"What do you mean?" Suddenly, she knew something was wrong. Every hope she had for this visit dissolved instantly when Sherlock and John exchanged a look. "Sherlock?" She took his hand, asking what was happening.
Sherlock sighed, explaining, "John and Rosie have moved into your old flat. They deserve their own space, and we need the room here now. We have someone else living in their old room."
"We have a guest? Please tell me your parents aren't staying here indefinitely," she sighed, thinking of how they would show up, take over the flat, and change the entire pace of life for everyone there. "I know they were talking about moving closer, but I always figured they would end up with Mycroft."
"It's not them. You remember Archie, right?" John asked, taking a seat as she and Sherlock took over the sofa.
"Yes." Archie had visited often, looking over cases with Sherlock and Alice. She would always make them snacks, smiling at the sight of him and Sherlock poring over files like they were old friends. She had pictured Charlie growing up like Archie, reading over cases with Sherlock and begging to go to crime scenes, despite Alice protesting.
John was the one to start to introduce what had happened. Of course it was him - he was always better with those kinds of things. Sherlock would never handle things like this if he could find a way out of it. "You know it was just him and his mum."
"Yes. Did something happen to her?"
Sherlock took over, saying, "We aren't too sure. She disappeared three - four - days ago now. I think Moran has something to do with it. He's going to slowly try to get me to act, the get me to do something. Archie's staying here for now, while we figure out what happened."
"He came over after school. She hadn't come home for hours, and this… well, Baker Street is where you go when someone goes missing. It's all he knew," John added, standing to get them all something to drink. "I'll be right back."
As John left the room, Alice turned to Sherlock, who had wrapped an arm around her. "She's dead, isn't she?"
He nodded. "Scotland Yard hasn't found a body yet, but I would bet that she is. They'll find it soon enough. Moran isn't the type to keep hostages. He'll be moving on to someone else next, especially now that he has you working with him. He's going to try to get you to do it."
"What's going to happen to him?" she wondered aloud, looking to Sherlock for a simple answer.
"Well," the detective sighed, "that's really what we have to talk about. The only other person he could live with is his dad, but he left when Archie was a kid. I've looked into him. He's a known gang member and hasn't had a steady job in six years. He lives in a trailer outside of Brighton, where he's recently taken up working in a resort, cleaning and doing gardening work. He's been there for a month or so. That's the most work he's had in a while."
Suddenly, Alice realized that John had been gone for a rather long time. He was surely gone for a reason - he and Sherlock had prepared for this conversation before she got there. There was going to be a question, something John was listening in on. "Then what are you proposing? That he stay here?"
Sherlock sighed, shaking his head. "Not exactly. When the body turns up, or after a suitably long time, the government is going to want to ship him off to his father, even if he lives here in the meantime. We would have to er, do something official."
"Are you proposing we adopt him if she turns up dead?" Alice reasoned. Sherlock shrugged a 'yeah'. "Okay. This might not be the best place for him to live - I mean, we've got clients all over the place, death threats being mailed to us, and we've got some of the most weird hours you can imagine, but I guess we could. We'll rearrange things a bit, and I'm sure we could give him a fairly normal life. Or at least one with a steady parental presence."
John came back into the room a few minutes later, apologizing because "the stove wasn't on, and I hadn't noticed for a while. Started to think the kettle had broken. Sorry that took so long." Alice nodded, sipping her tea and ignoring the small glance that Sherlock gave him. She would let them think they had pulled off their little plan.
John went to bed a little while later, Alice turning to Sherlock after he had gone and simply telling him, "Now that he's out of the room, we need to talk."
He blinked, thinking of a million things at once. What have you done? Or what have you not done? Birthday? No, that's in October. Anniversary? No, that one's in March. Groceries? Walking the dog? Er… "About?" he finally managed to ask. "I thought we already did our talking."
"I have to kill you," Alice said bluntly, shifting on the sofa to face him. "Moran's going to make me do it sooner or later, and I think we need to figure it out sooner rather than later. I need to know what to propose to him. That way I can make sure you'll be okay, and you can drop off the map for a while. I can take care of him, and then we can get rid of the rest of the network to make sure no one tries to take his place."
"It has to be something out in the open or something where I can be knocked out and mistaken for dead," Sherlock thought aloud. Good. She isn't mad. I haven't forgotten anything. "Mycroft can help get us what we need, and we have the Homeless Network to help pull off the rest. Just like before."
Alice took a sip of her drink, thinking. "We can use what we have around us… and it'll have to be somewhere with CCTV cameras, so Moran can see it happen. I know he'll let me do it, but I also know he won't trust me to kill you unsupervised."
They worked out a plan, making lists of what they would need and who to contact, and picked the perfect spot to do it. Sherlock had texted some members of the Homeless Network, telling them that they would have to be on call. Alice notified Mycroft, who knew only some of the details, having an animated phone conversation with him. He was onboard with the plan, saying that Moran had been more trouble than it was worth keeping him around, and this would save him from having to put together a government task force with more legal measures to get him. If he was mysteriously found dead, it would be much easier on them all. They could fake all the autopsy reports and clean everything up, no problem. It would just be easier of Alice took care of him. By the time they had finished organizing everything, it was about time for Alice to head back to Moran's. She hugged her husband goodbye, Sherlock following her down the stairs.
"I'll let you know as soon as he tells me anything else, okay?" Alice gave him a kiss, Sherlock promising to await the message eagerly.
"I need a new challenge. Faking my death is always fun," he grinned, jumping up and looking at his evidence wall. "Let's see what we can do about it."
Alice made it back to Moran's home in time to get a bit of sleep, hop in the shower, and be out for brunch at a reasonable time. Moran came downstairs soon after she had started reheating leftovers, yawning and saying hello. "We've got to do something about that Mr. Holmes of yours," he said, turning the coffee machine on. "I got a call last night. Scotland Yard took down another one of my men. Arrested him in front of a restaraunt, or so I'm told. Sherlock Holmes led them to him."
"I've been thinking about that, actually," Alice told him, leaning against the kitchen counter. She chose her next few words carefully. "I want to kill him. He needs to be taken care of, and I think I need to be the one to do it."
"Go on," Moran nodded, searching for a clean coffee mug.
"I think he'd trust me the most, out of all of us. He still thinks I'm dead, right? Well, I get back into contact with him, convince him I'm alive, and then agree to meet him somewhere. Then he gets taken care of, but this time I ensure it," she explained. "No more surviving. We make sure we have a body this time. He fooled us once, but he won't fool us again."
"And you already have an idea how you want to do it?" He reached for the coffee pot, Alice explaining as he poured himself a cup.
"Somewhat. I want to know what you think about it, though. Feel free to tell me it's impractical." She laid out the bare bones of a plan, but let Moran put everything together. She let him think that he had come up with the details, but she led him right to them. In the end, he had pieced together a plan very similar to the one she and Sherlock had made the night before. But of course, Moran had to think that he was the mastermind and that there was no way his plan could backfire. Alice would need to alter a few things, but she was confident enough that she could take care of them without Moran finding out.
When she was able to slip away for a moment, she texted Sherlock, letting him know what Moran was planning and the few details that he had added to the plan.
Your execution is scheduled for next Thursday. Love you. - A
