His Last Vow (Sherlock x Female!Reader)

Chapter 6: Mary, the Assasin

Mary is walking along a road towards Leinster Gardens, an expensive looking area with a long terrace of four story white plastered Edwardian buildings lining the road.

A homeless person, with his hood up over his head and a blanket wrapped around him,  is squatted down with his back against the wall at the corner of the road and a plastic tub in front of him. "Spare any change, love?" He asked Mary as she walks past him. "No." She said. "Oh, come on, love. Don't be like all the rest." He said. She stops, turns back to him then takes a handful of loose change, bends down and drops the coins into the tub.

Before she could straighten up, he takes ahold of her hand and looks up at her and she recognized him as the young man that claimed to have a broken arm when really it was a sprained wrist. "Rule one of looking for Sherlock 'olmes and (y/n) (l/n)....they find you." He said and hands her a phone and headset. He stands up and picks up his tub as Mary said. "You're working for them now."

 "Keeps me off the streets, dunnit?" He asked.

"Well.....no." She replied as she shrugs at him. The phone starts to ring so she puts the headset into her ear and walks away.

"Where are you two?" She asked after she answered the phone.

"Can't you see us?" You asked her.

"Well, what am I looking for?" Mary asked.

"The lie--the lie of Leinster Gardens--hidden in plain sight." Sherlock said. Mary steps a few feet into the road so that she could get a better look at the tall houses. "Hardly anyone notices. People live here for years and never see it, but if you are what we think you are, it'll take you less than a minute." Sherlock said as Mary continues along the road while looking at the house fronts.

"The houses, Mary. Look at the houses." You said.

"How did you two know I'd come here?" She asked.

"We knew you'd talk to people no one else would bother with." Sherlock replied.

Mary laughs briefly before saying. "I thought I was being clever."

 "You're always clever, Mary. We were relying on that. We planted the information for you to find." You said to her. She slows down, looking at a couple of adjoining houses in the middle of the terrace. "Ohh." She said, sounding impressed, and stops and turns to face the two houses which have caught her attention.

"Thirty seconds." Sherlock said.

"What am I looking at?" Mary asked.

"No door knobs, no letter box, painted windows. Twenty-three and twenty-four Leinster Gardens.....the empty houses." You said.

"They were demolished years ago to make way for the London Underground, a vent for the old steam trains. Only the very front section of the house remains. It's just a façade. Remind you of any one, Mary? A façade." Sherlock asked her. At that moment a picture of Mary's smiling face from her wedding is projected onto front of the two houses.

Mary turns and looks behind her, trying to see where the picture is being projected from. "Sorry. Sherlock could never resist a touch of drama." You said as Mary turns back to the houses and looks at the image of her. "Do come in. It's a little cramped." Sherlock said.

"Do you own this place?" Mary asked him as she walks towards the houses. "Mmm. I won it in a card game with the Clarence House Cannibal. Nearly cost me my kidneys, but fortunately I had a straight flush." Sherlock said and he draws in a breath. Mary pushes open the door and looks inside.

On the wall inside the door is an empty socket for a large electric plug and beside it is a fuse box. "Quite a gambler, that woman." said Sherlock as Mary walks inside.