Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Life

Chapter 7

Hello, Erica again! I just wanted to let you know that I've moved house and I currently have no internet so this story will be getting updated a lot less frequentley until we get Wi-Fi. :(

On the up side that means that I'll have lots of time to write more chapters so I can stay ahead of myself. Woo!

Enjoy!

The taxi that we were all currently crammed into pulled up outside 221 and we all got out after paying for our ride. Sherlock unlocked the front door and we followed him inside, bypassing the stairs and heading towards Mrs Hudson's flat. Just as we reached it we came to a halt but, me being me, I didn't realise and ran straight into the back of Detective Inspector Lestrade.

"Sorry," I muttered when he turned around to see what had hit him. I was greeted with a friendly smile that seemed to say 'It's ok'. The door that Sherlock was facing was plain white and had the numbers 221 followed by the letter C. It made me think of Harry Potter and his cupboard under the stairs. How could the room from the picture possibly fit in there?

"Mrs Hudson!" Sherlock yelled slightly too loud considering that he was stood right next to her door. Mrs Hudson opened the door of 221A timidly and Sherlock asked her for the keys to 221C. She disappeared for a short while; Sherlock was examining the padlock that was attached to the door until she returned with a set of key which were then handed to him. The silence was deafening so Mrs Hudson tried to fill it with small talk but nobody was paying attention.

"The door's been opened recently," Sherlock whispered, cutting off Mrs Hudson's babble to take a mental note as he looked closely at the door's keyhole.

"No, it can't be." Sherlock pulled off the padlock and selected another key in order to open the door itself while Mrs Hudson was speaking, "That's the only key.". More awkward silence. "I can't get anyone interested in this flat. It's the damp, I expect. That's the curse of basements...". With the door open everyone filed down a small, single file staircase leaving Mrs Hudson to talk to herself. Instead of being rude I decided to give her a small smile before I disappeared as well, closing the door behind me. "Men!" I could hear her sigh exasperatedly, this made me chuckle.

We reached the bottom of the stairs where Sherlock slowly pushed the door to the living room open, walking inside. Again, the rest of us followed. There wasn't much else we could do at this point. Until we, or should I say Sherlock, worked out the significance of the room me, John and Lestrade were rendered useless. The room looked exactly as it did in the picture: damp, peeling walls, a rickety looking fireplace and two mirrors. The only exception was this: a pair of trainers place neatly in the dead centre of the floor, their toes pointed towards the door that we had come from. John  and Lestrade stopped in front of me so I shuffled around them and followed Sherlock in stepping slightly closer before hearing John state what can only be described as the obvious:

"Shoes." Sherlock and I continued walking but not before John put out a cautionary hand "He's a bomber, remember.". We stopped for a moment to heed John's words and then continued, slower this time, towards the trainers. The detective crouched down, put his hands on the floor and leaned forwards so that his nose was almost touching the shoes. Just then a phone rang and he visibly jumped before standing up and pulling off his black leather glove and taking the pink iPhone from his trench coat pocket. I caught a glimpse of the caller I.D. 'NUMBER BLOCKED'. He paused for a second before turning to face me and answering the phone.

"Hello?-" I could faintly hear a woman's voice on the other end  but it wasn't loud enough for me to hear what she was saying, "Who's this?... Who's talking? Why are you crying?-". She said something again before Sherlock whispered "The curtain rises."

"What?" John said, not quite catching Sherlock's drift. To be honest I wasn't quite with him either

"Nothing." I looked at him with a raised eyebrow

"No, what did you mean?"

Sherlock adjusted his position so that he was half looking at John "I've been expecting this for some time.". The woman spoke again but this time there was no opportunity for Sherlock to ask questions as he dropped the phone from his ear signalling that the call had been ended. Without a word being said to any of us Sherlock put his glove back on and grabbed the trainers carefully, making sure not to make any changes to their condition, and dashed back up the stairs.

"Where's he going?" Lestrade grumbled

"I don't know but we'd better go after him, God knows what he's doing."

"He'll probably get himself killed. Ladies first."

I was the first to leave out of our remaining three, taking the stairs two at a time, followed by John and finally Lestrade. The two men left immediately but I thought it only polite to lock the door to 221C and give Mrs Hudson her keys back so I locked up and knocked on the door. It only took a couple of seconds for her to answer.

"Hello Mrs Hudson, thank you for the keys and I apologise on behalf of the boys." I spoke politely

"It's ok dear, they're always like that, running off on one adventure or the other."

"Well they're men, what do you expect?" we both laughed at my remark before Sherlock came charging back into the building.

"Sarah! Come on! We have to get to Bart's, we only have twelve hours to solve this puzzle!"

"Sorry Mrs Hudson, Duty calls!". After a quick goodbye and being ushered out of the door by Sherlock the four of us were off again, this time to Bart's. Wherever that was.