The Unknown Child (A Sherlock FanFiction)

XV: Closing The Case

Chapter Fifteen: Closing the Case

I woke up, pleased that I had gotten a full night sleep. The air in the room was cold, but the small window on the wall opposing the door shone some sunlight into the room. The sheets were warm, the heat clinging to my body like sand at the beach. I hear footsteps approaching my door in the hallway, I turn to see Mrs. Hudson opening my door, carrying a tray.
“Morning dear, it’s a bit of a cold one this morning so I bought you a hot chocolate and some pancakes for breakfast.” She says, walking over to my bed with the tray of food.
“Where’s Sherlock?” I ask. “And might I add this smells amazing.” I add, smelling the warm pancakes and the hot chocolate warmed my insides. “Thank you for bringing this to me, I was happy to come down.”
“Oh no dear I wanted to come and give it to you, it has just gone past 8:30am so I will leave you to eat your breakfast.” She says, turning and beginning to walk out the door. “Oh and Sherlock is still asleep, that young man hasn’t sleep in days, just leave him be for a little longer dear.” She adds, finally walking out the door and back down the stairs. I will have to repay her by helping out with chores or something. I begin to eat the pancakes, which tasted like heaven. The hot chocolate was delicious, exciting my body with its warmth. I finished it barely ten minutes later, picking up the tray of my bed and setting it on the floor whilst I got dressed. I dug through my small overnight bag, finding my jeans, a long sleeved T-shirt, bra and a fresh pair of socks. I changed into them quickly, not wanting to stand with my bare skin showing for too long, the air in the room was freezing. Once I was dressed I headed into the bathroom, only now noticing that my ankle wasn’t sore anymore. I reached the bathroom, cleaning my teeth and brushing and putting it up in a ponytail. I went back into my room and put my shoes on. One think I have learnt being Sherlock’s daughter, is to always have your shoes on, because you never know when you will need to run. After my shoes were tied, I picked up my tray and took to back down to Mrs. Hudson, thanking her and offering to do some chores for her.
“Oh that would be very helpful indeed. How about you can come down later this afternoon and we can talk about that, I need to start cleaning my flat. Why don’t you go wake Sherlock up?” She asks, walking back into her flat, I notice that her left hip seems to stick out slightly more than her right.
“Mrs. Hudson, have you had your left hip checked?” I ask. She turns with the most shocked face I have seen.
“Oh God not you too.” She says. “Yes I have, but don’t tell me you’re just like Sherlock.” She adds.
“You’re not the first, don’t worry, I am not like him, I am just his daughter.” I say, running back up the stairs, two at a time. I waltz back into the flat, trying to find where Sherlock’s room is, I walking through the kitchen, almost bumping into the table of science equipment. That would have been fun to clean up. I continue down the hallway, finding that it connect to the hallway that leads to my room. I come face to face with a door. I stretch out my arm and begin to knock.
“Sherlock?” I ask, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it to open. The room is dark, and extremely dusty. “Sherlock?” I asked again. My eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and I saw Sherlock, covered in his sheets. I tip toe to the edge of his bed, he slept so peacefully, he didn’t even snore. I saw his phone, charging on his bed side table. I touched the button and saw the time, 9am. Best wake him up.
“SHERLOCK!” I yell, pulling back the sheets to find him only in pajama bottoms. “Get up.” I say. He finally moves. I look towards his face and see him begin to open his eyes. “Morning Sleeping Beauty. How did you sleep?” I ask. He rolls his body over so that it faces me.
“I was sleeping well, until a brat by the name of Clara Eloise disturbed me.” He says, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“Well I have been up for half an hour, what time did you go to bed?” I ask, crossing my arms.
“About midnight.” He says, sitting up now.
“Well that’s enough sleep then. Get up. Get dressed.” I say, turning to walk out of the room. “Actually, have a shower, you look like shit.” I say.
“Language Clara.” He bellows. I giggle and wander out of his room. I run down starts to get him some coffee, Mrs. Hudson kindly made me some and I took it up for him along with an apple. I came back up to hear the shower running. At least he had taken my advice to heart. I placed the apple and coffee on his desk and then sat myself down in the red chair, picking my book up from the side and turning to the page I left Harry’s adventure on.
 
