by Aman Gupta
“What did the paper say?” asked Eric.
“The paper had instructions but mostly incomprehensible since the ink got washed away. I searched it for prints and found three full sets of prints,” explained Vik.
“Whose prints are they?” asked Eric.
“Don’t know. That’s what they are going to get us,” said Vik. “But I did find something else.”
“What?” asked Eric.
“One of the prints matched with this partial print,” said Vik, as he showed a specimen sheet.
“Whose prints are on that sheet?” asked Eric.
“These partial prints were found on a bullet. A bullet they believe was loaded by a Jenna Mcbride,” said Vik.
“No, it can’t be!” said Eric.
“I got her, Eric. Soon, I’ll have a face to go with that name. I found her,” said Vik, as Eric hugged him.
Eric and Vik entered a corner room hidden under the stairs.
“What’s all this?” asked Eric, looking at volumes of pictures, newspaper articles and reports linked together by colorful threads.
“What I have been working on for so long,” said Vik.
“All this to find Jenna?” asked Eric.
“Not just her. Even Anthony Arnold. It’s a puzzle, Eric. And somehow Jenna is the corner-piece that will help me complete it,” said Vik.
◆◆◆
“Hi, is that seat taken?” asked Jay.
“No,” said Katie.
“Thank you,” said Jay.
He noticed that the girl was sitting alone in the open seating outside the restaurant and looking around, as if waiting for someone.
“Where are your parents?” asked Jay.
“Getting me ice-cream,” said Katie.
“Ice-cream? How old are you?” asked Jay.
“6, how old are you?” asked Katie.
“24..25,” said Jay.
“See, I deserve an ice-cream out of the two of us,” said Katie.
“Must be a very big ice-cream, since both mom and dad have gone to get it,” joked Jay.
“You’re funny. I like funny,” said Katie.
“What’s your name?” asked Jay.
“Katie,” said Katie.
“Hello Katie, my name is Jay,” said Jay, as he put forward his hand to shake the girl’s hand. She did the same.
A few minutes in, Jay was looking at his watch, rolling up his blue suit’s left sleeve multiple times.
“I know what you are doing!” said Katie.
“What am I doing?” asked Jay.
“You’re getting late, but you’re waiting for my mom to get me, before you can leave,” said Katie.
“Your dad will do just fine, too,” said Jay, with a smile.
“Then you might have to wait a while,” said Katie.
“Why?” asked Jay.
“My dad left my mom before I was born. He said he didn’t like me,” said Katie.
“Who told you that? Your mom?” asked Jay.
“No, but I overheard her when she was explaining it to her friend,” said Katie.
“Oh! Don’t worry, we all have losers in our lives. In your case, he left before you were even born,” said Jay. That brought a smile on Katie’s face.
“Katie, Katie. Is this man bothering you?” asked Sarah, her mom, as she approached the table from the left.
“No, just keeping me company till you got my ice-cream,” said Katie.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I am just over-protective about her,” said Sarah, explaining to Jay.
“Yet, you left her alone for like 10 minutes,” said Jay, as he got up and started to leave.
“Hey! How dare you?” said Sarah, vehemently.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” said Jay.
“Of course, not. You just saw a blonde woman, and you thought here comes another idiot,” said Sarah, furiously.
“Ma’am, you’re taking this the wrong way. I’d love to chat, but I’m kind of late on my first day on the job,” said Jay.
“Where do you work?” asked Sarah. “Some back office at a stupid mall?”
“Starting out at Verati actually,” said Jay.
“Well, don’t bother. My father is the CEO and you just got fired,” declared Sarah.
“Okay, why don’t you call him then?” insisted Jay.
“What do you mean?” asked Sarah.
“I don’t think you know the CEO of any company, let alone Verati, and you’re just wasting my time out of unnecessary spite. If that’s not the case, go ahead and call him. Let him tell me that I’m fired,” said Jay.
“You think I’m lying?” asked Sarah.
“Well, you still haven’t called, so yeah!” said Jay.
“Am I right?” said Jay, looking at Katie.
Katie laughed, and said, “Go ahead, mom! Call grandpa!”
