Status: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." Updates every Friday <3

Deducing Tragedy Part Two: Speak No Lies

Secrets, Secrets are no Fun

I have a secret. The problem is I'm not the only one this secret belongs to. It is as much his secret as it is mine but he doesn’t know it. He was a part of something, he has a secret but he doesn’t know it. Why should he? Only one person besides myself knew, and I had made it clear that it was in his interest to keep the knowledge to himself. But now I was in London again and my secret, that I had managed to push down into near nonexistence, had risen back to the surface. My secret was ripping apart my shield.

“Ann, we have the phone records,” Ben said snapping me back into reality and snapping Ann back into place.

“It about time,” I growled spinning back around in my chair and standing up. “Jordan, give me good news.”

“Phone came from a disposable cell,” he said and my eyes narrowed. “But she had contacted the number before, many times in fact. It was saved on her phone as Hanna H-“

“If you say Hooper I will punch someone,” I said cutting him off. The room took a step back from me and I slowly closed my eyes. So the Ripper was masquerading as me. Gaining the trust of someone I once knew to draw her away from a crowd and kill her.

“What did they say?” I asked in a low tone as I opened my eyes again. “You said they talked a lot, what did they say?”

“Um,” he turned back to his computer. “Not much of consequence. Normal small talk for the most part. Nothing much we can’t figure out from it.”

I bit my lip, “right, Ben and Eva contact anyone else who was at the vigil and find out if they have been contacted by Hanna Hooper.”

“Ma’am?” Eva questioned and I sighed.

“Since we started this case and the game he has always left us clues as to who will be next or where the next body will drop, well we don’t have much to go on this time. He named Mr. Holmes in the letter which is why I sent Jeremy to watch them. But other than that we have him pretending to be Hanna Hooper to draw the victim away from the crowd. He could be saying he’s going to do it again.”

“It’s thin,” Ben said rubbing his finger over his lips.

“But it’s all we have,” I said in a final tone. “Now do I have to repeat my instructions?”

“What will you do?” Tate asked crossing his arms over his chest.

I looked up at him, a smirk playing across my lips. “It’s a secret.”

~8~

John sat in the living room with the paper. His eyes scanned the columns but he didn’t read the words before him. His mind was on Hanna- Ann, he supposed bitterly. What had happened to the bright and happy girl who once roamed about the flat? He knew he told Sherlock that there was still hope, that the Hanna they knew was still in there somewhere but he wasn’t as confident as he sounded. He just couldn’t stand to see his best friend without hope. Was she in there? He didn’t know. He could only pray, to whatever god would listen, that Hanna would come home.

“John, you’ve been ‘reading’ that page for the better part of an hour,” Sherlock said from the kitchen as he went about one of his experiments. “Should I call someone?”

“No, I'm fine,” John sighed setting the paper aside. “Just thinking.” Sherlock looked at him, an eyebrow raised and John rolled his eyes in annoyance, “Shut up, I think too.”

“Not the same,” Sherlock smirked turning back to his microscope.

“No you’re right,” John growled, “Because there are only four people in the world capable of thinking.”

“Four?”

“Right, three now I suppose.” John sighed. “You, Mycroft, and Han- I mean Ann.”

“Who was the fourth?”

“Moriarty.”

“Ah.”

John frowned, “Call him.”

“Who?”

“Mycroft,” John said standing up. “If anyone knows what happened to Hanna, it’ll be him.”

“Ben-“

“Ben isn’t like you or your brother,” John cut off the other man. “You saw him; he hasn’t a clue what’s wrong with her. Mycroft does, and you know it.”

“Why don’t you call him?”

“He won’t answer me.”

“True.”

“It has to be you.”

“I'm busy,” Sherlock said pointing to his experiment. “I don’t have time to listen to guessing games when there is a case to solve.”

“You haven’t been brought on to the case,” John said crossing his arms over his chest.

“Hasn’t stopped me in the past.”

“You don’t have enough information and you know it.”

“You have a date with Mary, wouldn’t want to be late for that.”

“She’ll understand,” John smirked. “Really Sherlock? Are you out of excuses so quickly?”

He said nothing.

“Look at it as a case if that helps,” John offered. “The case of Hanna Hooper-“

“The Little Blind Girl…” Sherlock whispered, closing his eyes and taking a breath before pulling out his phone. He never had a chance to enter the number, it rang loudly, echoing off the walls, and the two looked at each other. “Hello?”

A twenty minuet car ride later and they pulled up to an abandoned building. It was large, and bleak, there wasn’t a soul around for miles. John would have felt uneasy if he hadn’t grown use to this sort of sight in the time since he met the Consulting Detective. They got out and John followed the man in the trench coat through the maze until Mycroft and Anthea were visible.

