There was a ‘taptaptap’ at his bedroom door, and the concentration he has been working to build for several hours shattered instantaneously. His eyes opened slowly, and he grimaced with unbridled rage, “What is it?” He called at the intruder snidely.<br/><br/>A timid voice called back through the door, “I’m very sorry to disturb you, Mr. Holmes, but I need to speak with you at once.”<br/><br/>“Can’t it wait?” He said sighing as he tried to wake his feet up.<br/><br/>“No, I have been trying to get into contact with you for almost a month now,” His landlady called back through the door with a tone that suggested that anything she had been trying to contact him with regards to for over a month was now unavoidable.<br/><br/>His feet tingled as he padded across the cold, creaking floor of his apartment. He swung the door open, meeting the gnarled figure of his landlady, Sophia Johnston. Standing several heads shorter than he, and looking to be well into her seventies, she was a soft spoken and timid creature. A disposition that suited Sherlock Holmes, because it meant that she would not bother him if rent were a few weeks late.<br/>Sherlock paused internally,<span style="font-style: italic">I did pay that this month didn’t I?</span>he wondered, before shutting out of his mind. “What can I do for you<br/>Ms. Johnston?” He asked, blocking her entry into the apartment.<br/><br/>She handed him a manila envelope, which he snatched and opened quickly, so that the task could be done with and he could return to what he was doing. After a moment of reading, his lips moving as his eyes scanned the page, he tore the paper up and threw the pieces over his shoulders like confetti.<br/><br/>“I’m sorry,” the woman said in a shaky, yet remorseful tone. “I can’t do this any longer, and the offered me enough money to put my grandchildren through very nice schools, dear.”<br/><br/>Sherlock held his hand up, his ambivalence toward emotion made the consolation irrelevant. The aging woman was acting in self-interest.<br/><br/>“I could help you find a place, if you needed,” Ms. Johnston offered.<br/><br/>“Okay,” He agreed instantly. He didn’t have time to be put to the trouble of finding a new place to keep his things or lay his head when he decided to put it down.