Sarah got furious and turned around to leave.
“Nice meeting you, Katie,” said Jay. “And you, Ms. Sarah Daulton.”
Sarah stopped and turned around. But Jay had left by then.
Sarah woke up at 9 AM and saw Jay sleeping, even though he used to get up by 7 AM.
She opened the curtains, which caused Jay to open his eyes, when the sunlight hit his face.
“I thought you’d be gone by now,” said Sarah.
“Relax, it’s not like they can fire me. I’m dating the daughter of the CEO,” joked Jay.
“Very funny,” said Sarah.
“You know I met your dad again yesterday,” said Jay.
“What do you mean?” stuttered Sarah.
“Relax, it was just an employee – employer meeting. He doesn’t know anything about us,” said Jay.
“Are you sure?” asked Sarah.
“What’s bothering you more – that’s he going to find out that you’re dating his employee or you’re dating an Asian?” questioned Jay.
“No, it’s not like that. I just don’t want you to get in trouble. If he finds out about us, he’ll pay attention to you. Believe me you don’t want that,” said Sarah.
“I don’t know. He seemed nice,” said Jay.
“He has already turned you, hasn’t he?” teased Sarah.
“No, he was just mentioning that I’m the only person of Indian origin who has been selected in his core project team,” said Jay.
“Is that the reason why you’re still in bed and not at work? You don’t want to run into him so soon again. He’s intimidating, isn’t he?” said Sarah.
“No, I was just having such a great dream,” said Jay.
“About what?” asked Sarah.
“Couple of months ago, when I met you for the first time,” said Jay.
“You mean when you called me an idiot blonde?” said Sarah.
“I remember nothing of the sort,” said Jay, as he dragged Sarah onto the bed.
“I need to go. Katie needs to go to school,” said Sarah.
“Right. Right. Well, you go and get her ready. And I’ll make breakfast and her lunch,” said Jay.
“You know what she likes, right?” asked Sarah.
“Me more than you? Yeah, I know,” chuckled Jay.
Sarah made a cute angry face, blinked couple of times and threw the pillow back at Jay’s head.
“She might like you more than me, but she has my eyes,” said Sarah.
“Yeah, because blue eyes are so rare in this part of the world,” said Jay.
“Shut up, and go cook a meal, you amateur chef!” said Sarah.
“Well, at least you said chef,” said Jay and went towards the kitchen.
Sarah couldn’t help but smile.
She hadn’t felt something like this for so long.
◆◆◆
In the morning, Eric summoned the entire police station to announce the next plan of action.
“Okay, so now we know 2 things – First, that Elina and her husband, the theft at Nucleus and body found near the dumpster are all connected to Sera. They might have or already gotten rid of th
e body found at the shore, whose name is Jacob, according to an eyewitness. Secondly, the trail to catch Anthony Arnold’s killer has run cold. But the mayor expects results and so do the people in this town. So Anthony and Jacob are top priority,” said Eric.
“What about Elina?” asked Emma.
“I think she’s fake – nothing about her story checks out. So if she shows up, let’s take a shot at her,” said Kate.
Eric nodded.
“Excuse me, sheriff,” said Elina as she entered the precinct.
“Ms. Elina, we have been waiting for you,” said Eric.
“We need to talk,” said Elina.
“Go with Detective Kate to the interrogation room. I’ll join you soon,” said Eric.
When Elina left with Kate, Eric instructed Emma and Joey to investigate Anthony’s case and Jacob’s.
“We need a fresh pair of eyes,” said Eric. Kate wasn’t happy about being removed from Anthony’s case, when she overheard it.
Emma and Joey examined the case files along with Eric for an hour.
“Why can’t we track phone records to know where Anthony went or talked to?” asked Joey.
“Anthony used a secure line every time. There are no records of it,” said Eric.
“What about non-secure ones? I mean, can’t we find out who all made the calls on the night Anthony died and work our way from there?” asked Emma.
“What good would that do?” asked Eric.
“We have been assuming that the murderer was the one who wanted Anthony dead. What if that’s a wrong theory? What if they got someone else, like a gun for hire?” said Emma.
