All credit goes jointly to Arthur Conan Doyle and the team at the BBC. The story is based on "Silver Blaze", one of the stories in "Sherlock Holmes" written by Conan Doyle himself (of course). I hope you like it, please review I would love to know what you think. E xx

The girl was slight, maybe a size 8, but tall, nearly 6ft in her boots. Her black hair was highlighted pink and tied into a loose ponytail. She had multiple ear piercings, a nose ring, a single eyebrow stud and a tongue stud. She was chewing a spearmint flavored gum. She stood with her hands in her jeans pockets. She had dirt in her nails and probably owned a large dog. All this Sherlock observed in the 3.86 seconds it took for Mrs Hudson to drop what she was doing and embrace the girl. 'Arabella, what a surprise.'

The girl rolled her eyes and stepped out of her grandmother's embrace. 'It's Bella Grandma, remember that conversation.' Sherlock could detect a slight devonshire accent.

Mrs Hudson nodded. 'Yes, Yes dear. Are you staying for tea?' She looked her granddaughter up and down. 'You need feeding up, I thought those country folk believed in proper meals.'

Arabella shrugged. 'I wouldn't know. And I'm here to see them.' She looked over Mrs Hudson's shoulder at John and Sherlock who where sitting on the sofa. Arabella commented. "I imagined you both as taller."

Sherlock sat fiddling with a stack of post-it notes. John was making notes on a laptop. "What exactly happened? Start from the beginning, don't miss anything out. And don't be boring."

Arabella sipped at the coffee that Mrs Hudson had made her and made a face. She placed it down on the coffee table. "I work. Worked as a groom for a racing stud. We, that's me and Head Trainer Mark Thompson, were taking Silver Fox, he's the favorite for the Grand National, across Dartmoor. He was driving up front. I was in the back with Silver, he's a bit funny about being alone. I must have fallen asleep, when I woke up the truck had stopped and Silver had gone. I found Mark outside, dead." Arabella paused to watch there reaction. Nothing, so she continued with her recollection of events. "Mr Robertson, he owns the yard and Silver Fox, fired me for dereliction of duty. I don't care about the job or even Thompson, I just want to find Fox. He's not a stupid horse, he's gotten loose before and just gone straight home. He's an Iron grey Anglo-Arab with a black muzzle."
John spoke. "What are the police doing?"

"Mark was found with a kitchen-knife, and a stock tie."

"Stock tie?"

"Belonging to James Red They arrested him. He said he lent it to Mark. They released him because he had a solid alibi."
Sherlock spoke this time. "Anything else?"
"Mr Robertson bet £100 that Silver Fox wouldn't win the national."

Sherlock narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"
"I went to the local library, used a fake library card, used their computers to hack into the computer system at the local bet-shop and printed out the list of people with bets against Silver Fox at the National. Mr Robertson was at the top."

John frowned. "How did the police not pick up on it?"

"He used a fake name, all the owners do. Just I happen to know it because he sometimes get's me to place bets for him."

Sherlock sat back. "So why do you need us?"

"I'm already a suspect, and I'm also a 16 year old teenager with no qualifications. They'd just arrest me for hacking and I have a motive to blame Robertson. It's not that simple either, Robertson couldn't have done it, he was a Board of Racing meeting and wouldn't have got back in time."

Mrs Hudson looked concerned. "Dear, are you still a suspect? Please don't tell me you've escaped from custody?" Seeing John's incredulous look. "Arabella can be quite determined when she wishes."

"The police let me out, it took them a whole 24 hours to realist that I was unlikely to kill someone and then call the police 3 hours later."

Sherlock nodded. "I'll take the case, but in the morning."

Arabella yawned and nodded. She had spent 24 hours in a cold police cell, then 5 hours searching for Silver on the moor, 2 hours at the local library and then spent the rest of the day hitchhiking up to London. Mrs Hudson offered her the spare room for the night, which Arabella gratefully accepted. She fell asleep almost immediately.