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After 20 minutes, Sherlock was clean shaven, washed, dressed and sitting at his desk, drinking coffee and eating his apple.
“Thank you… by the way, for umm, bringing me coffee and the apple.” Sherlock said, turning to face me. I look up from my book and look back at him.
“You are very welcome.” I say, looking back at my book. “How is the case coming along?” I ask.
“I’m glad you asked Clara.” He said, standing up from his chair and walking towards my mind map. “Come with me.” He adds. I place my book down and get up and stand by him. “There was another murder, the same type of woman, blonde, 30-40 years old, found in a similar environment and was stripped from the waist up. But the stockings were still around her neck. The shoes were found in a skip bin just five minutes down the road. They had fingerprints all over them.” He said.
“Guess he wasn’t has careful this time.” I say. 
“ The man’s name is Paul Collins, 54 years of age, he is a pub owner. I was able to find the pub he owned and guess what, the victims all went to the night club the night they were murdered. Collins had been charged with crimes of a sexual nature before.” Sherlock adds.
Did they get him?” I ask.
“Would you say being in Molly’s morgue on a metal slab is classed at getting him?” Sherlock says. Oh dear God.
“What happened?” I ask.
“They got his current living address, they barged in and found him dead. Hanging from a noose in his living room.” Sherlock says. I just couldn’t believe it, he took his own life. “But there’s more Clara. He was carrying a message with him, in the noose in permanent marker. Is a sentence.” Sherlock said, dashing across the room and grabbing a photo. He handed it to me and pointed out the area I needed to be looking at. In the marker around the noose, under the neck was three words. The words were ‘MY ODIUM SIDES’.
“Are you good with anagrams?” He asks.
“I don’t know, but I can try and figure it out.” I say, looking back at the words. “Hang on one second.” I say. I drop the photo onto the coffee table and run to my room where my notebook lay on the bedside table. I picked it up and the pen and darted back down the hallway and back beside Sherlock. I opened to a blank page and wrote down the anagram.
“Have you got it down?” He asks. I look up and nod. “Good, grab your bag, we are going to Scotland Yard.” He says. I run back to my room and grab my bag, making sure I have my gloves, beanie, scarf and drink bottle. I quickly fill up my drink bottle in the bathroom and walk back to meet Sherlock at the door, who was grabbing his coat and scarf.
“Can you get my coat?” I ask. He rolls is eyes and grabs it from the hook. “Thank you”. I put it on, feeling warmer already. I follow Sherlock, who was already down stairs.
“Won’t be back until mid afternoon Mrs. Hudson!” Sherlock yells. Walking out the door, leaving me behind.
“See you Mrs. Hudson!” I say, hoping she hears. I quickly run out the door after Sherlock, making sure it shuts. “Sherlock?!” I yell, trying to find him through a small crowd.
“Keep up Clara!” I hear him yell. I barge my way through the people on the street to find him getting to a cab. I sprint towards the cab and get in beside Sherlock.
“Don’t leave me behind like that. Molly would kill you.” I say, giving him a light punch in the arm.
“Well you should keep up.” He says. The cab begins to pull away from the curb and into the traffic.
 
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The rest of the cab ride was in silence. A good silence. Once we had reached Scotland Yard, Sherlock was greeted with scowls and groans. I followed him closely, keeping my head down.
“Sherlock! What are you doing here?” A familiar voice sounded. I finally look up to see Greg Lestrade. “And hello to you Clara.” He adds, giving me a small smile.
“Morning Greg. How are you?” I ask. I can see Sherlock getting annoyed already.
“I’m good thank you, glad that you and Sherlock helped close that case. You were right about the stockings too.” Lestrade says.
“Oh I knew I was right. Just took a little effort to prove.” I say.
“Okay enough of the small talk have you had anyone figure out the anagram?” Sherlock says, clearly annoyed.
“It’s an anagram?” Lestrade says, quite surprised. “How do you know that?”
“We don’t know it is just an assumption, but it very likely that it is an anagram.” I say.
“I will get our cryptographers straight onto it. Why didn’t you say anything?” Lestrade asks. He picked up a coffee from the bench and began to drink.
“Because they won’t work with me.” Sherlock says like he has said it a thousand times.
“Don’t worry, I can have a try.” I say to Lestrade.
“You can have a crack Clara but I don’t know if it will be easy for you.” Lestrade says.
“You wanna make a bet?” I say. “I bet I can crack this anagram before your cryptographers, I bet you 30 quid.” I say, not really knowing how much that is.
“Alright you have a deal.” He says, putting his hand out to shake. I take his hand and shake it.
“Deal.” I say. I see Sherlock walking back the way we came. “I will solve it, don’t you worry and it will be right.” I say. Turning to run after Sherlock. Sometimes I think that he doesn’t want me around, and other times I think that he completely forgets that I am with him. This was one of those times. I just follow after him like I normally do. “Sherlock where are we going now?” I ask.
“The Australian High Commission.” He says.