CHAPTER ONE — THE LADY IN PINK
a study in pink — part one

"Well, she's not as incompetent as the others." — sherlock holmes

LAURISTON GARDENS, BRIXTON, LONDON
2010





AS SOON AS SHE ARRIVED AT LAURISTON GARDENS, VALENTINA MADE A BEELINE FOR THE CRIME SCENE. In all honesty, Valentina did not want to be there in the slightest. Because before she received Lestrade's call, she had been cuddling up with her daughter, munching on toffee popcorn whilst watching the classic that was Beauty and the Beast. It happened to be one of her and Maggie's favourite movies. So, Valentina Wilson was certainly not pleased that her day off had been cut short.

Sergeant Donovan greeted her as she passed and Valentina returned it as she kept going, without even bothering to stop. The forensic scientist may not be very keen on the woman, but that did not mean she had to be rude to her. It just wasn't in her nature. And bedsides, what a hypocrite she would be if she treated people with disrespect whilst she was teaching Maggie how to be kind to others — not that she needed much help, her baby girl naturally had a caring soul. Something Valentina was extremely proud of.

Thinking of her daughter at this particular moment in time brought both happiness and anger to her mind. The anger derived from Lestrade's request (despite it being a request, it wasn't like she could say no to her boss) for her to join them all at the new crime scene, but fortunately the majority of her fury was neutralised by the love and joy she felt every time she thought of her little Maggie. There were a lot things Valentina regretted about her life and Maggie was certainly not one of them. And neither was accepting the Yard's offer to join them.

Detective Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard stood silently in the cracked wooden doorframe of the crime scene; Valentina had no clue how long he had been waiting but she knew he was waiting for her. So she continued on her route towards her friend whose face brightened slightly as she came into his view.

"Glad you could make it." Lestrade smiled, his voice seeping with relief.

Valentina just grumbled back, not as thrilled by her appearance as her colleague. "Just tell me that Anderson hasn't messed with my crime scene."

Smirking proudly, Lestrade replied. "I told him he couldn't go in until you got here."

So there was a silver lining in this situation after all. 

She entered the rundown house where some of the techs had already started setting up the scene. The first thing she did was put on her protective gear as to not contaminate the crime scene. Then she grabbed her equipment and followed Lestrade up the creaky staircase. 

The entire house was in disrepair. Wallpaper peeled and there were rotted-out holes in the boards beneath her. The body had only been found because people had broken in to the house were just kids looking to mess around, but if they hadn't, they probably wouldn't have found the body for at least a couple more days. She was still annoyed about Lestrade bringing her in on her day off, but when she saw the body, she realised why.

There was a woman, lying face down on the ground and dressed completely in a bright pink. A million thoughts raced through her mind as she observed the scene and then she glanced back at Lestrade. "Another one?"

"Another one." He confirmed with a sigh.

Valentina dropped down beside the body to examine it closer. The almost nauseating tone of pink was very bold, you would only wear it to make a statement, to stand out, which didn't scream suicide. Also, at her fingertips, was writing scratched into the floor. She must have done it with her last ounce of strength. Poor woman.

It said: Rache.

Although that was the German word for 'Revenge', for some reason, Valentina doubted that the pink lady would have bothered to scratch the word into the hard wood in her last moments. It had to be something else. And as Valentina ran her hands across the coat, she found it still wet under the collar. But there hadn't been any rain in London. She must have travelled in. 

"I'll be a minute." Lestrade announced and then left the room. So Valentina continued with her assessment of the body.

Everyone else filtered out of the room with Lestrade as he motioned for them to leave. But Valentina didn't notice — she was too focused on the body in front of her. There had been no witnesses to the crime so finding out what happened solely relied on Valentina finding the right evidence. So she kept on observing the body and noted any interesting that she found. 

Then Lestrade re-entered the room, but he wasn't alone. Sherlock Holmes and a new face were with him.

Over the past five years, Sherlock had worked with Scotland Yard to help solve their more difficult cases. After aiding them with the case of Derek Brown, Sherlock did get into a rehab. And although he hated every second of it, Valentina was there to help and once he was clean, he was allowed to assist on cases which occasionally challenged his fast-paced mind. Not many at the Yard appreciated Sherlock or his help, but Valentina did. And that was the gateway to their bizarre friendship. A friendship they both, unbeknownst to the other, cherished.

