{"id":3799,"date":"2012-07-07T22:01:33","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=3799"},"modified":"2012-07-07T22:01:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:01:33","slug":"nuremberg","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=3799","title":{"rendered":"Nuremberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Ros Ballinger<\/span><\/h3>\n

He shouldn\u2019t be here, and he is fielding a number of hostile glares from the uniformed men surrounding him because of that very fact.\u00a0 It is only Mycroft\u2019s say-so that has allowed him here.<\/p>\n

\u2018A hanging<\/em>, Sherlock?\u00a0 Lukas M\u04e7ller, the war criminal?\u00a0 I knew you were a morbid fellow, but I didn\u2019t know there was quite so much blood-lust in you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Not blood-lust, Mycroft, merely\u2026curiosity.\u2019<\/p>\n

He has attended hangings before; not out of celebration or satisfaction, he likes to think, but out of necessity \u2013 just to see his work reach a neat conclusion.\u00a0 This time, he reflects \u2013 standing ram-rod straight in a dusty corner \u2013 the reasoning is a little more complicated.<\/p>\n

Everything is prepared.\u00a0 The room is ready, bordered by a series of men in sharply pressed uniform with faces steeped in the due process of revenge.\u00a0 The noose gently swings and pigeons nest amongst the rafters, their movements sending dust trickling down to the ground below.<\/p>\n

There is something wrong.\u00a0 Even amongst investigations, trials, the dozens of convicted and dead Nazis now confined to the soil, even as M\u04e7ller was led away following his guilty verdict to the applause of the court, something is wrong<\/em>, and Sherlock Holmes can feel it, and a vague discomfort prickles over his skin.<\/p>\n

They hadn\u2019t let him assist with the investigations.\u00a0 They were on too grand a scale to let a rogue detective disrupt them.\u00a0 Despite his propensity to show off, Holmes had complied for the most part, but M\u04e7ller.\u00a0 M<\/em>\u04e7ller.\u00a0 <\/em>He\u2019d had an inklings of doubts, half-formed theories about the man, about his arrest, his case, but his brain had failed to make the leap into full-fledged understanding.<\/p>\n

The door to the room opens.\u00a0 M\u04e7ller, face blank and empty, is led to the noose.<\/p>\n

there is still something missing<\/em><\/p>\n

The heavy noose is tied around his neck.<\/p>\n

there is a man about to die think think THINK<\/em><\/p>\n

M\u04e7ller closes his eyes, bows his head.\u00a0 The men in the chamber nod to each other, silently communicating what they have done so many times already, and Holmes\u2019 head is alight with electric panic, all neurones firing, his heart and mind and sinew burning with the conviction that this is wrong that there is a detail missed that they need more time that he needs to think, think, THINK –<\/p>\n

wait \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

The rope falls.\u00a0 The pigeons take flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Ros Ballinger He shouldn\u2019t be here, and he is fielding a number of hostile glares from the uniformed men surrounding<\/p>\n

Continue readingNuremberg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":779,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3799"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3803,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3799\/revisions\/3803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}