Sherlock - The Game Is On!

The Final Problem- Two

Chapter Two

Third POV

Flickering black and white film footage is watched. It seems to be a bit of film noir made in the 1940s or 1950s and is set in the office of a private investigator. The investigator, Leonard, stands with his back to his desk and in front of him is a typical femme fatale, Velma, holding a cigarette. Both characters speak with American accents:

- - You know I could arrest you? - -

- - What for? - -

- - Wearing a dress like that. - -

- - Would you like me to take it off? - -

- - Then I'd really have to press charges. - -

- - Press away. - -

Mycroft is in a small room with a film projector behind him. Sitting in an armchair with his left elbow on the arm and his fingers propping his head up, he smiles and mouths Leonard's lines every time he speaks:

- - Isn't that how they got started? - -

- - Who? - -

- - Adam and Eve. - -

- - Oh, them. - -

- - And that turned out okay. - -

- - You think so? - -

Mycroft was too busy smiling to mouth that line. Now he turns his head and picks up a glass as he mouths the next line:

- - I thought it was supposed to be the beginning of all human misery. - -

Mycroft drinks from his glass.

- - Now, what was all that about arresting me? - -

She flicks the ash from her cigarette onto the floor beside her. Mycroft smiles.

- - Well, maybe not arresting you. - -

- - No? - -

- - I could just keep you under close watch. - -

For a split second the footage glitches, showing a yellowed image of a family of two adults and two children sitting on a beach, then the footage returns to the film.

- - Very close? - -

Mycroft frowns.

The footage glitches again, for a little longer this time and the yellowed image returns but then zooms in towards one of the children, a young overweight boy, about eleven years old.

Clearly this is old cine footage. The screen briefly returns to Velma in the movie, then flicks over to a close-up of the fat boy smiling at the camera, then returns to the movie. Mycroft sits up and turns round to look at the film projector.

- - Shame. I was looking forward to putting myself into the hands of the authorities. - -

- - You were? - -

- - Fingerprinting... - -

Turning back, Mycroft reaches over and stubs out a lit cigarette in an ashtray.

- - Being searched... - -

Mycroft turns to the screen.

- - Thoroughly. - -

Again the footage glitches and the boy smiles quirkily into the camera. Now the footage jumps more quickly back and forth between the professional movie and the home movie.

In the latter, a beach ball bounces across to a younger boy, about four years old, who has a mop of brown curly hair.

The camera pulls up and the mother stands up and waves. Mycroft was puzzled but couldn't help smiling at the sight. The father kneels down to the older son who is holding a plate piled high with sandwiches and an apple, and is taking a bite from a sandwich.