Chapter Text
She had known them all for a long time, 130 years give or take, and had worked out how all of them had died. Not necessarily straight away after her death, but she had used her gift of dedication to help her work out how they had all died. Robin had died first. That much was obvious, him being a caveman and all. Yet what was not so obvious was how. Yes his skin appeared like he had been burnt, however his clothes were untouched, like his body had been dunked in fire and then redressed in his animal skins. Yet apon further inspection of his face you would be able to tell that it was covered in grime, not scorching like it would having been touched by a flame. So he could not have died to a fire then.
So what was it then? He was not one to talk of his or other’s deaths, so to get it out of him would be almost impossible.
One day, a year or so after her death however, she was sure she had cracked it. She and Robin had been having a discussion (I say discussion, the younger of the two ghosts had done most of the talking and the elder would mainly grunt out responses.) about playing tricks on the livings, particularly George Button, who was a constant victim that was subject to ghost boredom.
When the topic of how to came up though, she was confused. How had he been able to play tricks on the livings? He couldn’t be seen because only she could (that had been a fun discovery), and he couldn’t have been walked through because only Mary can be noticed if she is walked through because she releases a plume of smoke every time. So what was it?
You see Robin had never used his ghost power in front of the others, at least not around her. So you can see why she had been confused when he managed to grunt out something along the lines of “I have made the lights brake near him so many times, and sometimes even near Lady Button, it gives her a right scare.” Well to the untrained ear it would sound like “Lights brake around George lots, sometimes near Fanny.” It was an art and a game you see, working out what Robin said sometimes, in which you would have to fill in most of the disjointed sentences with educated guesses.
They continued on with their conversation but something Robin had said stuck. “Light”, what did he mean by “light”. “Light” implies a lightbulb or some sort of light source, and from her little knowledge of science (Sherlock had spent many nights in their youth explaining the latest knowledge given to science) she knew that light, and indeed everything that carries a force, required energy. Robin’s death had to have something to do with light and energy, she was sure of it. She just couldn’t place her finger on what connected the two just yet.
She had to keep in mind that his hair was stood on end, not unlike many of the unfortunate electrocuted victims she had had the job to inspect and pay homage to for cases of unknown causes of death given to Sherlock. It also had some sort of shards mixed in it, indicating that somehow a tree, or at least a wooden tool had to have had a hand in his death. So logically, his death had been caused by a tree, some sort of light and energy. But how were they connected?
Then she remembered, there was a tree. A beautiful tree, with the most luscious leaves that would glow against the sun. It provides a soft delicate shade that cools from the sun, lending itself as a good place for a picnic (something Lady Button had been partial to in the summer months). Yet the most strikingly beautiful thing about it was the lighting scar that flowed through it (Kitty had been the one to point it out on one of their first walks around the grounds and it had become a particular favourite of hers if she had needed to clear her head). It was suspicious, Robin would never go near the tree and in fact he made a point to stay away from said tree. So his death probably did have something to to with the tree.
So tree, light and energy. Or could it be tree and lightning? That would be where all the clues led and it made more sense. So her guess was that he was near or on a tree in a storm (explaining why when there was a storm he had run and hid from it) and it was struck by lightning, killing him and anything near it. Yes! That was it.