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“Are your cousin and his assistant still here?” Lestrade asked Sherlock two days after the case was solved. They were at a crime scene, and Sherlock was walking around the body he was being asked to examine.
“Yes,” Sherlock said with a nod. “He’s continuing to show her around, though if this new case is intriguing enough I may ask him if he wants to assist me. Why?”
“I spent some time talking to her. Joan. And she’s…interesting.” Lestrade shrugged. “Not many doctors leave the profession to become a sober companion, and then stop doing that to do what you do.”
“She is an interesting woman, I suppose,” he said, crouching next to the dead man. “I think she might be receptive if you were to ask her out on a date.”
“Ask her out? Me?” Lestrade was shocked. “No, I just…I’d like to talk to her more, that’s all.”
“I can call her and find out if she would like to speak to you more, then,” he said, finally looking away from the body towards Lestrade. “This case is so easily solvable it would be an insult to bring them on, unless my cousin would like to train her further.”
“You know who did it?” he asked, blinking slightly.
“Not for certain, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out. I just need more background on the victim.” He stood up again. “It’s actually a bit of a bore, to be honest.”
“Call her.”
“To consult?” Sherlock asked.
“If it’s such a bore for you let her do it.” Lestrade crossed his arms slightly. “Go on another date with Molly if you like.”
Sherlock scowled slightly. “Who told you I went on one?”
Lestrade held up a hand. “Sally. Don’t get mad at her, either. John told her.”
“Soon everyone in the Yard will know my personal business,” he said, his scowl deepening. “When Anderson finds out I shall never hear the end of it.”
“He’s leaving in two weeks. He’s probably just so shocked you actually went out on a date that he won’t say anything,” Lestrade said with a shrug. “But I’ll keep the two of you apart just to be sure. He’d love his last two weeks to be Sherlock free.”
“Then kindly oblige him,” Sherlock said, whipping out his phone. “Do you want my cousin to assist her?”
“Only if he wants to,” Lestrade said. “I’d be interested in seeing just what she can do.”
“Then I will call her and not him.” Sherlock went through his contacts and found Joan’s number. He did not call her as often as he called his cousin, but he had talked to her a few times since he returned from New York. She picked up after three rings and he did not wait for a greeting. “Lestrade has requested your presence at a crime scene.”
“Why aren’t you telling Sherlock this?” she asked.
“Because he wants just you. On my scale it’s about a three. Boring for me, probably boring for my cousin, but easy enough for you to solve.”
“I’m in the middle of seeing London.”
“Please come to the scene. Lestrade would like to see what you can do.”
She sighed. “All right. I’ll tell Sherlock. Where are you at?”
“Near Big Ben.” He reeled off an address to her. “I will leave as soon as you get here.”
“Fine. But you owe me a tour of London.”
Sherlock smiled slightly. “Perhaps I can arrange something. I will see you soon.”
“Okay. Bye.”
He lowered his phone as soon as she ended the call. “She will be here shortly.” Sherlock went back to looking at the body. “It would be easier if you just asked her out on a date, since it is obvious you fancy her.”
“I do not. Just because you’ve had one successful date that does not make you an expert in all things romantic,” Lestrade said in a huff, crossing his arms.
“One date which nearly didn’t happen,” Sherlock said. “It took me a long while to realize I felt that way towards her. At least the attraction you have to Joan is much more apparent.”
“I’m done with this conversation,” Lestrade said, throwing his arms up in the air.
“As you wish.” Sherlock grinned slightly. “As soon as she gets here I will go back to what I was doing before you called me here.”
“And what was that?” Lestrade asked.
“Talking to John about whether or not to take my cousin and Joan to the West End for a performance of a play. It’s not really my thing, but John thought Molly might enjoy it as well.”
“She probably would,” Lestrade said with a slight grin. “Been a long while since I’ve gone to the theater.”
“If you and Joan get along well, perhaps you would like to accompany us, if we decide to go.”
“This suspiciously sounds like setting me up on a date,” Lestrade said, narrowing his eyes.
“That’s because I am. If my cousin does not accompany us John was planning on bringing Sally with him. He is most anxious to return to his girlfriend, but Joan has said she would like to stay for a little while. I believe she quite likes this city.”
