Fandom Traveler (Sherlock Holmes)

The Great Game (Part 3)

Later, the boys and Vaness are in the back of a taxi. Vaness sat next to Sherlock while John sat infront of him.

"Nineteen eighty-nine, a young kid - champion swimmer - came up from Brighton for a school sports tournament; drowned in the pool. Tragic accident." Sherlock told them.

He shows John, then Vaness the front page of a newspaper on his phone.

"You wouldn't remember it. Why should you?" He said to John.

"But you remember." John comments.

"Yes." Sherlock said.

Vaness faced the window, it wouldn't do good for her to speak. She can give them clues, but would Sherlock want that? She didn't think so.

"Something fishy about it?" John asked.

"Nobody thought so - nobody except me. I was only a kid myself. I read about it in the papers." Sherlock recalled.

"Started young, didn't you?" John commented.

"The boy, Carl Powers, had some kind of fit in the water, but by the time they got him out it was too late. But there was something wrong; something I couldn't get out of my head." Sherlock said

"What?" John asked.

"His shoes." Sherlock answered.

"What about them?" John asked.

"They weren't there. I made a fuss; I tried to get the police interested, but nobody seemed to think it was important. He'd left all the rest of his clothes in his locker, but there was no sign of his shoes..." Sherlock leans down and picks up a bag containing the trainers. "... until now."

SIX HOURS TO GO. As Sherlock sit in the back of the taxi holding the pink phone and lost in thought, the woman who rang him earlier sits in her car crying in despair.

221B.

Sherlock has shut himself in the kitchen and is sitting at the table with the trainers nearby - still in the bag - while he looks through photographs and printouts of newspaper reports of Carl Powers' death from 1989.

In the living room, on the other side of the closed doors, John is pacing back and forth. Vaness was sitting in Sherlock's chair, she wasn't reading, but rather, watching John pace. John stops and slides open one of the doors.

"Can I help?" John asked.

Sherlock doesn't react to him at all.

"I want to help. There's only five hours left."

His phone sounds a text alert. He gets the phone from his trouser pocket and looks at the message. It reads:

Any developments?
Mycroft Holmes

"It's your brother. He's texting me now." He frowns.

Vaness got up, walk past John and stopped behind Sherlock.

"How does he know my number?" He asked.

"Must be a root canal." Sherlock said thoughtfully.

Putting his phone away, John comes into the kitchen.

"Look, he did say 'national importance.'" John said.

Sherlock snorts, not looking up from his research. "How quaint."

"What is?" John asked.

"You are. Queen and country." Sherlock answered.

"You can't just ignore it." John said sternly.