Texting Sherlock

Case Book: #3

The Confession of the Silent Witness

[SENT] from eve.lawrence@jourrapide.com
[RECEIVED] by sherlock.holmes@gmail.com

Mr. Holmes,

I turn to you with a somber request. My name is Eve S. Lawrence and I am the mother of Jayden Lawrence and we live in Craignafeich (which is in North-Eastern England, near Northumberland). Five days ago a visitor got murdered in our city. We didn't know who he was or who murdered him but we did find his body. Why I'm emailing you is because my son was the only one who saw the murder but he cannot talk. He hasn't been able to talk since but someone said that they found him at the crime scene. Before you ask, no he did not commit the crime, the man was killed by a gunshot wound from a rifle, which my kid could never hold, or find. We have tried to take him to the doctor or bring him to a therapist in the hopes that he will talk, but unfortunately that hasn't happened. Aside from my son turning mute, we do potentially have a murderer on the loose, and we would like to find out who killed the visitor.

Get back to me if you can,

Eve Lawrence
57 Stone St, Craignafeich, England

~~~~~~~~~

[SENT] from sherlock.holmes@gmail.com
[RECEIVED] by eve.lawrence@jourrapide.com

Eve,

This is John Watson, writing on behalf of Mr. Holmes. Sherlock is currently a little bit under the weather, so I am not letting him leave the flat at this time. However, we do want to take care of this peculiar problem. I will come and fly out tonight and I will come visit you at you address tomorrow morning. From there, we can Skype Sherlock and he will help us solve this crime. I am awfully sorry that such a tragedy has plagued your town but I assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to solve this peculiar riddle.

See you soon,
John Watson on behalf of Sherlock Holmes

~~~~~~~

John arrived to Craignafeich the next morning and spoke to Eve.

"If you could please show me to Jayden, I will call Sherlock and we will get to the bottom of this" John assured the distressed mother.

"If you would please come with me, he's in the room over there" she pointed down the hallway.

Ring ring ring

"Alright Sherlock look at this, medically this kid is okay and at first glance he doesn't have any mental health issues. No swollen glands or any signs of a voice that's gone. He's just in shock" John showed the child to Sherlock, who was sitting in 221B draped in a sheet.

"Hey, Jayden. My name is Sherlock Holmes, I'm a detective" Sherlock smiled sweetly at the child, the cold demeanor gone, "I know something quite terrible has happened in your hometown, and I promise that we will get to the bottom of this. Nobody is going to hurt you, my friend that is holding the computer will ensure that, he's a doctor. Jay, do you mind if I call you that, we're going to need your help to hunt down the bad man that committed this crime. You're the only one who can help us. I won't pressure you much now, I'll talk to you soon. John take me to the other room".

John shuffled to the living room, leaving Jayden and Eve behind in the kid's room. He heaved a sigh and settled down on the couch.

"Alright Sherlock, any ideas?" John rubbed his eyes, placing the laptop on his knees, "I honestly want to go home, it's such a weird town over here".

"Sorry John, I wish I could have come with you, but Molly got me ill" Sherlock sighed, his eyes changing from cold to warm as he looked at John who yawned quietly.

"To get this over with quickly, to catch the man who did it and to get you home, I think it would be best to repeat the shock that caused the kid to turn mute, and that will undo the damage, hopefully" Sherlock placed his hands in a steepled formation under his chin.

"Sherlock! Are you insane?! We can't cause the kid more shock, and we can't place him under more stress than he already is under" John popped up.

"Here is your job John: you get a shotgun, or something that makes a similar sound. If you can play the sound on your phone, that would be even better, because then nobody could blame you for having a shotgun that had recently killed a person. Jayden should be alone, not with his mother, and it would be better if it was dark. Can you do it John?" Sherlock rattled.

"I think... I have an idea of how, yes" John rubbed his hands together as he was thinking.

That evening, as Jayden was falling asleep, John propped up his window with a twig so he could hear what was happening inside, and so Jay could hear what was happening outside. John waited until the kid laid down, then waited a couple minutes and cracked a couple sticks under the window. He heard Jayden sit up in his bed, alert and probably scared. After a couple more minutes, he cracked several more sticks, making sure that Jayden heard them and that he was getting to be more afraid. John coughed and heard Jayden catapult out of the bed and hide under it.

John sighed, it was time. He pulled out his phone and opened the app that he had found, that had the best shotgun sound. He slid his phone through the window and pressed the button.

POW!

John cringed as he realized that a lot of people probably heard that, and that he would be sabotaged any second now. He couldn't think for long though, because an air-splitting scream pierced the eerie quiet of the sleeping town. He hit one on the phone of his keypad, speed dialing Sherlock Holmes.

"Sherlock!" John yelled as he ran around the house and pounded his fists on the door, "it worked! It worked! The kid screamed! I'm trying to get inside now".

He pushed the door open, realizing that somebody had opened it from the other side. He dashed down the hallway, to where he saw light in the child's room.

"Jayden! Jayden! It's me, it's Sherlock!" Sherlock said from the phone, when John ran into the room.

Jayden was sitting on the bed, breathing hard, his mother sitting next to him, rubbing circles on his back.

"Thank you Mr. Holmes" Jayden said, his voice very quiet and horse from not using it for a while.

"Of course Jay, of course. I told you that John would protect you, didn't I. Now you can talk to. Please tell the nice police men that will show up in ten minutes what happened at the murder scene, that will be a big help" Sherlock's voice came through as calm and collected on the phone.

John exited the room and took Sherlock off of the speaker.

"Well, that was tiring. How soon can Mycroft get me a ticket home?" John asked.

"I've told him to send a private helicopter, I think it should be there soon. See you at Baker Street soon. I'll make some dinner" Sherlock said.

[I <3 HEARING FROM YOU]
What's the worst thing that happened to you this year and the best?
-The worst for me was Trump winning the election, because I'm so embarrassed that our country is going to be governed by him for the next 4 years, and we're going to be treated as even more of a joke now. However, this year was pretty crappy, yes, but I did get to go to London & Paris & Venice, which has been my life long dream. I completely fell in love with London and I miss it so much, it was so amazing the city that I have been obsessed with. Also, it's Sherlock's city and after seeing it on the show, seeing it in real life was so amazing.

There's always ups and downs in a year, and maybe this year had more downs than ups, but you also have to remember the bright side, or else you would go totally crazy. I hope everyone is having a good break, if you're off of school, and thank you for sticking with me through this year and I hope I can keep writing for you guys next year and I hope you keep enjoying my stories.

-UL