"Oh god no, not at all," John said with a snort. "He is the most socially inept person I have ever met."

Abby couldn't help but grin.

"Must make life interesting," she said.

"That's... the nice way of putting it," John agreed mildly.

Abby laughed.

"Well, we'll see how long it takes him to text you again," she said.

"Until then..." John grinned and motioned to her food again, starting in on his own again. Not his fault if Sherlock got in trouble again.

Abby grinned back and started on her food. So far, the date was going well. She was pleased.

Elena, meanwhile, had already driven herself over to her coworker's sister's house, and was sitting with her having coffee when someone knocked rather demandingly on the door.

The woman jumped at the knock, but got up to answer the door.

Sherlock waited outside impatiently, checking his watch.

"Can I help you?" Elsabeta asked as she answered the door, frowning a bit at Sherlock.

"Yes, I think you can," Sherlock said, managing something resembling a smile. "I was hoping I could talk to you about your brother and his ex-wife."

"Oh, there you are!" Elena jumped to her feet when she heard Sherlock's voice. "This is the partner I was telling you about."

"Oh. Yes. Come in." Elsabeta moved out of the way so Elena could usher Sherlock over to the couch.

Partner? Sherlock wondered as he was ushered in. But he could run with it if he had to. And how had Elena gotten there before him?

He nodded to the woman. "Thank you."

Elsabeta settled down again and Elena smiled at her.

"Now, you were telling me about the last time you saw your brother?" Elena prompted.

"Oh yes. He came asking for money, said he needed it soon." Elsabeta shrugged. "He didn't say what for. I told him no, we argued, and he left late, in sort of a rush."

Money? Another seemingly random detail in the case. Sherlock barely managed to resist making a face. These Americans, nothing they did made sense. He motioned for the woman to continue.

The woman shrugged. "That was the last time I saw him. I heard from Laura, his ex-wife, a few days ago. She said he was in some sort of trouble. Doesn't surprise me at all. Ed was always getting into trouble."

"Did she say what kind of trouble?" Elena prompted.

"No, she didn't, just that he'd gone to see her about money too."

"Did their marriage end on good terms or bad?" Sherlock asked, mulling over the information in his head. Something didn't add up.

"Decent, I'd say. It was kind of a mutual thing, you know. They're not friends anymore, but they don't hate each other, certainly," Elsabeta said, blinking.

"I see." Still not adding up. "Do you know if he was in a relationship again? Recently?"

"No, not recently," Elsabeta said. "I don't know much of his social life anymore, but I do know that he'd started spending time down at the casino off the interstate. He might have met someone there, but nothing that I heard about."

"Curious," Sherlock murmured. He would have sworn the man had had a partner, it had seemed obvious. "Did he mention going to the casino with anyone in his office?"

"No," Elsabeta said, shaking her head. "Well, once he went with Joseph."

"Joseph?" Elena said, blinking in shock. "The head of the firm, Joseph?"

"Yes, that's right, Joseph introduced him to the place," Elsabeta said with a little smile.

And now things started to make sense. The sister and ex-wife were involved, like he thought, but they were on the fringes of what happened. Even if they knew something, it was likely incidental. The gentleman-friend Sherlock had suspected was likely this Joseph. Now all they needed was why the poor man had been killed.

"Well, thank you very much," Elena said as she stood. "I'm so sorry for your loss. Call me if you need anything, alright?"

"Thank you, dear," Elsabeta said, walking them over to the door.

Sherlock followed silently, mulling over the information. Now they needed to talk to Joseph. He nodded to Elsabeta and went out the door.

Elena steered him over to her car, grinning. "So, where to next?" she asked as she got in.