A while ago I had an idea for a modern day riff on Sherlock Holmes, and then of course the BBC produced Sherlock, but here's my writing nonsense, unedited and incomplete, it naturally needs a Hell of a lot of work.
England Is Strange
It's late June 2011, London blisters beneath the Summer Sun. Many Londoners, and visitors to London, struggle in the heat, finding the hectic lifestyle unimaginably exhausting, wilting people in Leicester Square feel more irritable than normal, except for one young man, John Wilson late of the Royal Army Medical Corps, John finds the heat perfectly reasonable having recently returned from Afghanistan. For many of his colleagues the hard campaign in Afghanistan brought many honours, or memorable experiences, but for John it brought nothing but disaster, wounded in the left shoulder towards the end of his tour he now finds himself medically discharged from the only life he knew, the only life he ever wanted. Austere England no place for an army doctor, or so John believes. Feeling lost in a city he has no knowledge of, he has spent the last week mindlessly wandering his new home, with no family still living, no place to call home he decided London would be the best place to find an opportunity, though he has begun to reconsider this idea, with the influx of migrants most jobs seem aimed at these foreign workers, especially within the medical profession, or so he perceives, though he will readily admit his military experiences might influence his thoughts, John tries not to be biased but the struggle to find employment and his loss of a specific type of life sometimes makes him feel despondent. As he wanders aimlessly through Pall Mall he accidentally, while lost deep in despondent thought, stumbles into a smartly dressed, whip thin man.
"I am ever so sorry!"
The man merely adjusts his, slightly, creased suit jacket, straightens his tie and gives John's almost dishevelled appearance a brief appraisal.
"Why John Wilson, what an unexpected surprise."
John replies, stammering, "Christopher Bamford? How are you old friend?"
Christopher holds out his right hand, stiffly John shakes it.
"Trouble with your arm?" Christopher asks.
John nods, replying "an injury I received in Afghanistan."
Christopher nods in sympathy, "care to join me for a quick drink? I was just off to the Diogenes Club, members only, under normal conditions, but I'm sure no one would deny an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps entry."
John decides to agree and several moments later both men find themselves within the luxurious confines of one of London's most exclusive gentleman's clubs.
"So, John, what have you been doing with yourself since returning from Afghanistan?" Christopher Bamford politely asks.
Sipping slowly from the pint of Kronenbourg 1664 he holds in his right hand John quickly takes a glance at the opulent surroundings he surprisingly finds himself within.
"Surviving, just. I have only been back in England a few weeks, I hadn't realised before how grim everything seems." John honestly replies.
"The wrong government is unfortunately in power John, everyone knows that. But, we must make the best of all situations. What sort of work are you looking for? I take it you are currently seeking employment?"
"I'm hoping for an opportunity within the medical profession to, obviously, reveal itself." John confesses.
"I, as you probably already know, work within the civil service, the department I work within is currently recruiting, in particular eager to employ a person with your impressive experience."
Intrigued John enquires "What would the job entail?"
"Assisting our top, well our only field operative in some rather sensitive tasks. There are, as a perk of the job, lodgings associated with this opportunity."
"It sounds too good an opportunity to turn down."
"I'll arrange an appointment with my superior for tomorrow."
The following day, once again England bakes beneath the hot Summer Sun.
John arrives at Horse Guards Avenue, he's dressed appropriately for the weather and his imminent interview, a dark blue tie adorns the short sleeve white shirt that tucks tightly into the waist of his suit style black, immaculately pressed, trousers, black shiny shoes accompany his interview attire. He peers out from a pair of smart, but fairly cheap, Next sunglasses, needed to shield his eyes from the glare of the bright day, removing an old, battered, Nokia phone from his right hand pocket he locates the contact number for Christopher Bamford and makes a swift call. Several minutes later as John approaches the Old War Office he spots Christopher Bamford outside waiting, a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth, Christopher waves with his free hand, extinguishing and discarding the cigarette as John nears him.