“How long is a little while?” he asked.
“At least three more weeks. John has asked her to stay through the holidays, if her parents wouldn’t mind. I believe he’s planning yet another Christmas party.”
“Let’s hope this year’s goes better than the last one.”
“Even I will agree with that.” Sherlock looked at Lestrade. “Perhaps we can change the subject until she arrives.”
“That’s fine,” Lestrade said with a nod. “I can go over a cold case that got given to me yesterday, see if that’s more up your alley.”
“Very well. What do you know?”
They were still going over the second case when Joan arrived, all alone. Sherlock went off with Sally to get information on the cold case when Joan came up to Lestrade. “DI Lestrade,” she said with a slight smile.
“You can call me Greg,” he said, his own grin a bit wider than hers.
She relaxed slightly, and her own smile grew a bit brighter. “All right. Why did you want me here?”
“Sherlock said the case was a bore, but you might be able to solve it. I thought it might be interesting to see what you can do, that’s all,” he said with a slight shrug.
“Do you have gloves?” she asked. “I didn’t bring any with me.”
“Of course,” he said, motioning for a crime scene technician to come over. “Molly’s coming for the body as soon as the techs are done processing the scene.” He asked the technician for gloves and he got a pair out, and Lestrade handed them to Joan. Joan put them on. “You can move the body if you need to.”
“Thank you,” She examined the body closely, rolling him over and looking at the wounds. Then she stood up and examined the scene. “I think you’re looking for a jealous lover,” she said after nearly forty minutes. “The wounds are up close and personal, and his clothes smell like perfume. I wouldn’t be surprised if the killer followed him.” She went back to the body. “See the way his clothes are of good quality but wrinkled? Probably because he met up with someone in the middle of the day for a quickie, and they didn’t take care removing his clothes.”
“We don’t have an ID on him,” Lestrade said. “Where would you suggest we look?”
“I already know where to look,” she said. She stood up again and motioned for Lestrade to follow her. She walked out of the cordoned area to a dumpster. “I’d look in there for a wallet or a briefcase. He probably worked close by, so you can also try circulating his photograph around at the more high-end businesses around here.”
“How did you know?”
“It appears that he was walking away from one of the hotels down the block. If he’d been taking a cab he probably would have gotten it outside the hotel, not down here where there isn’t a hotel. So I think he worked around here. If he’d wanted to arouse little suspicion he most likely would have told people he was going to a lunch meeting, so he might have had a briefcase. This is the closest dumpster, so if the killer took it they probably took it here and dumped it.”
“I’ll have some people fish through it, see what they find,” Lestrade said with a grin. “Maybe we’ll luck out.”
“Maybe,” Joan said. Then she looked around. “I’m sure either of the Sherlock’s could have told you this with a lot less time spent.”
“Well, you’re intriguing,” he said. “I wanted to see if Sherlock’s cousin had trained you well. I think he has.”
“Thank you,” she said, giving him a warm smile. “The only thing that sucks is that I was really looking forward to going to The National Gallery, and it’s probably closed by now.”
“I could take you tonight, if you’d like,” Lestrade said. Joan raised an eyebrow. “I know the man who runs it. He owes me a favor.”
“What kind of favor?”
“I found the person who killed his wife ten years back,” he said. “Then I introduced him to his second wife.”
“That’s a story I’d like to hear, I think.” She looked at him. “Can you get us in even if it’s closed?”
“Might be better that way,” Lestrade said with a grin. “I can call him now, if you’d like.”
“I would. And maybe afterwards we could go get coffee or something,” she said. “I get the feeling you are a very interesting man, Greg.”
“I suppose,” he said with a grin. “Let me go call him, and as soon as the body’s picked up and the technicians are done we can go. Does that sound good?”
“That sounds fine,” she said with a nod. “Thank you.”
He grinned a bit wider and moved away from her, pulling out his phone. Maybe Sherlock was right that he fancied Joan Watson, but he had to admit that going about it this way might work out better than having simply asked her out on a date. Only time would tell which of the two of them were right.