THE PERSONAL BLOG OF DR. JOHN H. WATSON

3rd June

These past few weeks have gone by very quickly. I apologise for the lack of blogging in that time, but I've been a bit busy. You guessed it-I've been working on a case with Sherlock. But that's not the only thing that has been occupying my time.

This case was given to us by Emma Newman. She only moved into London fairly recently, but she has been settling in for a few weeks now and has gotten used to the bustle of the city. Believe it or not, she's now living in 221C right below our flat. We have plenty of chances to see her out during the day as well, as she's gotten a job at New Scotland Yard.

Emma was the one who brought a case to Sherlock and I. Her father, Russell Newman, had been murdered by the means of blunt force trauma to the spinal column. Apparently the detectives back in Staffordshire had given up on this murder, not willing to take any more time on it. But she had a feeling that this went far deeper, and she could not have been more correct.

You see, this ended up being the very definition of a multilayered murder. At first, Sherlock was convinced that this was just going to be another simple case to solve. Russell Newman had been murdered, he would find who had done it and why and be over with it. But very quickly it became apparent that it wasn't going to be that easy.

At the beginning of the case, Emma presented us with a letter that she told us she had found at the scene of her father's murder. She told Sherlock and I that it was written by her father. Upon reading it, it seemed to be an enormous clue. It was brimming with cryptic phrases and engimatically vague words. Needless to say, I was fascinated by it. But Sherlock disagreed with me on this-he didn't actually think it was that much of a clue. 

For a while it seemed like this case had gotten Sherlock stumped. Everyone loves when that happens, including me. But as time went on, things started to get stranger and far more complex. I guess that's the kind of thing that he needs to thrive. We were all taken surprise when the impossible happened.

Russell Newman was the prime suspect in a murder case that took place after he was dead. A dead man was apparently back on his feet and killing off people with no obvious ties. It wasn't like he had been known to be enemies with anyone. He had been a bookbinder who lived a simple life. There just didn't seem to be anything that had this make any sense.

As if that wasn't strange enough, another murder popped up right here in London. A woman named Francesca Sutton had been killed in a way that was remarkably similar to Russell Newman. But-get this-all of the evidence found at the scene pointed towards Mr. Newman being the culprit in the crime. Fingerprints, hair, blood, DNA-you name it. It all matched up to him.

Now that this case was getting more and more intense, it became clear that we weren't going to be able to solve much of anything staying in London. 

Emma and I started dating not long after we arrived at Staffordshire. Unfortunately we couldn't go out to dinner or anything of the sort because Sherlock had found a new lead. We headed off almost immediately, not wanting to waste a moment of time. 

The three of us headed off to the address where Russell Newman's bookbinding business was meant to be. We ended up finding a large abandoned building instead. At least, it appeared to be abandoned from the exterior. Sherlock almost instantaneously found evidence that people had just entered the building. It seemed to be clear that these were the people who had been causing the murders.

Since we were going in to catch what could potentially be a large group of serial killers, we had to prepared. Before we headed in, I made sure that I tought Emma how to use a gun. She had never handled one before, but she was able to learn very quickly. It was the closest thing we got to time alone, even though it was all about weaponry and Sherlock was standing just several yards away.

We entered the building to find it dark and seemingly empty. But since Sherlock was utterly convinced that there was something and someone to be found within, we continued searching. Soon enough, I had found a room off to the side with the lights on. This was suspicious enough to begin with, but then we found out just how big of a deal it truly was.

We walked in to find bags of blood stacked on top of each other. I know what those are supposed to be like, of course, and these were obviously not meant for medical purposes. There were labels on top of these as well, but instead of having blood typing and other information it had names. Emma was able to find not one, but many bags with her father's name on them. 

Sherlock started piecing things together once we had found those. It was the missing link, the one piece needed to make the entire puzzle make sense. He just stood there for a moment and was able to figure out just about the complete mystery. 

Here's what he figured out: Emma's father had been part of a gang of sorts. Someone would enter the gang in exchange for money. We found out that there were actually many different jobs within this-some were assassins in charge of the killing, some were in charge of the bodies, and then others never even got near the bloody part. 

The signature of this gang was having murder victims committing murder by planting evidence. As long as they could keep the police convinced that a dead man or woman had done such a thing, they could run free. They'd always been able to stay under the radar, as this had apparently been going on for years.

Sherlock determined that Russell Newman must have been one of the members of the gang. It seems to me that he was likely going to leave the ring due to his daughter leaving (and hopefully because he didn't like the idea of being part of a murderous gang), but before he could do such a thing he ended up being their next victim.

But after we found all of the bags of blood, there wasn't exactly anything more we could do in that room. Our purpose was now to find this murderous gang which was stationed in the very building we were in. This had to be their headquarters, and they had to be found somewhere inside of it. The problem was, we didn't know just where they were.

I have to admit, looking around for criminals in deserted areas is both absolutely terrifying and rather boring all at the same time. You've got adrenaline pumping through you the entire time, but when you really think about it you realise that all you're truly doing is walking around through empty rooms. We weren't exactly sure what we were looking for or where it would be.

Nevertheless, it seemed very likely that we had found the right place. Sherlock definitely seemed to think so. I assume all the individual parts of this case in his head had come together by that point, at least for that portion of the mystery. 

It must have been extremely dull for Emma especially, because she had never been on a case like this before. There was no way for her to tell what was going to happen. For her, it really was all just walking through a bunch of empty halls with a gun in her hands. 

Unfortunately, this boredom ended up going a little bit too far. A gun was accidentally set off, alerting the gang to our location inside of their headquarters. Even armed with weapons, we knew weren't exactly prepared to take on an entire ring of experienced killers at once. With nothing left to do, we started to run.

