Long Time, No See

The Dusting

Scotland Yard........

John, Sher and I walked with Lestrade as he handed Sher a fax that said:

HURRY UP 
THEY’RE 
DYING! 

"This fax arrived an hour ago." Lestrade told us and Sher handed the note to John. "What have you got for us?"

"Need to find a place in the city where all five of these things intersect." Sher said handing Lestrade a piece of paper.

"Chalk, asphalt, brick dust, vegetation ... What the hell is this? Chocolate?" Lestrade read from the paper.

"I think we’re looking for a disused sweet factory." Sher told them.

"We need to narrow that down. A sweet factory with asphalt?" Lestrade questioned.

"No. No-no-no. Too general. Need something more specific. Chalk; chalky clay – that’s a far thinner band of geology." Sherlock told them then emtering his mind palace.

"Brick dust?" Lestrade suggested.

"Building site. Bricks from the 1950s."

"There’s thousands of building sites in London."

"I’ve got people out looking."

"So have I."

"Homeless network – faster than the police. Far more relaxed about taking bribes." Sher said. Sitting at a nearby desk, Anderson looks up and rolls his eyes. Sherlock’s phone trills a text alert, followed by several more alerts. He brandishes his phone triumphantly at Greg while the messages continue to pour in. Smiling smugly, he lifts the phone up high and calls up his mental London map in front of him, flicking his eyes across to the phone to look at each photograph and then transfer it to the map. One of the photos, a close-up shot of some purple flowers, attracts his particular attention. "John." He is mad at me for some reason so I go over there, "Rhododendron ponticum. It matches." Then moments later he says, "Addlestone."

"What?" Lestrade asked.

"There’s a mile of disused factories between the river and the park. It matches everything." Sher said and the three of us took off running.

Addlestone...........

Several police cars race to a disused factory and the police officers, together with Sherlock, John and I, run inside the dark building. Everyone switches on flashlights and Sally coordinates the police as they start to search in all directions. I heard her calling out orders as we find a bunch of sweet wrappers and a blown out candle. Sherlock then touches the wick of the candle and says, "This was alight moments ago." He then called, "They’re still here." Then he began to talk to himself as we all do at sometime in our lives, "Sweet wrappers. What’s he been feeding you?" He then picks up one of the wrappers and gets a closer look, I heard him mutter something else but I wasn't sure becuase I abandoned Sherlock and John to continue the search. I went down a dark hallway and I saw a shadow move bit next thing I knew I had a rag on my nose and mouth and I blacked out.

Sherlock's POV..............

They found them, the children. We got outside where the ambulances waited for the children when I heard Lestrade ask me something, "Where's Sam?"

"I thought she was with you." I said, concerned.

"No, she was with you and John." He told me and I look at John then running back into the building with, John and Lestrade on my tail.

"Sam!" I called out.

"Samara!" I heard Lestrade shout. After a while of looking we found a cloth. I kneeled down to pick it up and took a wiff of it, Chloroform.