'Why on Earth did you feel the need to traumatise your classmates like that? And don't give me any looks, because you know exactly what you said.'

Adele sat in the headmaster's office, in front of the desk. After she had been caught 'skiving', she had been taken to the office, and told to wait. And now she was receiving a lecture from the world's most boring imbecile. Okay, so she may have been a bit blunt with what she said, but she had only been doing what she was told, so it wasn't as though there was anything wrong. But teachers didn't see it this way, and so she was forced to sit there and pretend to listen. Or in Adele's case, look as bored as humanly possible, in the hope that she could aggravate the headmaster further. It appeared to be working.

'I didn't traumatise them; I did as I was told.'

'I don't care; you know what you were saying. You did it deliberately.'

'Don't patronise me. And we need to wrap this up soon; I have business to attend to.'

'After school, one hour, I don't care where you're going.'

'Have fun enforcing that.' Adele turned on her heel and left.

'You still don't understand why it happened, do you?'

Adele whirled around, almost losing her footing.

'What are you talking about?'

'You don't understand why he jumped. I hardly think that the texts are the right way to tell you, but there you go.'

'Explain.'

'Miss Holmes, you really need to be more vigilant. Good day.'

Adele left. Outside, in the sun, she thought long and hard. This headmaster was obviously in league with whoever was texting. And condemned it. Of course, getting information out of him would be virtually impossible. He was expecting to be challenged, so if she was to try, she would have to be incredibly subtle. Oh, yeah, because that was her strong point.

She would have to wait until after school to follow whoever had the phone, but she could work out where they were from here. But she couldn't avoid the school counsellor forever, and soon enough found herself sitting on the table, trying to stop the stupid woman getting into her mind.

'Adele, what prompted you to say what you said in RE today?'

'How many times do I have to tell people? It was not deliberate.'

'Do you feel misunderstood?'

'No I don't. Can I leave now?'

'Do you want to talk about your feelings?'

'Please don't patronise me. I'm fourteen, not five.'

'So do you feel as if everybody patronises you?'

'Do you really want me to answer that?'

'So you do?'

'When did I say that?'

Silence.

'Exactly. Now, if I can tell the time correctly, which I can, I would say that this session is over. Good day.'

With that, Adele walked over to the door. At the last minute, she turned around.

'Just because I won't talk to you about myself, doesn't mean that I won't talk to anyone.'

Satisfied, she waltzed out, almost bumping into Eliza.

'I thought you might be in there. What the hell happened to you in RE?'

'Everyone is asking that. I answered everyone's questions. Just not the way you would expect.'

'How much trouble are you in?'

'Detention for an hour after school today.'

'Are you going?'

'Actually, I'm considering going for this one.'

'Why?'

'I have my reasons. And I only have eight days to figure it out, so I can't waste any opportunities. Pretend you understand again, I don't want to explain.'

'Right…'

'Is this in Hammersmith?' Adele asked, giving her the tracker. She had just felt her phone go off, which meant a text. Sighing, she checked it;

You're getting warmer. But is this really helping your mental state?

SH

Mental state? Alright, so maybe she was a bit messed up in the head, but whether mental state came into it was a mystery. But this wasn't really the time to debate with herself, and so Adele put it out of her mind. Although it was sure to come back later.

'Yeah, about half a mile away.'

Adele scribbled it down. The paper she was using was becoming increasingly crumpled, and she was struggling to read even her own handwriting. It used to be cursive, joined and slanted, instead of scrawled hurriedly across the page as it was now.

'No point following after school, I have that meeting with Lestrade tonight. Actually, I should tell him that I'll be late…'

Adele wandered off into her own little world. She had developed a habit of doing so recently. She texted Lestrade, realising that he would be quite amused by the situation;

Will be late, in detention for an hour. Don't you dare tell Sergeant Donovan, or else.

Adele

He replied within a minute;

How did you manage that? Will you need a lift? I know you hate rush hour!

Suspicions confirmed, Adele texted back;

I'll tell you all about it later. And yes I do. Who will you be with?

Adele

Turning her attentions back to the task in hand, Adele realised something else;

'It's here.'

'What?' Eliza had become distracted. Idiot.

'The phone. Here. Now. Do you need me to spell it out? I'm going to look for it, stay here.'

'Why do I have to stay?'

'As I said the other day, your parents would be quite annoyed if I go you killed.'

'Adele!'

But Adele had already run off, through the corridors, down the staircases. Why would the person with the phone want her looking for them if they had already got her into meeting them next Wednesday? Just as she thought this, she found them.

Unfortunately, keeping up with someone who had clearly done this before was harder than she had thought, particularly because she hadn't run this fast in weeks, and it was harder to chase people than it used to be. This caused her to be half a corridor behind the person with the phone, which was slightly more than a little bit aggravating.

Just as he was about to run around the corner, towards the stairs leading up to the ICT rooms, the stranger turned around.

Sherlock.

But it couldn't be. It just couldn't. Sherlock was dead, and Adele had been telling herself this for weeks. So why was he here now? And more to the point, if he were alive, which he most certainly was not, why couldn't he just show himself, instead of leading her on a wild goose chase? It just didn't make any sense.

She had to keep running after him. That was instantly clear. She was so close to catching them, and she couldn't just give up now. Even if it did mean sneaking out of school and probably not achieving anything.

The stranger headed for one of the fire escapes. Adele actually had no idea where this one led, but he seemed to know the way. And considering that she was only following, it didn't particularly matter.

The stranger slid through the fire escape, and as Adele darted through behind him, she stumbled over her laces. As she regained her balance, the stranger left her line of sight. Damn.

'NO!'

Through the school car park, and out through the gate, which was slowly closing, but leaving plenty of space for the stranger and Adele to run through. Adele had absolutely no idea where they were going, but there was no time to read road signs and guess. Her map of London had disappeared along with her powers of deduction, so she wasn't in the most powerful position. The stranger led her through side streets and alleyways, changing direction when Adele least expected it.

And then she lost him.

As the stranger turned down one of the many side streets Adele had managed to forget existed, she lost him completely, having gotten further behind with each passing minute. Swearing to herself, Adele went through her pockets. Phone, keys to 221B, and her gun in her blazer. The phone tracker was with Eliza, who was at the school, however far away.

She was lost in London.

Oh dear.