Sherlock Holmes was unbearable. He always was. But ever since he solved the closed room murder weeks ago (quelle surprise, it was the butler!), he didn't leave the flat and was bored out of his mind, driving John Watson and Mrs Hudson nearly to the borders of madness.

Even Detective Inspector Lestrade, who dropped by that morning to bring Sherlock an old case, couldn't put up with him for long. Sherlock became even more insufferable after. It took him not even 10 seconds to solve the case. John stopped the time.

„How do you know it was the husband?", Lestrade asked.

"The shoes." Sherlock answered like it was the most obvious thing, 'cause for him it was. But when Lestrade and John kept staring he elaborated, making them wish he never did. So the case was solved and Lestrade left grumbling.

The next hours involved Sherlock dramatically sighing until John suggested visiting their friend Alice Greene who was working with Molly Hooper at Barts. Faced with the prospect of going out and doing something potentially more exciting, Sherlock took two minutes to get ready. Pulling on his famous coat and turning his coat collar up 'to look cool' as John used to call it, and eagerly waiting to leave.

Bidding farewell to Mrs Hudson and nearly skipping down the stairs, Sherlock hailed down a cab, pushing John inside and arriving at Barts in record time. Meeting Molly outside the morgue John stayed for small talk, while Sherlock burst right in ready to bombard his friend Alice with questions, only to discover the room empty.

As always the room was clean showing no traces of live (no pun intended) or even being used in the first place. But since that was no indication for Alice not being at work -she could be in the lab or the cafeteria- Sherlock decided to 'wait' for her, which involved pacing around and humming disgruntledly every now and then.

When John entered with Molly and saw his friend scowling, he wasn't surprised. He knew that after weeks of boredom only few things could lift the detective's spirits. Getting distracted by Alice's stories about her adventures abroad or old cases being one of them. But as their friend wasn't there, and Sherlock sighing for the 10th time in 2 minutes, John couldn't bear it any longer. "Is something wrong?"

Huffing Sherlock stopped pacing and turned to his partner. "Can't you see it?"

"Alice is not here.", John deadpanned.

"Yes, and?"

"And what?"

"Come on, John. Look around." Sherlock made a sweeping gesture to enclose the whole room. "Alice's keeping things tidy and well organised. So, how come that scalpel's laying on the desk and not in the drawer?"

"Maybe she forgot to put it away?" John was used to bored Sherlock come up with cases where none were, but he wasn't willing to let his friend drag him into one.

"Alice forgetting? You sure?" Sherlock shot him a sceptical look. "You know, how she's always wearing gloves and wiping out all traces of her being here to the point it nearly borders on mental disorder. She'd never leave anything not in the intended place. Molly!" He turned to Molly who was clearly daydreaming by the door, startling her. "Did you see Dr. Greene today?"

"No, I didn't see her since yesterday. When I went home she was still working, saying she wanted to finish her autopsy report on that extended suicide."

"What extended suicide? Lestrade didn't tell us anything about an extended suicide."


"Weird…" Sherlock mumbled. He's been searching the room for anything that could explain his friend's disappearance for the last few minutes, but came up empty-handed. Whoever had their friend, did a good job at wiping out all traces.

"What's weird?"

"The autopsy report and the bodies are missing."

John turned to his friend. "Maybe Alice finished the autopsy and transferred the bodies to the funeral home?"

"Not without leaving the report. You know, how thoroughly she's working." Turning back to Molly Sherlock fixed his scrutinising gaze on her, while pulling out his mobile. "Is anything else missing?"

"Well, her voice recorder's missing, but she could have taken it home. Although she doesn't need to, because she's saving the audio in a cloud.", she mumbled the last part in thought. Turning to John and trying to escape Sherlock's stare she elaborated. "That way Alice can type down her reports at home, if she was working overtime."

"It would be good to read her report on that extended suicide -or to listen to the audio-, but we'd need access to her cloud for that." Sherlock started to mumble typing away on his mobile, not caring for the people around him. "Maybe I could find out her login data if I-"

"I have her username and password, would that help?" Sherlock froze. Slowly looking up from his mobile he looked at Molly as though he was seeing her for the first time. Raising his eyebrows with a 'Why didn't you say so earlier'-look he turned back to the display of his mobile with a nod.

While Molly left the room to get Alice's login data, John approached Sherlock with a worried expression. "So, you think something happened to her?"

"It's Thursday and Alice is not at work. Not only didn't anyone see her today, but she also didn't call." Resuming to type on his mobile he pushed it in John's face. "She's also not texting back. What are you concluding from that?"

John started to worry. If Alice, who was always calling or texting right back, didn't answer her phone, then something really bad must have happened. Someone must have kidnapped their friend…