I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 166 : Cleaning ?

Mrs Hudson was hoovering her flat, music loud in her headset, moving  her faulty hips on the tempo. She was in a good mood, looking forward to  the week she was gong to spend at her sister's at the end of the month.  She felt like a little fresh air could only be beneficial to her after  ll she had been through those past months.

Sherlock had behaved  in his usual manner but by doing so had nearly blown up his flat twice.  His experiment had ruined the kitchen and put quite a lot of mess all  around the place to everyone greatest despise. Mycroft had raised back  the degree of surveillance on his brother to a grade four, something he  hadn't done since John had entered the young man's life, years ago and  the doctor had tried to escape the flat every time he could, even  spending some nights at the Holmes' Mansion when the sleuth was really  unmanageable.

As she was listening to her music, the housekeeper  couldn't hear her tenant who was already rummaging upstairs, moving  things from one side of the rooms to the others, pinning his knife even  deeper in the mantel piece, apparently quite preoccupied with what he  was doing.

The elder Holmes sighed in relief as the meeting came  to an end. He was usually very content with his job but when his entire  day was filled up with dull encounter with new ministers who had no idea  how they were supposed to do their job, he wondered why he was not yet  retired. He opened his umbrella to avoid the pouring rain and quickly  embarked in his car, his PA by his side, browsing through his agenda for  the following day.

"Do you want to be dropped at your place or have you got to finish something at the Diogene ?" the politician wondered as the driver took off.

"At home it will be perfect, thank you sir." Anthea smiled gratefully.

"By the way, I was wondering the other day, would you like to come over for diner with Grace next week ?" the official suddenly recalled.

Half  an hour later, Mycroft was taking his shoes off in his house lobby,  happy to be back in the warm and comfortable place he was calling home.  Crystalline laughters were coming from upstairs were his children were  probably playing with their father. Taking his time, the elder Holmes  jumped into his study to secure a couple of documents in his safe and to  the kitchen, drinking a glass of water and eating a banana before  slowly and silently climbing the stairs, eager to surprise his family.

He  had reached the last step without being noticed when his phone started  rigging, ruining his surprise. He checked the caller ID and took the  call with a sad smile to the three sets of eyes. He  was quick to hang up and before any actions, he joined his kids on the  floor, giving them a warm hug and a kiss on the forehead to each. With a  chast kiss on his partner he excused himself and quickly made his way  back to his study.

He just had been informed by his security team  of some strange behaviours coming from his brother and wanted to check  what the man was doing. Most of the time what would be called by the  security team as strange was nothing but his brother's usual actions but  still, he considered himself responsible for checking it every time,  just to make sure it wasn't something more dangerous.

Mycroft  opened his computer and sat behind the desk with a little sight. He  typed his password to the government intranet and selected the  surveillance software. Twenty black and white images suddenly appeared  on the screen, and he looked for those which came from the detective's  flat. He clicked on it, enlarging them and looked for anything that  could look weird.

The young man was showing his back to the  kitchen's CCTV camera and, at first sight, the politician couldn't  deduce what he was doing. It's only when, a couple of seconds later, he  turned around to grab something on the table that the elder Holmes  understood what he was doing. He had to hold back a gasp, seeing the  detective with bright yellow plastic gloves, a sponge in his left hand.