There was a large wad of blue silk on the sofa. Though he peered closer as he entered the living room, it took John several moments to realize that the wad contained his flatmate.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. No. Bored."

John sighed slightly at this news—hardly unexpected—and settled into his armchair, picking up the paper that had lain untouched on the coffee table since the previous morning. He had barely glanced at the front page when his brow furrowed.

"Hang on—Sherlock, have you heard about the Black case?"

A muffled groan into the pillows.

"How could I not, when you insist on turning on that odious drivel-generating contraption—"

"—the telly?"

"Every evening?"

Actually, they had spent three evenings out of the past week chasing serial killers down dark alleyways, but John knew better than to point that out.

"What do you think about the case?" he persisted instead. "Escaped mass-murderer…Seems right up your street, as Mrs. Hudson would say."

Sherlock sighed.

"Lestrade bowed to the inevitable and contacted me last week. The police are at their wits' end, as per usual."

"…and?"

"And for once they have reason to be. There is nothing to go on, John. Nothing but the photograph. There's obviously some sort of political game afoot—the government won't disclose Black's past, his connections, not even the prison he escaped from. His crime is given out as 'murder', yet they don't give victims' names, not even to Scotland Yard. I can't make bricks without clay."

John swallowed his surprise. "You couldn't uncover anything about this?"

"I refuse to do Mycroft's job for him," Sherlock snarled. "He has all the data I need, and I'm not about to waste my time digging it up if he'd rather send out a pathetic and ineffectual plea to the entire country."

John frowned. If this Black bloke was involved in anything classified, why broadcast his disappearance?

"Besides," Sherlock's voice broke grudgingly into his thoughts. "The name wasn't in any of the databases I hacked."

AN: If you enjoy this story, then I recommend my other crossovers, most featuring Sherlock and John:

A Strange Sort of Fate

Speaking of Serpents

The Looking Glass

Deductions and Dementors

Well Worth Chronicling