Chapter 1

Ordinary people are so adorable. It's true you know, with their simple minds seeing only the most simple details. But amongst all the ordinary people, I saw someone different, someone like me. His name was Sherlock Holmes. He was the most extraordinary man in the world, the only on with the same level of genius as myself. Solving crimes that nobody else could solve was his specialty, and in that, I saw an opportunity. On the outside, in the cold, hard facts as reported by police files and his website, he was amazing, but I had to put him to the ultimate test. I hacked the records of Royal Brompton Hospital, and by hacked I mean I had sex with one of the nurses and he gave me some acess codes. So I looked through the medical reports of every patient with an impending expiration date. I narrowed it down to an old cabbie with an aneurysm, a somewhat successful business lady in her mid thirties with brain cancer, and a 16 year old school boy with such severe radiation poisoning that he would die within the year despite his doctor's stupendous efforts. I followed them for a few weeks and settled that the cabbie would be best for my, experiment. I called the company for which he worked and asked for him specifically to come pick me up at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, the place where Sherlock worked and I had recently gotten a job in IT at. The sleek black cab pulled up a little while later and I slid into the leather back seat. Jeff, the cabbie, was sitting with his right arm around the back of the passenger seat looking at me.

"Where to?" he asked.

I chuckled softly and told him, "There is an alley one block from the Baker Street Bakery located at 221 Baker Street. I want you to take me there and park so we can have a nice little chat."

Jeff shrugged, turned back to the wheel, and began to drive. We reached the alley within five minutes and when the car was stopped, I got into the passenger seat up front. Jeff looked somewhat startled, and I guessed that was probably because most people don't get in the front seat of the cab, but I ignored it and began talking.

"I have been, how do I put this, observing you, these past few weeks, and I have chosen you. You are a genius, a right and proper genius, but you drive a cab because you cant find beter work. I have a proposition for you, I want you to assist me with a killing spree. When you pick up solitary passengers, take them to a random closed building, and have them kill themselves."

"No way," said Jeff, a tone of astonishment at the fact that he was just asked to help kill people, and also because someone had recognized his genius, "I could never do that."

"Listen Jeff, you're dying. Any breath you take could be your last and with the income of a cab driver, you will leave your kids with near to nothing."

"How do you know about my kids?"

"I know everything there is to know about you Jeff. You grew up in a poor family in Leadworth, and despite your genius you couldn't get into a good college. At the community college in London, you met your now ex-wife and you dated her for seven months before getting her pregnant and having a somewhat forced marriage. You had two more kids before you broke up and she took the kids with her. I am offering you a generous sum of money for each person you kill, and your kids can have better lives that you did."

I could tell that he was now considering my offer, so I gave him my business card and told him to call if he changed his mind. I left the cab with a feeling of success despite not having truly accomplished anything, I knew that I would have soon. The next day my phone rang just as I expected and Jeff was on the line.

"Hello," he said.

"So you've changed your mind?" I asked.

"I have, I want to take you up on your offer, but you said I had to get the people to kill themselves. How exactly am I supposed to do that?"

"You will keep two identical bottles in the glove box of your cab. Fill one bottle with poisonous pills, and the other with identical sugar pills. Take the passenger to an empty building of your choice, and tell them to pick a pill. They choose, you both take your pills, one of you dies and the other lives."

"Ok, sounds simple enough. How much money per death will I get?"

"For every person that dies I will put 10,000 pounds in your bank account."

"Thank you so much."

"You're welcome."

With that I hung up the phone and waited for the first kill.