Jenny Smith-Holmes

Chapter 10: Joe

Later that day, we went down to the railroad. Wearing a high-vis jacket over his coat, John walked along the railway lines, holding my hand, with the Tube guard who found Andrew West's body.
" So this is where West was found?" questioned John.
"Yeah." The tube guard replied.
" Uh-huh."
" Are we gonna be long?" I asked John.
" Yeah, might be. Sorry" he said. Tomorrow
" You with the police, then?" asked the tube guard.
" Sort of." John said looking at the tracks.
" I hate 'em."
" The police?"
" No. Jumpers." 'Be careful, there, dude. .' I thought to myself.
" People who chuck themselves in front of trains. Selfish bastards."
" Well, that's one way of looking at it." John said as he squatted down to look more closely at the railway track. I went and sat down next to him to see what I could see. The tube guard looked at me strangely.
" I mean it. It's all right for them. It's over in a split second – strawberry jam all over the lines. What about the drivers, hmm? They've gotta live with it, haven't they?" the tube guard ranted on. John wasn't really paying attention as he ran his fingers along the track, and then lifted his hand to look at it.
" Yeah, speaking of strawberry jam, there's no blood on the line," he stood up again, "has it been cleaned off?"I looked down at the tracks and realized that john was right, there was hardly any blood anywhere.
" No, there wasn't that much." Both John and I looked at him confuse. 'When your head is smashed in , there should be blood, right?'
" You said his head was smashed in." John went on.
" Well, it was, but there wasn't much blood." The tube guard said.
" Okay." John turned and looked along the line thoughtfully. I looked up at him and then back down at the tracks
" Well, I'll leave you to it then." The tube guard said wanting to get away from the situation. John looked down the tracks and walked a few yards further down the line, then squatted down again.
" Just give us a shout when you're off." The tube guard yelled behind him as he was walking away.
" Right." I yelled before John could. John stood up again and started talking. I couldn't tell if was talking to himself or to me. But I went along with it.
" Right so, uh, Andrew West got on the train somewhere – or did he? There's no ticket on the body. Then how did he end up here?" Beside us, the points change and one of the tracks slid sideways into a new layout. John squatted down again and looked at the tracks thoughtfully.
"Points." Daddy said from behind us. It be honest, he scared me when
" Yes!" John exclaimed. He sprung up to his feet and turns around to see his flatmate standing nearby. I stood up and stood next to John.
" Knew you'd get there eventually. West wasn't killed here; that's why there was so little blood." Daddy explained.
" How long have you been following me." Questioned John.
" Since the start. You don't think I'd give up on a case like this just to spite my brother, do you?' He turned and started walking away.
" Come on. Got a bit of burglary to do." Daddy called behind him.

Shortly afterwards, we were walking down a street.
" The missile defense plans haven't left the country, otherwise Mycroft's people would have heard about it. Despite what people think, we do still have a Secret Service." Daddy said to John.
I tried to listen but something caught my attention. There was a blonde woman, about 19, and a man in his thirties. The man felt familiar, but not the woman. What was one of the strangest thing was what they were saying to each other.
"When you say nine hundred years..." the girl said.
" That's my age." The man replied. 'That man is 900 years old! Impossible!
"You're nine hundred years old?" the girl said in her astonishment.
"Yeah."
" My mom was right. That's one hell of an age gap." The nodded his age and looked around. He looked in my direction and did a double take. A small smile slid onto his face as he stared. The girl was trying to get his attention but it didn't work, so she looked at what he was looking at. Daddy was still pulling me down the street so I only saw her look for a split second.

Doctor's P.O.V.
'There she is. Jessica. I hope she's okay.' I thought to myself. She was looking right at me.
"Doctor!" Rose yelled.
"What?" I said looking at Rose.
"What were you looking at?"she looked towards where Jessica was, but Jessica just turned around the corner.
"An old friend." The smile slid on to my face again as we both walked towards the TARDIS.

