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It was a cold night, about half past two, when Joshua finished up his work at the Coroner’s office. Today had been a particularly slow day. One of the bodies that had arrived at the morgue was that of an elderly woman, who after Joshua’s examination was determined to have died from natural causes. The other body was that of a homeless child, whose death was determined to be from starvation, although, you didn’t need a Coroner to tell you that. The child’s body was skin and bones, his eyes were sunken, and his cheekbones and ribs protruded against his dirty skin. After the examination table, and autopsy instruments were clean and sterile, Joshua slipped on his black overcoat, pocketed a scalpel and some rubber gloves, and exited the building. Taking out his key, he locked the front doors to the morgue, giving it a tug to make sure it was securely fastened. Standing on the steps outside the building, he gave his body time to adjust to the sudden change in temperature before continuing on his way home.

“My, my. The fog is thick tonight.” Joshua smilingly mentioned to himself. A dense fog was beginning to roll in to the streets, making it rather difficult to see very far ahead of ones self. “Perfect.” He pushed his glassed up hoping to see a bit better, but removed them to wipe the misty residue of the haze off the lenses. Placing them high on the bridge of his nose, he still had a hard time seeing clearly. It was a good thing Joshua knew where he was going. He knew this town like he knew the inside of the human body. He made haste to a déclassé section of town, a place where he was least likely be recognized by anyone if he were seen. It didn’t take long once he was on that side of town to come across his first potential ‘candidate.’ It was a man, who would have been rather handsome if not for his shabby appearance, and drunken stupor. The drunken man was staggering down the sidewalk, belching and talking to himself, and apparently, to someone by the name of Jeanette, although he was alone. Joshua followed behind the oblivious man, rethinking whether or not this man would be the one to satisfy his grisly urge. “This would hardly be a challenge… The man is barely able to stand, let alone be able to make this encounter interesting.” Contemplating, Joshua scanned the area again. He slowed his pace, letting the drunken man fade into the fog, never to know how close he had come to death that night. The savage urge inside Joshua was building steadily, and his body was trembling, although that might have been from the cold. He calmed himself, closing his eyes and taking in a few breaths in and out his nose. “Focus. Nothing good comes from being to impulsive.”

Turning on his heels, he started heading back in the direction of the pub. Suddenly, he heard the clanking of high heels on the cobblestone streets coming straight towards him. Stealthily, Joshua ducked into an empty alleyway, waiting to catch a glimpse of the person as they were walking by. It was a red headed woman, early thirties, dressed in a black and white pinstriped dress. She seemed to be a bit tipsy, but not totally incoherent. Waiting until she was right in front of him, Joshua walked out from the alleyway and purposely ran right into her. She stumbled, but managed to keep her balance. Joshua on the other hand fell backwards on his rear. “Oh my! Ma’am! I am terribly sorry! I should have watched where I was going!” He apologized profusely. The woman laughed and hiccupped as she offered her hand to him. “Oh no, sir! It is I who should apologize! You’re the one who is on your bum!” Joshua grabbed her hand, and she helped him up, dusting him off a bit. “Oh! Goodness. I seem to have lost my eyeglasses… I hate to trouble you, but could you perhaps help me search for them? I am hopelessly blind without them.” He sheepishly asked, although it made him appear all the more endearing as he looked up at her. “Of course I will help. ‘Tis the least I can do after knocking you down.” The lady began searching the ground for the lost eyeglasses, spotting them in the alley a little ways down. “Here, sir! I think I have spotted them. They must have skidded down this way on impact.” She walked down the alley and kneeled down to retrieve them. Unbeknownst to her, Joshua was preparing to strike. He felt his body begin to shake and his breath become quick from the excitement of the soon-to-be-kill. He put on his rubber gloves, uncapped his scalpel, and came up behind her.

“They seem to be perfectly fine, sir. No harm done.” The lady declared, swaying as she stood up. She looked at the eyeglass lenses in the light of the moon for any visible scratches. “Thank you kindly, Ma’am. I would never have been able to find them on my own.” Joshua was directly behind her now, so close he could smell the sickly sweet perfume she had doused herself in. Lifting his hand so that it ghosted the back of her head, he grabbed a fist full of her dark wavy red hair, yanking it back hard to expose her pale throat. The women gasped, and dropped his eyeglasses. Her hands desperately grasped at the hand intertwined in her hair. Opening her mouth to scream, she was quickly silenced by the feeling of cold metal against her throat. “Shhh shh shh.” Gently, Joshua placed a kiss on her temple before plunging the blade deep into her throat and dragging it from one side to the other. Releasing his hold on her hair, Joshua watched has she fell to the ground. She was choking, gagging, and holding her throat trying to stop the bleeding, while she tried her hardest to stand and make a run for it. Joshua watched, a pleased look plastered on his face, as she fell, tried to get up, and fell again. Her choking sent shivers down his spine. Squirts of blood were shooting from her neck, but the pressure was getting lower, causing the blood squirts to lessen. He was pleasantly surprised she had lasted this long! By the looks of all the blood, he had severed both her carotid artery completely. She finally collapsed to the ground, her nerves jerking her body as her organs began to shutdown.

