As soon as he saw someone approaching, even in the dim light of the restaurant, he sussed him out a little. As much as he could, anyway, without knowing the details. That suit must’ve cost a small fortune and the man himself wore it well. As well as any model he’d ever seen while flipping through the celebrity gossip magazines he was loath to admit he enjoyed reading. But there were the finer details to attend to as well. A strand of blonde hair attached to his shoelace, it was seemingly belonging to a woman, not course enough to be fur, not short enough to be a man’s haircut which meant her hair was chin to shoulder length. He eyed it for a moment and then pulled his gloves from one pocket and a small plastic bag from the other pocket. He gave the man an insincere, terse smile and said, “Excuse me.”
With that, he went down on one knee, plucking the hair carefully from his shoe… no roots. A natural blonde. The strand was thinner than would be found on the head of a bleached blonde, as the shaft had to expand to absorb the dye. As he stood from his place on the floor, he stood up, smelling the man without an ounce of shame. Cologne, subtle. Perfume? Perhaps belonging to the blonde, perhaps not. Then he found another hair on the man’s shoulder. This one was wavy and black. He dropped the bag with the blonde hair into his deep coat pocket and pulled a fresh one out, quickly plucking it from his shoulder and bagging it too. The suit was fresh from the dry cleaner’s but it wasn’t brand new. He would place the item to be around 6-8 months old judging by the state of the ends of the sleeves and his gaze dropped to the man’s shoes. There was a splash of something on the tip of the sole, it must’ve been missed. It looked like it was once viscous, now dry and a little shiny, which is what caught his eye. Sherlock’s eyebrow raised and he looked back at the security guard, whom was sporting a look between terror and mystification that Sherlock conveniently ignored. Of course, this all said more about Sadji’s business than anything else. The blood could’ve been from a spilled cocktail, but this man’s accent told him he was Persian and as far as he knew, in Persia, there were no widely practiced traditions or cultural pressure to drink blood. Just as easily might’ve been a drunk patron, but he couldn’t see any dents or heel marks in the shoes and drunks who spilled were often drunks who staggered.
He then looked back at the guard with the same, false, terse smile and said, “Thank you. Shall we?” Falling into step behind him gained him a better vantage point of the room. He wondered how Sadji had come into such wealth so early, but he would know more when he spoke to the man. He walked into the well-lit elevator without bothering to look at the people surrounding him, instead taking the opportunity to hold the bag containing the black hair up in the light and it seemed to be the hair of someone from India or around the region according to its visual texture and volume, thickness. Touching it would be contaminating it, so he would have to work off this suspicion and then test when it was confirmed.
Suddenly, the elevator’s doors opened to an equally dim hallway, not very convenient, he thought to himself, but moody. And before he could get ahead of the security guard and appear through the doors, he stopped, a little surprised at the blonde exiting. It only added to his certainty this hair came from the same blonde when the security guard looked at her, pupils dilating, swallowing a little thickly even as he smiled shyly at her and he glanced her over, at first taking her to be a dancer due to her scantily clad state but furrowed his brow at one, outstanding detail. Her thigh had puncture holes in it. Two of them. At first, he thought, ‘snake’ but they looked like… canines. There were, however, no other wounds on her, which left him truly puzzled. A python, boa, anaconda or any other snake capable of doing that damage had a row of of teeth that would’ve also left an impression. These weren’t thin and needle like. This was a gouge. He didn’t even look up to regard Sadji, only turning his head to the security guard when she was out of sight.