The Case of Elaina

The Great Game [3]

Sherlock had brought the trainers to the lab inside St Bartholomew's hospital. He picked them up, examining the laces carefully and peered at the shoes from all directions, then dug out dried mud from the treads in the soles and put it into a dish.

"So, who'd you suppose it was?" John voiced.

"Hmm?" Sherlock hummed.

"The woman on the phone-the crying woman,"

"Oh, she doesn't matter. She's just a hostage. No lead there,"

John sighed in exasperation "For God's sake, I wasn't thinking about leads,"

"You're not going to be much use to her," Sherlock glanced at the scanner as it revealed no match.

"Are-are they trying to trace it, trace the call?"

"The bomber's too smart for that," Sherlock's phone let out a trill "Pass me my phone,"

John looked around the room "Where is it?"

"Jacket,"

John marched stiffly around the table and rummaged in Sherlock's inside pocket.

"Careful,"

John just pulled out the phone and looked at it "Text from your brother,"

"Delete it,"

"Delete it?"

"Missile plans are out of the country now. Nothing we can do about it,"

John looked over the message "Well, Mycroft thinks there is. He's texted you eight times. Must be important,"

"Then why didn't he cancel his dental appointment?"

"His what?"

"Mycroft never texts if he can talk. Look, Andrew West stole the missile plans, tried to sell them, got his head smashed in for his pains. End of story. The only mystery is this: why is my brother so determined to bore me when somebody else is being so delightfully interesting?"

"Try and remember there's a woman here who might die,"

"What for?" Sherlock looked up at John "This hospital's full of people dying, Doctor. Why don't you go and cry by their bedside and see what good it does them?"

Molly Hooper chose that moment to walk into the room "Any luck?"

"Oh, yes!" Sherlock said triumphantly.

As Molly came over a man in his thirties, wearing slacks and a T-shirt, came in the door and then stopped apologetically.

"Oh, sorry." The man said, "I didn't..."

"Jim!" Molly greeted "Hi! Come in! Come in!"

Sherlock looked up briefly to make his usual deductions on the newcomer and looked back at his microscope.

"Jim, this is Sherlock Holmes. And, uh..." Molly looked at John blankly "sorry,"

"John Watson," John introduced himself "Hi,"

"Hi," Jim's eyes were locked on Sherlock's back as he gazed at him admiringly. "So you're Sherlock Holmes. Molly's told me all about you and..." he looked over at Molly "Sorry I thought you said there was a girl too,"

"Elaina, yeah." Molly nodded "Sweet girl,"

"She's running an errand for me," Sherlock explained Elaina's absence.

"Jim works in IT upstairs." Molly recalled "That's how we met. Office romance,"

"Gay," Sherlock said abruptly.