Eye Contact *ON HOLD*

A Dead Banker

A taxi ride later, they arrived outside a block of flats, hurrying up the few steps to the bank of door buzzers. Sherlock didn’t pause to press the small white button next to the name plate marked ‘Van Coon.’ He looked up expectantly toward the small lens above the buttons, the security camera. John and Maggie stood nearby. A few moments later, Sherlock looked back to them, a slightly puzzled look on his face, before turning back and pressing the button with a bit more force.

No answer.

Maggie tread closer to the buzzers as John stepped to the sidewalk to look up and down the street.

“So what do we do now?” he asked. “Sit here and wait for him to get back?”

Sherlock’s eyes scanned the buzzers on the wall as he took a step back. He looked upward to the building’s face. After a few moments, he looked back to the buttons and turned to the other two.

“Just moved in,” he said triumphantly.

“What?” John asked.

Maggie’s eyebrows furrowed together as she looked to the buttons and nameplates.

“Oh!” she said excitedly, pointing to the buzzer bank. “The floor above!”

Sherlock nodded with a smile, touching a finger to the white space. “New label.”

On the space was a large, handwritten name.

Wintle.

“They could have just replaced it,” John said, rolling his eyes at their reactions.

Sherlock, pressing the buzzer near the Wintle name, turned his head over his shoulder to look at the soldier.

“No one does that,” he said. “Maggie, come here.”

               

She stepped up next to him, although skeptical. Shortly afterward a small buzz sounded from the nearby speaker and the lens in the camera swiveled a bit as a voice came over the small intercom.

               

“Eh, hello?” a woman’s voice asked.

               

Sherlock turned to the camera with a charming smile, wrapping his arm confidently around Maggie’s waist despite her slight jump from the contact.

               

“Hi!” he said, his voice different, more… normal, Maggie thought. Not the voice of a sociopath. “Um, we live in the flat just below you,” he continued, “I… I don’t think we’ve met.”

               

Getting the idea, Maggie joined him as he continued the wide grin at the camera.

               

“No,” Ms. Wintle said, “Well, I’ve just moved in.”

               

Sherlock turned to shoot an I-told-you-so look at John as Maggie leaned forward toward the camera lens.

               

“Well, um, we’ve just locked our keys in the flat,” she said, grimacing a bit.

               

“Oh, d’you want me to buzz you in?” Ms. Wintle asked with little hesitation.