Soufflés, Skype and Sherlock Holmes

Cluedo

"Why are we even doing this?" John groaned as they crowded round the coffee table.

Clara shuffled the cards as best she could. "Because the criminal classes are on holiday," she responded. It was code for Sherlock won't stop bloody complaining.

John shook his head. "This will end badly, I can already see it."

Sherlock harrumphed and snatched the cards from Clara's grasp. "Hey!"

"Your shuffling skills are unsatisfactory," he muttered and proceeded to shuffle the cards in an elaborate fashion.

Clara narrowed her eyes. "Fine, you can be Mrs. Peacock," Sherlock blanched, "John can be Professor Plum and I'll be Colonel Mustard," Clara finished off devilishly. She grinned. "Oswald for the win! Oswin!"

"Who's the victim then?"

"Miss Scarlet of course," Clara replied. "I always think it sounds rather theatrical." Clara slipped three cards into a small envelope and placed it into the centre of the board.

"Everything about this game is theatrical," Sherlock argued.

"You would know, Mrs Peacock," John grabbed the dice and thrusted them at Sherlock. "Let's actually start."

The Cluedo board was old; one of Mrs Hudson's that Clara borrowed in an effort to silence the detective. They had gotten over the pool saga rather quickly though neither John nor Clara wanted to encounter Moriarty anytime soon. None of the three had talked about it, though the occasional mention in passing kept them on their toes. Clara wasn't at Baker Street that often now; apparently Mycroft had her supervising another problem child. Sherlock was incredibly miffed.

However, he was intrigued by her absence. He didn't have anyone to row with now that both of his neighbours were out working. Occasionally he would walk into the kitchen expecting to find Clara with flour on her nose but she wouldn't be there. No cases, no Clara. What had the universe come to?

Cluedo was an experiment that was going increasingly downhill. Sherlock observed the board in a serious silence. When they eventually persuaded him to roll the dice further explanations of the rules followed. "Have you never played Cluedo?" Clara uttered, she couldn't believe it.

"I prefer the more practical sense." He pointed room. "Reverend Green can't have done it, he was-"

"Sherlock, it's not about guessing. Use your," John threw a notepad at him, "Bloody piece of paper to work it out."

Sherlock gave him a look. "I'm deducing the possible suspects and ruling them out, isn't that what you're supposed to do?"

"NO, you have to play by the rules."

"Well the murderer didn't do that so why should I?"

Clara cleared her throat loudly. "AS I am in the library, I believe it was Reverend Green, in the library using a candlestick."

"Well that's completely incorrect, as I was saying Reve-" Sherlock started but was cut off abruptly.

"You're meant to show me a card-"

"Card? What card?"

"Oh, jesus..."

Clara sighed. "In front of you, Cheekbones. Now if you have a card that has Reverend Green or the Library..."

"Or the bloody candlestick," John continued. "You have to show it to Clara – but only one card."

Sherlock's eyebrows screwed together and he made a face. "But I have all of them, what's the point in that?"