Human Error - Sherlock Fanfiction

Chapter forty -- the curse of Sherlock Holmes

AN: And I'm back after a long damn break!

I didn't want to say anything but I wanted to be honest with you guys as I love y'all. I put up on my wall the reason for my absence, read it if you will. If not then that's fine. I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

All my love,

KP

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Oliva lies in the half-light, proceeding to shake violently in the small puddle of water and Veronica's screams can still be heard echoing through the building like a sharp bullet. My tough heart began to pound as one question continued to race through my mind: Who did this?

I'm stunned, to say the least, but we have managed to get the situation under control. Edward has escorted the rest of the guests back into the dining room whilst John was currently in the hallway trying to calm Veronica down. I had convinced the crowd of guests to not phone the police because we were the police -- technically, and John was a doctor. We wanted to observe the scene before getting anyone else involved.

Sherlock took a step closer towards the scene. "Sherlock," I begin, "It's still setting off sparks, be careful."

He doesn't say anything. Instead, his eyes dart towards the plug socket and he cautiously approaches it, extending his hand out and turning off the switch. Oliva suddenly stops convulsing, however, her body still twitches every few seconds or so. Then it became every minute or so. Small shards of glass were wedged into the flesh on her face, her eyes were open and her pupils were exploded as if admiring the heavens.

"I think we better wait a few minutes first, just to be sure," I say, worried that Sherlock is going to do something impulsive. He's not stupid but he's impatient, and I don't want him to step into the water if it's still live.

"It should be fine now," Sherlock assures, stepping into the water. He likes to sound confident, basing his words on facts and figures stored away in his mind palace. My breathing stops for a moment as he steps into the danger zone, but when I realise that he's okay I let out a shaky sigh of relief.

Suddenly John walks back into the room, "I've calmed her down a little, her aunt is looking after for now. She said we've got about fifteen minutes before they phone the police and ambulance."

Sherlock gritted his teeth, "But we are the police."

"Sherlock, her wife was clearly just murderer. She and her family are not going to leave this to a couple of strangers to fix. We should go out there and comfort them like Edward is doing, not prat about in here whilst you-- wait, isn't that still live?" John questioned, noticing that Sherlock was standing in the dampness next to Oliva.

"Well, obviously not since I'm not lying next to this woman convulsing. Use your brain, John."

"All right, children. Chill out." I cut in quickly, "they said fifteen minutes, let's hurry up. Think you can solve it by then?" I look directly at Sherlock, eyebrows raised. He smirks.

"I can do it in five. "

"Show off," John mutters, folding his arms.

Sherlock crouches down and examines the scene in front of him, making sure not to touch anything. I just walk closer and look over at the scene, curiosity filling my senses. I notice that the aquarium's sides and back are still in tack on the shelf, but the front has been smashed and the glass, along with the inside of the aquarium, were all on the floor. And to add more drama, there was an exposed live wire that had just happened to be there, but by the end of the wire, it was all teased and jagged, as if it had been purposely cut in a hurry.

"Someone planned this, so it has to be someone who had it out for Oliva. And she could have been pushed into the aquarium," I suggest, looking at the scene still for any other clues, "the electrocution could have killed her."

The door to the living room is pushed open as soon as I finished speaking my theory, and Edward walks in with a worried look plastered on his soft face. "Are you okay?" Is the first thing he asks, eyes straight at me.

"Fine. I'm not the one dead on the floor."

"You know what I mean." He responded with a small shake of his head, "What are you doing?"

"We are finding out what happened. We're doing something useful."

"Sherlock!" I snapped in a hushed voice, giving him a look.

"Uh, Edward," John suddenly chirped in, changing the subject immediately from Sherlock's rude comment. "How are they out there?"

Before Edward could reply, out attention is snatched up by Sherlock grabbing Oliva's porcelain corpse by her left side and completely rolling her over so that her face was on the ground and her back was facing the ceiling.

"Sherlock!" John snapped loudly, and a look of utter disbelief washed over all of our faces.

"You see, that's what killed her." Sherlock finally announced, mentioning to the small red hole at the back of her head. I squinted my eyes and stepped closer, trying to get a better look.

"Is that... is that a bit of her bone sticking out?" John asked, quickly curious.

"No, it's a musket bullet. Hasn't been fired from the gun, but hit with enough force on a pressure point that it killed her instantly." He explained, finally letting go of the unfortunate girl and standing up, gesturing with his hands as he spoke to show what happened. "Olivia was looking at the tank when it hit her, making her fly forward face first, hence the glass in her skin, breaking the glass, and eventually falling onto the floor. Someone had cut the wire and left it close enough to the scene, knowing it would set off once the tank broke and the water hit. Clever, I suppose to your minds. But very stupid considering the wound on the back of her head is very noticeable and I doubt many people own musket bullets these days so that limits the field to a very few--"

"You just have no respect." Edward cut him off, looking very unimpressed. "I'm not doubting your skills -- what you just said matches with a lot of the evidence you found, but this is Olivia McCall. This is her home and her wife followed by her family and friends are outside this room. Why on earth you couldn't have just waited until you saw her at the morgue is beyond me -- or why you couldn't have just left it to the professionals! But I guess that's you, everything has to suit your needs, doesn't it?"

"This was Olivia McCall, this was her home. Now she's dead, and if you want to find out who killed her then it's best you leave the professionals -- meaning me -- to get on with it. I know what I'm doing."

"You just hurt everyone around you, you know that right? You show up and someone dies, then you can solve the case. You're a curse, Sherlock. Alway's have been. No wonder you never had any friends!"

Sherlock goes quiet and locks eyes with Edward, but I can tell by his face he's angry. Or maybe upset, or both. It was clear to see that Edward had a lot of build up anger with Sherlock that clearly hasn't gone away after these years. I knew Edward was a good guy and wanted to be civil, but I knew deep down there was always that tension between the two.

"All right, you've had fifteen minutes." John breaks the silence, clearing his throat before speaking again. He just wanted to get Edward away from Sherlock, wanted to protect his friend. He knew his feelings were hurt. "Edward, maybe you should go outside. Tell them to call whoever they want now."

"I will." He answered almost immediately, still giving Sherlock that death glare. But then finally he breaks away and gives it up, turning on his heels and leaving the room as soon as he could.

Sherlock cast his gaze to the ground momentarily and his eyes darkened, I could tell he was thinking about what Edward said. But he soon stands straight and has that usual, unreadable expression on his face that tells me he's deleted it out off his mind, tossing it away like most things that don't have room to be stored in there.

"We should check the rest of the house before it's contaminated." He tells us, briskly walking towards the exit without waiting to hear from us back.