Chapter 7

Watson makes a great discovery, and a great mystery is discovered!

Watson froze as he stared at the wooden box. “This is quite odd...” he thought. As he turned it over in his hands, he heard clanking from within, metal striking metal. As Watson was examining the box, a realization came to him.  “Where was that notebook from the drawer earlier…” he muttered to himself.  

He looked around the room and saw the notebook, sitting on the bedside table where he had left it before.  He stood quickly, and hurried to pick it up.  Leafing through it, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary, as the notebook seemed to be a typical journal.  Frustrated, Watson slammed it shut.  When he did so, he noticed that the pages did not close completely.  Out of curiosity, he opened the journal up to the gap in the pages and let out a quiet groan of frustration.  There were several torn pages.  Dejectedly, Watson closed the journal once again, carrying it on one hand while he grabbed the box in the other before heading downstairs to see if Sherlock was having a better go of things.

As he descended the stairs, Watson paused to examine the pictures on the wall.  Many of them were of Mr. White, along with Mr. Rogers. Some contained newspaper clippings of business deals that they had worked on together, including a few that Watson could vaguely remember from a few years before.  

As he looked over the frames, Watson noticed two very odd things.  “One of these frames is empty….and another one is tilted and crooked….” He thought.  “Mr. White didn’t seem the kind of man to leave a crooked picture….unless….”  

He reached for the picture and pulled it off the wall.  Looking it over, he saw a bulge on the back panel of the frame.  Carefully, he pulled back the tabs and lifted the cover from the back of the frame.  Inside was another key.  A third key.  Watson rushed down the stairs calling for Sherlock.

As soon as he reached the ground floor and rounded the corner he saw Sherlock racing up the steps and through the front door down the hall.  

“Yes Watson?” he asked, “I trust your search has been quite productive for you to run down in such a hurry?”  

“Yes, look at what I have found!” replied Watson, “First, this box was underneath Mr. White’s bed, and then I found the notebook from earlier, the one from his drawer with the codes, however it appears some pages are missing from it.  And then I found this…” 

At this, Watson handed the key to Sherlock, who turned it over in his hands and examined it closely.  

“Let me see that journal there.” He said.  

He flipped it open and skimmed the pages, murmuring to himself.  Upon reaching the last page, he narrowed his eyes and became perfectly still and silent.  After a few moments, he suddenly broke the silence 

“Hand me that pencil you brought with you.”  As soon as Watson handed it to him, Sherlock ripped a page from the back of the journal and laid it on the page after all the torn out ones. 

“This may prove a waste of time,” he said, “but one can never be too sure that he passes up a chance at finding a great clue.”  

He took the pencil and lightly pressed against the page, holding it firmly against the journal and with the steadiness of a surgeon, he gently swept it back and forth across the page, side to side and all the way down.  Once he finished he held up the page to reveal a faint, but still legible copy of what had been written on a previous page that had been torn out.  

It read as follows:

“….and the case was then closed.  Rogers and myself were glad to have reached a conclusion, however, we were not satisfied that the criminal was given bail from some anonymous source, shortening his sentence from 10 years down to only 6 months.  This means a substantial bail was paid, as it would have cost nearly 510k pounds to shorten the sentence by 5 years. I am only a businessman, but I fear that my part in this whole mess would leave a stain on my reputation, as well as that of Rogers, for we helped convict that man. Since his prison time has been shortened, I am taking measures to ensure that if something were to happen to me, Ms. Cutter will be fine, and that there will be clues to find the three keys which I have hidden.  They hold the secret to finding the man who is behind more crime in London than anyone can guess.  One of the few who even know his face is the man Rogers and I helped lock up, and even his true his identity is not known to many.  I only know him by the alias “The Weasel” and that he earned that name for his ability to escape convictions for crimes he committed.  He holds the key to finding the man behind these crimes.  I fear that he will exact revenge on me for my part in putting him in prison, though the time he will be in at the end will be short….”

As they finished reading the page, Sherlock turned to Watson with a glimmer of glee in his eyes and said “Well Watson, I believe the plot has certainly thickened!”

Reviews

[Kimberly Miller]

Another cliffhanger?! Your killing me! Very good though! You have really captured their personalities well and plot just gets deeper and deeper with each chapter! :)

[Jeremy Hiles]

Haha yes! If I get it officially published in book form then the cliff hangers would simply be the end of chapters! Thank you very much for your review! Oh just wait, Chapters 8 and 9 are on the way and they will be a whirlwind of action, character development and plot twists!