"I'm glad you made it John, this is a unique opportunity, one I hope you won't regret, my department needs people with your qualities."
Moments later Christopher ushers John into a large office within the Old War Office Building. It's an opulent room, finely decorated but very old fashioned. Christopher introduces John to his superior, Henry Tower, the two men shake hands before Christopher and Henry seat themselves behind a large oak table, John is invited to seat himself before them, which he does noticing another man sat at the back of the room, this man seems oblivious to anyone else's existence within the office and appears engrossed with the iPad that rests upon his lap.
Henry Tower begins the interview enquiring about John's time served in Afghanistan, "You were attached to the Royal Dragoons during your time in Afghanistan?"
Uncomfortable talking about his Afghan tour John reluctantly answers, "yes, the third regiment, I, we, were stationed in Helmand Province."
"There was a lot of action?"
"A lot? Yes. We were constantly under surveillance by the Taliban. Small arms and mortar fire was an almost daily part of life."
"Yet there was a remarkable lack of casualties during your time there especially considering the amount of fire you experienced."
John honestly admits, "a more disciplined, better trained enemy could, perhaps would, have overrun us, as it was we were able to maintain security in the area and to repress the Taliban attacks."
"Your injury happened towards the end of your tour?" Henry asks.
"Yes I was shot in my left shoulder which of course led to my medical discharge."
"And that's now led you here. How is your shoulder?" Henry asks John genuinely concerned.
"There's still a little stiffness, the occasional pain, but that's to be expected." John admits.
"I will be honest with you John, you're the kind of person our department is looking to recruit. It's unique work, and needs a person strong of mind and a person who can be very discrete, you would of course be required to undergo an in depth security check, if you were to accept the job offer."
"That's perfectly acceptable Mr Tower, I have nothing to hide."
"Henry, or Harry, John, we are a pretty informal bunch around here."
"Well, Henry, what is it exactly that your department does?"
"We monitor and police the activities of what many would label as paranormal, or supernatural, beings."
"The paranormal? Really?"
"I understand you might be sceptical, and I don't blame you. What we do here at Section 6 is beyond the normal, far beyond. Of course you realise nothing can be repeated outside of this office." Henry states.
"I understand discretion."
"I know you do John, you wouldn't be here if I thought otherwise. This department maintains security throughout the land, making sure that these entities we share land with behave appropriately. But to begin, there are four alien races visiting our planet, one of which, unfortunately, resembles our own species, so much so it would be impossible to distinguish the difference between them and ourselves."
Incredulously John asks, "what's their purpose?"
"Unknown. Various agencies across several continents became aware of the existence of such beings in the 1950's they have, naturally, technology far in advance of ours, we have no way of monitoring their movement nor has anyone been able to discover their purpose here. Fortunately for the moment they appear to be benign. When we have had reason to respond to a situation involving such entities we merely gather evidence, if there is any, interview the witnesses and then file the report in The Archive. We have better results in our dealings with other so called supernatural entities that we share our World with, and there are many of these supernatural entities, Angels, Demons, Old Gods, Faeries, Trolls, Vampires just as an example, these beings we can monitor and police, mainly we have accords with their cultures. We try to keep their activities, the most extreme, limited and in the main we enjoy peaceful relations."
For the rest of the interview John is informed by Henry about the specifics of the job. The freedom the job allows, how it will be very challenging, require a lot of travelling within the confines of the United Kingdom, how it will be a great outlet for his skills. He discovers the wage is not great and the other money related benefits are merely meagre, at best. John however has no choice but to accept the offer, his funds are dwindling fast and there are no other promising opportunities in his future. Henry Tower is most pleased with John's decision and shaking John's hand informs him that Christopher will have him fill out the official documents and introduce him to his new work colleague. With the interview over Christopher escorts John out of the office. Christopher leads John to a considerably smaller office, once inside he, Christopher Bamford, presents John with three documents for him to sign, the first a contract of employment, the second a health and safety declaration and the third the Official Secrets Act.
