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Chapter 3 - Her Last Bow 3

The valentine day has come, Mrs. Hudson living room is filled with roses. She and Molly do as what they planned to do, giving away roses that morning. The smell of roses seems to reach the two guys living in the flat upstairs.

"Can you believe the smells.." said Sherlock with agitation.

"Well, it's this time of the year you couldn't blame them." said John without moving his eyes from Rosie.

"Speaking of which, it's unusual for you to not have any one of your dates." said Sherlock cynically.

"As a matter of fact, I do have a date later this evening."

"How about Rosie?"

"Molly is going to take her to the daycare later. I'm going to pick her up with Stacy. She's my date." John said proudly. If there's one thing he excels from Sherlock is in the female area.

John stands up while holding Rosie. "And I hope you in your best behaviour with her this evening"

Sherlock look at John confused "What?"

A ring comes from Sherlock's phone saving an argument from both the gentleman.

"Lestrade said he has new updates from the lady in brown murder." Sherlock said. "Let's go John." Sherlock grabs his coat in an instance and look at John who stares at him in agony.

"What?" Sherlock asked.

"Again Sherlock.. once in a while you might want to notice that Rosie, my daughter, is here." John protested.

"Right.. ahh, Mrs. Hudson and Molly is here."

Sherlock pointing at the sound of excitement downstairs. He hurriedly climb down the stairs and shout, "Mrs. Hudson, Molly, its nice that you two have come back. How's the flower.. thing.. going? Fine? Right, do you both mind taking care Rosie for a while. We have some urgent matter to attends. You know, murder."

Mrs. Hudson and Molly just arrive with empty baskets on their hands looking at Sherlock with amusement.

"Sherlock, dear. We just come home.." Mrs. Hudson said.

"That is right Sherlock, they just came home. We can't just ask them to randomly taking care of Rosie." John joins the conversation.

"I can watch her." Molly's voice bring silence to the whole room. Even Sherlock looks at her almost in surprised, enough to not reply anything.

John comes down the stairs, "Molly, you can't keep doing this... no, I can't keep doing this. Rosie is my daughter, and you're spending time with her much more than I do."

"I know how it is, John. I'm going to take her to daycare later anyway. Come Rosie." Molly said patiently, she takes Rosie from John and put the last rose and slip it in to her ears.

John still hesitant, he knows their taking advantage of Molly's kindness and affection for Rosie. But is it alright to do so? After all that had happened, he thinks if Molly could be more selfish, she should have walk away and never looking back to Baker street ever again. But here she is.

"Alrighty then, lets go John. We'll be home before dinner." Sherlock marching through the front door uncared.

John with the soldier heart in him stand straight before leaving and bow a little to Molly. "Again, Molly. I am really sorry. I'll make it up to you one day"

Then his off to follow Sherlock.

***

They arrived at a flat in suburb London. Lestrade already there waiting for them outside the flat's entrance. He is talking to one of his subordinate in high tones, he seems sterner than usual.

"What happened?" Sherlock asked after they have done talking.

"We need to take another look with the hotel room, but the hotel said they can not do so, because they already sold the room.".

"Already? For a murder room that actually rather fast, isn't it?" John asked.

"That is answer a lot of questions." Sherlock mumbles. "So, I presume this is the victim's home?"

"Yes, I thought you might want to take a look." Lestrade takes Sherlock and John inside.

"She lived alone with her cats, as you said. But we don't find anything that could help us find the murderer."

Lestrade opens the door to the lady's flat. The first sight they fed upon is a female officer busy gathering 3 cats who keeps running away.

"The cats might have walk all over any left evidences." Sherlock try to observes as much as he can. But he then suddenly stands up and look at Lestrade.

"Just feed me all the info you have."

Lestrade open his file. "As I said, the ex-husband has an airtight alibi. She doesn't have any much friends, she does comes to a book club, keep in touch with her alumni.. but.."

"Cause of death, have you found it yet?"

"Right now we didn't have any exact cause of her death. She didn't have any external trauma. No underlying health conditions. We didn't found any needle shot that might cause her death, and she didn't ingest any poison.."

"How about drugs?"

"No recreational drugs if that is what you mean. No sleeping drugs. There are a couple over the counter drugs that she had, but there is nothing poisonous."

"Not, if you take it alone." Sherlock said.

Lestrade and John gaze upon Sherlock.

"Have you solve it the? The murder?"

"Oh, there wasn't a murder. But there was a crime." Sherlock answers while smiling at them.

