Sherlock's Daughter

16 - The Favourite Uncle

The Favourite Uncle

Juliet sits back in the seat uncomfortably as the car continues to speed around London's streets and eventually onto the motorway. She is twiddling her thumbs awkwardly while peering at her uncle every so often who is slouching while tapping on his smart phone. On one hand he is family and did save her life but on the other he is a dangerous criminal. She decides on preoccupying herself on other things so starts to study the driver who is a bald man in his forties but with an interesting past. He has a small tattoo just below his earlobe which is some sort of symbol showing that he was a part of a gang or cult possibly abroad but from this angle she can't possibly tell. There is traces of pink lipstick under his jaw line from someone being very affectionate with him and then there is the stray strands of bleach blond hair on his shoulder of his blazer. "You are just like your father." Sherrinford mumbles still looking at the screen of his phone.

"Hmm?" Juliet hums after deducing that Mr Chauffer Man has had an encounter with a prostitute. She thinks of her mum...

"You. Deducting." He looks up and she can feel his gaze piercing into her. So she moves her attention from the driver to her Uncle whose expression is completely neutral. "I don't see why it is so appealing. I could do it, if I wanted to. I'd rather get my information from computers - well from hacking databases. Deducing must get utterly tiresome." He locks and pockets his handheld device so all his attention is on the niece he never got to know.

"Where are we going?" Juliet asks for two reasons; she has become curious and she wants to change the subject away from the science of deduction.

"You'll see." He states before leaning forward towards the driver, "Как долго осталось? (How long left?)" Sherrinford asks the driver making Juliet scold herself for not learning Russian. She decides it was probably more useful than Spanish.

"Чуть более часа сэр. (Just over an hour sir.)" The driver responds in the same fluency. "Мне поставить радио на? (Shall I put the radio on?)"

"Please." The youngest of the Holmes brothers replies as the driver reaches out and clicks on the radio. The end of a song that Juliet recognises is playing and Sherrinford taps out the rhythm on his knee.

The frankly awful modern day pop like song comes to an end bringing on the news. "Two men have been shot dead in Baker Street this afternoon." The reporter begins making Juliet lower her head, "Police have already closed off the case and are not commenting on who was the shooter or who were these men but witnesses say that they were talking to a teenage girl who has been hanging around with London's celebrity detective - Sherlock Holmes." Juliet can almost feel Sherrinford seethe next to her making her feel even more uncomfortable. "We have some words from a witness here now...:"

"I was just walking towards the café to grab a sandwich for work." The woman begins, "When I see these two poor men get shot in the head. The girl with them made a run for it and was grabbed by another man who was shot in the back but they just drove off in a car together. All very suspicious if you ask me."

\~.~.~.~.~/

Detective Inspector Greg Lestrade sits awkwardly in the living room of 221B Baker Street with Sherlock who is tapping on the arm of his black leather chair showing his agitated state. John returned home to Mary soon after the incident and Irene Adler just disappeared. It was all rather odd to say the least. Footsteps near the doorway making both men look up to Mycroft who is peering at the screen on his phone. "We have CCTV images of the car Sherlock, my men are trying to track the car. As for your colleagues Mr Lestrade... Sergeant Sally Donovan and Doctor Philip Anderson are on a top secret holiday in the Lake District. The others, we are not so sure about at the moment. My men are also looking into that."