In a shocking twist of fate, the cafe's food wasn't so bad. One could almost say it was good. Sherlock allowed himself to nibble at it as he waited for Ainsley to arrive. She was coming, he was positive of it.

It had been impossible to ignore the guarded excitement in her voice on the phone. No matter how alarmed she pretended she was, she liked the idea of the game, just as much as John liked the danger of solving crimes. It didn't matter that it was already ten minutes past two and there was no sign of her. She would come, just as surely as the sun would rise.

As if by magic, Sherlock watched her silhouette appear down the street. Speak of the devil and he shall appear, he mused silently. He reassessed her carefully, this time looking for more specific clues to her past.

She looked a bit more put together today, but that was most likely down to the fact that she wasn't just seeing her sister. She wore a grey t-shirt with a floral lace overlay underneath a thin army green coat with gold snap buttons. From the waist down, her outfit was exactly the same: skinny jeans and lace-up leather ankle boots.

"This game you want to play. What do I get if I win?" Ainsley demanded once she reached the table. Sherlock cocked his head.

"The pure satisfaction of knowing you could beat me isn't enough?" he teased.

"I already know I could beat you," she scoffed. "I mean something real." This was an unexpected twist. Sherlock hadn't pinned her as the gambling type.

"Are you implying you want money?" She squirmed under his laser-like gaze.

"My sister's pregnant," she explained in a rush. "Our mom is dead and our dad is in a hospice. I don't want money. I need it."

He smiled to himself. Without knowing it, Ainsley had given him some very valuable clues. No available parents and no money? That almost certainly had something to do with her little crime. For a moment, he almost felt guilty about how badly he was going to beat her.

"And if I win?" he suggested. Ainsley narrowed her eyes.

"You won't," she said firmly.

"But if I do," he pressed. She bit her lip.

"Then, I guess it's only fair if I give you the money."

"Can you really risk that?" Sherlock wondered. "You make your situation sound very dire. Would you and your sister even be able to survive if you lost?"

"It's not a risk if you know the outcome," she insisted. "I'm going to win."

"Your confidence is inspiring," he conceded. "But I must warn you: I'm very clever."

"That may be," she murmured. "But you're forgetting something."

"And what would that be?" Sherlock requested. Ainsley beamed.

"I'm very clever too."


The meeting continued in a purely professional manner: there were rules to be decided upon and choices to make. Eventually, they both settled on a list of reasonable restrictions on their little game:

1. Police records were out of bounds. The only resources that could be used were those that were available to both of them: books, the internet, newspapers, etc.

2. Family members should be left out of it. Sherlock wasn't allowed to harass Elsa in any way, shape, or form.

3. It was perfectly fine to interview friends and colleagues. If you could work out who they were and learn how to contact them, you could ask them anything you pleased.

4. As soon as you thought you figured it out, you were to schedule a meeting at the cafe. If you ended up being wrong, the game would continue as normal.

5. You could not lie to avoid losing. If you'd been beaten, you must admit it.

6. The loser must pay the winner £500 at the earliest possible time.

Ainsley had been very particular about the list, particularly Rule Two. She made it abundantly clear that her sister could not get involved, no matter what. To Sherlock, it was a bit pathetic how overly protective she was about Elsa. Elsa was a grown up. She didn't need a little sister to look out for her. Yet Ainsley seemed determined to keep her in the dark about everything. Almost like she was afraid Sherlock would stoop so low as to hurt her sister. He registered this tidbit with everything else he knew about her. She was rebellious; a writer, but probably an unmotivated one; outspoken; secretive; poor; effectively parentless; selfless, since she was more concerned about her sister's safety from him than her own; and unnaturally wary.

In a normal case, that would be all he needed to know. But Sherlock's specialty was who's, not what's. All the little facts he acquired were bouncing around in his head without a home. Plus, this was all very informative as to who Ainsley was now, but who was to say how much had changed since 2004? There was virtually nothing he could be certain about.

