Disclaimer: nothing mine, so don't sue.
A.N. I was hard pressed to come up with something then I told myself: girl, Artie (alias ACD) did it all for you already! Disastrous case? The Devil's foot fits the bill quite nicely. And since we're dealing with the aftermath I present to you...
The Devil's footprints
Sherlock Holmes is somewhat of a celebrity among London's cabbies. When someone discovers a colleague of yours is the serial killer whose existence the police didn't even suspect (serial suicides, indeed) and he still requires your services every chance he gets, you can't help but feel grateful. True, it might be that he's so fearless because your colleague was "mysteriously" murdered in turn. Mysteriously. With Sherlock Holmes present. Yeah right. If someone saved your life, you wouldn't rat them out either.
All this aside, if the cabbie who takes Sherlock looks into the rear-view mirror too often, he's just curious. The degree of viciousness of Sherlock's retaliation (shredding the driver's life to tiny morsels with that mouth of his) or his lack thereof – as well as his general attitude – is an indicator. Of what the cabbies' community isn't quite sure yet, but they'll work it out. Someday the Holmes scale will be ready and they'll post it, maybe weekly. It will be like the Moody's (very moody, in fact) of UK crime...or something of the sort. Of course, the (semi-)independent Watson variable – whose influence is undeniable – must be accounted for, and it doesn't make things any easier to figure out.
Judging from the atmosphere in this particular taxi, who took them at Paddington Station, the Watson variable might soon become inconsequential. Detective and blogger are as far apart as the car allows, and no air conditioning looks able to warm the veritable if metaphorical frost they've brought in, nor any existing knife seems sharp enough to cut through the heavy silence. John's features are set in stone, and the general impression is that if they weren't both British they'd be having a screaming match right inside the car.
Which is a pity, because this cabbie put his money on them coming out of the damn closet this year and confess they're a couple. In England you really can bet on anything, and he felt confident enough. I mean, have you seen the way the boys normally look at each other? The driver is half-tempted to tell them it can't be that bad, and to make up already. Make up sex is always good after all. They'd definitely break up just to be contrary though (it wouldn't be past Sherlock) so he wisely shuts up. The detective is making a show of looking very pointedly outside the window, but the cabbie catches him glancing covertly at his partner, so perhaps all is not lost.
P.S. The Devil's foot is set in Cornwall, and trains London – Cornwall really stop at Paddington Station if my research wasn't wrong. A warning: I'm just taking advantage of the amnesty. I'll be ending this later. I know where this is going to go (mostly), but I have a Return project of my own and the Sherlock minibang to work on, so I will be – at the latest – getting back to this from late December/ January. When I will be juggling this, the amnesty on Challenge 02, Future blog (it will be back!) and the Return who's likely to drag on. Plus eventual future challenges. Oh my. Someone stop me.