Dark Star: Chapter 10
Jun. 15th, 2010 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Dark Star
Chapter Title: Chapter 10
Challenge/Fest: CaseStory Big Bang
Rating: T
Dedication: Thanks to my wonderful artists, to everyone who's heard me rattle on about this, and to my brother for beta-ing.
Fandoms: Torchwood and Sherlock (BBC)
Summary: When Torchwood encounters an everyday case with far from everyday suspects, they need help they can trust. Fortunately, Ianto had an extraordinary flat mate when he was at university.
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, OCs. Jack/Ianto, mentions of Gwen/Rhys and Gwen/Owen
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto glared at Sherlock's loud progress around the autopsy bay and hugged his mug to his chest. “I don't suppose you have a volume control, Sherlock?”
“I'm thinking, Ianto. More important things to consider than how much noise I'm making.” He span around and pulled drawers out. “Where does he put the...”
“Oi!” Owen stormed through the Hub towards them and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Out of my autopsy bay.”
“Oh, really?” He sighed but retreated up the steps obediently. “I need my own lab. The kitchen just won't do.” They stared at him and he shrugged defensively. “Mrs Hudson keeps moving things. Anyway, Doctor Harper, what have you found?”
Owen continued to watch him with suspicion, but started moving around the room collecting the results form his scans. “Don't get your knickers in a twist. Ianto, you look rough. Did Jack keep you up too late last night?”
Ianto bristled at his snide tone. “Actually, my house-guest brought his violin. And seems to forget that mere mortals need to sleep.”
“It was a social experiment, Ianto. I needed to be sure that you still need as much sleep as you always used to to be able to confirm my suppositions from yesterday.” He explained it with a tired air, but refused to meet Ianto's eyes. “We proved that you are still a light sleeper, and that you function at noticeably lower levels if you're interrupted at that time of night.”
“I hate you.”
“I had deduced as much.” He shrugged it off and carried on frowning at Owen. “Well?”
Owen glared at him but pulled the results up on the projector. “We found significant traces of Chi.”
“Where?” Ianto asked.
“Everywhere,” he smiled slightly. “On the glass shards of the bottle, in the trace in the glasses, in his blood... and it was that white powder on his office floor too.”
Ianto nodded slowly. “So he was addicted or dealing.”
“Which explains the midnight meeting,” Owen suggested.
Sherlock looked sideways at Ianto. “What's Chi?”
“Chi is to Chiklo as injecting pure caffeine is to coffee,” Ianto explained. “Except addictive rather than lethal. They call an addiction to it a craze, with reason. We don't allow it to be imported in its pure form, so there's a buzzing industry in producing it. This is why we try to control the supply chains as well, so we have a record of how much has been sold where. They always find a way around it, of course.”
Owen eyed Ianto with suspicion, but nodded agreement. “It's like ecstasy, by all accounts. Except poisonous to humans.”
Sherlock shook his head. “There's more to it than that. We need to find out who stands to inherit. It's all in the inheritance...”
“No one will inherit,” Jack said quietly from behind them. “I've got a copy of Atraxet's will in the secure archives, but the pub isn't on it...”
“What?” Sherlock wheeled around to look at him. “It's property, he must have left it to someone...”
“No, because he doesn't own it.” Jack looked at all of them, and only Ianto seemed to understand. “Torchwood does.”
Sherlock pressed his hands together in dawning realisation. “Oh... The killer didn't know that.”
“Well, that narrows it down.” Jack turned on his heel and headed for the lower levels. “Ianto, prepare the interrogation room.”
Jack leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily. “Why did you do it? Were you just that impatient?”
“You wouldn't understand,” Ainii snapped. “I wanted to be able to do something good with it, but Yunika threatened everything. She wanted to stagnate.”
“We wouldn't have allowed you to change,” Jack told her sternly. “Did you not think that Torchwood would have a say?”
“Your time is nearly over.” Her fins flapped in a manner that was clearly dismissive. “How much do you think you can do with four employees? Torchwood is finished, and we are going to have to start taking care of ourselves. Twenty-first century, Jack.”
He sighed and glanced at Sherlock, who was standing in the corner of the room watching them quietly. “Tell me how it happened.”
“Figure it out.” She folded her arms and sneered at him. “You're so smart, you must know by now.”
Sherlock spoke quietly before Jack could answer. “You've been playing a long game. How far back did it start? You started supplying Atraxet with drugs to cause a rift between him and Grigo. When he kept it under control you got closer to Grigo, but now you were trapped in it – he couldn't admit to using the drugs, but you couldn't split them up in case he told Grigo it was you who'd been supplying him. Instead you used Yunika as the tool, created friction between her and Grigo to make her a more likely suspect, am I right?”
Ainii shifted uncomfortably and nodded, and Sherlock smirked and carried on. “You couldn't seduce him – that would be a betrayal too far between Grigo and Atraxet and he'd never do that. You'd already found that they were too close, so you made yourself a part of Grigo so that you'd at least be able to join him in running the pub. Would you have killed Grigo as well if we hadn't found you out?”
“What happened last night?” Jack asked quietly.
Ainii dropped her gaze to the tabletop. “We always met to trade after work, after Grigo had walked me home. I told him I had something special, a business proposition. He turned me down.” She folded her arms and turned her head to glare at the wall. “It was all over. He wanted to come clean to Grigo, bar me from the pub. I couldn't let that happen.”
“So you relied on him having left the pub to Grigo and killed him.” Jack pushed the chair back and stood up. “You'll be taken to a UNIT prison in the morning. Right now, I don't want to look at you.” He paused in the doorway and turned back to her with a half-smile. “He never trusted you, you know? Otherwise you would have known that the pub wasn't his to leave. It would all have been for nothing anyway.”