“Sherlock,” Mycroft greeted his younger brother who barely looked at him.

“I don’t appreciate being dragged away from my work whenever the mood strikes you,” Sherlock practically growled.

“You were about to phone me and don’t pretend otherwise,” Mycroft rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately, baby brother, the information you seek I cannot provide, for I am sworn to secrecy.”

“We have a right-“

“You have not rights here Dr. Watson,” Mycroft said with a silencing look. “You are here to ask about Hanna Hooper. She’s dead. The sooner you except this fact the better off you’ll be.”

“She can’t be dead,” Sherlock said his tone low and even.

“All lives end,” Mycroft said with a look that almost conveyed sympathy, “all hearts are broken.”

“Then why bring us here?” Sherlock asked clearing his throat. “You could have sent one of your grunts or the lovely Anthea to tell us that. What do you want?” at his comment the girl beside his brother looked up. She blinked in surprise and John shook his head. Of course.

Mycroft left out a short breath, “to ask your help.”

“Last time you asked for my help Britain almost paid the price.”

“Let’s avoid that shall we?”

“No promises.”

“The Ripper,” Mycroft said cocking his head to the side. “What do you know?”

“Painfully little,” he said raising one thick eyebrow.

“Would you like to learn more?”

Sherlock smirked as John spoke up, “I thought you wanted us to stay out of it.”

“That was before the last note our serial killer left us,” he sighed holding out his hands for a file that Anthea provided. “Since I put her team on the case he has attached notes to the clothing of the victims. They are all addressed to Ann-“

“The last one was addressed to Hanna.”

“And that is why I need you on the case,” he said handing them the file. “This man knows secrets that only those with the highest security clearance can access.”

“I figured it out,” Sherlock remarked as his eyes fell across the pages.

“You are the exception, not the rule.”

“And how does Ann feel about this?” John asked. “Ben said that she would keep us out of it one way or another.”

Mycroft sighed, “Miss Arsvitae is a fascinating character. She has a mind with which she comes up with the most colorful threats to any who cross her but her bark is much worse than her bite. Did you know that in the fourteen cases her team closed in the last two years, she was the one who found the subject every time?”

“So she’s good at her job,” John shrugged. “What of it.”

“But she was never the one who made the arrest or took the shot.” He said and Sherlock’s eyes shot up. “She is always the first to face them but it is Mr. White who does the dirty work. A fascinating character indeed, for what do you think we can make of that?”

Sherlock met his brothers’ eyes, “I don’t know.”

“Neither do I,” he said with an emotionless smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll inform Detective Lestrade that you are to be briefed-“

“Mycroft!” a new voice growled out as Sherlock and John turned to see Ann marching across the cement floor. “What is this, what are you doing?”

“Asking a brilliant mind if he will look into something so clearly out of your depth,” he said evenly.

“I have a handle on this,” she hissed.

“No you don’t,” Sherlock said with an amused look. “But fear not, I will help you.”

“Piss off, I don’t need you.”

“Yes you do,” he said taking a step towards her. “That’s why you’re so angry about it.” They were no less than a foot apart, close enough for his breath to stir the loose strands of blonde hair that fell around her heart-shaped face. The air between them was charged as his eyes traced the freckles scattered like stars across the bridge of her nose. It was like they were magnets drawn to each other by a force they couldn’t hope to resist. And he did resist, he could only allow twenty percent of his focus to entertain the conversation at hand. The rest was trying desperately not to scope up the girl in front of him. He knew that if he allowed himself this one favor he wouldn’t be able to part from her again. And as his eyes met hers he understood that he wasn’t the only one fighting the battle.

“Ann I am your superior, don’t make me order you,” Mycroft said drawing her attention back to him. Her head turned, her eyes slowly ripping themselves from his to look at his brother, and Sherlock couldn’t stop his from wandering down her tiny form. “Sherlock will work beside you for however long it takes to stop the Ripper. If you want rid of him so badly then I suggest you work harder to end this madness.”
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hi guys! hope your day was lovely! my was pretty good but crabby people kept showing up at work -_- anyway what did you think of the chapter?! I thought it was pretty awesome especially that end bit <3 sometimes the amount of adorable I come up with is too much for even me lols jk.

I find it amazing that sometimes you guys just don't even talk to me lols you just talk to the characters and it makes me smile.

the youtube channel is still an idea but I was also thinking it could just do vines too. that would probably be easier or maybe both idk yet.

GUYS! YOU ALL SHOULD GO TO YOUTUBE RIGHT NOW AND LOOK UP BIGBANG: FANTASTIC BABY! I am so in love with this song and one of the singers (<3 Deasung is my soulmate <3)

ANYWHO that's all I got for today! leave me a comment/review telling me what you think! im going to go look up more KPop!

ttyl!

-Katy