Work Text:
John rubbed his face with both hands, ‘’are you serious? Do you…’’ He looked at the people sitting in their living room, ‘’do you know what today is?’’
Sherlock waved his hand, ‘’it’s that candy sugar day, the… Halloween yes’’
John looked at him sternly.
‘’what of it?’’ The taller finally looked at him, ‘’whenever it’s ‘Halloween’ or Christmas, a case is a case.’’ Sherlock made his way into the living room, with John following.
‘’Now…’’ Sherlock settled into a chair, ‘’from the beginning please…’’
The woman tells her story, John looks pale, he keeps looking over to Sherlock, ‘’you’ve put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa? Is that correct?’’ Sherlock lists off, seemingly oblivious to the horrible experience this poor woman must’ve experienced.
She nodded quickly, tears forming ‘’earlier today… I came home from work and found it… Sitting by my desk, staring at me—‘’
‘’Or the doorway’’
She nodded again, ‘’yes, but I go in through the backdoor, not the front… Nobody would know or assume I do that.’’ She took a deep breath, Sherlock looked like he was pondering the possibilities.
‘’Wait, wait excuse me, why are you coming through the backdoor?’’ John shook the fear off, he did try his best to not be spooked but…
‘’The shortest route from my bus stop to my house is through a small wooden area, and if I were to go to the front door, I’d have to walk around and—‘’
‘’It saves you time, right. Miss Ashley, when did you acquire the doll?’’ He looked like he was close to solve the case, he just needed that small confirmation and woosh, done.
‘’I didn’t, Mr. Holmes’’
He leaned closer, ‘’what?’’
‘’It was just there one day, I tried asking around but nobody knew anything.’’
‘’Interesting…’’ Sherlock stated, ‘’when did it first appear?’’
‘’Three days ago…’’
Sherlock noted, he looked over and so did John.
‘’What should I do?’’ The woman was practically sobbing again, John offered her some tissues, he looked at his favourite sociopath while the woman blew her nose.
‘’I think you stay with a friend for now, and we’ll contact you once we know more’’ John tried to sound as professional as Sherlock, but it didn’t impress the detective at all, rather caused him to roll his eyes.
The woman agreed and left the room, ‘’next!’’ Sherlock shouted, and another person walks in.
An older man sits down, he looks horrible, pale, smells of iron and over all, not pleasant.
John tried to tend to his obvious wounds, but Sherlock said there were no point, because those weren’t his.
‘’Please’’ Sherlock gestured, and the man started.
‘’I won’t lie Mr. Holmes, I’m bad-tempered, everyone knows this… My family, my kids… My firm…’’ He dragged his fingers through his hair, ‘’I was driving home after a long day of work… My wife, Catherine, said that our kids were about done with their trick-or-treating, and to pick them up if I see them…’’ He gulped, John offered him some water, Sherlock seemed so bored by the constant interrupting of ‘human needs’, can’t they just say and have ‘emotions’ later?
The man clears his throat, ‘’so I stop to pick them up… But those aren’t costumes, a-and...’’
It becomes obvious that something more sinister is at hand, Sherlock moved closer, gesturing the man to stand up, ‘’this is a police case, I suggest—‘’
‘’But they laughed at me Mr. Holmes, saying that because it’s Halloween they won’t—‘’
‘’Go down to the station and tell them I sent you, and they’ll listen.’’
The man nodded while mumbling ‘thank you’ over and over again.
Once the man was out the door, John picked up the phone to the department that took cases like this and gave them the heads-up.
Sherlock flipped his head up, ‘’are you writing them down?’’
The other lifted the notebook, ‘’yep.’’
‘’Good.’’
‘’Next!’’
A young man shows them texted pictures of himself in various stages of torture, that he claims has no memory of.
Sherlock in an instant tells him to get out, John looks up horrified.
The man smiled as he left, ‘’it was wicked man—like some kinky lad—‘’
Sherlock closed the door in his face, straightened his suit, ‘’next!’’ He shouted while quickly sitting down again, refusing to answer John’s questions.
Two women walk in and sits down quietly, one of them introduce them before starting.
