We'll meet there tomorrow evening at 7:00."
He brushed past me to the door.
"Sorry got to dash. I think I left my riding crop in the mortuary."

I shuffled my feet. What was this guy playing at?
"Is that it then?"

He stopped and looked at me while wrapping a dark blue scarf around his neck.
"Is that what?"

"We've only just met and we're going to go look at a flat?"

He looked around confusedly.
"Problem?"

I looked at Mike. He seemed to be enjoying the whole interaction.
"We don't know a thing about each other, I don't know where we're meeting, I don't even know your name."

He looked at me intensely. Not even blinking.
"I know you're an army doctor, and you've been invalided home from Afghanistan. I know you've got a brother who's worried about you but you won't go to him for help because you don't approve of him. Possibly because he's an alcoholic and more likely because he recently walked out on his wife. I also know that your therapist thinks your limp is psychosomatic, quite correctly I'm afraid."
He adjusted his coat.
"That's enough to be going on with, don't you think?"

As he was leaving he paused and smiled at me.
"The name's Flynnigan Holmes and the address is 221b Baker Street. Afternoon."

I looked at Mike. He was smiling like I had made a joke.
"What just happened?"

He only shrugged with a smile still plastered on his face.
"He's always like that."