Jenny's P.O.V.
Daddy turned into the drive of a maisonette and trotted up the steps at the side of the building which lead to the front door of the flat 221A on the first floor. John and I were right behind him as he started to rummaged in his pocket, then John whispered to him urgently, "Sherlock! What if there's someone in?"
"There isn't." Daddy said knowingly. He picked the lock and went inside.
"Jesus!" John whispered quietly. He hurried inside with me and shut the door. Daddy trotted up the short flight of stairs ahead of us and walked into the living room.
" Where are we?"I asked
"Oh, sorry, didn't I say? Joe Harrison's flat." Daddy replied
"Joe...?" John said not knowing who he was. Daddy went straight over to the window and pulled back the net curtain. He grinned in satisfaction at the sight which greeted him outside.
"Brother of West's fiancée." Daddy answered John's question. I went and stood next to daddy to see outside. Outside the window was a one-story extension, the roof of which can be easily climbed onto from the window. The extension spreads all the way to the bottom of the garden which ends in a wall, and directly on the other side of the wall is the railway line.
"He stole the memory stick; killed his prospective brother-in-law." Daddy said dropping to his knees. He got out his magnifier and ran it slowly along the edge of the window sill. John walked across to him and peered over his shoulder as Daddy found some tiny blood-red spots on the paint.
" Then why'd he do it?" I asked looking over at daddy. John straightened up and turned as someone unlocked the front door. Daddy also stood up and pushed me behind him, like he was protecting me.
"Let's ask him." Daddy said. Reaching round to the back of his jeans, John walked quietly to the door of the living room as the front door slammed. He stepped out onto the landing just as Joe, wearing his courier gear, was leaning his bicycle against the wall. When he saw John, he picked up his bike as if he intended to use it as a weapon or simply to throw it at John. John instantly raised his right hand and pointed his pistol at him, "Don't."
Joe kept coming but John just shook his head, "Don't."
Joe stopped and lowered the bike, sighing in a mixture of frustration and fear.

A few minutes later, he was sitting on the sofa as Daddy and John were standing and watching him. He was very distressed.
"It wasn't meant to..." Joe started. Daddy looked away, exasperated. I just sat there attempting to understand what was going on in his brain.
"God," He rubbed his hand over his face," What's Lucy gonna say? Jesus." He sunk back into the sofa. Daddy looked like he was about to kill him. All daddy wanted was to know why he did it.
"Why did you kill him?" Daddy inquired.
"It was an accident." Joe pleaded. Daddy snorted at that
"I swear it was." Joe went on
"But stealing the plans for the missile defense program wasn't an accident, was it?"
"I started dealing drugs. I mean, the bike thing's a great cover, right? I dunno – I dunno how it started; I just got out of my depth. I owed people thousands – serious people. Then at Westie's engagement do, he starts talking about his job." Joe continued talking, "I mean, usually he's so careful; but that night after a few pints he really opened up. He told me about these missile plans – beyond top secret. He showed me the memory stick; he waved it in front of me. You hear about these things getting lost, ending up on rubbish tips and what-not. And there it was, and I thought ... well, I thought it could be worth a fortune. It was pretty easy to get the thing off him, he was so plastered. Next time I saw him, I could tell by the look on his face that he knew." He looks like he's remembering something, then he looked up guiltily at John.
" What happened?" John asked
" I was gonna call an ambulance, but it was too late." Joe went on.
" I just didn't have a clue what to do, so I dragged him in 'ere, and I just sat in the dark, thinking." Joe looked at the floor of his flat.
" When a neat little idea popped into your head." Daddy said sarcastically.
Then I saw something flashing before my eyes; Joe hauling Westie across to the window, as train pulls up on the tracks outside, its brakes squealing noisily. Then Joe has dragged Westie out of the window and was tugging him across the extension roof. Pulling him over the top of the wall, he stepped across onto the roof of the train and drug the body over, settling it into a position along the slightly curved roof so that it won't easily fall off. He stepped back onto the wall as the train sounded its horn and then it continued on down the track.
Pushing the net curtain aside and looking out of the window, Daddy said, "Carrying Andrew West way away from here. His body would have gone on for ages if the train hadn't met a stretch of track that curved."
"And points." John and I added.
"Exactly." Daddy said.
" D'you still have it, then? The memory stick?" Daddy asked Joe nods, " Fetch it for me – if you wouldn't mind." Sighing unhappily, Joe stood up and walked into another room. Daddy walked closer to John and quietly said to him, "Distraction over, the game continues."
" Well, maybe that's over, too. We've heard nothing from the bomber." John replied
" Five pips, remember, John? It's a countdown. We've only had four." I said to John.