- c h a p t e r   e i g h t -

Sherlock found himself bored within 221B once again, something that seemed to occur every other day. If he wasn't working on a case, then he wasn't entertained. He didn't want to use any of his brainpower to further investigate whatever Emma was currently going through, either. All of her glitter and fancy new outfits remained pushed aside.

He'd been continuing to help John and Mary with their wedding planning, something that was fairly thought consuming while it lasted but also rather dull and tedious. There had to be better things for him to do than just help the soon to be married couple, he felt sure of it.

But unfortunately, all of the cases he had access to at the moment all seemed to be horribly dull. He could solve most of them just by glancing at a few details and staying in the flat. Most of the clients that had come as of late could be solved within 221B as well - Sherlock wanted much more than that.

He craved the excitement of running from or to a serial killer, of truly understanding what had happened in a sudden instant, of solving the case after it had been puzzling for far too long. In hopes he might somehow be able to find something to ease his woes, he glanced out the window to see what was going on out there, if perhaps there were any clients coming.

John and Mary both followed hs gaze out the window, trying to see what Sherlock was looking at out there.

"Oh my goodness, that man looks absolutely mad!" exclaimed Mary. She was right - the man was walking around in more or less of a zig zag pattern, and even from the window it was easy to tell that his face had turned a deep shade of scarlet.

"And I think he's coming this way," John added in. He'd dealt with some interesting clients before, but ones who were particularly emotionally charged were always the most difficult...but for Sherlock, they tended to be the most interesting. They more often than not carried fascinating cases along with their wild emotions, and that was the one thing Sherlock wanted most.

They waited patiently for the man to continue making his way into the flat. Now that they knew he was coming, however, time seemed to move significantly slower. In their anticipation, all three migrated back towards their seats and waited for the man to enter.

The man barged into the flat as if he'd been waiting to get inside for hours and needed nothing more than to gain entrance. But then he continued walking straight forwards, rushing straight towards the wall where he began to beat his head repeatedly.

"Oh, God, don't do that," John cried out, leaping out of his seat in order to prevent the man from causing damage to himself. He gestured for Mary to come along and help, which she did immediately. While the two of them were working to help the man get calmed down, Sherlock just stood aside and waited for them to get through it all.

This was one of the reasons he enjoyed having other people around whenever he started taking new clients - they could do the parts that he couldn't, such as dealing with normal people. Then he could spend his energy on working on the case and figuring it all out. He waited a few more moments longer before speaking up.

"You have a case for me," Sherlock said. He didn't seem to be taken aback by the way the man had come rushing in like a madman, going straight to bang his head against the wall. If anything, Sherlock seemed amused by this behaviour - whatever had caused such a reaction must be particularly interesting.

"I do," the man said, the redness in his face gradually starting to fade away. "I thought that you would figure that much out at least...well..."

"Something was stolen from you. Something extremely precious...most likely something with a high monetary value."

"Y-yes..." the man stuttered out, shocked that Sherlock had been able to read that much from him as he sat there. "Well...I suppose I should explain myself. My name is Alex Holder. I've a partner in a private bank...I've gone to the police about my troubles already, but they told me to come to you."

"Typical," Sherlock scoffed. "Tell me, what precious item has gotten you so worked up right now?"

"Well...the precious item...it's a vintage Coronet. I was keeping it safe for a friend in my home - it's far too precious to be left in any garage."

"But you left it in your garage..." Mary muttered, trying to see how he believed this flawed logic made much of any sense. Nevertheless, it wasn't really her problem - she wasn't the one who was taking the case, after all. She was more or less a spectator in this whole business, watching from the side.

Then again, if she could find any way to help she would certainly do it. She was going to be as helpful as she possibly could be, even though there was only so much she could do in her current situation. From the side, she knew she could offer helpful advice that might end up sending the case in the right direction.

"It was the middle of the night and I heard a car going off. I was filled with adrenaline as I rushed to see what was going on. I knew immediately someone had gotten to the vintage Coronet...it's horribly precious, you see."

Now Alex was starting to go on about the car itself rather than the crime at hand. "They don't make beryl Coronets like that any more, and so I knew that any damage to it would reflect badly on me. Not only that, but I cannot possibly afford to replace something like that!"

"I see," Sherlock said, trying to ease Alex into the right direction to keep explaining. "Continue."

"I came downstairs to see my daughter Avery in the car, and I knew she was up to something. I tried to ask her what was going on, but she refused to give me any details. She always has been rather secretive...but perhaps it was because I was accusing her of being a thief..."

In that moment, it seemed almost too obvious that Avery must've been involved in the crime. The action was just too suspicious to rule aside, and now Alex was going on about the girl being secretive about this and that. As he went on, everything continued to follow on that particular path that seemed to point towards the girl being guilty.

"I told her that I was calling the police and that she needed to give up any information that she knew of, but she didn't say a thing. Then, later that night, she became furious with me for suspecting her of anything and said she was moving out."

"How old is Avery?" Sherlock asked. In his mind he felt rather positive that he already knew the answer within several years, but he might as well continue questioning Alex.

"Only eighteen, just barely old enough to get out there," Alex sighed. "She's always been difficult, but I hope she doesn't flop in the world...but I can't help but think she must've had something to do with all of this. She'll be glad she moved out if I find out she was a part of this."

"Does she have a job?" John asked, scooting forwards in his seat. "Would there be any reason for her to steal anything from the car to begin with?"

"No, she doesn't," Alex said. "But there should be no reason she would be so desperate for money as to steal!"

"Wait - you said this was a robbery, but you still have the beryl Coronet," Mary noted. "What was actually taken?"