"With the formalities out of the way I'll introduce you to your new work colleague." Christopher informs John.
"Is this for real Christopher, I feel as though I have just been dropped into the middle of a movie." John answers in way of reply.
"John this is all real, believe me. You will witness the real World John, I envy you, I have always wanted to be a field operative, but my physical failings keep me stuck behind this desk. Such is life. Come on I think your new colleague is in the laboratory."
Ten minutes later Christopher and John enter a cold laboratory deep beneath the surface of London. John in absolute shock stares at the large form laid out on a table before him, the two day old corpse of an Ogre rests upon a reinforced steel table. A Japanese man is busy studying the fingernails of the dead creature, scraping residue of blood from the digits.
"John meet Shizuya Harada." Christopher introduces John to his new colleague.
Without pausing during the introduction John astonished asks, "what is that thing?"
The newly introduced Shizuya explains, "it's an Ogre. You must be my new work and room mate, John Wilson late of the Royal Army Medical Corps."
"An Ogre?" John queries.
"If I might interrupt Shizuya you will of course escort John to his lodgings, I have an appointment I must attend in about twenty minutes. I'll leave you in the capable hands of Section 6's only field operative, it's been a pleasure bumping into you again John, I'm sure we will see more of each other over the next few months." Christopher shakes John's hand then abruptly leaves.
Christopher's departure doesn't seem to bother Shizuya he merely continues with his conversation, "I had been unable to determine the cause of the Ogre's death. There are no visible wounds, no signs of violence. Ogre's are notoriously hard to injure or kill. I ruled out a Vampire attack, as no Vampire would be foolish enough to attack an Ogre, besides there's no evidence of emaciation usual with the attack of a Vampire. So that leaves only one option, the Ogre was murdered by one of the Powers."
"Powers?"
"A reference to one of several groups of entities that exhibit immense supernatural abilities, such as an Angel, Demon or one of the Old Gods."
John gets too close to the Ogre's body recoiling in disgust at the terrible stink issuing from the carcass.
John exclaims, "The smell is awful."
"Wait until you smell a live Ogre, vomit inducing is the only description of the stench."
"How was the Ogre murdered?"
"I have deduced the creature was in a violent altercation with something infinitely stronger than itself. The Ogre was able to cut it's attacker, the blood beneath it's fingernails. However the Ogre's killer was able to steal it's life energy." Shizuya tells him.
"Such things are possible?"
"Vampires kill in the same fashion, but an Ogre is a match for any Vampire. Though the blood samples will prove that. Unfortunately I have no samples of Angel, Demon or Old God blood, no one's ever captured, nor killed, one of those creatures. They are truly beyond anything a person can imagine, they are as far beyond us as we are ants."
"Where do you think these creatures come from?"
"Angels, Demons and Old Gods nobody knows. They might be native to the planet, they might be alien. As for the other supernatural beasts, they are from here, we've co-existed alongside them for all of our species existence. Some of the creatures were here before the first humans." Shizuya informs John.
"How is this kept secret?"
"It isn't. Everyone has heard of such creatures there are stories, movies and TV shows featuring such creatures."
"Fairy tales. Fictions."
"No. The stories are factual, with slight embellishments here and there. The reason we humans have civilisations is to hide from reality, we have been a frightened animal for most, if not all, of our existence."
"It seems so fantastical."
"You will find it really mundane really quickly. I'm nearly finished here. Are you ready to see your new home?"
John nods, " Yes I am."
The pair leave the offices of Section 6 and Shizuya directs John across the city towards Soho, where the apartment is located, in Richmond Mews. The journey is only slightly over a mile and takes Shizuya and John less than twenty minutes, stopping as they do along the way at the Japan Centre for takeaway food and a cool drink. Upon arriving at the apartment, John is amazed.