Valentina turned from the body to get to her feet and offer the two new arrivals a welcoming smile. "Sherlock. It's good to see you."

"Hello, Valentina." Nodded the consulting Detective as the corner of his lips turned up in a smile. Then they inverted into a frown. "I thought it was your day off?"

The forensic scientist shook her head and pointed to her boss. "Well, you try telling him that."

Lestrade sighed in exasperation, throwing up his arms in defence. "What was I supposed to do?" He asked as he looked between them. "He doesn't like to work with anyone else."

As he said that, Sherlock took a step towards the body and scanned it from above. Then, he hummed. "Well, she's not as incompetent as the others." 

The man beside Sherlock looked horrified by his words. After all, she was meant to be his friend, right? And it didn't sound like much of a compliment. But Valentina knew different and was instead rather chuffed by his words. 

Spotting the look on the unknown man's face, Valentina laughed. "From Sherlock, that's practically an 'I love you'." She assured him. No one noticed the faintest smug of pink that emerged on Sherlock's cheeks at her words. 

"How's Maggie?"

Valentina smiled softly at Sherlock, although he currently had his back to her. "Alright, thanks." She nodded. "Except she's a little upset our movie night was cut short. We were watching Beauty and the Beast." 

Oh how Sherlock knew that movie all too well. Maggie had attempted to force the man to sit down and watch it with her. He had hated nearly all of it. "You've watched that movie too many times."

The single mother looked rather offended by that. "You can never watch Beauty and the Beast too many times." She countered. Beside them, the new face was just staring at the interaction in astonishment. He had never expected to see Sherlock converse like this; sure, he only just met him but he had already gotten a distinct impression of the kind of person Sherlock was. Then Valentina asked. "Are you going to introduce me to your new friend?"

Sherlock sighed. "Valentina, Dr John Watson." The woman reached over to shake the man's empty hand. The other held a cane to help him walk. And Valentina had seen enough soldiers to recognise an army doctor when she saw one. "John, Valentina Wilson." He didn't even looked back at them as he introduced them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too."

The consulting detective was purely focused on the body so all the three could do was watch and wait until he came up with something. And, like always, it didn't take long for him to say something.

"Shut up."

But neither of them had said a word before Sherlock, so Lestrade frowned at him. "I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking." Sherlock stated. "It's annoying."

Valentina shook her head at the man. "Play nice, Sherlock."

The sociopath in question ignored her words and instead questioned. "What are your findings so far?" 

She folded her arms over her chest and watched as he took another step towards the body and observed it closer. "Coat still wet under the collar. Wasn't in London until today. And she was definitely not writing a message in German." Deducted Valentin.

Sherlock hummed as he considered her discoveries. Then he dropped to the ground and conducted his examination. He went from her coat (which happened to contain an unused umbrella despite the rain on her coat) to her jewellery — he even removed her ring. Then, a moment later, a familiar smirk etched itself onto his lips and both Lestrade and Valentina knew what that meant.

"Got anything?"

Pulling off his gloves as he got to his feet, Sherlock replied. "Not much." Oh how Valentina knew she was lying.

Then an incredibly annoying voice piped up. "Sher's German." They all turned to see Anderson leaning in the doorway. "Rache, it's German for revenge. She could be trying to tell us something—"

Sherlock turned and slammed the door in his face.

"Yes, thank you for your input." Sarcastically remarked the genius who was more focused on his phone and didn't look at Anderson once.

Valentina looked back at the door and kicked it as she huffed. "Stay away from my scenes, Anderson!" She doubted he would listen to her. He never did.

"So, she's German?"

Sherlock quickly dismissed that idea. "Of course she's not. Valentina's was correct that she wasn't in London until this morning; she's from out of town." The woman smirked a little smugly at his words as she took pride in when Sherlock confirmed her theories. Seeing her smile, Sherlock's own lit up a little behind his phone. "Intended to stay in London for one night before returning home to Cardiff. So far, so obvious." He slipped his phone back into his pocket.

Beside her, John was looking at Sherlock, completely baffled. "Sorry—obvious?"

