His Favorite Melody

Begin Again

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 finished, 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."