Chapter 9
Holmes is talking

Some Agent who none of the team knew walked into the bullpen. He walked straight past Tony and McGee, who were discussing the honesty of Holmes, after Tony's earlier remark.

"They are just tricks, he is faking it in his bluff," Tony said.
"The mind chard technique is real, I read about it," McGee countered.
"That might be real, but that doesn't prove Holmes' ability to deduce such detailed information, certainly in such a short time," Tony said.

The man paid no heed to them and walked straight up to Gibbs, without a hint of fear. He looked like he knew his purpose and like he could not be turned from it.
Gibbs had been standing and inspecting the blog that had reappeared on the screen, and seemed a little surprised when the man stepped into his line of vision. The NCIS Agent was just a little shorter than Gibbs, and was not intimidated by the team leader's reputation.

"What is it, Agent …?" Gibbs asked, slightly annoyed by the interruption.
"Fenderly," the man kindly interjected.
"Right, Fenderly, what is it?"

"Mister Holmes has asked to speak to you. He mentioned wanting to tell you some useful information," Fenderly told Gibbs.
"Good, DiNozzo, go hear him out," Gibbs ordered and already turned away.
"Oh, that won't do," Fenderly said, while Tony turned around from his discussion with McGee, wondering what he had missed.
"Why not?" DiNozzo asked, a little offended by this unknown colleague.
"He said he would only talk to Gibbs directly, and to no-one else. He seemed to mean it," Fenderly said, half a smile on his face.
"Right," Gibbs said, slightly more annoyed. Holmes was in no position to state conditions, or so he had thought. "I'll go myself, then. Thank you, Fenderly."
The man nodded and walked off to the elevator. Gibbs walked away in the direction of the interrogation rooms. Tony turned to McGee and Ziva.
"Who is that guy?" he asked.
"I heard he has just come over from another office," Ziva said. "He seems very confident."

As Gibbs sat down in chair at the other side of the table, Sherlock looked him in the eyes. He was fed up with his inability to do something. This room was in no way interesting, they didn't allow him anything to pass the time with, and now that he had found the solution to the problem he had had when he had been escorted into here, he didn't have any mind puzzles to solve anymore either. So he had decided to do something to get out of this terrible room more quickly, because if he stayed here much longer, he might die of boredom.

"I want to get out of here," Sherlock announced, leaning back in his chair and acting like he was in charge, "and as you are not letting me go until you have cleared me of the list of suspects, I am going to give you information that will probably help you solve the case."

Gibbs sat calmly in his chair, awaiting whatever information this man was willing to give him. If it was genuine, it would probably really help him, because if the detective was anything he was smart. If it was all lies, they would be able to use it against him. Either way, what he said would be useful indeed.

"I will tell you the little I can give away about Irene Adler, now that she is dead. She was a woman who did whatever she wanted, and in doing so, made a large amount of enemies. To secure herself, she collected documents certain people wouldn't like having made public. Who I cannot tell you in detail, but it was a game of high stakes. Those documents are now in possession of my brother, the only person apart from her knowing what is in there, but before he got them, she would have done anything to keep them to herself. If this Riddle was close to her, he might have managed to get hold of some of them. She would never allow anyone those documents, not even her boyfriend," Sherlock said, his face emotionless.

"You are making her a suspect?" Gibbs concluded.

"I am just stating a scenario which seems possible to me. He might have had a grudge with someone else, but as I don't know about any of his contacts, I can't say anything about that. And his connection to Irene forced me to think about it. It would be in her ability, certainly with the help of Moriarty."

"Right, I'll keep it in mind. Anything else you care to tell me?" Sherlock looked Gibbs in the eyes and saw that the man didn't really expect any more.

"Yes, to make it easier for you to clear my name, I'll give you full access to my e-mail and phone, I'll give you the passwords, as long as you promise not to open any documents my brother might have sent me. Those can contain sensitive information that cannot come out. I never read his emails, so I cannot tell you which are safe for your eyes. I know you would have gotten into my things eventually, but isn't this much easier?"

"Right, thank you."

Holmes looked away for a moment, considering. "And then here's one more thing. As I assume you have noticed, Riddle had recently had a needle stuck into his upper arm."

"We did, what's that got to do with it?" Gibbs said and then looked at the mirror behind him, wondering who was watching from the other side.

"Well, I also noticed a particular mark on the victim's ear, and the combination of which is a tactic used by Irene Adler and others to get someone unconscious. She did that to me once too. Not pleasant, but it worked. I didn't see any sedatives when I was at the crime scene, but I advise you took keep an eye out for those and for a whip too."

"Why a whip?" Gibbs asked, genuinely surprised.

"That's what made the mark, or something similar. They can leave annoying strings," Sherlock said, looking away. He didn't like talking about that, or seeing the look that Special Agent Gibbs gave him now. He was happy that when he didn't say anything for some time, the man got up and walked out.

A/N: Right, I wanted to thank everyone for the unbelievable amount of follows and favourites I got for this story. Special thanks to those who started following me or favourited me.

Thanks to AllThatIWant for beta-reading!

Thanks to Camp NaNoWriMo for getting me back on track a little.