"What about the message though?" Queried Lestrade as he looked between both Valentina and Sherlock. After all, she didn't think it was a German message either.

Sherlock did not respond to Lestrade and instead turned to his new friend (whatever he was to Sherlock, Valentina had no idea but she was going to stick with the 'friend' title for now) and asked. "Dr Watson, what do you think?"

"Of the message?"

"Of the body." Sherlock quickly clarified for the confused man. "You're a medical man."

Now Valentina was curious to see how this would play out. But Lestrade knew they had to attempt to follow protocol. "Oh, no, we have a whole team right outside." He informed them.

"They won't work with me."

Not all of that was Sherlock's choice as he had annoyed many of them too much that they didn't want to work with him rather than the other way around. Valentina always did try to sort things out, but some times she couldn't fix it. "I'm breaking every rule letting YOU in here..."

Sherlock turned to the Detective Inspector and stated matter-of-factly. "Yes... because you need me."

His words defeated Lestrade who then relented to the genius in front of them. "Yes, we do." He then hung his head and exhaled heavily. "God help me."

"Dr Watson." Repeated Sherlock.

John turned to Lestrade and Valentina for approval but the former had given up and the latter was curious about their consultant's new friend. A tired Lestrade shook his head. "Oh, do as he says. Help yourself." He gestured for John to examine the body. "I'm stepping out." Glancing to Valentina, he then ordered. "Wilson, supervise."

And so Valentina watched as Dr Watson approached the body with Sherlock and Lestrade left the room to keep the other techs out for a few more minutes.

"What am I doing here?" Inquired John as he managed to lower himself to the ground despite his obviously damaged leg. 

"Helping me make a point."

John was not impressed and Valentina gave Sherlock a questioning look at his words. "I'm supposed to be helping you pay the rent." Argued John and that was when it clicked for her. Now she knew how John and Sherlock had met. She had known about him looking for a flatmate. If she wasn't a mother she would have offered her own home, but she had a wonderful daughter in her life meaning Sherlock had to find accommodation elsewhere. And it seemed he had finally found someone to live with.

Sherlock smirked. "Well, this is more fun."

"Fun?" Echoed John, not convinced. "There's a woman lying dead."

"Perfectly sound analysis but I WAS hoping you'd go deeper." Valentina rolled her tired eyes at her friend's remark.

Behind her, she could hear Lestrade re-entering the room as John tugged his injured leg behind him to kneel down closer to the body. Sparing a look at her boss, Valentina then returned her focus to the new acquaintance of Sherlock and watched with intrigue. Valentina just knew that she and Dr Watson were going to get along swimmingly.

It took him a moment of examining for him to come to his conclusion and then he pushed himself back up into a crouch. "Yeah... Asphyxiation, probably. Passed out, choked on her own vomit." Valentina grimaced at that. It wasn't a pleasant way to die. Not at all. "Can't smell any alcohol on her. It could have been a seizure. Possibly drugs."

"You know what it was, you've read the papers."

The lightbulb went off in John Watson's head. "Well, she's one of the suicides." He realised. "The fourth...?"

An exasperated Lestrade sighed. "Sherlock — two minutes, I said, we need anything you got."

Like clockwork, just as Sherlock was about to go off on his information dumping, Valentina pulled out a pad and pen from her kit and prepared to write down his words. "Victim is in her late 30s. Professional person, going by her clothes. I'm guessing something in the media, going by the frankly alarming shade of pink. Even Maggie wouldn't wear that." A smile appeared on Valentina's face as Sherlock mentioned her daughter. He may deny it, but he did care about her. She spotted John struggling to stand and quickly made her way over to help the man to his feet. he smiled gratefully at her once he was up and Valentina returned to her note-taking. "Travelled from Cardiff today intending to stay in London one night from the size of her suitcase."

A perplexed frown suddenly appeared on Valentina's lips. 

A suitcase? There wasn't a suitcase. But, then again, she had travelled from Cardiff so she must have had a suitcase or at least a bag. Yet they hadn't found a thing.

"Sherlock, suitcase?"

"Suitcase, yes." Sherlock echoed and then carried on, not answering her question at all. "She's been married for at least ten years, but not happily." His eyes darted around the room like he was looking for something. Probably this 'suitcase' that he mentioned. "She's had a string of lovers but none of them knew she was married."