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Chapter 10
Challenge/Fest: CaseStory Big Bang
Rating: T
Dedication: Thanks to my wonderful artists, to everyone who's heard me rattle on about this, and to my brother for beta-ing.
Fandoms: Torchwood and Sherlock (BBC)
Summary: When Torchwood encounters an everyday case with far from everyday suspects, they need help they can trust. Fortunately, Ianto had an extraordinary flat mate when he was at university.
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, OCs. Jack/Ianto, mentions of Gwen/Rhys and Gwen/Owen
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto glared at Sherlock's loud progress around the autopsy bay and hugged his mug to his chest. “I don't suppose you have a volume control, Sherlock?”
“I'm thinking, Ianto. More important things to consider than how much noise I'm making.” He span around and pulled drawers out. “Where does he put the...”
“Oi!” Owen stormed through the Hub towards them and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Out of my autopsy bay.”
“Oh, really?” He sighed but retreated up the steps obediently. “I need my own lab. The kitchen just won't do.” They stared at him and he shrugged defensively. “Mrs Hudson keeps moving things. Anyway, Doctor Harper, what have you found?”
Owen continued to watch him with suspicion, but started moving around the room collecting the results form his scans. “Don't get your knickers in a twist. Ianto, you look rough. Did Jack keep you up too late last night?”
Ianto bristled at his snide tone. “Actually, my house-guest brought his violin. And seems to forget that mere mortals need to sleep.”
“It was a social experiment, Ianto. I needed to be sure that you still need as much sleep as you always used to to be able to confirm my suppositions from yesterday.” He explained it with a tired air, but refused to meet Ianto's eyes. “We proved that you are still a light sleeper, and that you function at noticeably lower levels if you're interrupted at that time of night.”
“I hate you.”
“I had deduced as much.” He shrugged it off and carried on frowning at Owen. “Well?”
Owen glared at him but pulled the results up on the projector. “We found significant traces of Chi.”
“Where?” Ianto asked.
“Everywhere,” he smiled slightly. “On the glass shards of the bottle, in the trace in the glasses, in his blood... and it was that white powder on his office floor too.”
Ianto nodded slowly. “So he was addicted or dealing.”
“Which explains the midnight meeting,” Owen suggested.
Sherlock looked sideways at Ianto. “What's Chi?”
“Chi is to Chiklo as injecting pure caffeine is to coffee,” Ianto explained. “Except addictive rather than lethal. They call an addiction to it a craze, with reason. We don't allow it to be imported in its pure form, so there's a buzzing industry in producing it. This is why we try to control the supply chains as well, so we have a record of how much has been sold where. They always find a way around it, of course.”
Owen eyed Ianto with suspicion, but nodded agreement. “It's like ecstasy, by all accounts. Except poisonous to humans.”
Sherlock shook his head. “There's more to it than that. We need to find out who stands to inherit. It's all in the inheritance...”
“No one will inherit,” Jack said quietly from behind them. “I've got a copy of Atraxet's will in the secure archives, but the pub isn't on it...”
“What?” Sherlock wheeled around to look at him. “It's property, he must have left it to someone...”
“No, because he doesn't own it.” Jack looked at all of them, and only Ianto seemed to understand. “Torchwood does.”
Sherlock pressed his hands together in dawning realisation. “Oh... The killer didn't know that.”
“Well, that narrows it down.” Jack turned on his heel and headed for the lower levels. “Ianto, prepare the interrogation room.”
Jack leaned back in his chair and sighed heavily. “Why did you do it? Were you just that impatient?”
“You wouldn't understand,” Ainii snapped. “I wanted to be able to do something good with it, but Yunika threatened everything. She wanted to stagnate.”
“We wouldn't have allowed you to change,” Jack told her sternly. “Did you not think that Torchwood would have a say?”
“Your time is nearly over.” Her fins flapped in a manner that was clearly dismissive. “How much do you think you can do with four employees? Torchwood is finished, and we are going to have to start taking care of ourselves. Twenty-first century, Jack.”
He sighed and glanced at Sherlock, who was standing in the corner of the room watching them quietly. “Tell me how it happened.”
“Figure it out.” She folded her arms and sneered at him. “You're so smart, you must know by now.”
Sherlock spoke quietly before Jack could answer. “You've been playing a long game. How far back did it start? You started supplying Atraxet with drugs to cause a rift between him and Grigo. When he kept it under control you got closer to Grigo, but now you were trapped in it – he couldn't admit to using the drugs, but you couldn't split them up in case he told Grigo it was you who'd been supplying him. Instead you used Yunika as the tool, created friction between her and Grigo to make her a more likely suspect, am I right?”
Ainii shifted uncomfortably and nodded, and Sherlock smirked and carried on. “You couldn't seduce him – that would be a betrayal too far between Grigo and Atraxet and he'd never do that. You'd already found that they were too close, so you made yourself a part of Grigo so that you'd at least be able to join him in running the pub. Would you have killed Grigo as well if we hadn't found you out?”
“What happened last night?” Jack asked quietly.
Ainii dropped her gaze to the tabletop. “We always met to trade after work, after Grigo had walked me home. I told him I had something special, a business proposition. He turned me down.” She folded her arms and turned her head to glare at the wall. “It was all over. He wanted to come clean to Grigo, bar me from the pub. I couldn't let that happen.”
“So you relied on him having left the pub to Grigo and killed him.” Jack pushed the chair back and stood up. “You'll be taken to a UNIT prison in the morning. Right now, I don't want to look at you.” He paused in the doorway and turned back to her with a half-smile. “He never trusted you, you know? Otherwise you would have known that the pub wasn't his to leave. It would all have been for nothing anyway.”
Next chapter