Fed up with all the questions, Sherlock flicked open his laptop and opened up Google. It was a very straightforward approach, and also his best source of information at the moment. He typed her name in and hit 'search'.

The entry fielded millions of results and Sherlock clicked through the first few with mild interest. Most of them were useless stories about different Ainsley's in different towns, but there was one of interest. It was dated December 14, 2004, directly after Ainsley was arrested.

LOCAL TEEN ARRESTED FOR TRESPASSING, the headline announced. Sherlock scrolled down to read more.

DUNFERMLINE, SCOTLAND - When resident Greg Hull heard something outside his window, he assumed it was simply a lost dog or cat. He never imagined he would find Ainsley Boyd, aged 18, hiding out in his bushes.

Boyd, a student at Edinburgh University, had just gotten home for Christmas break when she climbed over Hull's fence and landed in his backyard. For an unknown reason, she began to approach the house until she tripped over a tree stump near the door. Hull claims to have been "baffled" when he found her sprawled on his doorstep.

"This is a girl I've known since she was a baby," he told the Dunfermline Times. "Her parents are some of my best friends in the world. When I saw her, I was really very confused - and she looked quite confused too, like she didn't know she'd done. I thought for a moment she was just drunk." A blood test proved that Boyd had not been drinking or doing drugs before entering Hull's yard. Police say that when questioned, she was able to remember very clearly climbing the fence, though she didn't say why. "I didn't want to get her in any trouble," Hull continued. "I just wanted to find out what was going on. I was too shocked to process what was happening, really." No one, of course, was more shocked than Boyd's parents.

"My daughter is not a thief," Mary Boyd is reported to have said upon hearing the news that Boyd was arrested. "She's a good girl." When asked to comment, Mrs. Boyd declined. Her husband, Patrick, did agree to speak with us for a few minutes.

"Right now, we're really just concerned about finding out what's going on with our daughter," he said. "Once we figure out why she did this, we'll take it from there."

Mr. Hull has confirmed he will only press charges for trespassing, not attempted burglary. While this is Miss Boyd's first offense, Hull is no stranger to the court. Last month, he served as prosecutor in the controversial case against murderer Thomas McKenzie. While McKenzie is currently serving a life sentence in jail, Miss Boyd's fate is yet to be seen.

Sherlock slammed his screen down. He needed time to sort all this new knowledge. This Hull man was clearly a high-profile lawyer if he was spearheading a case against a killer. And Ainsley had said her mother was dead and father in hospice, but that had obviously been a fairly recent development. Then there was the fact that she was an Edinburgh student - or she had been. Was she allowed to finish her degree after this little incident?

He dismissed the question. It was irrelevant. All that mattered was the crime itself. Taking a deep breath, he started to assemble a timeline of sorts for Ainsley's life. She went from being a student at Edinburgh to a criminal with a dead mother rather quickly. Everything that mentioned her before December 14th was only full of praise. It didn't quite add up.

First of all, Ainsley appeared to have a fairly strong moral compass. She was reluctant to play the game and even more reluctant to put her innocent sister at risk. And it was clear that she deeply regretted whatever it was that had happened there. Secondly, why would a thief target someone they knew so well? It sounded like this Hull man was rather close the Boyd family, so she ran a huge risk of being recognized by choosing his house.

Unless she didn't have a choice. After all, if Ainsley wanted to rob a house, she was smart enough not to trip on a tree root in the process. So what if the trip was something much more calculated than an accident? What if she was trying to find a way out from whatever it was she was doing? Sherlock shot up from his chair with a jolt and began pacing the floor.

Maybe Ainsley's crime wasn't her crime at all. Maybe she was tricked into it by someone. The question was, who? A friend at university? No, they wouldn't know this Hull person, so they'd have no reason to pick him out. Could it be a wronged relative of Hull, someone who wanted something from the house? Unlikely, but Sherlock grinned anyways.

He may not have it all figured out yet, but he wasdefinitely back in the game.