"I wouldn't, really," he says. "But I am not, in fact, angry, and it seems vaguely like the sort of thing one gets angry about, and furthermore it seems not impossible that I will eventually meet your father and have the opportunity to berate him for it, if I can keep a straight face long enough, which at the present moment would be a task far beyond my capacity to achieve."
"Should I be concerned about my mental faculties if the same thing ever happens to me, or is this a Sherlock thing?" she inquires.
"Adrenaline, endorphins," he shrugs. "I don't know if I have them anymore, but apparently I have a reasonable facsimile."
"Noted. Thank you for killing the demons," says Bella. "Do you happen to know what they were doing, besides, apparently, killing at least one - cop? Bystander?"
"Bystander," he says. "I could venture a few guesses, but my information is not complete."
"Four species of demon," he says, settling down a little. "Numbers roughly equal. One dead human, cold. The way those demons fought, they were uneasy allies at best, united briefly against a common enemy. My best theory is that the human stumbled across some kind of meeting or negotiation, perhaps heated, and was sufficiently alarmed and sufficiently new in town to call 911. The demons swarmed her before the police could arrive."
"Reasonable train of thought. Should I worry about the results of the meeting - or its disruption?"
"There could be collateral damage, or they could be plotting to blow up the elementary school or something sinister like that - non-vampire demons won't be repelled by the crosses around the place."
"I would like to have the information," she says, which isn't quite an answer to his question.
The cruiser stops short when Charlie recognizes Sherlock, and he leaps out, weapon drawn and pointed.
"Dad!" shouts Bella. "Don't shoot! Just - go on the porch, or inside, but don't shoot him again, okay?"
Bella chooses a different window to stick her head out of so she can see them both. "Dad, this is Sherlock. I'm not letting him within arms' length but for the time being he seems worth letting live, okay?"
"...Bells, he killed -"
"They killed a person, didn't they?"
Charlie nods slowly.
"They weren't humans. Look at the colors of the blood on him - I know it's dark, but you can see it's not red, right?"
Charlie nods again, still slow.
He's sitting out of porchlight range. More or less. Sherlock raises his hand in a little wave, and otherwise lets them get on with their conversation.
Charlie nods again. He lowers the gun, regards Sherlock, and holsters it.
"Thank you," he says. And wryly, lazily, cheerfully, without the least hint of anger: "I am very annoyed about what you did to my coat."