Adele finished drawing the last line on the rectangle. Generally, she detested paint, both for its inability to accurately draw a dragon, and the foul smell. Still, it was the only thing that could be used to make a bold line on the wall. She then divided the rectangle into six parts, one for each house, plus a spare. Just as Adele had begun to draw the lines across, John walked in.

'Hi.'

'Where's Sherlock?'

'Out. I've, um, been meaning to talk to you.'

'Yes?'

'About... Well... You know. What happened.'

'What happened when, John?'

'Well…'

Adele glared at him. 'Spit it out.'

'When Sherlock-'

'Oh. That. What about it?'

John didn't speak for a moment, and Adele took the opportunity to name to left hand side vertical rows. Colour. Person. Drink. Smoke. Pet.

'I wanted to ask… specifically… about well.'

Adele turned around, trying to glare at John in as threatening manner as she could manage. 'John. It would be really helpful if you could actually finish a sentence.'

'Well… on the roof, and-'

'Shut up.'

'I'm just wondering-'

'John, please shut up.'

'Adele.'

'What?'

'You know I won't. And you know that that isn't the only thing I want to talk to you about.'

'Correct.'

'So will you let me speak?'

'No.'

'But-'

'John.' Adele whirled around, pointing the paintbrush at him. 'Drop it.'

'Then let me ask you something else.'

'What?'

'Will you tell me the truth?'

'Fine. Whatever.' Adele bit at one of her nails. 'Hurry up.'

'What happened when you went to get Molly? And don't tell me to ask Sherlock because he won't tell me a thing.'

Adele frowned. 'Why?'

'He said to ask you.'

'Well… It was dark. I don't like the dark.'

John looked confused. 'Adele. You started yelling as soon as you were asked by Donovan. Look at me.'

Adele realised that she had let her eyes drift over to the window. She looked back at John. 'Look, it doesn't matter.'

'I want to know.' Adele shook her head and went back to looking at the riddle. 'Please.'

'Drop it.'

Adele listened as John left, then looked back up at the riddle. The stupid thing was boring her, but the fact of the matter was that, if she didn't solve it, Hammet would most likely stick a bullet in Eliza's brain.

Why was she suddenly so calm about it?

Well.

The one time Adele had actually made a friend, and now that friend was in a, not to sugar-coat it, hostage situation. And only an hour or two ago, Adele had been completely freaking out over it. And now she wasn't. Maybe that was the solution; think about something else. But Adele had been thinking about other things for ages, but they had all led back to Eliza, and in the end she knew that it would turn into a game with herself, a game of let's relate everything back to Eliza!.

If only dragons were real. They would probably be pretty difficult to tame, but if Adele could set one on Hammet, it would probably be worth it.

Stupid little wishful thinker.

Adele wanted to throw something across the room. As soon as she thought about it, Adele realised that the paintbrush was in serious danger of being snapped in half.

Adele looked back at the riddle. Where to start? She wanted to draw dragons all over the wall, but that was out of the question. Maybe later. Deciding to fill in the clues she had already been given, Adele dipped the brush back into the paint.

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

Adele filled in the box as she heard the door slam.

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

Therefore the second house had to be blue. Footsteps. Sherlock was back? Probably.

The man living in the centre house drinks milk.

Another box completed. Adele stopped for a second as the footsteps neared. They sounded angry. Definitely Sherlock. He was always angry.

'I hate Mycroft.'

Adele shook her head. Her own opinion of Mycroft was pretty low at the moment for obvious reasons, but she didn't really want to discuss him at the particular moment. 'Yes, you do.'

'He's avoiding me.'

'Lucky you.'

'Not answering his phone.'

'Right.'

'He's not in his office.'

'Mm.'

'It's like he's disappeared.'

'If you hate him so much, then why do you care whether he's disappeared or not?'

'Because he has explaining to do.'

'Like Mycroft would give a straight answer to anything, even if you cornered him. And how difficult can it possibly be to find your own brother? There aren't many people under the name Mycroft Holmes in the phone book.'

'I don't care. I want to find him.'

'Enjoy that.' An idea suddenly struck Adele. 'Hang on. How come we can't just arrest Hammet?'

'Adele, if it was that simple, I wouldn't have a job.'

'Explain. Because I'm confused.'

'Several reasons. One; No one here wants the police of all people involved.'

'Lestrade-'

'Didn't have a choice. Two; The police aren't clever enough to find Hammet. We don't know where he is until he tells us. And I think we can easily assume that we're being watched, because he knew that you didn't solve it completely with M-'

'Shut. Up.'

'Three; Once he tells us where he is, Hammet has to be careful. As I said, we're being watched. He's also not been present in any of our rescue missions, apart from Donovan. So he has some sort of hideout.'

'Yeah, but-'

'Last, we don't actually have any proof. He hasn't actually hurt anyone. Not in a way that we can easily prove.'

'Still.'

'And then we have the Mycroft dilemma. Which is why I'm trying to find him.'

'Good luck.'

'Adele, if I can't find Mycroft, then how can the police find Hammet?'

'Mycroft is clever too.'

'And from experience Adele, we both know that the police force is full of idiots.'

Adele tutted. Admittedly, complaining about Mycroft was more fun than messing around with the stupid riddle, but it was incredibly distracting.

Analysing all these facts revealed the following:

House three can't be green, because the owner drinks milk, not coffee. So house four had to be green, since it required one to the right.

Which would be right.

Adele frowned at the wall. How had she known that? Looking back down at the paper it seemed so obvious. So how had she…?

Of course.

What else?

What else did a bored teenager stuck in a flat during the rain done to occupy herself?

She had looked up famous riddles. And on that list, amongst those which she had found and tried to work out had been-

This one.

What was the title? Adele couldn't remember that, but the details, the method to solving it, were all there. And even though she hadn't realised, that was the reason she had drawn a chart without even thinking about any other way.

Yes.

And Hammet would hardly know. This had been ages ago, before any of this, before Hammet's very existence had even become known to her. This was from around the time of Irene Adler, Sherlock being all depressed and rain. Lots of rain.

It was raining right now.

Perfect.

Adele set to work. Every so often she would glance out of the window, letting the rain bring back images of the web page, not photographic memories, but close enough. Imagining the words, remembering the layout of the page, the chart.

House one can't be red because the Norwegian lives there.

So the colour order would be…

Yellow, blue, red, green, white.

The Horse must be at house two.

House one and three CANNOT have Birds or Dogs nor Pall Mall.

Either house two or five have the Blue-masters - Beer.

Since the horse is at house two, then it must also have the Dane (the Swede has Dogs after all).

And now there were only six squares left. Adele was grinning, slightly pleased with herself. This was clever. Because it wasn't cheating, it was using already acquired knowledge. Hammet just hadn't thought of the fact that Adele could have looked it up before.

Actually, now she thought about it, Adele was close to calling herself a genius. Of course, she could be wrong. This solution could have the wrong information. There might have been something she had missed.

But it all looked right.

House three MUST have "Pall Mall - Birds".

"Blends next to Cats" can now only fit with Blends at house two and cats at house one.

The German is now the only one without a pet, therefore owns the fish.

Yes.

Solved it.

Easier than she had thought.

Adele stood and stared at the wall. The rain continued to hammer against the window, but still she grinned.

'Adele? You… You solved it?'

Adele turned around to find John standing in the doorway, cup of tea in hand, looking even more shocked than the time when he had found Sherlock's friend the severed head, in the fridge.

'Yes! I solved it! I solved it!'