Disclaimer: We all know that I don't own Sherlock or anything to do with it. The original characters and plot lines in this are mine though.

A/N: Why am I writing this? Because I love Lestrade. Unashamedly so enjoy. The fic is set post season 4, the boys are back on cases but Mary isn't dead because I love her and she deserved so much more.


"They've taken dad in for questioning." Maria Harkerstone said her hands wrapped around the tea cup in front of her. Maria had been dogged by unease for months now, feeling like she was being watched but putting it down to a series of mystery books she'd started. It wasn't unusual for the books she was reading to affect her mood, adventure making her want to run off and see the world. Mystery having her thinking like Miss Marple. Fantasy giving her empowering thoughts of wielding bows and arrows in the forest. Romance rekindling the want for some sort of love story, only to be brought crashing back to reality after unsuccessful dates.

"Why?" Lucy sounded disgusted, as though Maria had suggested something improper and Maria couldn't help smiling up at her friend. The lunch time rush in Belfry's had quieted down and Lucy had come to sit opposite Maria as she often did when it was just the two of them and the regulars.

"They've got to cover everything haven't they? There's only three of us with keys and Dad is one of them. He also doesn't have an alibi. Not one that counts anyway." Maria admitted, squeezing the cup a little tighter for some sort of comfort. The murder had left her shaken, uneasy. If she looked at the facts as Marple would, well, then it seemed Mrs Whistleworth had been killed elsewhere and brought to the Library afterwards. There was no way there should be so little blood from the blow to the back of the head that Maria had heard the detectives talking about. That meant it wasn't a crime of passion, it was careful and calculated and to Maria that was more scary than someone just losing their temper.

"Yeah but Dennis?" Lucy raised a brow. She'd known Maria and her dad for close to twenty years now. Maria and Lucy had met when they were seventeen at college. They'd kept in touch over time and ten years ago Maria and her father had taken over the library meaning they were even closer. Lucy was unmarried but she was never short of male attention. Maria envied her that, envied the confidence that Lucy had to text three different men trying to decide who she liked more. She envied the fact Lucy was confident, relaxed enough to just go with the flow. To not worry about things like shagging on a first date.

"They don't know him do they. They don't know he'd never do anything like that. At least they're getting it out of the way now." Maria said.

"That's going to bring all the crazy's in you know." Lucy gestured to the headline that blazed from the newspaper. The Body In The Library. It was clever of them to go with a Christie title. Maria hadn't read it all, she'd gotten about halfway through the article when it started talking about suspects and she'd given up. At least her dad wasn't on there. They were treating it like some murder mystery for the public to solve though which was worrying.

"Detective Lestrade did warn me about that. The press don't seem to have left the building since the news broke on Monday. I've been having to use the back entrance to avoid them, I was allowed back in to collect some things with a chaperone. Apparently they're still looking for a murder weapon. They're checking all the books." Maria closed her eyes feeling panic flutter in her chest.

"What in case someone's hidden it in one of them?" Lucy laughed.

"They've got to cover all bases. Lestrade's been apologetic though." Maria replied tilting her head slightly.

"Only because he fancies you." Lucy replied and Maria's gaze snapped onto Lucy. Defensive immediately.

"Don't start Lucy, not every man who's nice to someone fancies them. I'm sure he's married." Maria replied shaking her head. "Besides you've never even met him."

"Salt and pepper hair, pretty tasty, big brown eyes? He's in here a few times with the guy that runs around with Sherlock Holmes." Lucy replied.

"Well, that could be any number of people." Maria rolled her eyes slightly.

"Bingley assaulted him the other day when you broke another cup." Lucy said pointedly. Maria gave her a weary look that suggested Lucy needed to stop. "He's been in here a few times and I've seen him watching you. You'd have noticed too if you took your head out of a book for a minute."

"He's a detective he probably thinks I'm up to something." Maria replied pulling off a tiny bit of cake from her plate and feeding it to Bingley who was curled up at her feet.

"He probably wants to get up to something with you." Lucy snorted and Maria made to swat her but she ducked. "Maria the man's dishy and he's got the hots for you. Just call him round to your apartment and-"

"STOP!" Maria held her hands up and dropped her head. "Right there, that's enough."

It wasn't that Maria was prudish, she didn't mind a conversation about sex, she let her mind wander on occasion but Lucy was so forthright sometimes that it made Maria cringe. Besides that Detective Lestrade was attractive and Maria couldn't deal with blushing like a school girl when she saw him or panicking that he thought she fancied him. It wouldn't after all be the first time Lucy had been wrong.

"All I'm saying is handcuffs are a beautiful thing." Lucy winked at Maria standing up and heading over to serve a customer leaving Maria entirely alone with her thoughts, thoughts which wandered to Detective Lestrade.

He was an attractive man, there was something about his smile that made Maria's stomach flutter but at the same time it made her uneasy. How many people had he coaxed confessions out of with that smile. How many women had he handcuffed to beds with that smile? He had to be married. What if he wasn't though?

