Chapter 4 - Send Your Least Irritating Officer
20th June 1876 - The Police Station - Finchley
"Sir?"
Lestrade looked up from his desk into the face of Sergeant Dimmock, whom he had assigned to look into Molly's disappearance earlier that morning. Over his years as a Detective Inspector, he liked to think he'd picked up a little about reading his men's faces, and is one had bad news written all over it. Tamping down on a surge of dread, he affected a businesslike mask.
"Yes? You have news?" He prompted
"Of a sort. You'd better come see, sir." Dimmock said, nodding at the door, but waiting for his superior to stand before leading the way out. Once outside, Lestrade saw Toby being led by a Constable, covered in mud and his saddle askew, but seemingly unhurt. "This is her horse, isn't it, Sir?" Dimmock continued, "We found him just outside town, his reins caught up on a branch. Dunno how long he'd been there, he seemed fairly content to nibble the grass round him."
Lestrade's brow furrowed in concern. This wasn't good at all; Molly took as great a care with her horse as she did everything else in her life, she wouldn't leave him caught up in a tree like this. Clearly he'd bolted, but then Molly would have been looking for him, and if they could find him, so would she have, unless something was preventing her from doing so. The options that left weren't good.
"Any tracks we can follow, as to how he got there?" He asked.
"Only where he'd been stomping around under that tree, rain must have washed the rest away." Dimmock shrugged.
"The storm." Lestrade muttered. That certainly explained what had made the horse bolt. But that was now two nights ago, and Molly had been missing all that time. They needed to move fast if they wanted to have any chance of finding her. "Alright, I'm making this case top priority. Gather up as many men as you can Sergeant, I want a look at where you found him myself, and then we'll start searching from there, we'll cover every mile from here to Enfield if we have to, but I want her brought home safe."
Two days later found Lestrade sitting in his office nursing a headache, and scouring a map with sore eyes. Last night, his Constables had practically dragged him back from the search to get some sleep, and the scarce few hours he managed had done him little good. At some point someone had brought him food, but he'd barely taken a bite, thinking it should be Molly bringing it, and diving back into the search.
"The men have returned from Enfield, Sir." Sergeant Dimmock announced, making Lestrade jump. He really was in a state, if someone could walk in his door without him noticing like that.
"And?" He croaked.
"No one has seen her since she left the Stamford's residence on June 18th, sir." Dimmock told him with a sad head shake. "Honestly sir, I don't think there's any more we can do for this one. We've searched a 10 mile radius of either village and canvassed nearly every house. No one has seen or heard from her. She'll be long gone by now sir, all we can do is hope it's of her own choice and she'll come back to us when she's ready, or that someone in one of the other stations we contacted picks her up and lets us know."
"There's got to be something..." Lestrade muttered, "Hang about, what do you mean nearly every house?"
"Well... All but one, sir. It's that big scary mansion out that way, the one they say is home to some kind of beast. None of the lads will go near it, sir, but we're pretty sure the girl wouldn't have gone there either, so..."
"You're telling me, that the one place that could have presented a threat to a lost young woman, is the one place we haven't looked?" Lestrade said, rising to his feet. Oh, he'd heard the stories about the place, and tended to avoid it himself if he could, but would never have let superstition interfere with his duty. It seemed if he wanted the job done properly he would have to do it himself after all, then he could give the men a good dressing down over it when he got back with proper authority.
"Well, when you put it like that, sir..."
It didn't take long for the Detective and his Sergeant to reach the Manor on their horses, coming to a halt in front of the gates, their first problem evident.
"Locked, sir, and those chains look like they've been there a while, it can't be opened often. Looks like our girl couldn't have come here after all." Dimmock announced, his relief at having an excuse to leave painfully evident.
"Not so fast, Dimmock." Lestrade said, not willing to give up so easily now he was here. He clambered down from his horse, tying the reins to a handy post before giving the gate a good rattle. There was no resulting barking, so no guard dogs roaming the perimeter as you sometimes found with these big houses. Next he looked up and down the fence line and spotted what he was looking for; a tree overhanging the fence, the lowest branch within easy climbing distance, even for someone small as Molly. He walked over to it, getting a good handhold.
"Really, sir? You think she climbed a tree to jump the fence into the garden of some man-beast, for no apparent reason?" Dimmock said sceptically.
"No, Sergeant." Lestrade pointedly reminded Dimmock to watch his tone with a superior officer "I think that after getting thrown from her bolting horse, in the middle of nowhere when it's dark and raining, she would climb a tree to jump the fence to reach the only visible shelter. Now get over here and give me a leg up, I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."
Resigning to the fact he wasn't getting out of this so easily, Dimmock did as asked, waiting until Lestrade dropped down the other side of the fence before following. The drop over the other side wasn't too long, and with a bit of teamwork they should be able to get up to it again to get out, but it probably wouldn't be feasible for someone on their own, Lestrade noted. If Molly had gone in, it was possible she couldn't get back out. Feeling more and more sure they'd find Molly here somewhere, he led the way up to the house and knocked.
