Kat Got Your Tongue? (Sherlock X OC) ~BOOK 1~

Chapter 57

~~~

"It's a fake. It has to be." Sherlock snaps angrily. Sherlock, Kat, John, and Detective Inspector Lestrade all went to the art gallery and met up with Miss Wenceslas. Right now, all of them were standing in front of the painting and examining it.

"That painting has been subjected to every test known to science." Wenceslas argues

"It's a very good fake, then." Sherlock snaps and then he turns to the woman. "You know about this, don't you? This is you, isn't it?"

Miss Wenceslas rolls her eyes at Sherlock's accusation. "Inspector, my time is being wasted." She turns to Lestrade. "Would you mind showing yourself and your friends out?"

Sherlock refuses to leave when suddenly the pink phone starts to ring and he answers it and puts it on speaker. "The painting is a fake. It's a fake, that's why Woodbridge and Cairns were killed." He snaps into the phone but he doesn't get a response back. "Oh, come on, proving it's just a detail." He groans. "The painting is a fake. I've solved it, I've figured it out. It's a fake, that's the answer, that's why they were killed." Still no response. Sherlock then grits his teeth, and takes a deep breath and composes himself. "OK, I'll prove it. Give me time. Will you give me time?"

"10." A little kids voice speaks through the phone and everyone in the room seems to gasp collectively while Sherlock snaps around and stares at the painting with intense concentration.

"It's a kid." Kat whispers and covers her mouth with her hands. "Oh God, it's a kid."

Lestrade starts pacing around nervously.

"What did he say?" John asks Sherlock.

"10." The detective fills in for him.

"9." The kid on the phone suddenly speaks up.

"He's giving me time." Sherlock realizes and he gets closer to the picture again.

"Jesus." John groans as he gets really worried.

Sherlock looking around the picture mumbling to himself. "It's a fake, but how can I prove it?How?! How?!" He yells at the end.

"8."

Sherlock then suddenly turns to Miss Wenceslas aggressively. "This kid will die. Tell me why the painting is a fake. Tell me!"

"7."

Wenceslas opens her mouth to say something when Sherlock snaps at her again. "No, shut up. Don't say anything. It only works if I figure it out. It must be possible. It must be staring me in the face."

"6."

"How? Woodbridge knew, but how?!"

"Wait, Sherlock, didn't John say that Woodbridge was an astronomer?" Kat points out as she tries to help him figure it out.

"5."

"It's speeding up! Sherlock!" The good doctor all but yells at his friend.

"4."

Sherlock's mind is buzzing around with the words astronomer playing over in his head. He thinks back to when they were in the auditorium with the planetary video projecting on the screen. He plays back the voices when suddenly something hits him and his brain flashes back to looking at the text message Kat received.

"Have a SUPER day." Sherlock breathes out and his eyes snap to a specific spot on the painting and he stands up excitedly and begins to look for something on his phone. "In the Planetarium, you heard it too. Oh, that is brilliant, that is gorgeous!"

"3."

"What's brilliant? What is?!" John snaps as he tries, unsuccessfully, to get Sherlock's attention.

"This is beautiful."

"2"

"Sherlock!" Greg yells and Sherlock finally turns around and yells into the phone.

"The Van Buren Supernova."

There is silence before the kid speaks again. "Please, is somebody there? Somebody help me." Kat and everybody sighs in relief that the kid is safe.

"There you go. Go and find out where he is and pick him up." Sherlock says nonchalantly as he hands the phone over to Lestrade. "Van Buren Supernova, so-called." Holmes points to one of the larger white stars in the painting as he explains to Kat and John, and by extension Miss Wenceslas because she was still in the room. "Exploding star. Only appeared in the sky in 1858." He holds up his phone that has a picture of the real star on it.

"So how could it have been painted in the 1640s?" John pants as if he's just run a mile. "Oh, oh. Oh, Sherl-"

"A supernova?" Kat turns to the detective with a small smile. "Super." Sherlock smiles back at her.

"That's how I figured it out."

~~~

Later on that afternoon, Sherlock, Kat, and Lestrade were sitting in an interrogation room, Kat and Greg across from Miss Wenceslas and Sherlock was sitting behind her.

"You know, it's interesting." Sherlock muses with his hands steepled under his chin. "Bohemian stationery, an assassin named after a Prague legend, and you, Miss Wenceslas." He emphasizes her last name. "This whole case has a distinctly Czech feeling about it. Is that where this leads? What are we looking at, Inspector?"

Lestrade taps his chin with his pen. "Well, criminal conspiracy, fraud, accessory after the fact, at the very least." He lists off. "The murder of the old woman, all the people in the flat-"

"I didn't know anything about that. All those things, please, believe me." Miss Wenceslas cuts his off frantically. Sherlock nods his head at Kat and Lestrade behind the woman's back indicating that he believes her. "I just wanted my share. The 30 million." Miss Wenceslas pauses for a moment before she turns to Sherlock and sighs. "I found a little old man in Argentina." She admit looking down ashamed. "A genius, I mean, really. Brushwork, immaculate. Could fool anyone."

"Mmm." Sherlock hums and looks away from the woman and Kat rolls her eyes at his insinuation.

"Well, nearly anyone." She corrects herself. "But I didn't know how to go about convincing the world the picture was genuine. It was just an idea. A spark which he blew into a flame."

Sherlock's head snaps back to the women intrigued. "Who?"

"I don't know." She says and Kat laughs out loud. "It's true!" Miss Wenceslas insists. "It took a long time, but eventually I was put in touch with people... his people." Sherlock slowly sits up and leans in towards the woman. "Well, there was never any real contact. Just messages whispers."

"And did those whispers have a name?" Sherlock says in a hard voice as he leans in closer.

Miss Wenceslas looks around nervously as if someone was watching her before she whispers the name. "Moriarty."

~~~~~~~~~

If you liked this chapter and my story and you want to help me write more, please donate to any or all of the links below or you can find them in my BIO! Thank you! Love you muchly, Kisses -K

BuyMeACoffee - buymeacoffee.com/Immortality4646
LiberaPay - https://en.liberapay.com/Immortality4646/
Ko-Fi - https://ko-fi.com/immortality4646