December 8: "Stealing ancient artefacts" (from V Tsuion)
Winston Wellingby was the best in his business, though precious few knew his name. He was careful that way, and that was how he had made it this far without even the slightest stain upon his public record. He had not been so much as cited for jaywalking but unbeknownst to the police, he had been the mastermind behind some of the most daring heists from museums and private collections in the past eight years.
Wellingby had become exceedingly well-connected in the city, and on the rare occasion that the police would come a little too close to him, that was nothing that a few threats and a little blackmail could not hush up. It was inevitable that such a man should come into contact with other criminals of similar caliber and discretion. Wellingby had recently done a job for a man he knew only as JM, delivering a fine painting of a young woman by the French artist Jean Baptiste Greuze, pilfered from a private collection and replaced with a fake.
Tonight he would be doing a job for another in the criminal underworld. He did not even have initials for this man, but he had delivered fifty percent payment upfront and while security at the British Museum had been increased in both manpower and technology since his last theft there, nearly six years hence, his connections remained solid and his skills supreme.
Wellingby and two trusted accomplices entered the British Museum at a quarter to three in the morning, all relevant guards having been paid off, threatened, or drugged, the trio approached the Ancient Egypt exhibit, and the night's prize: The Rosetta Stone.
A figure emerged from the shadows, tall and lean, aquiline features revealed by the dim moonlight wafting in from the skylight.
"The game is up, Wellingby," said Sherlock Holmes. "No, no use in running; Scotland Yard has sent their quickest constables this evening."
"You'll pay for this," Wellingby snarled.
The detective only laughed. "Oh, I did. Fifty percent up-front. But I do not think I will have any trouble recouping my losses once your premises are searched and the notes are found to be perfect forgeries."