The Reichenbach Fall (Sherlock X Female!Reader)

Chapter 4: Hansel and Gretel

You, Lestrade, Donovan and the boys get out of the police car and start walking towards the front entrance of St Aldate's school where a woman, with shock blanket, was leaning against a bonnet and blowing her nose.

"Miss Mackenzie, House Mistress. Go easy." Lestrade said, quietly, to Sherlock and he stays back while Sherlock approaches Miss Mackenzie. "Miss Mackenzie, you're in charge of pupil welfare, yet you left this place wide open last night. What's are you: and idiot, a drunk or a criminal?" Sherlock asked and his voice rises angrily and he grabs the shock blanket off of her and she gasps in fear. "Now quickly, tell me!" He said loudly.

"All the doors and windows were properly bolted. No-one--not even me-went into their room last night. You have to believe me!" Miss Mackenzie said, tearfully and cringing in terror. Sherlock's demeanor instantly changes and he smiles reassuringly.

"I do. I just wanted you to speak quickly. Miss Mackenzie will need to breathe into a bag." Sherlock said and walks off and lead you and the others into one of the dormitories.

"Six grand a term, you'd expect them to keep the kids safe for you. You said the other kids had left on their holidays?" John asked Lestrade. Sherlock looks through a cupboard beside one of the bed and you drop to your knees and peer under the bed.

"They were the only two sleeping on this floor. Absolutely no sign of a break-in. The intruder must have been hidden inside some place." Lestrade said as Sherlock picks up a lacrosse stick and gets up on his feet and looks at it closely.

You go to a wooden trunk and open the lid and find a large envelope with a wax seal on the back which has already been broken as if someone has opened the envelope.
Inside is a large hardback book. Checking the envelope first, you take out the book and flip it over to look at the cover, Grimm's Fairy Tales. Sherlock looks over at you and sees what you found. He bends down and looks at the book. He takes it from your hands and riffles the pages quickly. "Show me where the brother slept." He said as he looks up.

You and the boys go to another smaller dormitory and Sherlock looks around the room. "The boy sleeps there every night, gazing at the only light source outside in the corridor. He'd recognize every shape, every outline, the silhouette of everyone who came to the door." Sherlock said as he gestures to the bed.

"Okay, so..." Lestrade trails off and you speak up.

"So someone approaches the door who he doesn't recognize, an intruder. Maybe he can even see the outline of a weapon." Sherlock nods at you and goes outside the door and pulls it almost closed, then raises his hand and points his fingers as if they're a gun, showing you and the others how it would be seen through the the frosted glass.

He pushes the door open and comes back into the room. "What would he do in the precious few seconds before they came into the room? How would he use them if not to cry out?" Sherlock asked as he walks around the bed, looking at the boy's possessions. "This little boy; this particular little boy....who reads all of those spy books. What would he do?" Sherlock asked.

"He'd leave a sign?" You asked as Sherlock sniffs noisily and picks up a cricket bat and sniffs along the sides of it.

Putting the bat down, he squats and sniffs around the bedside table, then reaches under the bed and picks up an almost empty glass bottle of linseed oil. "Get Anderson." Sherlock said, sternly.

Not long afterwards the room has been darkened as much as possible by closing the wooden shutter over the Windows. Sherlock shines an ultraviolet light onto the walk beside the boy's bed where the words "HELP US" have been written on the wall, only now visible in the light.

"Linseed oil." You said and Sherlock nods again as Anderson said. "Not much use. Doesn't lead us to the kidnapper." You roll your eyes as Sherlock said. "Brilliant, Anderson."