Molly was dusting on the second floor when she first heard the knock, and didn't think much of it at first. She often heard crashes and bangs from Sherlock's rooms and after a reassuring shrug from Mrs Hudson, had learned to ignore them. It was only when the second knock came, followed by the indistinct call of a very familiar voice that she realised what was happening.
"Gregory! He came." She breathed, dropping her duster immediately and running out of the room and down the now familiar corridors. She'd made the best of her imprisonment here, but now the prospect of going home was in front of her, she felt almost giddy with happiness. She guiltily had to admit she'd barely thought about whether Lestrade was looking for her or not, had barely thought of him at all, lest it bring her to tears, but now he was here and it would all be fine.
All those positive thoughts swiftly evaporated however when she turned the last corner to the main staircase and found Sherlock standing at the top of them, blocking her path with his arms folded and an irritated expression.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked icily.
"I... I heard the door..." As if to punctuate her words there was another solid knock, followed by her friends voice.
"This is the police, if anyone is home, we need to talk to you!" He called in a loud clear voice that was sure to carry.
Molly glanced at the door, then back at Sherlock, but he hadn't moved.
"Please... He's my friend, and he must be worried about me. His name is Gregory-"
"Lestrade." Sherlock finished for her, "I know him."
"You do?" Molly asked in shock. She had never heard Lestrade say anything about knowing the man known as the Beast. "How?"
"That's irrelevant, as is the fact he's here. You think I was waiting for an escort to arrive to take you home? No. I told you I couldn't let you leave, and I do hate repeating myself, so run along back to your chores and forget your friend outside." He sneered.
Tears burned Molly's eyes, but she shook her head, not willing to abandon her friend.
"Just let me talk to him, I... I'll tell him I'm going to stay here, and reassure him, and then he'll go and he won't come back looking for me again." She reasoned.
"Mmm, or I could not, and he'll go away on his own, decide this is a fruitless lead and not come back either. I like that option better." He said mockingly.
Molly's hands were shaking now too, with rage or fear she wasn't sure, but she wasn't going to back down either.
"How can you be so cruel?" She asked in a shaking voice, "What gives you the right to decide who I can and can't talk to, or make me stay here, anyway? I'm leaving now, and you can't stop me!" She dashed around him, surprised at him stepping out of the way to let her, but his voice called her up short at the bottom of the stairs.
"Actually, I think you'll find I can. Or have you forgotten that I still have the key, and you still have no way out?"
That may have been true before, Molly thought, but now she had something she didn't before. She had Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade the other side of that door, and if he just knew she was in here, she was sure he could make the beast of a man release her. She sucked in a big breath.
"I suggest you do not let that scream out." Sherlock said with calm authority, as he slowly descended the stairs towards her. "Because if you do, then you are right, Lestrade will move heaven and earth to get in here to get you, and if he does... Well I can't be held held responsible for anything terrible that may happen to him." He stopped an arms length from Molly, but those sharp blue eyes of his held hers in challenge.
The blood leeched from Molly's face as she took in the meaning of his words. "Is that... Are you threatening to hurt him if he tries to help me?" She clarified. It was hard to believe, looking at the man before her twisted by sickness, that he could pose any kind of physical threat to a trained policeman like Lestrade, but the confidence with which he said it left her with no doubt it was true.
"It's not a threat, it's a statement of fact." He assured her darkly.
Molly took a few shaking steps backwards, feeling behind her for the banister as she mounted the steps. Her eyes flicked once more with longing to the front door, before sliding back to Sherlock, who was still watching her.
"You're a monster!" She cried, before turning and running away up the steps and towards the sanctuary of her room. All the charitable thoughts towards the man that Mrs Hudson had built up in her had vanished, and she cursed herself for ever thinking them. She hated that she had got so comfortable here, that she hadn't been putting more effort into escaping. That would change, she swore to herself, peering out of a crack in her curtains, not enough for her to be seen from outside, but enough to see her friend walking away from the door.
"Well, sir, what now?" Dimmock asked as they left the doorstep.
"We might as well check the grounds while we're here, maybe if she couldn't get an answer at the house and couldn't get out of the garden she took refuge in a potting shed or something." Lestrade answered, looking desperately out at the grounds. He had felt so sure, his gut had been telling him this was it.
"Alright sir, thought I would have thought if she was, she'd have heard you shouting and come out by now."
"Maybe, maybe not. We can always hope." Lestrade replied, thinking forlornly that they had run out of other options, and hoping was about all they could do now.
AN: Thanks again to all my followers, I'm getting no an amazing response to this story, and I can't tell you how happy that makes me. Thanks also to Cassidy Rose, Lovely whim and Hikiaka for thier reviews on the last chapter :) See you all Sunday for more.