Lestrade let out a groan. "Oh, for God's sake, if you're just making this up—"

Sherlock jumped in again. "Her wedding ring. Ten years old at least. The rest of her jewellery has been regularly cleaned, but not her wedding ring. State of the marriage right there." Listening intently, Valentina nodded along with with his words as she followed the logic behind them. "The inside is shinier than the outside. That means it is regularly removed. The only polishing it gets is when she works it off her finger. It's not for work, look at her nails. She doesn't work with her hands so rather, WHO does she remove her rings for. Clearly not one lover, she'd never sustain the fiction of being single over that amount of time so more likely a string of them. It's quite simple."

"It's brilliant." Everyone suddenly turned to John at his abrupt input. Valentina just smiled at him. "Sorry."

"Cardiff?"

Valentina looked up from her paper as Sherlock gave the Detective Inspector a funny look. "It's obvious, isn't it?"

"It's not obvious to me." John said.

The consulting detective looked between the three people in the room incredulously. He gasped. "Dear God, what is it like in your funny little brains, it must be so boring." 

Valentina gave the man a harsh look. "What did we talk about, Sherlock?"

Suddenly Sherlock blinked as he recalled her words she was referring to and then just dismissed them. "Right, anyway, Valentina noted it earlier — her coat." Her boss glanced to her with an impressed look for a moment before returning to Sherlock. "It's slightly damp, she's been in heavy rain in the last few hours — no rain anywhere in London in that time." He nodded towards Valentina to confirm her previous theory. "Under her coat collar is damp too. She's turned it up against the wind. She's got an umbrella in her left-hand pocket but it's dry and unused. Not just wind, strong wind — too strong to use her umbrella. We know from her suitcase that she intending to stay overnight."

Here he was with this suitcase again. He still didn't know that they hadn't found one.

"So she must have come a decent distance but can't have travelled more than two or three hours because her coat still hasn't dried. So, where has there been heavy rain and strong wind within the radius of that travel time?"

"Cardiff." Finished Valentina was a beaming grin as Sherlock held up his phone to show the others the weather reports from the last few hours.

John was astonished. "That's fantastic!"

"Do you know you do that out loud?"

The friendly doctor looked down as he was a tad embarrassed.  "Sorry, I'll shut up."

But Sherlock didn't oppose to the compliments at all. He just wasn't used to them from anyone other than Valentina and occasionally Lestrade. "No, it's... fine." 

"Why do you keep saying suitcase?" Piped up Lestrade as he frowned.

Now back on track, Sherlock spun around to face the officers of the Yard. "Yes, where is it?" He asked and started to scouring his surroundings for any sign of it. "She must have had a phone or an organiser. Find out who Rachel is."

Then it hit her. Rachel was the word the dead woman was attempting to write. She was right: it was definitely not a German revenge message. "Of course, she was trying to write 'Rachel'." She chuckled as she realised.

"She was?" Lestrade furrowed his brows.

"No, she was leaving an angry note in German. Of course she was writing 'Rachel'!" Sarcastically retorted Sherlock. "No other word it can be." Then he returned his sights to the body. "Question is: why did she wait until she was dying to write it?"

"How do you know she had a suitcase?"

Sherlock pointed down to the victim's legs. "Back of the right leg, tiny splash marks on her right heel and calf not present on the left." And when Valentina looked at where he was directing their gazes, she noticed it too and realised he was right — not that he was often wrong.

"Of course!" Beamed Valentina who stepped closer to examine the marks closer. She was now standing at Sherlock's side. "She must've been dragging a wheeled suitcase behind her with her right hand. And I'm guessing the suitcase was small, due to the splash pattern." Valentina deducted.

Nodding, Sherlock confirmed her words with a slightly impressed smile. 

He then said. "Well done, Valentina." The woman was beaming. Then, he carried on. "Case that size, woman this clothes-conscious, could only be an overnight bag so we know she was staying one night." He flicked up the bottom of his coat as he dropped to look at the body once more. "Now, where is it? What have you done with it?"

"Sherlock, we didn't find a suitcase."

The consulting Detective froze where he knelt. Then he slowly turned his head to look up at Valentina. "Say that again."

"There's not a suitcase here. We haven't found one." Valentina repeated.

