Previously: Moriarty contacted Holmes. Finally! Holmes is willing to chat with him and asks if he has a first name. Moriarty ignores this (because if he's suddenly named "Steve Moriarty," it takes away some of the mystique) and expects Holmes to be angry that he got manipulated so easily. Moriarty explains that manipulating people is his business. Well, that and murder. He's at the center of a metaphorical web, and his agents are "numerous and splendidly organized." He just does the planning, you see. Holmes says he's a pimp, and assassins are his girls. I would watch that television show. Then he asks if Moriarty had Irene Adler killed. "That is the question" is not a useful answer, in my opinion. He won't answer questions until Holmes works for him.

So Moriarty has a challenge for Homes: Wallace Rourke was murdered in Brooklyn. And Moriarty says, "Bring his killer to justice, and I promise I'll give you all the answers you can handle." Holmes's expression is a combination of anger and determination. We're off!

Holmes looks up the case online, which is a logical place to start. Rourke was a 43-year-old mechanic. When his body was found, he was missing a wallet and a watch, so the police assumed it was a mugger. But that seems unlikely, since Moriarty's interested in the case. Watson protests the way Holmes is throwing himself headlong into doing Moriarty's bidding, so Holmes shows off what he's already learned about Moriarty from one short conversation: He's a male aged 40-45, he's from Sussex, and he has some connection to Wallace Rourke. Holmes figures there will be more interactions with Moriarty, and every one of them will be a chance to learn more about him. And even if the man he's talking to turns out to not be Moriarty, he'll be learning about a minion who's close to him. And it's not really that dangerous, in his opinion. Moriarty probably doesn't want him dead because he's passed up the opportunity twice.

Police station. Holmes is doing some research in the conference room. So far, he's learned that Rourke was married. Gregson wants to talk to Watson in his office. Alone. This is unusual, but Holmes doesn't mind being left alone. Gregson says he has a friend named Eddie who invented a widget that saved passwords. Well, that's neat. Then Eddie moved to Boca Raton and his daughter Kelly got all drugged up. So would Watson be interested in sober-companioning her? Watson declines, but she offers to give him some names of people who are actually sober companions because she's an investigator now. I like how she shut this down immediately.

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