His Last Vow (Sherlock Holmes X OC)

SIX- The Doctor's Lying Wife

Mary was 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. Mary had talked with Anderson, who suggested this place as somewhere to find Sherlock and Anita. A homeless person, with his hood up over his head and a blanket wrapped around him, was squatting down with his back against the wall at the corner of the road and a plastic tub was in front of him.

"Spare any change, love?" he asked Mary as she walked past him.

"No."

"Oh, come on, love. Don't be like all the rest," he replied. Mary stopped, turned back, then took a handful of loose change out, bending down and dropping the coins in the tub. But before she could straighten up, he took a hold of her hand and looked up at her and she recognized him as the man that claimed to have a broken arm when it was really just a sprain.

"Rule one of looking for Sherlock 'olmes and Anita O'Malley...they find you," he said and handed her a phone and headset. He stood up and picked up his tub.

"You're working for them now," Mary stated.

"Keeps me off the streets, dunnit?" he replied.

"Well...no," Mary said as she shrugged at him. The phone started to ring, so Mary put on the headset and walked away.

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

"Can't you see us?" Anita asked her through the phone.

"Why do I feel like our movie nights are cancelled?" Mary asked as she continued to walk down the streets.

"You shot my fiancé; might hurt his feelings if we still hang out," Anita answered and Mary returned to her task at hand.

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

"The lie- the lie of Leinster Gardens- hidden in plain sight," Sherlock replied as Mary took a few steps 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 continued along the road, still looking at the house fronts.

"The houses, Mary. Look at the house," Anita suggested.

"How did you two know I'd come here?" Mary questioned.

"We knew you'd talk to the people no one else would bother with," Sherlock replied. Mary laughed briefly before responding.

"I thought I was being clever."

"You're always clever, Mary. We were relying on that. We planted the information for you to find," Anita told her. Mary slowed down, looking at a couple of adjoined houses in the middle of the terrace.

"Ohh," she said, sounding impressed. Mary stopped to face the two houses which had caught her attention.

"Thirty seconds," Sherlock stated.

"What am I looking at?" Mary questioned.

"No door knobs, no letter box, painted window. Twenty-three and twenty-four Leinster Gardens...the empty houses," Anita 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 anyone, Mary? A façade," Sherlock said.

In that instant, a picture of Mary's smiling face from her wedding was projected onto twenty-three and twenty-four Leinster Garden. Mary turned and looked behind her, trying to find where the picture was being projected from.