A pager and mobile phone sat on Lestrade's desk while Melody sat andstared at them in silence. They were the ones taken from the crying woman who had not long before been rescued.

"How did they do it?" Mel finally questioned.

"She lives in Cornwall. Two men broke in. Wearing masks. Decked her out in enough explosive to take down the house and told her to phone you." Lestrade explained, looking at Sherlock.

Sherlock examined the devices, fascinated at the situation.

"She had to read out from this." Lestrade finisbed, pointing to the pager.

"And if she'd deviated by one word, the sniper would've set her off." Sherlock supplied.

"Or if you hadn't solved the case." John reminded.

"Oh! Elegant!"

"Sherlock." Melody warned.

"But what was the point? Why would anyone do this?" Lestrade asked.

"Well...I can't be the only person in the world who gets bored." Sherlock said, looking between the three.

The pink iPhone chimed, and Sherlock rapidly keyed in the retrieval code.

The phone voice announced a new message, before a series of pips sounded.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Four pips!" John exclaimed.

"First test passed, it seems. Here's the second one.A picture appears. A flashy sports-car, with all its doors wide open. Abandoned, wouldn't you say?"

"I'll see if it's been reported." Lestrade offered. But as he's grabbing his phone, Sally called over from the desk.

"Freak!"

Sherlock turned just in time to see a stapler fly across the room, narrowly missing Sally's head.

Sherlock looked behind him to see Melody standing next to the desk, her jaw tense, and Lestrade's stapler now missing from the desk. Everyone stared at her in mild shock as she cleared her throat and looked back at them.

"I did warn her." She reminded them.

Lestrade simply raised his hands in surrender as he went over and took the phone from Donovan, handing it to Sherlock. "I'm guessing it's for you."

Sherlock the phone and answered. "Hello?"

A man answered in a tight, scared voice. "It's ok...that you've gone to the police..."

"Who is this? Is this you again?"

"...but don't rely on them. Clever you. Guessing about Carl Powers. I never liked him. I had a little theory. About asteroids. Carl laughed at me. So I stopped him laughing."

"And you've stolen another voice, I

presume."

"...this is about us, Sherlock. Us and that beautiful little princess, of course. Put me on speaker so I can hear that beautiful voice of hers."

Sherlock looked at Melody with discomfort evident on his features.

"Now, Sherlock. Or I end this little puzzle early.

Sherlock sighed and put the phone on speaker. "Alright, I've done it."

"Hello, princess. I do hope you're not too upset with me. I just want to have some f-fun.

"Who are you?" Melody asked, looking at Sherlock in confusion. "What's that noise?"

"The sounds...of life...dear Melody and Sherlock. But don't worry...I can soon fix

that. You solved my last puzzle in nine

hours. This time you have eight."

The phone went dead, leaving the room blanketed in silence. Sherlock Put the phone down, his expression solemn and

troubled.

The phone rang again, prompting Lestrade to quickly answer it. "Yeah?"

He listened, watching as Sherlock pulled a troubled Melody close to him. As soon as he ended the call, he looked between John and Sherlock. "We've found it!"

They took a squad car to the scene, and upon arrival, Sally opened her door to quickly release the boys and Melody from the back seat.

In front of them sat a sports-car, already surrounded by a police cordon.

"The car was hired yesterday morning

by an Ian Monkford. Banker of some

kind. City boy. Paid in cash. He

told his wife he was going away on

a business trip. He never arrived." Lestrade informed Sherlockand Melodyas they approached the vehicle.

Sherlock peered in through the wide open back door of the car. The back seat was covered in blood.

"And were positive it's his blood?" Melody asked, looking up at Greg.

"Yes, it's definitely his blood. DNA checks out." The DI confirmed.

Sherlock emerged from the car, holding a business card. "But no body?"

"Not yet." Sally confirmed from a distance, still wary of Melody.

Sherlock marched off, quickly followed by Mel, then John. Sherlock noticed a distressed-looking woman standing close by and quickly approached her.

"Mrs. Monkford?" He asked.

She turned, and Mel noticed how tired and drawn she looked.

"Yes? Listen, sorry, I've already spoken to two policemen..." the exhausted woman started.

"We're not the police, we're -" John began explaining, only to be cut off by Sherlock.

"Sherlock Holmes. Very old friend of your husband's. We grew up together."

John's expression of confusion nearly sent Melody into a fit of laughter right then. She was used to this, but John was apparently still adjusting.

"I'm sorry, who? I don't think he ever mentioned you." Mrs. Monkford said, her own expression confused.

"Oh he must have. God, this is horrible, isn't it? Can't believe it. Only saw him the other day, didn't we dear?" Sherlock said, pulling Mel forward to join him.

"Of course! Good old Ian, not a care in the

world." Melody said, putting on a serious facade.

Mrs. Monford seemed to be getting rather cross now. "Sorry, but my husband's been

depressed for months. Who are you people??"

"Really strange that he hired a car, though, why would he do that? Bit suspicious." Sherlock simply pressed on.

"No it isn't. He forgot to renew the tax on the car, that's all."

"Well, that's Ian for you, isn't it - that was him all over!"

"No it wasn't."

Sherlock suddenly dropped all pretence. "Wasn't it? Interesting."

As he turned and started heading away with Mel and John in tow, Mrs. Monkford rounded on a nearby officer. "Who was that? Who was I talking to?"

Melody sped up to keep in stride with Sherlock. John caught up with them, looking rather befuddled.

"Why did you lie to her?" He asked.

"People don't like telling you things. But they love to contradict you." Sherlock explained.

"Did you notice the past tense verbage?" Melody asked.

"Sorry, what?" John said in wild confusion.

"We referred to her husband in the past tense and then she joined in." Sherlock agreed.

"Bit premature dont you think? They only just found the car." Melody pointed out.

"What, you think she killed her

husband?" John mused.

"Definitely not. That's not a mistake a murderer would make." Sherlock shook his head.

"Besides, there's not even a body. Who's to say the bloke's even dead? I've lost more blood in a nosebleed than what's left in the car." Melody said with a frown.

"I see. No, I don't. What am I seeing?" John sid, his brows furrowed.

"Where to now?" Melody asked, looking up at Sherlock

He held out the business card, which read: Janus Cars.