But now she knew that there had to be one which just made this case far more intriguing. Because, where was this pink lady's case. If it wasn't here, then where? Did she have accommodation? Or maybe it was somewhere else.

Sherlock immediately got to his feet and rushed out of the door. "Suitcase!" He called out to the rest of the forensics squad. "Did anyone find a suitcase? Was there a suitcase in this house?" He rapidly fired his burning questions.

They all followed him out of the room as he started to descend the large staircase. "Sherlock!" Lestrade yelled after him. "There was no case!"

But Sherlock's mind seemed to be churning, a storm of thoughts was brewing. Valentina knew from experience that it was best just to wait and see where the it ended rather than jump in and try to help. When Sherlock's mind was ticking, it meant the case was going to be blown wide open.

"But they take the poison themselves. They chew, swallow the pills themselves. There are clear signs, even you lot couldn't miss them."

Dramatic as ever, Sherlock started to sprint down the stairs and towards the exit with his coat billowing behind him. "Right, yeah, thanks. And...?" Queried the Detective Inspector.

They all looked over the railing and down and Sherlock as he answered. And Valentina was right, his words then blew the case wide open. "It's Murder. All of them. I don't know how. But they're not suicides, they're killings. Serial killings." Valentina couldn't believe it: it was a serial killer. That was never a good thing. She stared at her friend, jaw dropped in shock. Then he clapped his hands together excitedly. "We've got ourselves a serial killer. Love those. There's always something to look forward to."

"Sherlock! What's going on?" Valentina leaned on the railing to peer down at her friend.

He suddenly turned back at her voice and looked up at the trio at the top of the stairs. "Her case!" He replied. "Come on, where is her case? Did she east it? Someone else was here, and they took her case." Eyes widening, Valentina was slowly getting onto his train of thought. The Killer had her case. The thing with Valentina was: she ended up being a few steps behind Sherlock which was far closer than anyone else. It was another reason they got on so well. She could follow his ideas. "So the killer must have driven her her. Forgot the case was in the car." He was still thinking, the cogs were still turning.

"She could have checked into a hotel, left her case there." Suggested John. That was one of Valentina's thoughts.

However, Sherlock quickly dismissed that idea. "No, she never got to the hotel. Look at her hair." With a quick glance back at the dead woman, Valentina realised he was right again. The woman looked too messy; if she had checked in, she would have freshened up a bit. "She colour-coordinates her lipstick and her shoes. She'd never have left any hotel with her still looking..." Sherlock stopped talking and his entre form froze. It seemed the big lightbulb had gone off in his head. "Oh... OH!"

"Sherlock?"

"What is it, what?"

"Serial killers, always hard. You have to wait for them to make a mistake." Sherlock mumbled as his mind went a hundred miles per hour.

Now Lestrade was getting really annoyed by their consultant. "We can't just wait!" He shouted after the Holmes man.

"Oh, we're done waiting." Sherlock said. Then Valentina felt her eyebrow raised as she pondered his words: he was saying the killer had just made a mistake. It must be something to do with the missing case. "Look at her, really look! Houston, we have a mistake. Get onto Cardiff. Find out who Jennifer Wilson's family and friends were. Find Rachel!" He yelled up to them as he started to vanish from sight.

"Of course, yeah. BUT WHAT MISTAKE?!" Shouted Lestrade to a leaving Sherlock.

The man in question dashed back up the first few stairs to look back up at them. "PINK!"

Then he rushed off again into the night to wherever it was he was going. Now Scotland Yard were left to wonder what he meant and hope that they could find this killer before they could strike again. Valentina had faith Sherlock could stop this, she always did.

First chapter done!!! Woohoo!!!

I love Sherlock and Val already. She's always there to keep him in line and she actually understands what he's saying. And yes, due to their long friendship he has gone around her house and has met her daughter. Maggie is pure joy who likes to make Sherlock watch Disney movies. He obviously objects but he eventually likes it.

At the moment, they're just friends and Valentina is only involved in his cases when he works on the ones the Yard gives him. Soon she will be helping him on others.

Also, John and Val are gonna be great friends. And he's gonna be like an Uncle to Maggie. 

Thank you for reading!!!

Sincerely Rosie aka Winter326