[COMPLETE] ??? ???? ?? ??? ??????「Sherlock」

004; The Case of the Empty Boy

"Human trafficking," Sherlock finished, striding forward and slamming a hand on the side of the wall. Julia flinched slightly, his sudden outburst lighting up the room. "I knew it, of course! Just as they did with the Jewish, the black market numbers off any being passed through their system, similarly to cattle."

"R-Really?" stammered the rather confused woman. "Why haven't you jumped on it then?"

"I was focused on hate-crimes that have been speckling across London," he dismissed, wheeling around and flying past her, beginning to toss papers here and there, even after she had just organised them. "But, there was one case in particular that caught my attention and I've been pondering over it since the night I discovered it!" He finally located what he was looking for and shovelled the papers into her arms, leaving her to read them over as he continued to ramble. "Illegal smuggling at the border. Lestrade said they caught the man in the subways with a bag full of cocaine. The only thing that stuck out to me was the man's text messages, mentioning something about a shipment coming in in a few weeks from now. Our police force does not translate very well, but they were discovered that they had mentioned one key word in particular, which had been "czysty plon". Of course Lestrade is too much of an idiot to understand that it was in a different language rather than gibberish. Honestly, it's a wonder that our police force can get anything done these days without my help."

Julia looked up from the pages of nearly illegible writing and stared at Sherlock. He had a confident smile on his face, his eyes gleaming with their usual charm and arrogance once more. "So you think that it could mean something valuable to this case?" she asked, blinking at him. She was trying her best to be John in this situation. Her mind was flying off the handle: what had she just gotten herself into? Was this how John had felt way back when he had first started working with Sherlock?

Now she really understood why he called everybody an idiot.

"Allow me to simplify, my dear girl," he shot back, turning to the pages upon the wall. "It translates to "pure crop", which all of our victims are considered to be young and innocent, as well as pure, and if what you just mentioned is true, then I am correct, as usual." Sherlock wheeled around with an exclamatory sigh, hands shooting out to the sides. "Oh, my mind has finally straightened itself out! The planets are aligning once more."

Julia stood there, eyes flitting across the board behind him, until she suddenly felt something dawn upon her. It had taken her a while, but she now understood what he was getting at. "Wait. What if the skin with these faint numbers was torn away to hide the code?" She pointed toward the patch upon Elijah's lifeless arm in the glossy texture of the photo that Sherlock had so painstakingly posted to the peeling wall. "Is it like that with all the other bodies? If it is—"

"Then they did a horrible job of hiding it, and we have ourselves another lead!" Sherlock wheeled around and suddenly charged her, scooping her up in his arms by the waist and swinging her around as she squealed in surprise. The man shouted just as he came to a stand still and allowed her back down upon her feet.

"Brilliant!" Breaking from her, he bounded over to the coat wrack and threw on his trench coat over his dark blue button-up, following with his scarf. He jabbed a finger at her. "You, my dear, are coming with me!"

"Wha– but what about the– I still have to finish—" Julia sputtered. "What about John? Shouldn't he come with you? I won't know what to do around the police."

"No time, Ms. Fuller, crime waits for no one!" Her coat was tossed to her, along with her scarf. Julia tossed the duster off to the side and grabbed her purse, flying out the door behind Mr. Holmes, who was eager to get to... wherever he was taking her.