Lorenzo Holmes | Sherlock BBC

Chapter Nine: Archenemy

Sherlock was standing on the edge of a rooftop looking down into the streets below as he searched for a glimpse of anywhere the case might have been hidden. It wasn't until he turned in the corner when he abruptly stopped when he saw his brother at the other side of the street looking directly at him with the suitcase in his hand.

"Where did you find it?" Sherlock asked as they walked back to their flat.

"In an alley at the left side of Laurinston." Lorenzo answered him with a smirk.

When the brothers got back Lorenzo went to straight to his chair and went into his mind place thinking. Lorenzo felt someone nudging him and fell out of his mind place to see John back and Sherlock to be the one who was touching him.

Lorenzo slapped his brothers hands away which caused Sherlock to roll his eyes as he pulled himself off the chair and the brothers both left the flat. Not long afterward, John catches up to the brothers in the street and they continued down the road.

"Where are we going?" John asked.

Sherlock didn't look at him, "Northumberland Street's a five-minute walk from here." he answered looking around.

"You think he's stupid enough to go there?" John asked as he suddenly realized Lorenzo was in his mind place so he didn't know what was happening, so John turned to him, "Uh, Sherlock made me text-"

"Don't bother, John. My brother already knows what happened thanks to our body language" Sherlock said interrupting him.

"Anyways..." Sherlock continued, "No - I think he's brilliant enough. I love the brilliant ones. They're always so desperate to get caught."

"Why?" The doctor asked again.

Lorenzo then answered excited, "Appreciation. Applause. At long last the spotlight. That's the frailty of genius, John, it needs an audience."

John looked pointedly at them both, "Yeah." He said knowingly.

Oblivious to the implication, Sherlock then spoke, "This is his hunting ground, right here in the heart of the city. Now that we know his victims were abducted, that changes everything. Because all of his victims disappeared from busy streets, crowded places, but nobody saw them go." He held his hands up on either side of his head as if to focus his thoughts, "Think. Who do we trust, even though we don't know them? Who passes unnoticed wherever they go? Who hunts in the middle of a crowd?" he said mostly to himself.

Sherlock lowered his hands, "Hungry?" he asked. They both led John into a small restaurant.

The waiter near the door clearly knew them and gestured to a reserved table at the front window, "Thank you, Billy." Sherlock said taking his coat off, he sat down on the bench seat at the side of the table and immediately turned sideways so that he could see clearly out of the window.

As Billy took the 'Reserved' sign off the table, John sat down on the other bench seat with his back to the window, and took off his jacket, Lorenzo sat down next to Sherlock so he could see outside of the window too.

Sherlock spoke nodding to a building over the road, "Twenty-two Northumberland Street. Keep your eyes on it."

"He isn't just gonna ring the doorbell, though, is he? He'd need to be mad." John said frowning.

Lorenzo looked at him, "He's killed four people." he said blankly.

"Okay." The doctor said slowly.

The manager or owner of the restaurant came over; clearly pleased to see the brothers, "Sherlock, Lorenzo." he greeted them both, "Anything on the menu, whatever you want, free." he laid a couple of menus on the table, "On the house, for Lorenzo, you and for your date." he said looking at Sherlock and John who arched his eyebrow.

"I'm not his date." John told him.

"Do you want to eat?" Sherlock asked the doctor, knowing Lorenzo doesn't eat on a case.

"These guys got me off a murder charge." the man said to John with a wide smile.

Sherlock introduced him, "This is Angelo." Angelo offered his hand to John, and he shook it, "Three years ago we successfully proved to Lestrade at the time of a particularly vicious triple murder that Angelo was in a completely different part of town, house-breaking."

Angelo told directly to John, "They cleared my name." he said happily.

"We cleared it a bit." Lorenzo corrected, "Anything happening opposite?" he asked.

Angelo shook his head, "Nothing." he looked at John, "But for these men, I'd have gone to prison."

"You did go to prison." Lorenzo corrected him again.

Angelo ignored the teenager and looked at John, "I'll get a candle for the table. It's more romantic." he said walking away.

"I'm not his date!" John called after him, which just caused Lorenzo to smirk.

Angelo returned holding a small glass bowl with what appeared to be a tea light in it. He placed it on the table and gave John a thumbs up, Angelo hurried off again and John said in a tetchy manner, "Thanks."

Later, John had a plate of food in front of him and was eating from it. Lorenzo's attention was fixed out of the window and was quietly drumming his fingers on the table.

"People don't have arch-enemies." John's voice sounded, It takes a moment but Lorenzo and Sherlock finally looked around.

"I'm sorry?" Sherlock asked wondering what he was on about.

John clarified, "In real life. There are no arch-enemies in real life. Doesn't happen."

Lorenzo looked at him disinterestedly, "Doesn't it? Sounds a bit dull." he muttered.

Lorenzo turned his attention back to the street; he nodded out of the window, "Look across the street. Tax.i" John and Sherlock twisted in their seat to look out of the window where a taxi had parked at the side of the road with its back end towards the restaurant, "Stopped. Nobody getting in, and nobody getting out." In the rear seat of the taxi the male passenger was looking through the side windows as if trying to see somebody particular.

Sherlock started to whisper to himself "Why a taxi? Oh, that's clever. Is it clever? Why is it clever?"

John asked him, "That's him?" he asked the brothers confused.

"Don't stare." Lorenzo snapped at the army doctor.

Watson looked at him, "You're staring."

"We can't all stare." he quickly replied.

Getting on their feet, the brothers grabbed their coat and headed for the door.

John picked up his own jacket and followed... completely forgetting to take his walking cane with him.

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