"How do we afford this?" John asks worriedly.
"The Special Operations Executive Section 6. It was specifically built, and fully furnished, during the time of building. There's no rent, though the council tax is astronomical."
The living room of the apartment has as it's centrepiece a forty six inch Sony Bravia TV, a PS3 is attached to the TV, both rest on top of a plain black wooden table, black shelving units furnish the room containing a large amount of DVDs, Blu-Rays, books and comic books. Resting on the black leather sofa is a smart Apple MacBook, there are two cabinets situated at the far end of the living room which contain various souvenirs, from previous investigations Shizuya has been a part of.
"You're bedroom is rather spacious, the largest one in the apartment, my former, now deceased, colleague died inside, I sometimes suspect he haunts the room, if of course I believed in some kind of obscure afterlife." Shizuya informs his new colleague.
The room John is shown really is very spacious, and furnished, a large double bed fills most of the room, there's matching wardrobes and two large chest of drawers, there's what looks like a large bloodstain on the carpeted floor.
John remarks, "is that a bloodstain?"
"Yes John, the former occupant, Joseph Ashton, was torn apart by a Demon he had apparently made an enemy of, the Demon was naturally never apprehended. I like to think of his fate has being a lesson in etiquette when dealing with something far older, wiser and more dangerous than myself."
"You seem amazingly cold about the lose of your last colleague, and room mate."
"So far I have outlived six former colleagues, room mates, Joseph's came as no surprise, the man was an ass and made enemies rather easily."
"You mentioned this was a four bedroom apartment, where they once occupied?"
"Yes, Section 6, when I started working for them eleven years ago had twelve field operatives, we were organised into groups of four, so yes each room had an occupant. Due to budget restraints when an operative expired they, Section 6, found it almost impossible to replace them, now there's just us two, keeping Great Britain save from all kinds of horrible menaces for twenty four thousand pounds a year. It's a dirty, underpaid job, but someone's got to do it. I'll show you the other rooms."
The duo exit John's bedroom to be, and Shizuya points out the bathroom, before leading John to the smallest of the apartment's rooms, a small bedroom, now being used by Shizuya for storage of books, that he requires for his work, with several filing cabinets, crammed full with reports, mainly about cases Section 6 have handled but also with useful information regarding the nature of the supernatural beasts that roam freely throughout the British Isles, there's a small desk containing a Mac desktop. The other, larger, bedroom is taken up with Shizuya's forensic equipment, it's a neat and tidy room, everything seems to have it's own place, John is fascinated by two, still animated, severed heads in jars on one of the tables, the mouth appears to be straining to form words.
"So this is your new living quarters, I do hope we get along and you don't turn out to be an ass, Joseph was a pleasant enough fellow in the beginning. Anyway John, here's your set of keys, move in whenever you're ready. I have an errand to run, I'll see you later." Having handed the keys of the apartment to John, Shizuya heads for the door and leaves John on his own. Unable to believe his luck, a job, though insane, and an apartment in the heart of the City, he flops down on the black leather sofa and for a moment just soaks up his good fortune and takes a good look at where he will be living for the foreseeable future. He finds the sofa comfortable, very, the living room itself pleasant, quiet, he thinks he will be quite happy living here. Once he's sat for a few minutes he decides it's time to gather his, few, belongings and flee the adequate but impersonal lodgings he's recently been staying in. Before leaving the apartment, paranoid, he checks that the door keys given him actually fit, and work, in the apartments front door, they do, satisfied he shuts the door behind him.
Several hours later, John reopens his the door to his new home, two large, Adidas, bags in his left hand as he struggles through into the apartment. Shizuya is already there and approaches to help him.
"Is this everything?" Shizuya queries.
"Yes, I didn't have a lot, being in the military all my adult life, and never having settled down, has meant I never accumulated a great deal of useless stuff, all this is mainly clothes, with a few medical books and journals."
"Do you have any weapons?"
