Hello Detective

The Great Game Part 7

"I found a little old man in Argentina. A genius... I mean, really. Brushwork, immaculate. Could fool anyone." She said.

"Mmm." Sherlock muttered, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, nearly anyone." She said looking over to Sherlock. "But I didn't know how to go about convincing the world the picture was genuine. It was just an idea. A spark which he blew into a flame."

"Kdo?" I asked her. Who?

"Nevím..." She said. I don't know... You scoffed.

"It's true. It took a long time, but eventually I was put in touch with people. His people. Well, there was never any real contact. Just messages... whispers." She said.

"A to ti šeptá nějaké jméno?" YIou asked. And did those whispers have a name? She nodded for a moment, almost afraid to let the name slip.

"Moriarty." She spoke, and a hush fell over the whole room. I looked to Sherlock and his eyes widened.

After writing up the paperwork for Miss Wenceslas' indictment, Sherlock and I left in a cab. You knew John had gone off on Mycroft's case so the two of us were going to surprise him.

"I didn't know you spoke Czech." Sherlock said, as he sat back in the cab.

"I told you there were a lot of things you didn't know about me." I replied.

"What other languages do you speak that I don't know about?" He asked with a smirk.

"Vous allez juste devoir attendre et découvrir..." I spoke with a smirk. You're just going to have to wait and find out.

"Ooh, French. There's another one." He said, impressed.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Вы просто придется подождать и выяснить." He said in perfect Russian, repeating your previous words.

"Хорошо, это сексуально, когда вы все равно будете таинственное." I said, with a smirk. Fine, it's sexy when you're mysterious anyway.

The cab stopped and I realized we were at some sort of train service station. A bunch of tracks converge around here. I saw John crouched down, examining some of the lines. Sherlock and I quietly snuck up behind him.

"The points." Sherlock said.

"Yes!" John said, turning around, caught off guard.

"I knew you'd get there eventually. West wasn't killed here, that's why there was so little blood." Sherlock spoke.

"How long have you been following me?" John asked.

"Since the start." Sherlock said, confirming my suspicion that he wouldn't pass up on an interesting case just on account of Mycroft.

"Come on, we've got a bit of burglary to do." Sherlock said walking off, John and I in tow. We travelled a few minutes outside of the city to a flat.

"Missile plans haven't left the country otherwise Mycroft's people would have heard about it. Despite what people think, we do still have a secret service." Sherlock said as we approached the flat.

"So whoever stole the memory stick can't sell it or doesn't know what to do with it." I said.

"My money's on the latter." Sherlock said, turning up the stairs to a fair sized apartment. There were garbage bags outside, cluttering the porch. Sherlock picked the lock and pushed the door open hard with his shoulder.

"Jesus." John muttered, clearly not okay with breaking in.

"Where are we?" I asked Sherlock.

"Oh, sorry, didn't I say? Joe Harrison's flat. Brother of West's fiancee. He stole the memory stick, killed his prospective brother-in-law." Sherlock said, looking out the window. Conveniently, behind his flat was a train line. On the window sill was blood, which had to belong to Andrew West.

"Then why'd he do it?" John asked. Suddenly I could hear keys in the door.

"Let's ask him." I said, pulling out my gun.

I walked slowly into the hallway until I could see Joe Harrison with his bike. He saw me and raised his bike, possible preparing to throw it at me. I raised my gun to him and he lowered it, defeated.

He continued to explain to us that him killing West was an accident. He explained how he started dealing drugs, that the bike messenger was a good cover. He got in too deep, owed a lot of people a lot of money. At West's engagement party he was drunk and started talking about his job. He said West told him about the missile plans, beyond top secret, he even showed him the memory stick. Harrison thought it could be worth a fortune. West came to his flat because he knew Joe had stolen it. They got in a fight on the porch and he accidently pushed him down the long flight of concrete steps. He brought him back inside and heard the train stop outside of his window. He dragged his body out the window and onto the top of the train, taking him far away from here. He would have gone on for ages if it weren't for the points, the train changes tracks and West's body shifted off the top and fell to the ground.

Joe Harrison left the room to fetch the memory stick.

"Distractions over, the game continues." Sherlock said.

"Maybe that's over too. We haven't heard anything from the bomber." John whispered.

"There were five pips, we've only had four." I reminded him.

Sherlock obtained the memory stick and left to give it to Mycroft as John and I shared a cab home. Considering I had to be at the office early in the morning to work out Miss Wenceslas' case, I decided to go home and John continued on to Baker Street.

When I unlocked the door I noticed that I hadn't seen Mrs. Astor all day. I went to check on her and found her asleep watching telly. I smiled and continued up to my flat. I locked the door and slipped into the shower. I got out and turned on the light. I slipped on a silk robe and stepped out into the kitchen for some tea. I heard a shuffle behind me and before you could turn my head I felt a spark pain in my neck. Someone had jabbed a needle into it. Their arms wrapped around me, holding me as I tried to wiggle free, my vision became increasingly blurry as I descended into unconsciousness.