Hello Detective

Gregson Part 6

Charles left to begin the poker game at Casino Royale, while I was left in the hotel room to make a grand entrance once the game had begun. I entered and made my way behind Bass. I bent down and kissed his cheek.

"Weren't you supposed to enter so the others could see you?" He whispered.

"Was I, forgive me." I smirked. "Good luck darling." I looked around the table before making my way over to the bar. I met up with our contact Mathis, though I didn't trust him as far as I could throw him.

"I suppose I don't have to tell you how beautiful you look. Half the people at the table are still watching you." He smiled and I didn't reply.

I watched the game carefully, I was on high alert. Bass suddenly excused himself from the table and made his way over to Mathis and I.

"Is he watching?" He asked Mathis, about Le Chiffre.

"Yes." He answered, and Charles quickly captured my lips, catching me by surprise.

"I thought we had dispensed with covers, 'Mr. Beech'." I argued.

"No. We dispensed with one that was of no use and created another that is." Charles answered, and tried to kiss me again but I turned my head.

"This is me in character pissed off because you're losing so fast we won't be here past midnight. Oddly, my character's feelings mirror my own." I said as Charles reached for his martini at the bar behind me.

"It was worth it to discover his tell. The twitch he has to hide when he bluffs. You get the bug?" He asked Mathis, who handed him a small device before returning to the poker table.

The game had been going on for four hours now, and frankly I was a little bored. They were now going to take a short break for an hour before resuming. I watched Bass place the bug on Le Chiffre sneakily as he passed and I made my way over to him.

He took me by the hand and I followed him out to the reception table where he received another parcel in a large yellow envelope. Clearly his gun. I opened it for him once we were alone in the elevator. He took out his phone to track the device he had planted and we quickly traveled to that floor.

We heard a scream once we had exited the elevator. Bass pushed himself in front of me and continued cautiously down the hall. He ushered me towards the door to the stairs, but suddenly the door with the screaming inside was opened and Bass kissed me to seem less suspicious in the hallway. The men who had just exited the door must have noticed his earpiece, because they quickly opened fire and Charles pulled me into the stairwell. One of the men was thrown down over the railing and hit the ground four floors below. I knew he was dead on impact, but the sound of his body hitting the ground was too familiar to me. Watching him fall reminded me of Sherlock.

I couldn't dwell for too long because a second man came through the door, armed with a machete. He immediately pinned Charles to the wall, but was thrown down a small flight of stairs as I quickly rushed down before he could reach me. He grabbed my ankle and pulled, I fell to the floor, trying to grab onto the railing. He raised his knife to strike me, but Bass knocked it from his hand.

I had now made it to the bottom with the first body whose blood was now covering the concrete. Bass had the second man in a throat hold, but he was reaching for the gun that had been knocked from Charles' hand. I lunged for it and reached it before he could. I raised it to fire at him, but knew with one wrong motion I could hit Charles. I watched as the light left his eyes, Charles' grip on his throat killing him.

The game was going to begin again soon so I made Charles go up to the room and change, his clothes were now covered in blood. I told him I would take care of the bodies.

After hiding them in a cupboard at the bottom of the stairs and contacting Mathis, I returned up to the room. I didn't know how long it had been, but Charles soon returned to the room. The game must have been set on hold for the night.

I was on the balcony, a glass of wine in my hands when Bass found me. I hadn't had a drink since that night when Mycroft found me, but tonight's events in the stairwell brought me right back to that night, to Sherlock.

"What's wrong?" Charles asked, knowing I didn't drink.

I shook my head as a tear slid down my cheek, that hadn't happened in a while either.

"It's okay, I'm here." Charles said, holding my head to his chest. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I nodded, and told him everything. About Sherlock, about the fall, about the miscarriage, about my darkest moment. And he listened and understood. My heart may have been cold and broken, but there was always one person that still made me feel. And that man was Sherlock Holmes. Even though he was gone, every time something reminded me of him the last few pieces of my heart were broken again. He was the exception. I divorce myself from emotions, except when they dealt with him.

As long as Sherlock Holmes remained in my head and in my heart, I would never be able to move on with this new life of mine. That night after Charles left for his own room, I wrote my last letter to Sherlock. I needed to let him go, for good. He was dead, and he was the reason I had become this cold hearted killer.

Sherlock,

Even with my slurred words and uneven steps, you're the only thing on my mind. My whole life has changed because of you. When I first met you, it was good change, but ever since you left me, the change killed me. It killed everything that you used to love about me. All I have left of you are the memories. Memories are the only things that don't change when everything else does. That's not the reason I'm writing this though. It's because I don't want to remember you anymore. I can't remember you anymore. I need to let you go, for good.

I feel your eyes on me when I know you're not there. I can't move on, I'm too ashamed to do it with you watching me. This is never ending, we have been here before. But I can't stay this time because I don't love you anymore. Please stay where you are, don't come any closer. Don't try to change my mind, I'm being cruel to be kind. I can't love you in the dark. I feel like we're oceans apart. There's so much space between us, we're already defeated. Everything's changing. You gave me something I couldn't live without. But I don't want to carry on like everything is fine. Every word I said, you know I'll always mean. It meant the world to me that you were in my life, but I want to live not just survive.

Without you I'm not dead, but I'm not alive either. I'm just a ghost with a beating heart. A heart that is no longer capable of love. You wouldn't like the person I've become. I'm a killer now, and the worst part is that I like it. I like the way it makes me feel, the way it makes me forget. Everything changed me, and I don't think you can save me.

Adelaide Gregson