"Weapons?" John asks surprised at the question.
"I'll assume no. That's okay I have a comprehensive weapons cabinet in my bedroom, I'm sure we can find something that will suit, a revolver or pistol. Your military training did include firearms training?" John nods agreement, Shizuya continues, "we are unofficially allowed to carry weapons in public, don't go running around waving a gun in the air, and the normal authorities won't be any the wiser. Not that it would matter too much if you find yourself in a spot of bother, arrested, I work extensively with Scotland Yard, and our warrant card, you should receive yours tomorrow, prevents us getting into too much trouble."
The pair remove John's bags to his bedroom, once there Shizuya leaves John to make himself feel at home, returning to the living room and the book he was reading before John's return, The Complete Book of Devils and Demons, recently arrived from the website Amazon. Most of the information in books of it's type turns out, obviously, to be useless, though there are tidbits of very useful information that Shizuya can apply practical use to.
Having finished his packing, and feeling rather hungry John wanders into the living room.
"Where's the nearest takeaway? I could kill for food." John asks Shizuya.
"There's a great takeaway, London Chinatown, on Leicester Square, there should be a menu in the cutlery drawer in the kitchen."
John wanders off into the kitchen gathering the menu from the drawer Shizuya mentioned, which John finds after three attempts, he wonders why the cutlery drawer is the bottom drawer and not the top. Opening the menu he quickly locates what he desires and then wanders back into the living room.
"Do you want anything?" He asks Shizuya.
"I'll call and order food, I stopped a Faery bothering the family that own, and run, the restaurant two years ago, they have allowed me discount ever since. What do you want?"
Thirty five minutes later both John and Shizuya are happily consuming tasty Chinese takeaway, Shizuya using the traditional chopsticks, while John opts for the comfortable use of Western cutlery.
"So you stopped a Faery and now you get amazing food at a bargain price, not bad. What I was wondering though, how do you get your cases?" John asks.
"Mostly, those in the City, via police liaison, some reports are sent through Section 6, a few I investigate independently by checking out weird stories in national and local newspapers. Some I arrive at too late to do anything about and some I don't. It's a dangerous job, very, and most cases result in violence."
Over the course of the next week Shizuya introduces John to the physiology of most of the supernatural entities they are required to police. Informing John of the many types, starting with the most numerous within the British Isles, Elves (also known as Faeries) are generally long lived and benign in nature, though when angered can be highly dangerous, they are in the main pale skinned, beautiful creatures, they possess a vast array of Magickal powers and live in ancient woodlands. Though a branch of the Elven race are dark in skin colour and live within the sprawling human urban areas. Elves are susceptible to the same types of weapons that would affect any human and so possess the same mortal weaknesses in that respect.
Ogre's (also known as Trolls) are a large, monstrous cruel race, small in population, they live mainly in the high hills and mountains, mainly occupying areas like Wales, though some of the smaller, weaker Ogre's offer themselves as bodyguards to the rich and powerful in the Magickal community. Ogre's have few physical weaknesses, small arms fire would only make them mad, heavier more powerful weapons are needed to injure or kill the largest Ogre's, though they aren't the brightest of creatures and can be easily out witted.
Vampires are a race of beings capable of, through sustained activity, turning a human into a Vampire. The oldest of the Vampires look like Demonic beings, though they are now few in number and none are believed to still exist within the British Isles. The Vampire myth contains some truths but mostly falsehoods. They can only be killed via decapitation or cremation, they do have an aversion to sunlight, but most of the other myths about them are just that, myth.
Werewolves are the only other significant, in numbers, supernatural species living within the British Isles. Unlike the stories they don't only operate during the full Moon, cannot transfer their so called curse and they are not invulnerable to everything but silver. They are a distinct race of humans that can transform, Magickally, into werewolves.
