Mental: Sherlock x fem!Reader x Moriarty

Chapter 27 - On the run

~Two Months later~

Lestrade drove you and the rest up to a boarding school where two children were kidnapped. Two police cars were parked in front and a woman was standing in front of one of them, leaning against the bonnet wearing a shock blanket around her shoulders and crying while a uniformed female police officer talks reassuringly to her. She must be the head of boarding. 

You all get out the car, Sherlock immediately walks up to the woman after Lestrade says to 'go easy' on her, you follow behind. "Miss Mackenzie, you're in charge of pupil welfare, yet you left this place wide open last night. What are you: an idiot, a drunk or a criminal?" His voice rises quickly and you go up to get him away from the woman. "Now quickly, tell me!" 

"Sherlock! Calm down,"

"All the doors and windows were properly bolted. No-one – not even me – went into their room last night. You have to believe me!" She stutters on a word or two before sobbing again. Sherlock smiles, his mood changed.

"I do. I just wanted you to speak quickly" He walks away and you follow. "Miss Mackenzie will need to breathe into a bag now," You slap his shoulder and scold him for frightening the woman.

"Six grand a term, you'd expect them to keep the kids safe for you. You said the other kids had all left on their holidays?" John comments. Sherlock drops to his knees and checks under the bed and in drawers.

"They were the only two sleeping on this floor. Absolutely no sign of a break-in,"

"The intruder must have been hidden inside someplace," Lestrade says insightfully. You too look around and open up a crate in front of the little girl's bed. Amongst the other items inside the trunk, you find a large brown envelope with a wax seal on the back which has already been broken. Inside was a big book that you flipped over to read the title; 'Grimm fairytales'. You look along the spine and then ruffle the book pages to see if anything was slipped in.

"Show me where the brother slept,"

~~~

Entering the boy's room a smell lingered in the air, you made your way towards the boy's bed and started to look for evidence. "The boy sleeps there every night, gazing at the only light source outside in the corridor," Sherlock gestures to the frosted window pane "He'd recognize every shape, every outline, the silhouette of everyone who came to the door,"

"Okay so?" You roll your eyes and step beside Lestrade.

"So someone approaches the door who he doesn't recognize, an intruder. Maybe he can even see the outline of a weapon," You state.

"Exactly," Sherlock steps out from behind the door. "What would he do in the precious few seconds before they came into the room? How would he use them if not to cry out?" He makes his way towards the bed. "This little boy; this particular little boy, who reads all of those spy books. What would he do?"

"He'd leave a sign," John says. Sherlock picks up a cricket bat and sniffs along the sides of it.

"Sherlock, linseed oil," Sherlock smirks.

"Get Anderson!" He says sternly.

~~~

"Not much use. Doesn't lead us to the kidnapper," You roll your eyes at Anderson's stupidity.

"Brilliant, Anderson," You raise an eyebrow at Sherlock.

"Really?" Anderson asks, surprised.

"Yes, brilliant impression of an idiot," You snicker and make your way back into the boy's room to bag the bottle of linseed oil. Making your way outside you hear Anderson state again.