Explain how Franklin Blake is important to the crime

nterestingly, Franklin Blake's character is not completely elucidated in The Moonstone and is, in fact, called into question on several occasions. Franklin serves as the presence behind The Moonstone, and it is he who has asked all of the narrators for their contributions and who organizes them as editor. Yet his own character remains unspecific. Often when narrators speak of Franklin, their opinions reveal more about themselves than about him. Franklin's own narrative is conspicuously bare of personal history or opinion...Franklin's main conflict is in internal one similar to Rachel's. He must reconcile the objective fact of the evidence, which points to him as the thief, with his subjective opinion and memory that he did not steal the diamond. As Rachel's tragic, outcast counterpart is Rosanna, Franklin finds his tragic counterpart in Ezra Jennings.

Franklin was appointed to deliver the diamond to Rachel for her 18th birthday. He does deliver the stone, but it disappears after Rachel leaves it in her sitting room overnite (she'd worn it to a dinner party). Rosanna, who commits suicide leave behind a note that Franklin took the stone, Rachel also says she took it with her owns eyes, but Franklin doesn't remember a thing. Thus, he becomes a suspect.