‘’It was 3 months ago since our daughter went missing, the police knows nothing, nobody saw anything…’’
Sherlock gestured and the woman continued, ‘’she was taken from around our house, there’s a wooden area a bit further away, but the police said there were no tracks saying she would be taken there…’’
‘’Oh dear…’’ John gasped, Sherlock narrowed his eyes, he read their movements and voice tone, they were absolutely terrified.
‘’We wanted to find her, but the police didn’t know where to start… Four days ago, we decided that we were going to look in the forest.’’
The other mother finally spoke up, she put her brown hair behind her ear, ‘’we found her… Or… A doll-‘’
‘’A doll?’’ Sherlock’s interest piqued, almost smiling.
‘’—she looks just like our little girl… I picked her up, and…’’ She looked at her partner, John was back to being the palest of pale.
‘’… What happened?’’
‘’She had her eyes… Not glass eyes… Her actual eyes… Her clothes were the same, hair felt real… Our daughter…’’
‘’That can’t be her’’ John spoke dryly, the women nodded and pointed at him, ‘’that’s what we thought! But we brought it back with us, we put it in our living room.’’
‘’Let me guess’’ Sherlock began, slowly, ‘’you found her in another room’’
The reaction he received was confirming enough, ‘’did you bring the doll?’’
They shook their heads, ‘’it’s not in the house, it disappeared.’’
‘’Interesting.’’
~
Sherlock and John stood in the kitchen and discussed quietly, John was flabbergasted, he didn’t see the connection.
‘’John… Look at your notes.’’ Sherlock watched as the other re-read his terrible writing, the lightbulb moment came.
‘’T-the doll!’’ He quickly lowered his voice, ‘’it’s the same doll as the woman from earlier?’’
Sherlock nodded, ‘’give Miss Ashley a call, ask her to bring the doll.’’
He informed the women that another woman was going to join them, that their cases might be linked.
After a while the woman with the doll came through the door, the parents jumped up and Ashley looked around in shock, ‘’wh-what?’’
‘’The doll! Where did you get her?!?’’
‘’I-I-‘’
‘’She didn’t kidnap her, the doll simply appeared in her house one day, we’re here to figure out why, please—‘’ Sherlock sat down, John supplied with another chair.
‘’So why would the doll leave your—‘’ He pointed at the couple, ‘’to go to yours…’’ His fingers pointing to Ashley. ‘’what’s in your house, or better yet… Who is.’’
‘’S-Sherlock’’ John put his hand in front of the detective’s face, ‘’Miss Ashley, do you live alone?’’
She nodded.
‘’Have you had any visitors over the span of four months?’’
Ashley blinked, she looked around, Sherlock could see it all.
‘’Did you know him well?’’ Sherlock joined.
‘’He’s my brother’s… Friend’’, she shyly answered.
John frowned, before realising it.
‘’I see.’’ Sherlock hummed.
‘’Do you have his contacts?’’ John gave her a notepad, she wrote down all she could, she handed over the doll and was allowed to leave after she had given them everything they asked for and promised to stay with a friend.
‘’You two can leave if you want to, but I’d rather you stay’’, Sherlock looked at them, they stayed.
~~~
‘’I don’t know how you did it, Mr. Holmes… But you did…’’ A detective handed over a case with the doll in it, the women in the background holding their daughter, the man responsible cackling as he was dragged away.
‘’It wasn’t that hard, detective.’’ Sherlock smiled, ‘’it was all technology, the man simply abducted the girl, copied her into the doll, built it to only move when there were no people around… How you wonder? Well the eyes were actually cameras, very life like eyes indeed’’ he made an impressed face.
‘’Then why did he turn himself in?’’ The detective was in awe.
‘’Because, some criminals live for the thrill, they want to be recognised for their skill and ability to manipulate the human mind, making us believe it was all supernatural.’’
The room fell quiet, Sherlock smiled, ‘’but it was all man-made machine in the end.’’
After everyone had left, John was already at his computer writing for his blog, Sherlock was playing the violin, at first started to play 'Hallowe'en', John actually knew about it, Sherlock quickly changed it.
‘’Sherlock.’’ John said suddenly in a serious voice.
The detective turned around to see where the other was pointing.
The doll sat in the sofa, staring at them.