Alex looked somewhat offended by this question, as if the answer had been horribly obvious and Mary was just blatantly ignoring it. She honestly had a good point, but in his current state he was too riled up to realise it. However, he finally decided to spit it out.

"Three of the four chrome spinners were gone! Three! Do you have any idea how much those cost?" Alex barked.

"Actually, I don't - I find that costs of certain items are irrelevant most of the time and therefore don't deserve my thoughts."

At this, Alex shot a confused gaze over towards John and Mary, wondering if this was a normal thing that Sherlock said. Those two knew that it was classic Sherlock to say something like that, so they simply shook their heads in an attempt to reassure Alex. There really wasn't much of anything they could do.

"So do you believe Avery stole the three chrome spinners and was intending to steal the car as well?"

"That certainly seems to be the case! I just wish she would've been more cooperative..."

"Oh?" John said. This was something new that could inevitably lead them somewhere that might be able to help them solve the case sooner, and he wanted to help it forwards.

"I told Avery myself that all would be well if she just handed over the spinners and confessed to stealing, but she wouldn't say a thing. That's when she got furious and decided to leave. She stayed until the police arrived, but didn't reveal anything."

"That's odd..." Mary murmured to herself. If she were trying to keep everything so secretive, she wouldn't have just waited around for the police to come and interrogate her as if she were just another common criminal.

"You know, there is a chance that she never actually stole anything from this Coronet," Sherlock stated, starting to pace around the room slightly in order to get his thoughts to start working.

"You believe she's entirely innocent, then?" Alex asked. "You believe that when I found her inside of the beryl Coronet, that she was entirely free of guilt?"

"You misinterpret my words. Your daughter is certainly guilty of something, but it is not the break in for the car."

"I don't know, Sherlock, it seems like she must've stolen at least something..." John murmured in his direction. He glanced over towards Mary, but she shrugged slightly. She seemed to agree with Sherlock on Avery's more-or-less innocence.

"Why do you say that, Mr. Holmes?" Alex said, the redness in his face starting to rise up agan. "It seems fairly obvious to me that she must've done something, otherwise she wouldn't have fled the next morning."

"I said she is guilty of something, but not of breaking in. If she wanted to steal the car, she would've taken your keys and drove the entire thing away without any fuss. The car combined with the spinners would've been far more valuable than just the spinners alone. Therefore, whoever stole this car didn't have the access to the keys."

"That still doesn't completely rule Avery out, though," Mary said. "She might've been unable to get to the keys and decided she might as well break in..."

"No, no, it wasn't Avery," Sherlock hissed. "It must've been someone else. I'm sure of it. Or multiple other people...something this complicated might not have been done alone."

"How complicated was it, really?" John asked. "I mean...it sounds like a fairly simple robbery, more or less."

"It's not the robbery that's complicated, it's the manner that it took place - there must've been someone inexperienced there as well, or else the car's alarm wouldn't have gone off..."

"And we know they broke into the car, because they stole whatever they could find in there as well. Anything that could be remotely precious, gone," Alex said, beginning to scowl. "I can only think of what amount of irreplacable things they managed to take before they left it all behind. Avery must've known what was in there, too."

"So they got into the car themselves..." Sherlock murmured, more or less thinking out loud. "They could've managed to drive it away, most likely, get loads of money for the car itself...but why not?"

"They must've realised I was coming!" Alex cried out. "They must've realised that they were about to be caught, so they fled the scene before that could happen! Cowards. Avery probably tipped them off..."

"You seem very postive that Avery is guilty of something. Tell me, have you two been having fights as of late?"

"I already told you, we had a bit of shouting match before she stormed off-"

"Other than that," Sherlock said. Mary and John locked glances - this could go wrong very easily just because of how abrasive Sherlock could be. He just didn't understand how people functioned half of the time, not emotionally, anyways. They would step in if hey had to, but they sincerely hoped that would be not be necessary.

"Avery and I have been fighting, yes," Alex admitted begrudgingly. "But it's all been little rows, nothing more! It's the sort of thing that must happen between all parents and their children as they're growing up. She's still young...but you don't think she would've stolen everything just to get revenge on me, do you?"

"Surely there must be more clues left behind than just Avery's appearance in the car," Sherlock stated, skating past his question. "Was there anything in particular that she was trying to hide, anything supsicious?"

"Well, the only sign left behind was this. Looks like some kid made it, but I don't think that a kid could very well pull off a heist like that," Alex huffed. "Not even a kid like Avery, with all of the troubles she's been putting everyone through. She was trying to push this aside, yeah...but I don't see why it was such a big deal."

Sherlock plucked the piece of paper straight of Alex's hands, wondering what the man was going on about. When he saw it, however, things all seemed to become crystal clear. He was positive that Avery wasn't the one who'd broken into the car and stolen the spinners. After glancing over it for a moment, he passed it over to John.

Mary came to peer over John's shoulder in an attempt to figure out what was going on as well. She released a gasp the same time as he said, "Oh, God." Both were absolutely shocked by what was in front of them - if it meant what they thought it meant, then there was a large amount of trouble heading towards Baker Street.

The message was written in letters created by glue shapes and glitter poured on top. There was nothing else to be found except for glitter - the letter itself didn't hold much importance. The only thing that mattered was that they knew someone who'd been working with glitter who was in desperate need of money as of late.

"We're going down to 221C," Sherlock announced to the others in the flat. "Come."

A/N Recognize the title? In case you haven't guessed, I was inspired by the original Sherlock Holmes stories. It only seems right, after all. So yeah. Enjoy - things are about to get crazy.