"The victim.." Sherlock pauses, "What's her name again?"

"Letitia Balden" Lestrade answered.

"Right. Mrs. Balden as I pointed out before, is a middle age lady, fighting for her aging."

"The botox shots?" John asked.

"Well done John, you remember. I think she was going to upgraded her treatment."

Lestrade and John look at each other in confusion.

"She was going to have plastic surgery?"

"You can say that, but as you can see from this flat, she's not in a great financial aid. So, like many Americans going to Mexico for plastic surgery.."

"She's going to do it ilegally." Lestrade said in amusement. "But how did you know?"

"Do you remember the hotel room where we found the body? When I first entered, I can't help but noticed how exceptionally clean the room was. Even a normal clean hotel room has their own flaws, but that hotel room is very clean. You might ask yourself maybe because there was splatters of blood from a murder so the culprit needs to clean the room to the point it was flawless."

"But the crime investigator said there was no blood in any ways in that room." Lestrade said.

"Yes, that fooled me too." Sherlock continued. "That is why I was convinced there's a murder in that room. But now I found out that she wasn't murdered." Sherlock with no tension in his walk, come across the small living room of Letitia Balden and approaches the dining table. And then he proceeds to the cabinet in the kitchen. He opens it.

"If you are looking for the murderer, this is one of them."

Lestrade hastily walks in to the kitchen, looking at the item Sherlock takes out from the cabinet.

"Is that.. a herbs?"

"St. John worts." John said. "Wait, this is normal herbs. It isn't poisonous."

"Like I said if you take it alone. But Letitia took something else that makes it lethal to her." Sherlock added. "Do you have a list of drugs she had when she died?" asked Sherlock to Lestrade.

Lestrade quickly opens his files again, after reach a page, he shows it to Sherlocks. John joins them.

"I think I know what you think. Serotonin Syndrome." John excitedly deduced.

Sherlock nods slowly, "In some cases it will only cause you agitation, discomforts. But in rare cases, when you drinks a lot in a long time. It could lead to death." Sherlock points out to one of the drugs list that Letitia Balden possessed.

"Cough medicine. Dextromethorphan." John whispered. "So it's an accident. There's no murder."

Sherlock smiles, "Didn't I said there's no murder but there is a crime."

"Where's the crime?" Lestrade asked.

"Do you remember when I was suspicious for murder due to the overly clean room in that hotel. Also Mrs. Balden has a lot of cats. She won't leave them alone one night without someone feeding them. She wasn't going to stay over at that hotel. She's going there for a renovation."

Lestrade and John silently trying to digest Sherlock's words.

"By renovation you mean.."

Sherlock rolls his eyes. "She's going for a cosmetic procedure! An illegal one. That's why the hotel's room is squeaky clean. Because they're going to do a procedure in there."

Lestrade and John look at each other.

"In a hotel room?"

"That's why I told you, there's no murder but there is a crime! The hotel is just a facade, they actually running an underground cosmetic labs there, with low price and probably not enough safety protocol. Whatever procedure Mrs. Balden was going to take, she plans to going back home the same day."

Lestrade seems start to grasps on Sherlock deduction. "Is that why they already sold the room to other people?"

Sherlock nods confidently, "My guess if you go there right now you can caught them right in the middle of it."

Lestrade snaps from Sherlock deduction and hurries his men to come with him. Leaving Sherlock and John alone.

"So she doesn't know she was combining her own poison?" John asked again.

"She was hasty to had the procedure. If they know she was under the weather, she might be forced to canceled it. So in order to surpresed her coughs, she dranks the cough medicine.. a lot of it." Sherlock explained.

"As for St. John's Wort, she might had taking it since she got divorced. St. John's wort is known to calm your nerves. She was anxious since her ex-husband just got a new younger girlfriend. Ironically, to avoid side effects, she took a herbs rather than a pharmaceutical drugs. But in the end, it's the one who caused her death." Sherlock put the container of St. John's wort in the table, rejoicing the moment of irony.

John looks at Sherlock almost like looking at a painting. He admires how Sherlock can pull out a puzzle and examines a dead woman feeling from a fraction of evidence and the things she left behind. But how can Sherlock unable to understand how Molly feels about him and how terrifying a woman fate can be driven by their emotion. John suddenly feels the chills. Molly, how long can she endures Sherlock's behaviour? What will their fate become?

"Let's go home Sherlock." said John in a hurry.