CHAPTER 15
It felt like I was being dragged into a sinkhole of grief and depression and I would never be able to climb out of it. Sarah died right in front of my eyes and I could do nothing.
“Why Sarah!!!! Why!!! You could have just shot me instead. It would have been over. Who are you!!! and why kill her!!!!” I started yelling out of the window like madmen. All my neighbours gathered there in an instant. Jack stayed in the same neighbourhood too. He came running.
“What the hell happened Richie….?? Why are you yelling??”
“It’s uhmm….. It’s Sa…. It’s Sarah…..”
“Wait for a second dude, I’ll come there.”
He came to my house. He was horrified at the sight of Sarah, lying cold in her own blood, with a bullet in her head.
“Jesus!!! What happened here!! Who shot Sarah and why even? Richie are you okay?”
“No Jack, I am certainly not. You wanna know why she was shot!! I’ll tell you why!”
I Narrated all the events until that point to him. All about how Sarah was a traitor and how she was the mastermind behind all the mishaps.
“Or at least I thought so before she was shot dead. I loved her so much man…..”
I was still sobbing. The tears just didn’t stop.
“I don’t know what to say man…. I am completely shocked by all this. I really can’t believe Sarah could do something like that. I am stunned. But I can say, one thing brother, life has to go on. Now you have one more reason to find that bastard who is pulling strings to all these. You just can’t leave this now.”
“Yeah man…. I am fucking gonna find that bastard now, no matter the cost. He is going to pay dearly for all this.”
“For now let’s just call 911. We’ve got to report this. After that, we can head down to my house, man. I don’t want you to be alone tonight. I am sure Lyla will be happy to have you over too. It’s gonna be alright man. I am there for you bro. Always.”
“Thanks a lot Jack!. I don’t know what I would do without you man.”
“Hey dude, don’t you dare mention this. This is what friends are for.”
I rested the night at Jack’s place. Completely replenished for anything beyond that point. I was not going to let the culprit get further away from me. He has to pay for everything.
I called Jessica first thing in the morning. I told her everything that happened at night.
I told her about Sarah.
“I am sorry Richie it turned out like this, I really didn’t expect this. Are you alright? I am sure that must have hit you very hard.”
“Yeah it sure did. But now I am alright. I gotta find the actual culprits behind this and make sure they are punished duly and dearly. They are going to regret ever involving me and Sarah into this. Sarah had to do this for her brother. I am not sure what she meant by that, but I am gonna find out, and by any chance if she meant he is in danger I’ll save him.”
“All the best Richie! If you need anything, always remember, I am just a call away, you know that.”
“Yeah Jessica. Thanks a lot. Bye!”
I went to the office with a different vibe around me. I was angry. The only thought in my mind right now was revenge. I met Robert and told him everything that happened at my apartment yesterday.
“In the wake of all these events Robert, I would like to request just one thing from you.
As the investigation officer, please give me just a few days. I’ll grab the actual culprit with my own two hands and get him before you. And if I can’t, then you do have my confession, don’t you? You can turn me in.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can completely understand. I am very sorry for your loss. I trust you now man. Just don’t let the culprits escape. They have to be brought to justice no matter what.”
“Aye Sir. I won’t let them escape. They have to pay for everything!”
All said and done, I still didn’t know where should I begin. Maybe I should start with the murder of Mr. X. All the lines when extrapolated lead to that one incident. I think that has to be the point where I must start.
I went through all the information we had from Steve Spindler's murder. It was disheartening to see that my watch was still there as evidence. That just reminded me of all the harsh things I went through and I wanted to forget.
But there was no easy way. I had to do this. But I could not find any relevant information from this investigation as everything just pointed towards me up top.
Just then, I remembered that Steve Spindler was a fugitive from Robert’s previous case. I thought maybe I could find out something from reports of that case. I had some contacts in NYPD and also since I had a green light from Robert I could freely use his name to get some work done, as I was the forensic expert on this case.