Her body stilled entirely after several minutes, giving Joshua time to retrieve his eyeglasses. “Luckily the fog is on my side tonight.” He thought as he scanned the area to make sure it was still clear. The struggle had been relatively quite, but the alley had made every sound echo quite sharply. When all seemed well, he walked over to the now lifeless body. Using the scalpel, he cut her dress open, and cut a large incision into her lower abdomen. He plunged a gloved hand into the warm insides of her gut, and pulled out her small intestines. He wanted the scene to be as grotesque as possible. When he was done mutilating the body, Joshua turned his gloves inside out, put one inside the other, and placed the scalpel inside as well. This would prevent any blood from getting on his coat. That would be undeniable evidence. He stuck his hand into his coat pocket and felt around. Finally finding what he was searching for, he pulled out a chess piece, a white pawn. He opened her mouth and placed it inside. After making sure all the evidence was gone, he walked over and stood by the woman, admiring his work. “You were just a pawn in the game, Ma’am. Goodnight.” Joshua turned to make a speedy getaway into the fog.

"Overslept again. Damn it. This is why you will never catch up to your brother. 'Oh Sherlock, can you solve this case for me? I'll do anything! Ill pay you? I could make you famous? i could spend the weekend pleasuring you in ways the queen would vomit at?' "

Wesley Holmes said the last part with a mocking falsetto's voice. He hated his brother, and always living up to his shadow. Wes decided to skip the shower when a knock on the door reverberated throughout the flat. A messenger girl, no more than 15, was on his stoop.

"Is Mr. Holmes here?" she said in a cute little voice. She was beautiful. Blonde haired, blue eyes, long legs, and bosomy. Wes, a man of 33, pulled himself to his full height and said "why yes it is mon cheri".

She began to smile back when her nose wrinkled. she stuffed the envelope in his hand and said "Ill put it on your tab. 341C Baker's street." and ran away.

Wes sniffed his arm and cursed to himself. Some pretty nasty curses he learned from his russian roommate. Walking indoors, he looked at the message to see it was written to Sherlock Holmes.

Lets just say it was good he had no other russian neighbors.

It was another fan letter sprayed with perfume. Ambergris, he was sure. He shredded it and threw the remains into a rubbish bin on his desk. a locked binder sat on the mahogany. Wes dared not open his roommates binder. He had caught Dmytri with the book doing......ugh. he did not want to think about it.

Rethinking the shower, Wes left to obtain some fish and chips. The smell of the food was easy to catch over a block away, and Wes had a very good nose. Following the route to his favorite restaurant, a pub in Knightsbridge called "The Lord's Goblet".

As he finished the chips and started on the fish, saving the best for last, he noticed somthing on the newspaper it was served on. His beer mug stain muddled some of the words on the paper, but it mentioned the Checkmate killer. Wes had heard Dmytri speak of the guy, and how impossible it would ever be to catch him.

"That's it! I must catch the CheckMate Killer to show im better than my brother!"

He waited a moment and reformed his words.

"After I finish this fish."

Riding in the carriage of carefully selected red wood that was imported from the red wood forest in California that was thought to have the best wood in the world. And had a daring red color to it that made all the other wood's jealous. The wooden carriage that Rebecca was riding in now was a deep red with a hint of brown and a bit of black made people stop in there step's when the carriage caught there eye.

The daring Rebecca Aldrige was on her way to the Knightsbridge estate. Rebecca had alway's acompanied her majesty in the Royal Courts. She was the most charming and cunning girl with the queen. Some tried to win her heart but Rebecca just left them all broken hearted. The Queen alway's found it amusing that Rebecca would have the men who pursued her do test's and watch them all fail. Rebecca had a rule of never being with a man who can't outsmart her. And being favored by the Queen she was allowed to do so. One day there was new's of the murder's in the Knightsbridge Estate the Queen thought of what to do and Rebecca gave her the idea of sending her to the Estate to see if she could help find these killer's. The Queen did not wish for her to go but knew that Rebecca was smart enough to actually be of help and she wasent stupid enough to fall into a trap. After a few discussion's the Queen decided to send Rebecca to the Knightsbridge Estate.

Rebecca was thinking of how this all came to be while riding inside the carriage. They had been riding for hours and now she started to wonder if she could amuse herself somehow. She looked through the box that she had filled with game's and toy's and found a Bird Optic and started to spin it to see the bird in a cage. She smiled a little remembering that she loved to play with this when she was a young girl. Evan though being the age of 25 year's she still loved to play game's. Some found it strange and other's thought she was still in a child's mind. But no matter what they thought or said about her, she din't mind.

The carriage finally stopped and Rebecca quickly looked out the window to see if they have finally arrived. The door opened and the hand of her driver appeared. She took it and walked on the step's taking in the fresh air. Her lovely feet finally touched the ground, her dress was not long enough to touch the ground she was in a most divine black dress taylored and made just for her. With a lovely little black decoration in her hair. Some found her style as the 'punk' of London but Rebecca found it normal and she liked how more free it was. She looked around while her driver got her bag's. Knowing that there would be no lord here so she waited for someone to greet her.

Rebecca wraped herself in the jacket that the man offered her. She noticed that he was very handsome. Her driver quickly ran over to help her up "My lady are you alright?" "of course I'm alright, just a little wet" she looked at the boy who ran into her "I accept your apologie" she paused for a moment "You wouldn't happen to know where all the detective's are would you?" she said in her polite voice that sounded like a angel and the breath of strawberry's.

Rebecca's driver grabed a bigger blanket and laid it on her shoulder's. She was getting quite annoyed with how he tried to help her so much. She could take care of herself no problem. Rebecca saw no need to bring a caretake but the Queen had insisted. She looked at the handsome man that looked to be in his early 30's. Her saphire blue eye's looking right into him. She saw how the man was dressed so casually he din't look perfessional. But he had the air of a bright man.