Shizuya explains that there are other supernatural entities that they will encounter, occasionally, but the four mentioned are the most populous. At least within the British Isles. Within the supernatural community the hierarchy, Shizuya explains is as follows; there are creatures of vast size, and horror, that exist beyond the confines of this Universe, and yet interact upon our planet, they are known as the Great Old Ones, all things, with knowledge of the Great Old Ones fear them, even the Old Gods, beings that in prehistory were worshipped by humans, due to the fact their abilities and behaviour caused people to idolise them. Below the Old Gods in the hierarchy of things come the supernatural races of Angels and Demons, both races encountered in prehistory and misrepresented in many religious texts. Entities like the race of Elves, and others like them in other parts of the World, are next in power, though many of the Elder Elves are as powerful as an Angel or Demon, some even possess enough power to trouble an Old God. The other races fall in line behind the Elves in no particular order, though it's generally considered ill advised to anger an Ogre.
During this first week John finds himself studying the case reports, and theories, Shizuya has amassed over the past eleven years. During the first few days John finds himself incapable of accepting what seems like fantasy, but slowly he becomes accustomed to the outlandishness of it all. He finds particularly intriguing the ambiguous nature of the UFO/alien encounter reports. Shizuya relates that there's never enough evidence to suggest that the accepted, in the intelligence/secret service community, belief that there are four alien species visiting the Earth and having an unknown agenda is actually valid. The cases are always vague and contradictory and John becomes aware, via Shizuya's reports, that Shizuya hates investigating cases involving alleged alien involvement and tries to avoid them whenever possible.
Throughout that same week Shizuya receives many guests, who he introduces to John, some of the guests are supernatural in origin, a beautiful Elven woman Lady Lylian, who wanders into their apartment on a Tuesday at nearly midnight, Shizuya was awake waiting for her visit, John bleary eyed and sleepy, hours later a violent banging on the apartment door brings John into contact with the terrifying Vampire Mordecai, who has John convinced both he and Shizuya will shortly be drained of life, this of course doesn't happen, though the Vampire leaves threatening vengeance against whoever he perceives has crossed him. After the visit Shizuya advises John not to worry, Mordecai being prone to angry outbursts. The other visitors that first week are more human, though most of them possess fractured personalities and claim various types of psychic abilities, mainly clairvoyance. The only normal, so called, visitor they have is Detective Inspector Terence Rodgers of Scotland Yard, who requires Shizuya, and thus John's, assistance in the case of a murder in an abandoned house, in Lambeth.
54 Milton Road, Lambeth. Though a warm day the sky is full of clouds, mainly White fluffy cumulus types, though almost directly overhead of 54 Milton Road a cumulus cloud begins forming a thunderous cumulonimbus. The movie obsessed Shizuya Harada idly chats to John Wilson about the work of the movie director Wes Anderson, though John barely listens, a combined sense of both dread and excitement dulling his attention.
"You don't seem to concerned about this poor murdered man." John accuses Shizuya.
"We have no evidence yet it was a man. Besides I have had to investigate numerous murders it becomes almost normal. I would imagine every person, eventually, finds their job mundane."
The pair stand outside the property, Shizuya slowly observes the area around in which the house stands, Milton Road, contains mainly residential homes, though many of the houses have been converted into flats, it's not an affluent area, but nor is it terribly rundown. The house in question, the facing wall, is cream, newly painted, an old, red, Citroen 2CV stands, rotting, in front of the empty house. Three of the buildings windows are boarded up, one of the downstairs bay windows and two of the second storey windows, there's no garden. The entrance to the property opens almost onto the street. A property for sale sign stands askew against the wall that surrounds the front of the property, as though someone had kicked at it.
Rather than enter the property immediately, Shizuya wanders up and down the pavement, carefully checking the street, John stands staring up at Detective Inspector Rodgers, who is stood upon the steps leading to the front door of the property, D.I. Rodgers shrugs and enters the building.
"What are you doing?" John asks Shizuya, who is now squatting in the street.