I used this to my benefit and got the NYPD to transfer those case reports to me.
Within 15 minutes I received the FAX of all the case details. This was it, it could be the information I needed.
I started reading the reports. It was a murder committed over 3 months ago. Steve was the suspect in that case and he went missing since the day after the murder. I scanned through the document and did not find it much useful. Which was until I saw a shocking piece of information. I was fuming with rage. How could Robert not tell me such an important piece of information?
I stormed into Robert’s cabin swinging the doors behind me.
“You bastard!!! You knew!!!”
Robert turned calmly towards me.
“So you found out. Well I did expect you would, but not so soon. But anyway, as it has come to this now, Yes as a matter of fact I did.”
I was staring down at Robert. How could that fucker hide this from me?



CHAPTER 16

“Sarah is dead! And it’s all your fault!! How could you do this man? ”
“Don’t blame me for her death, Richie. I hid a very small bit of information which you wouldn’t have known anyway.”
“Small bit!!! Small bit you say!! How could you hide the fact, that Steve Spindler used a similar method to kill someone and a person is already in prison because of him?
How could you hide that the convict in your previous case had dreams and he ended up killing someone unknowingly?
How could you hide it from me that it took a long chase for you to find out that Steve might have been the actual person behind those mysterious events?
How could you hide this from me, when it was the same thing that happened to me?”
I was furious. He hid all this important information from me. Had he told me this yesterday, I could have been more cautious. Sarah might have been saved if I had an idea of this. I wanted to know why that bastard did this.
“Listen Richie, you are not in prison right now because I know what has happened to you and I had witnessed this before. But there’s a reason I didn’t tell you this. I suspected foul play behind the murder of Steve Spindler.
I doubted that Steve was murdered by an old ally of his. If it was so, I didn’t want to mess up the chance of finding a new lead by giving you a heads up. I wanted you to be as natural as you can be and I trusted you that you would catch the culprit. We could gain much more insight that way.
I didn't expect it would turn out like this. Either way now it’s clear that you can't trust anyone"
"What about you then? Can I trust you Robert? How do I know that you aren't the actual culprit?" I asked him raising an eyebrow. I was really pissed.
"Oh you don't. But still, I am willing to take the chance. Are you?"
I don’t know why, but Robert started making sense to me. May be it was necessary to hide this fact from me. I might have been too cautious and I may have messed up. But still, it somehow didn’t feel right.
“Anyway, since this is directly linked to your previous case, I want all the information you have. I want to get to the root of the matter. Not just for me, but also for the person who is convicted in the New York murder and is in prison even as we speak, waiting for someone to save him from his misery.”
I started going through the case report again, to see if I missed any other details but that was all. There were no further links to this case. But I wanted to check something. Such a pattern of murder is quite unimaginable. There is no way anyone could suspect you. I wanted to check if this type of murder has been reported elsewhere, because if there was any report then it might be some serious danger.
I had my connections in some of the departments and managed to pull the records.
I was baffled by the number of cases. There were a lot of such incidences and they were all done in the same pattern. All the convicts were in prison, serving time for a murder they weren’t even aware of committing. Only I was spared from prison-time at least for now, because Robert knew my position. Now the only way to save myself, and all those people who are wrongly convicted is to grab the real culprit and get his confession.
I started digging a little deeper into all the cases, to see if I could get some names. Someone I could follow; like Robert followed Steve Spindler. I found just one such name. The suspect had escaped to New York and they weren’t able to track him later. The name I saw completely startled me. The name, was Mark Jacobs. The last name, was the same as Sarah Jacobs!!
I tried to find the description by the officer in charge to try and find that person. What I found though completely blew my mind. The description perfectly fitted that of Steve Spindler!! What was going on here?
So does this mean Steve Spindler was just an alias? Was Mr. X actually Sarah’s brother all this time? Does this mean it is Sarah’s brother who is dead?
But she said she did it for her brother; and she would do anything to live with him.
What the heck was going on here!!!!