História A Case of Love - Chapter VIII

On the next morning, John was on the kitchen when Sherlock showed up. By the look on his friend’s face, the detective already knew what was coming. Sherlock wanted to hire back in the room, but it was too late now.

“Don’t even start” Sherlock sat down with a cup of coffee, feeling sore in a few muscles, but John would never know that.

“I wasn’t going to say anything” neither John nor Sherlock believed his words. John hid a smile with the mug. Sherlock was thankful for the silence. His mind was a mess, all he could think about was that he had to phone Lestrade, let him know Milly had identified the man. But the silence didn’t last long “Did you guys, at least, use protection?”

Sherlock choked, to John’s happiness. For the first time, Sherlock felt himself blushing. For John’s amusement, Lestrade showed up, bursting through the door. Sherlock sighed.

“Holmes! We had progress on Molly’s case. Is she…”

Sherlock cut him off short, which made Lestrade almost chock.

"Molly identified one of the suspects last night”

“When were you planning to tell me?!” Lestrade took his coat off, resisting the temptation to throw it at Sherlock as he walked further into the apartment.

"He was busy with her…” John spoke before Sherlock could. The detective was throwing daggers at John through his eyes “… if you know what I mean”

“Really?” Lestrade didn’t seem at all surprised “About damn time, I’d say” John and Lestrade laughed, as if they knew something Sherlock didn’t.

The detective made his way to where he had hidden the subject’s pictures the previous night. Finding the right one, he handed it to Lestrade.

“She said no one moved to her street. We should check the whole block, though I think it’d be unlikely for us to find him there”

“Why’s that?”

“Because he’s not in a rush. He did it so he could understand her surroundings, to know who had her back. If he was, he would’ve done a lot more than just scare her, on the morgue”

“What do you suggest we do?”

“Keep an eye on the street neither way. He’s gotta move, sooner or later. Let’s keep an eye on Molly too, she can never, never be alone” Sherlock wanted nothing more than him to leave. Molly could wake up at any moment.

“But she’ll stay here with you, right?”

“Of course not! If this man finds out she’s here, he’ll stop and come back when we’re not expecting. I don’t like the idea of leaving her alone there, but it could be our only chance of finding him”

“We’ll send out a warning on him, make sure the morgue knows who he is and what he intends. We’ll install new cameras around her house and front door, just to make sure”

“Can you do it all until tomorrow? And find Molly a good alibi?”

“Alibi?”

“She wasn’t here, remember?”

Lestrade and John knew Sherlock was right. So did Molly. None of the men in the kitchen suspected that she had been listening, behind the door, quietly. When Molly heard Lestrade and John leaving, she walked in, too scared to feel embarrassed about the previous night.

Sherlock knew, but the look in his lover’s eyes, that she had heard everything. And the first thing they did was share a hug. One that seemed to last hours.

“Should I go tonight?” Molly asked, scared to death to be left alone, even though they were talking about her own flat.

Sherlock was not good with words. Had never been. Neither had he known what to say or do. It was not like Molly needed any of those. The fact Sherlock was there, trying to find out what was after her, gave her some peace of mind.

She was blind with belief. Molly trusted Sherlock ever since they met, she had faith in him. Such faith couldn’t fail her now.

Molly wanted so desperately to find a way out, to go back to her silly, little, stupid life… it was taking her breath away. Sherlock tried his best to keep her mind at ease, but found himself unable to. It was harder, way harder than he ever thought it would be.

So, for her own good, Sherlock made her eat some breakfast before he had an actual answer. It was nearly lunch when he found it. They were sitting on the couch, Molly’s head was down. Sherlock had a plan and, even though she blindly trusted him, the past event had made her unsure of many, many things.

“There’s no guarantee that this is going to work, Molly” Sherlock said, taking her hair away from her eyes “Lestrade and I came up with a plan, we’ll take care of everything. We’ll find him, but it can take days, maybe months”

That was not reassuring. At All. But Molly sucked it up and nodded. Sherlock made some tea, as he carefully watched Molly pick a book from the many shelves and sit down on his granny’s chair to read. With her legs crumpled up under her, Molly seemed at peace, for the first time since all that shit had started to happen.

Sherlock relaxed himself, writing some notes about some stupid cases on his website. As long as Molly was there, his mind would calm down. Or, at least, as calm as it possibly could. It was almost six P.M. when Lestrade came rushing in.

When he knocked on the door, Sherlock already knew it was him, always in a rush. He got pissed as Mrs. Hudson took her time, offering him coffee, then tea, cookies. Lestrade was just too polite to just walk past her.

“Sherlock, we have a problem!” he came in through the door, breathless “A huge one”

“Did you get the cameras installed?”

“I did, but that’s not what I’m talking about” Lestrade tried to oxygenate his brain.

“Then, what is?” Molly put the book aside, ushering Lestrade to sit on the couch.

“John is gone” Sherlock finally let go of his pen, turning fully to Lestrade, the detective within him coming back to life.

“What do you mean?”

“Gone! He just vanished from the face of the Earth!”

“That’s not possible. He was with you the whole time, right?”

"We split up at Barth’s. I went back to check on the cameras at your apartment, we were supposed to meet here at Baker Street but he never arrived. He’s not answering his mobile, either. I asked for the PD to try and locate him, but he’s nowhere to be found. He just… disappeared”