"Occasionally a criminal, no matter what the origin of their species, will discard evidence without thinking, Great Britain is a nation of litterers, a discarded cigarette, a receipt can give me a clue as to their identity." Shizuya replies in explanation.
Slowly Shizuya makes his way towards the house, thoroughly checking the area in front of the house, and underneath the ageing European vehicle. Several pieces of litter, mainly the remains of cigarettes, he gathers and places into individual evidence bags, which he had secreted away inside his long, black overcoat, the evidence bags return to the pockets of the coat, satisfied Shizuya heads inside, John following behind confused.
Detective Inspector Rodgers is deep in conversation with a uniformed police officer when Shizuya and John enter.
"Inspector, shall we have a look at the murder scene?" Shizuya asks.
A narrow corridor leads through to the back of the house, with two doors leading off from it, one on the left and one on the right, the door on the right has recently been damaged, almost smashed off it's hinges, there's a bloody handprint on the corridor wall. Shizuya stops, and begins scraping bits of the blood from the wall with a flick knife, placing the tiny amounts of tissue into a small evidence bag, John waits behind him, patiently, while D.I. Rodgers has already entered the room where the murder occurred.
The pair soon join D.I. Rodgers inside the murder room. It's a large living room at the front of the house, a partially boarded up window allows a little fading sunlight into the otherwise dull room. The peeling wallpaper is a faded shade of yellow, but was once cheerfully bright, dust has settled everywhere, though in places has been disturbed in an obvious struggle. The remnants of a smashed, ornate mantelpiece litter the huge fireplace.
In the centre of the room, and neatly arranged, is the body of a middle aged man, he looks almost peaceful, his dead eyes staring vacantly at the dull grey ceiling, both his arms placed in a cross across his chest. His dishevelled bone white hair sticks out at odd angles, sticky red liquid, possibly blood causing the odd angles. The man is dressed in a blue striped suit, a pastel pink, tieless, shirt and smart brown shoes, spattered with the same thick red liquid. His mouth is open in a perpetual silent scream, his skin sunken and grey.
Detective Inspector Rodgers informs John and Shizuya, "The victim is one Barry Taylor, he's been slightly emaciated, so I'm thinking a Vampire attack, what do you think Harada?" D.I. Rodgers produces, from a plastic evidence bag, the dead man's wallet. The forensics team having already examined the body in situ and gathered all the evidence required for them to have successfully carried out their job.
Shizuya Harada approaches the body, kneeling to examine it, noting the blood in the man's hair and on his shoes.
"There's no sign of any wound?" Shizuya asks, the splashes of blood on the victim's body causing him to ask the question,
"No. The victim wasn't killed in this room Harada, the murder scene is next door in the dining room, for some reason the killer staged the body here, probably for us to find, there's more blood and more signs of a violent struggle." D.I. Rodgers informs Shizuya.
"The blood then must belong to the victims attacker, hmm, has a weapon been discovered, a knife or sword perhaps?" Shizuya asks hopefully.
"Not as yet, I have my men out searching the area."
Shizuya deftly and carefully searches the body. He finishes his brief, but thorough examination by closely paying attention to the dead man's face, seeming satisfied he rises.
"Shall we have a look at the precise scene of this man's murder?"
They head into an adjoining room, which is as big as the living room. Old dining table chairs have been thrown about, some of them bearing evidence of damage. The table itself has been pushed away from it's original location during a terribly violent struggle, there's splattered blood on the floor and spurts up two of the rooms walls. The room is far darker than the previous one due to the lack of light, the window in the room having been securely boarded up from the inside.
Shizuya slowly and methodically stalks about the murder room studying it intently, having walked the full length of the room he stops and stares back, taking his mobile phone, an iPhone 4, from his trouser pocket he begins to take various photos of the room from different angles, focussing primarily on the blood spatters on the walls. Satisfied he returns the phone to his pocket.
