Shadows of the Past (BBC Sherlock) -1-

14. Scotland Yard

Dusk was settling over London by the time I got to Scotland Yard.

I paid the driver and stood before the building. There looked to be many floors. How the hell was I going to find John and Sherlock when I got in there?

Actually, it turned out I wouldn't need to go direction hunting, because after I took in the building, my eyes found John approaching me.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," I told him as I met him. We started heading for the doors. "Tell me everything, from the very beginning."

John dived right in without hesitation: "We got to the boarding school. Apparently, the children were the only two sleeping on a certain floor. We checked out both rooms. The brother's room is where we found a lot. Well, Sherlock did at least."

"Which was...?"

"The door to the boy's room had a window, so he would recognize any shape on the other side of the door. He must've realized a stranger was coming for him." John got the door for me, we both slipped inside. Noises of office life flew into my ears. "Before he was kidnapped, the boy used linseed oil to help us. He'd written 'help us' on his bedroom wall, and he dowsed his feet in the oil—we found prints in the dark.

"Sherlock concluded that the boy was ushered out at gunpoint." My stomach roiled. "His sister was pulled alongside him; their kidnapper had an arm around her neck." I exhaled shakily. "Should I keep going?"

"Please do."

"I won't if it makes you uneasy, Rachel."

"I can handle it, John." I said this a bit too sharply, and quickly. "Sorry."

"Sherlock scraped some samples of the oil and floor wax in the school, and then we headed to St. Bart's."

"What's that?"

"A hospital."

"Why go there?"

"We have a friend there who could help us, Molly Hooper."

"Never heard of her."

"Now you have. You two should meet sometime, I'm sure you'd get along well."

"Let's get back on track, John," I told him.

"Right. The oil in the kidnapper's footprint had chemical traces in it. We'd be able to find out every place he'd been. Sherlock had found four substances in the footprint, but he was having trouble with a fifth. Then I realized something. Back at the school, in the sister's room, there was an envelope left in her trunk. In it was a book of Grimm Fairytales."

"I don't know where you're going with this."

"Well, earlier, before I found you at the stairs, I found an envelope similar at our doorstep. It was full of bread crumbs."

"I still don't get where this is going."

"Think about it, Rachel. What story involves children and bread crumbs?"

I swallowed. "Hansel and Gretel." I exhaled deeply. "He really goes to great lengths to make things interesting, doesn't he?"

"So the fifth substance was PGPR, something used to make chocolate. We came back here. In the meantime, Moriarty was graciously letting us know that the children were dying." John scowled. "We were trying to find a place that had all the substances in one area: brick dust, PGPR, chalk, asphalt, and vegetation. Our main thinking was an abandoned chocolate factory."