Sophia Holmes and the Great Game (Sherlock's Daughter Fanfic) *Completed*

Chapter Eight - The Bruce-Partington Program Part II

I get a text from Molly as we pull up by the station.

Second autopsy isn't finding tetanus, but botulinum toxin? Molly xx

I smile as we step out and relay the message to dad, then glance at my watch. We still have time to get ahead before calling off Moriarty but not long. We'll have to work fast.

A couple of workmen try and stop us as we follow the tracks down, but we brush them aside with our Police badges. I feel a sense of deja vu as we get onto the tracks and I'm reminded of the Blind Banker case where we found the spray paint cyphers. Hopefully, we can complete this case without being kidnapped.

Andrew's final landing position is marked out and we bend down beside it, pulling out our magnifying glasses as we examine the tracks.

"Now, I'm no doctor," I remark, glancing over the tracks, "but I'm fairly sure if he died of head injuries, there would be more blood here than there is."

Dad looks up in thought. "Unless he didn't die here."

"That thought had occurred," I admit. "But the train could have come from anywhere."

"Maybe," dad says, looking around. "We need to look into it. Firstly, though, we need to find out why he fell off."

I narrow my eyes. "Fell off? I thought you said he wasn't on the train?"

"No, I said he couldn't have jumped off from inside."

It takes me a moment to understand what he's saying. "You mean he was on top?"

"Only explanation that makes sense," dad agrees. "He was never inside the train - CCTV would have picked him up regardless of whether or not he had a ticket - yet he was on the train. On top, I would guess. But how did he fall?"

I look down the tracks to try to inspire my ideas. Trains really aren't my area of expertise. I try to visualise the train coming along with a body on top. What could make it fall off? The wind certainly wouldn't be strong enough, and the speed of the train wouldn't be a problem either.

Assuming he was killed and his body dumped at the last station, it had made it this far without falling. It would need something new, something so sudden that made the train jerk slightly, knocking the body off and onto the lines. The damage on the rails would have been at a minimum because if our theory of his death is correct, it would mean that the majority of the blood will be elsewhere, somewhere which follows the line of the tracks.

The light begins to dim ever so slightly, and I look down at my watch to check how much time we have left. "We have an hour," I inform him, and he nods in understanding, beginning to pack away.

"Text John: we're picking him up at Baker Street. Make sure he has those files."

It's my turn to nod, and I begin to type a message up as we walk back to the station.