"How soon will forensics have compiled a report?" Shizuya queries.
"Probably a week. Though with the backlog they have two. It doesn't help that there have been four more murders this week so far, all look suspiciously like involving something supernatural."
"How so?" Shizuya questions, clearly interested.
"The first odd death was reported Sunday evening, an artist of some notoriety found murdered in a locked room. The second a man, of prominent family background was discovered in Brixton, his head was so severely bashed in his identification has only just been uncovered. Then there's the murder of a former London Mayor, found only hours later and finally earlier today an amateur paranormal investigator was found dead near the British Library. All look like the work of a single Vampire or of a coven."
"Why was I not informed of this sooner?" Angrily Shizuya asks.
"You know Scotland Yard Harada they'd sooner not have you involved if possible, I was only given the go ahead an hour ago to involve you. Four unexplained, unconventional murders would soon draw unwanted attention. So now you're here."
Shizuya nods in understanding and then addresses his, almost, forgotten colleague, John.
"The hierarchy at New Scotland Yard don't like me, don't like Section 6, all supernatural crimes fall under our responsibility and are supposed to be passed along, though due to departmental conflicts the local plod are sometimes willing to forget to include us which has in the past resulted in the criminal to get away. It's a constant pettiness, annoyingly so." Shizuya explains.
So the two men are introduced and the Japanese fellow, Shizuya, explains to John the various aspects of their work together, John is at first very sceptical, though during his interview at the Ministry he was informed of what his duties will entail. Shizuya explains further about vampires (the primary supernatural entities that they will encounter and investigate) about werewolves (a rarity, the last reported case of a werewolf in England/Britain being several years ago, an allusion to the movie Dog Soldiers) there are other supernatural entities in the country to consider, mainly from English/British folklore, though there are some cases of demonic possession/manifestation, angelic manifestation, though it is explained that such creatures are extra dimensional beings, not creatures as alluded to in religious texts. He also explains that there are four alien civilisations visiting the Earth, one of whom looks just like us humans, in fact it would be impossible to perceive the difference between such creatures and ourselves. They could be your neighbours, or sat next to you on an aeroplane, and you wouldn't know. No one would. At times crimes are committed amongst these beings and Shizuya is the, in Britain, only person policing these entities. Now with John he has a partner to aid him in his arduous, under paid, job.
The first crime they investigate, jointly, involves, in an abandoned house, the murder of a vampire, the local police, the detective inspector Thomas Megson and Sheldon LeBlanc are aware of such things, that's when Shizuya gets called in, usually. During the investigation of the crime scene Shizuya is informed that there have been two other murders in London that the detectives are investigating, one the murder of an American diplomat, explosion via a cake, and the murder of an art collector in a locked room. Shizuya returns to Scotland Yard with the detectives, and examines the gathered evidence, asking to see the victims he announces that though they were not true vampires they bore early signs of vampirism and had obviously been recently turned, therefore the strands of the three cases draw together, from there, several more seemingly unrelated crimes come to light and all have similar connections, vampire related, this leads them to the discovery of a previously unknown vampire religion, and the sinister, shadowy enforcers of this society. There's tons of action, being chased, mystery. Like for example, why is there not public knowledge of such things as supernatural entities? Shizuya is required to explain why. Along the way, John encounters the bureaucrats of the Ministry that manage the suppression of knowledge, maintain the cover up. It all seems very Fawlty Towers esque, but seems to work. Shizuya successfully puts the various crimes to rest, solving each one of them and placing them in context. Included within this case will be elements of my Fear of a Hoodie Nation, with the pair also encountering an alleged King of Hell, Bael, and his part to play within the scheme of things, his subtle manipulation of dark sorcerers and the vampire religion (that are a collective of pure bred vampires that believe turned vampires are an abomination, the theft of one of their artefacts drives them to the murder of the art collector, their first victim, the others were merely connected to the theft, or had bought the artefact from the collector.)
Recent Comments