It didn't matter whether he was married or not, Maria chided herself. He didn't fancy her and besides she was sure there was some sort of rule against fraternising with a witness. Like doctor/patient confidentiality. Yes, that was it. Best then to not even consider what the man might look like first thing in a morning, which given the adorable mess of his hair when he was talking to her in the library would be a sight to behold. Best then not to think about how safe and at ease he made her feel. That was just because he was a police man. That was probably how he got a confession out of criminals, lured them into a false sense of security with his loveliness and then slapped the cuffs on. Jesus. Her mind needed to stop racing, damn Lucy for making that idea, that flash of attraction surface to the front of her head. Damn Lucy and her sexuality, damn Lucy and her ability to make Maria feel like a goddamn teenage girl again.

"Did you get your dad his present yet?" Lucy asked sitting back down opposite Maria and pulling her from thoughts of Detective Lestrade and his handcuffs. She fed Bingley a little more cake before she answered Lucy, composing her thoughts so she wouldn't have any kind of freudian slip and give Lucy the unspoken nod to try and play matchmaker.

"Yes, Milo found it for me. An aunt of his in New York had one in her loft it's an original print too but I got it at a discount because she'd forgotten it was there. You know how much he loves my dad though, he's really helped, apparently he's put a bunch of dad's artwork around the pub for the party tomorrow. He's said he'll keep the print in the cellar for me, I'm going to go around later and wrap it, in a manner of speaking." Maria replied with a smile. Dennis Harkerstone was an artist, he'd been creating graphic prints for companies since he was a teenager. He'd been part of advertising campaigns all over the world and helped to build a big business which he'd now semi-retired from. Living off his earnings and the pension. It was Maria's father who'd put up the rest of the money to keep the library open.

"Yeah when are him and Milo just going to y'know-" Lucy waggled her eyebrows and Maria made a face.

"I don't want to think about that aspect of things but I do wish they'd just tell each other how they feel. Maybe tomorrow night will be the night? They've been dancing around it for years." Maria replied bringing the cup to her lips and draining it.

"Speaking of dancing around things." Lucy murmured before getting up again and moving to the counter. It was Lestrade and he looked harassed and tired.

"Coffee please, strong." He said eyeing the cake on the counter before letting his gaze stray to the rest of the cafe. Maria hissed at Bingley not to go over but the dog was having none of it and Maria saw Lucy making eyes at her from where she stood with her back to Lestrade.

"Bingley." Maria hissed but the dog was unfazed as he licked at Lestrade's hand who looked down at him and allowed a smile to break on his face, which remained as his gaze met Maria's. "I take it you're done with my dad?" She asked cheerfully.

"Just routine." Lestrade replied sitting at the counter. "You were right about Amber Rudderick she's in Jamaica surrounded by people so it wasn't her." He added.

"Can I reopen yet?" She asked, Lucy made a face at her from behind the counter and Maria tried to ignore whatever she was hinting at.

"One of the boys will drop the keys off later." Lestrade said. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something, do you mind?" He asked wandering over to the table and taking the seat before she could object. She watched the fabric of his shirt pull tight against his chest as he sat down and felt her insides flutter.

"Anything I can do to help." Maria said as Bingley settled at their feet. She wanted to call him a traitor, being so inviting, so welcoming.

"You said she was a part of a book club. That she gossiped a lot in it. Do you have a list of people who were in it?" Lestrade asked.

"There's 12 of us, was 12 of us. 11 now. I can give you the list right now. Unless you need me to come down the station?" Maria hadn't meant anything suggestive but her mind was thrown back to Lucy's comments about the handcuffs and she started to cringe a little. Lestrade didn't seem to have picked up on it though.

"That would be brilliant. No motive and no suspects is not exactly a good thing for the investigation." He chuckled. "No murder weapon yet either." Maria watched him run fingers through his hair and she couldn't help wondering if it felt as soft as it looked.

"No I should think not. There were 12 of us; Me, Mrs Whistleworth, Stanley Timperley, Milo Davidson, Thomasina Sampson, Gary Sampson, Gary Talbot, The three Edie's – Smithers, Chapman and Brown, Mackenzie Readfir and Alexander Helsing." Maria counted them off on their fingers. "You don't think one of them could have-" Maria trailed off and Lestrade could see the cogs in her head starting to turn.

"We need to investigate everything and you mentioned something the other day about her liking to gossip, there could be a motive there." Lestrade replied, fingers running through his hair again exhaustedly. There was no way he was married, no one was taking care of him. Maria could see that up close, his tie was slightly crooked, his shirt had clearly been worn more than once and he looked like he needed a good hug. Lucy would have called her sexist for those thoughts but you could tell when someone was missing the touches of a partner, someone to point the little things out to them.

"Well-" Maria started and then stopped herself playing with the edge of her cup for a moment. "-if you want to get them all in one place, they're all going to be at my father's birthday party tomorrow evening. It's at Davidson's, the pub at the end of the road, and you're more than welcome to come and scope them out as long as you don't cause any trouble, or bring anyone in uniform." Maria rambled it all out in one quick go and she could see Lucy, thankfully had been distracted by a slightly gaunt looking young man at the counter. Maria had seen him in the library in the fantasy section a few times.

"Uh yeah, course, yeah that'd be-" Lestrade was surprised and excited all at once, she was asking him to the pub, of course it was purely for investigative purposes but maybe whilst he was there he could buy her a drink. "-that'd be great. No uniform." He finished. Maria smiled at him and Lestrade pushed his chest out stretching slightly with something akin to pride as he scratched the back of his head nervously and shot her a smile.


A/N - Did you enjoy? Please review!