It turns out that this was likely our best option. If we had fired at them, we would have been fired back at. While we did get a good amount of bullets flying towards our head, their aim wasn't as good because they were chasing us. Besides, we had gotten ourselves quite the head start before they began to chase us.

We ended up escaping the building, but we were far from free. The gang could easily follow us outside and catch up to us just the same. Emma already looked like she was about to keel over from the running she had done so far, so we seemed to be out of options. Little did I know that Sherlock had sent out a text message to the police force-yes, a text message. Only Sherlock Holmes could send out a text message to the police and convince them to show up.

Soon we heard sirens blaring as the police rushed towards our location. Sherlock and I went forwards to keep the gang from running away before they arrived, which worked out surprisingly well. No one actually ended up getting hurt during this, which I believe is a good thing.

Everyone who was in the building was arrested and are going to be tried sometime soon, and then put in jail for the rest of their lives. From what I've seem of the gang, they all looked like mundane and ordinary people-certainly not the type you'd normally flag down as ruthless killers. But people can be very surprising.

It's still hard to believe that this all came from the seemingly motivationless murder of a man who bound books for a living. But it just goes to show you that the people you least expect to be involved in something are usually the ones who are. Just about anyone can get wrapped up into a massive case if the situation presents itself.

One thing that still doesn't make sense to me is how there was so much money involved and why some of these people were killed. Francesca Sutton, especially. Oh, now Sherlock's starting to bark at me. He's taking away the comput

It's Sherlock Holmes now. I apologise for the lack of factual information contained within this blog post, but if you're a usual reader of John's blog that won't be anything new to you. He has a flair for extending the borders of truth and fact about our cases. This often leads him to either provide false information or not even provide information at all.

Francesca Sutton was obviously murdered because she had ties to the murder ring as well. The paper that had been used by Russell Newman was found in the crime scene. You have to remember that not everyone in this ring was an assassin. 

Emma's father was obviously part of communicating messages around the gang through his books. No one would suspect a book to be holding anything like that as people now use electronic means to continue pushing their message around. Francesca Sutton was in possession of this paper, which points to her being part of the ring. It's very simple. 

But this goes deeper as well. There was a heavy amount of lye found inside of the paper, which can be deadly if compacted into a book. I believe that the ring was likely going to start making more books with this paper in order to kill off people without leaving a trace. This way they would have more bodies for planting the evidence of new murders. 

It seems fairly obvious to me that Emma's father was probably going to be an important factor in this and then backed out at the last moment. This is why he was murdered by the ring that he was a part of-and then they happened to use his remains to plant as evidence in the crime scenes. It's obvious, really.

As for the money, it's irrelevant. There are plenty of ways they could get it, whether it be pillaging the homes of those who are murdered or giving out threats. It just doesn't matter. 

Well, there you go. This is John again, just to let you know, Sherlock finally gave my computer back. Reading over that, I guess it all makes a good bit of sense. I just didn't really think about it that way. 

There you have it. It's a story of truth and lies all mixed together, along with a fair amount of lye. Not everything's completely right in the world now, but at least we were able to rid ourselves of one killing ring that had been plaguing the world.

As for things not related to crime...Emma and I have been happy lately, but Sherlock's getting bored. Hopefully a new case will pop up for him soon and he won't feel the need to steal my computer again. He has his own, anyways. 

22 comments

I feel like my name doesn't really belong on here. It's strange just looking at it showing up all over the place!!!

Emma Newman 3 June 20:38

I think it fits quite nicely, in my personal opinion. 

John Watson 3 June 20:40

Aw...thanks...haha...you're too sweet. 

Emma Newman  3 June 20:41

Oh, Emma? Sounds like you two are a little more than just friends...

Harry Watson 3 June 20:43

I did say we were dating in the post, Harry.

John Watson 3 June 20:45

Hopefully this one will last longer than the others!

Harry Watson 3 June 20:48

What??? I don't understand what you mean.

Emma Newman 3 June 20:49

Emma, don't worry about it. Harry, shut up.

John Watson 3 June 20:51

You couldn't have come up with a better title for this, John? Perhaps one that better pertained to the entire case?

Sherlock Holmes 3 June 21:03

I'm sorry that my title making skills aren't up to your standards, Sherlock.

John Watson 3 June 21:05

I like the title!!!

Emma Newman 3 June 21:06

Well, of course you would.

Sherlock Holmes 3 June 21:09

What are you trying to say...???

Emma Newman 3 June 21:10

OMG this is amazing! Death in the paper, murdered people getting up and killing more people...there's always something out there.

Jacob Sowersby 3 June 21:24

Now you've gotten Emma involved in your cases too? 

Mrs Hudson 3 June 21:38

I'm never holding a gun again, Mrs. Hudson, don't you worry!!!

Emma Newman 3 June 21:39

I wouldn't be so sure of that.

Sherlock Holmes 3 June 21:43

Just shut up, would you?!?!

Emma Newman 3 June 21:44

What was that crashing sound? 

Mrs Hudson 3 June 21:45

...I need a mop. And a broom.

Emma Newman 3 June 21:46

Maybe I should go help.

John Watson 3 June 21:48

That would be great.

Emma Newman 3 June 21:49

- - - - -

A/N Yes, for Chapter Seventeen I decided to make an entry in John's blog. In essence I went over everything from before and also resolved the case at the end. Hopefully everything fits together well now. I actually really like how this chapter came out. I was inspired by the challenge I gave in my Sherlock competition a long while ago. That was interesting. Heh.