Work Text:
If not for the cocaine, he would have arisen earlier.
If so, his business would have concluded sooner.
If so, he would have been home to receive the code giving the location of the next ‘accident’. Would not be outside his friend’s home, watching the flames lick from foundation to roof, hearing the firefighters shout over the roars flame that nobody could have survived.
If Mary had not insisted on an evening constitutional, the Watsons would not have come running down the street with cries of outrage, and Holmes would not have felt his knees give under him in relief.