CHAPTER 17
This was ridiculous. How can this be right?
If that is true, then did Sarah lie to me? Even just before she died? What is the meaning of this? This had to be wrong. It was just a last name, it could be a coincidence.
The more I thought about it the more betrayed I felt. Sarah had a different motive behind all this and she didn’t even tell me the truth.
There was one way to find out the truth. It’s true that me and Sarah had been dating just for a few months, but we were pretty close. At least I felt we were until yesterday.
But nevertheless she has stayed at my place far too many times and I do have some of her belongings.
I immediately went back to my apartment and got one of her combs and a toothbrush of hers. I got her DNA samples from those. I tried to compare them with the post-mortem reports of Steve Spindler.
It was a match!! They definitely were siblings!
I was finding this fact very difficult to take in. Not only the fact that, the real name of Steve Spindler was Mark Jacobs but also that he was Sarah’s brother who she was apparently trying to protect. What exactly was she protecting him from? And why is he dead while she yelled at me that she would do anything to keep him alive? All of this information was like a huge maze for me, the exit to which I was not able to find.
However small this bit of information looked like, it was a very important piece of information. This connected us to one more of these ridiculously insane murders and this also definitely gave us a new possibility that other might have been done by Mark too under various pretences and aliases. As the investigating officer of this case, Robert had to be told about this new development. So I decided I’d go to his cabin and tell him this.
But something very strange happened just then. As soon as I rose from my chair and moved a few steps ahead; the ceiling fan on top came crashing down. The glass on top of my table was smashed to pieces. You could hear a wave of gasps; echoing throughout the office as everyone was startled by that crashing noise. I was feeling very lucky. Had it fallen a few seconds earlier, I might have been hurt badly.
“Hey Richie…. You alright?”
“Yeah dude, I am just fine. I was completely startled by this. I was lucky that I had moved out of way while I had time.”
“But that’s strange…. We had an electrician check all the electronics just this morning. How did he miss this? Or maybe he was careless”
“Yeah maybe….”
But something felt off when Jack said this. It felt like I was missing something.
But I shook of the incident and walked towards Robert’s cabin. I was about to enter Robert’s cabin when the phone at a nearby desk started to ring, but no one was around to attend to it; so I decided to take the call.
On the other side of the phone was an electronic voice.
“Feeling lucky Richie? Seems you are happy to escape by a hair. Well, this won’t be the case next time.”
I was baffled. It was not an accident. That electrician must have purposely left the screws loose enough for the fan to fall. This means the person on the other end had to be the real culprit.
“What are you? What do you want from me?”
“I did expect from you that you would figure out Steve’s real identity. But now keep this to yourself. If Robert comes to know about this, then remember I am always watching you!”
“You bastard! I remember those words. I won’t fall for it again. I am going to tell Robert this. What could you even possibly do?”
Just then I heard everyone shouting. I went around to look what was going on.
It was Jack! He was electrocuted by touching the door knob of Robert’s cabin and he was lying there; unconscious.
I could then hear a voice from the phone and I immediately placed it on my ear.
The person on the other end said in a very cold tone. Just listening to what he said, sent chills down my spine.
“I guess now you know what I could possibly do!!”

CHAPTER 18

I was completely shocked!! How does this person know each of my moves? From where is he keeping an eye on me? I was completely frustrated now. I was tormented enough for this week. I didn’t want to be tortured anymore.
“Who are you? Why are you doing all this? I am completely worn down both physically and mentally right now. I don’t even want to ask you how and why you did this to Jack now. I just want the answers to why has this been happening to me since 2 weeks.”
I was very desperate now. I had tried every way possible to reach to the bottom of the matter, but seems I could never get past even the starting point. It felt like my life was going on in a loop. I really wanted to get out of this may by hook or by crook.
“I see. You are so desperate now? I like it.” The person on the other end sent out a loud laugh which was enough to scare me, because of that electronic voice.
“I’ll give you one last clue. If you solve that you’ll know who I am. I have started liking this game.”
I was furious now!! He has made it into a game, where people have died, lives of many people are ruined and he is treating this as a game. That bastard! I had to find him now and give him a piece of my mind. He continued with his clue…
“I am dead but I am not, You’ve seen me but you seldom thought,
I am far but I am near, So close that I can smell that fear”
He was right, as soon as he started with the clue my expressions changed from angry to curious to kind of scared… He was seeing them from somewhere…And it was a very uneasy feeling….
“Hahaha… I like that fear. Let’s see if you can solve this clue and reach me.
I give you an hour to solve this, and if you don’t, then after an hour you will be dead.
Run fast, solve the clue or you are dead….
The clock is ticking Richie…tik tok..tik tok… Hahaha”
He hung the phone, while I was dead scared now. My hands were shivering and I was running out of breath.
I have seen what he can do and he might as well actually kill me in an hour. I had to be quick to solve this.
The first line of his clue was I am dead but I am not…
And who is this person whom I’ve seen but not thought about.
What could that possibly mean.
Is this again some kind of diversion tactics and he is actually thinking of something else? But it didn’t seem like one…
I thought a lot and only one thing came to my mind. In this case there are two people who are dead, Mark and Sarah Jacobs. I couldn’t help but think about that. This had to bear a connection with them, or was he trying to throw me into a maze again?
I quickly made some phone calls, and tried to gather as much information about the Jacobs’ family as I can.
I tried digging deep into their information, public or private. There had to be something hidden there. I went back to their childhood information as well.
While I was reading their childhood information, there was something that caught my eye. It completely blew my mind!!!
“This is it!! I am sure this is it!! That fucker is going to pay for this!!”
I was all set and I definitely knew that the call was on its way, because that bastard was watching me all this time and he knew that I know who he is now.
I was sitting near the landline, waiting for it to ring, so that I could take him down.
The phone started ringing and I picked it up on the first ring itself.
“You bastard! How can you do this to your own family! I know who you are!! Mr. X !!!!”
“Oh I love it when you are angry. You look funnier that way...
Well you know now that I am Mark’s twin brother Joe. But I am sure you are curious as to why I did this. Come and meet me alone, and I’ll tell you everything.”
“And why do you think I will come alone? Now that I know who you are, I am taking you down, fucker!! You will pay for everything!”
“Oh you will come alone and you know why? Because Jessica is with me…. Hahaha…”
He gave me the address and hung the phone.
“Ahhh…” I let furious roar. That man is always a step ahead of me. It feels like I am always playing into his hands.
But now I had no options. I had to go and meet him because he held Jessica captive
Or so I thought….