In the evidence locker, Holmes pieces the newspaper together so he can see the whole page. Gregson comes in to yell at him for changing his mind about Knowles. But Holmes has more evidence in the newspaper. It's the October 13 edition, and he found that the page was below another page that someone wrote "NOVOCAINE" on. And it wasn't Knowles's handwriting. Gregson dismisses this, which is stupid. I mean, it's pretty stupid evidence because there's no reason Knowles couldn't have used a newspaper that someone else wrote on. But dismissing Sherlock Holmes is a pretty bad idea in any adaptation, and Gregson should know by now that he's always right. Holmes wants a subpoena for the Van Owen employee files, since they're the only one that knew about the threats. The idea is that someone knew about the threats, so they rigged a bomb knowing that ELM would be blamed. Gregson will not authorie a subpoena, which means Holmes will have to go straight to Van Owen and ask nicely.

Watson and Alfredo sit at a booth. Watson likes his knuckle tattoos. Alfredo doesn't speak much, but he's very expressive. Holmes texts to tell Watson that he needs to reschedule. Alfredo is unruffled and says that they need to be patient because newcomers like Holmes are often tentative. He's never been a sponsor, but he's wanted to be one for a while. He ends with, "I can help your friend, Miss Watson. He just needs to give me the chance." I like him. He seems sensible.

Holmes is, in fact, working on the Van Owen personnel files. So his text wasn't a lie, which is nice. Heather sashays in and asks if he's doing okay. Then she asks if he's a fellow addict... of crosswords. She used to have her addiction under control when there was one per day in the newspapers.

I would like to break into the middle of her sentence to report that this is the moment when I realized that she did it. She read newspapers! And a crossword addict is the sort of person that would write the word "NOVOCAINE" with no context. So there you go. I was kind of hoping there'd be a red herring about dentists as everyone tried to figure out the Novocaine reference, but it doesn't come off.