“Well,” he murmured, “You’ll have to recommend your dentist to me because he or she is excellent.”
That was when he noted something that made him stop dead, eyes laser-focused on a canine. She hadn’t exhaled once. She had no odor emanating from her mouth at all in fact. That was because she hadn’t breathed once this whole time. It had been around forty seconds he’d been investigating but he stood there as if still observing, waiting for her to crack and breathe. There were no signs of gum disease, in fact, her gums looked a little pale if anything, no gingivitis, halitosis… he had to stall until she let out a breath. “Sorry, I’ll be a few more moments.” The way her lipstick framed her fanged teeth reminded him of the cover of a lurid pulp novel and he was sure this was just an act. He pushed the sliding microscope closed against his chest with one hand and dropped it back into his pocket. “These look incredibly sharp, particularly the tips…”
His hand came up to delicately examine the teeth in question. He tested the tip with the pad of his index finger. It was as sharp as a needle, tapering to an incredibly, small, precise point. He ran his finger along the side of it as much as he could… he almost cut himself on it, which caused him to stare at his finger in shock to make sure he hadn’t.
Sherlock noticed something else that was… admittedly inexplicable, even to him. Her mouth wasn’t warm. In fact, she seemed as if she wasn’t producing any body heat whatsoever. Thank god for small mercies, like the fact she couldn’t see him right now, his eyes had gone wide. She was a cool as a person pulled from the sea about three days after their passing. Extremely hypothermic, to the point that she shouldn’t be sitting upright at the moment let alone, breathing. Well, she wasn’t doing that either, he’d stalled for at least a minute and fifteen seconds. People could hold their breaths much, much longer than that, but he had a bigger issue to address with her.
As he cleared his throat, he turned off the flashlight and slipped his phone back into his pocket and tried to keep his voice steady, the chill that threaten his spine at bay. “It… uh. It seems you have a set of extremely dangerous dental… implants. Filed just so, so that you don’t chafe your lower teeth or pierce your gums when you close your mouth. Impressive but… not evidence enough, alone that you’re dearly departed.” He hesitated, just staring at her, trying not to let his mouth hang open in shock as he addressed the next order of business. “You seem to have some disorder regarding thermoregulation. In fact, you… are exactly room temperature. You are experiencing a state of severe hypothermia, life-threatening if not certainly deadly and you show a lack of other vital signs,” he tried to state without his voice rising at all, blinking to keep his eyes focused on her own.
“Tell me, how long can you hold your breath? And… please remove your lipstick.” He noticed a box of Kleenex on the desk next to her and pulled one out, offering one to her. “I want to see the color of your lips sans makeup.”
Sherlock’s head felt like it was buzzing, he felt a chill come over him… he needed to see it for himself. If her lips were tinted blue or her makeup was hiding skin discoloration from the the hypothermia, he needed to know. But he’d been honest with Sadji. Her body temperature gave off no heat, which led him to the conclusion that she was exactly room temperature because she wasn’t giving off a chill either. She didn’t shiver, shake, falter for a moment. Now, that… that was new. That was… hard to explain, even as he wracked his brain for a solution that made a modicum of sense.