If you missed the previous episodes, please click here for the first, here for the second, here for the third, and here for the fourth.

The Charity Ward:

Holmes (As Arthur Doyle) walked briskly and as usual Julia, in spite of her long legs, had trouble keeping up with her boss. Sherlock, never a shy man but always polite, stopped at a nursing station and with great gentlemanly skill and commanding authority sought directions to the Charity Ward.

“6th floor East Wing,” was the nurses retort bending the rules for this charming man as she swooned behind her desk. Sherlock smiled back, then, winked. Thank you, mam was his only remark. Then hurry, Julia, as he picked up his pace, now looking for the stairs.

As he entered the stairwell Julia reached for his arm and said, “Arthur, how silly, you are in no shape to bolt up several flights of stairs. We will take the elevator.”

“Of course,” Sherlock remarked. “We shall.” He stayed at her side and let her guide him to the elevator. There at the end of the hallway shining steel doors stood without handles. Holmes observed Julia choose one of two buttons on the wall. It glowed when she touched it, and he was secretly amazed.

A few moments later the giant metal doors slid apart revealing a chamber the size of a small room. The walls were stark and white, and there was a rail made of the same shiny metal he had seen on the doors. Inside there was a column of buttons, this time with numbers. Holmes deduced their function and reached out with his long reach contacting the button labeled 6. With that the shiny steel doors closed confining Holmes and Julia in the elevator. Holmes felt the upward tug against gravity and assumed correctly this marvel of the modern world would next open on floor number 6.

Sherlock  and Julia stepped out into a clean but less modern corridor of the hospital and looked at the sign on the wall indicating East and West, each followed by a set of numbers. The sign leading east also had the word Ward prominently inscribed.

“To the left,” said Julia. Holmes decided to follow her lead. They were close to where Watson was being held, and he did not wish to make an error leading to some spectacle that would prevent him from speaking with his friend. He also had in mind an interrogation of sorts of the other man Julia had referenced earlier. If indeed the man who fell over the tree stump on his estate was involved in this he would get to the bottom of the mystery.

The east corridor was shorter than the west. Sherlock had surmised this was due to the vastness of the ward at its end. There was a set of double doors with shiny steel bumpers that were scuffed apparently by gurney traffic in and out of the ward. Holmes let Julia push on the doors and they opened from the middle revealing a large cavernous room with at least 12 beds along each wall separated only by grey curtains.

In the center of the room was a nurse’s station. Only one lonely nurse sat there as if a receptionist. Others could be seen coming and going about the ward. Off in a far corner sat a uniformed man with the appearance of boredom on his face. This man Sherlock deduced was the police guard for Watson and the other suspect in this yet to be defined crime.

Holmes took the lead and turned on his charm. The middle-aged nurse behind the desk was not as easy as the last nurse he persuaded, but with a little more effort and some flattery she cleared the two to go to the back of the ward to meet with Watson.