A character in BBC One drama, Sherlock, Dr John Watson writes about a previous case, Happily Ever After.

29th June

The Bloody Guardsman

Sherlock didn't want me to write up this case for reasons that will become obvious. But there's no way I was going to pass up the chance to... well, you'll see!

It all started with an email from one of the Queen's guardsmen. It's probably easier just to introduce it in his own words. ' Dear Mr Holmes. My name is Bainbridge. I'm a Private in Her Majesty's Household Guard. I'm writing to you about a personal matter - one I don't care to bring before my superiors. It would sound so trivial. But I think someone is stalking me. I'm used to tourists. It's part of the job. But this is different. Someone's watching me. He's taking pictures of me. Every day. I don't want to mention it to the Colonel. But it's really preying on my mind. I've read about you and I know this sort of thing wouldn't interest the police. '

At first, Sherlock wasn't hugely interested. Perhaps someone just liked men in uniform. But I think it was a combination of why this particular guard had been chosen and the mention of how this wouldn't interest the police that worked for him. And, to be honest, we needed a break from preparing for the wedding so off we went to Wellington Barracks.

We had to wait for the guard to come off duty. Well, we were meant to wait. Sherlock's not very good at waiting and before I knew it, he'd nicked a hat, disguised himself as a guard and entered the building.

But it was too late. The bloke who'd emailed us was dead. He was in the shower, surrounded by blood. Only, there was no way anyone could have stabbed him. The door was locked from the inside and, as Sherlock pointed out, he'd clearly not been stabbed before entering the shower. It was a proper locked-room mystery, the kind that Sherlock loved .

I, however, was more concerned about the dead man. And, when I was finally allowed to examine him, I discovered that he was actually still alive! I think we're so used to finding corpses in our cases, that Sherlock had just looked down at the body and assumed he was dead. I managed to stop the bleeding and got him to hospital.

The mystery still remained though. Who had tried to kill him? And - and this is what interested Sherlock more - where was the weapon? It was impossible. There was literally no way anyone could have got in or out of the shower. And there was no way the guard could have stabbed himself because the weapon would still have been in there.

An impossible crime. Perfect for Sherlock.

Except.

He couldn't work it out!

Sherlock Holmes was bamboozled!

I had hoped this would annoy him more than it did. The reality is that he just shrugged it off and went back to organising my stag do. And I really do mean organising...

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