“Right. And then the killer would have to inform the murderer that he got the job done, and maybe the killer wasn’t using the secure line,” said Joey.
“It’s a long shot, but that’s all we have so far. Tell Vik to get you records of all phone calls that got logged by the system before Sera hit Nucleus,” said Eric.
Emma dropped by Vik’s room and found that he wasn’t there. She searched the entire precinct but couldn’t find him.
“What do you mean? He showed up early morning, I saw him,” said Eric.
“Well, he’s not here now,” said Emma.
A minute later, Vik showed up to Eric’s room.
“Where were you? I saw everywhere in your room but you weren’t there!” said Emma.
“Why, what happened?” said Vik, as Emma looked at him a little suspiciously.
“We need communication logs of the entire town the night Arnold died,” said Joey.
“That’s going to be tough. The main server doesn’t back up the files on a remote server until the morning, but by then they had hit Nucleus. So I’m not sure anything got backed up. But I can check,” said Vik.
“See if we caught a break,” said Eric.
Eric went to his lab cum tech room, and Emma followed him inside.
“Where were you?” asked Emma. “I checked everywhere.”
“Not everywhere,” said Vik.
“No, I checked everywhere.”
“I was in the male restroom. Did you check there?” asked Vik.
“Well, no. I mean, I didn’t,” said Emma.
Vik rolled his eyes while Emma seemed apologetic.
“So..” said Emma.
“Yeah I am checking the files. Give me a minute,” said Vik.
“Yeah, no, I know. I wasn’t about to say that,” said Emma.
“Then?” said Vik, coldly.
“Are you upset with me?” asked Emma.
“Of course, why would I be upset when I get interrogated for going to the bathroom?” exclaimed Vik.
“I wasn’t interrogating. I was.. I was..” said Emma, repeatedly before Vik interrupted.
“You just caught a break. The server backup lines weren’t affected, it managed to back up after all. I’ll get you a copy of the numbers,” said Vik.
“Thanks, you’re the best,” said Emma, smiling.
Vik nodded. As she left, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Emma took the list of numbers to Joey, and they began examining it.
“So, tell me, Ms. Elina, about who you really are and how your husband is related to the Sera crime family?” asked Eric.
“Okay, he’s not my husband. He’s my boyfriend. He used to work at the store, occasionally assist Sera and his men when they needed a wheelman. One day, a guy showed up and asked him to become his transporter,” said Elina.
“Transporter?” asked Kate.
“Yes. You know, get stuff for him and deliver it at his chosen address. Making drops, collecting stuff,” said Elina.
“What kind of stuff?” asked Kate.
“Anything. Usually it was just packaged. Vitaly didn’t even know what was in the packages most of the time,” said Elina.
“Didn’t he ever open them?” asked Eric.
“No, the guy had strict instructions. ‘No inspecting the package’,” said Elina.
“Did you know this person? Can you describe him for me?” asked Eric.
“I have never seen his face, only his side face one time when he showed up at our home. Vitaly just said he wasn’t from around here,” said Elina.
“What do you mean, not from around here?” asked Kate.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s all he said,” said Elina.
“When was the last drop he made?” asked Eric.
“Last weekend. On Sunday. He got 2 packages and he dropped them off,” said Elina.
“Where did he drop them off?” asked Kate.
“No idea. I didn’t see the packages,” said Elina.
“I thought this was all behind us, but then he disappeared. I think this has something to do with this man,” said Elina, as she began crying.
“You need to think and tell us a bit more about this mystery person. We don’t have much to go on,” said Eric.
“We will show you a list of pictures, see if you can identify anyone,” said Kate, as she got up and left the room to get their past criminal database file, local to the county.
Emma entered the room with the case file of Anthony and Jacob.
“Sir, Joey and I are going to talk to these people on the list, okay?” said Emma.
Elina noticed the picture of Jacob hanging out of the folder.
“It was him. It was him,” said Elina, pointing at the photograph of Jacob’s dead body.
“Are you sure?” asked Eric.
“Yes, I’m sure. And something about Jenna. He wanted one of the packages back, which had Jenna written on it,” said Elina.
“Jenna? He said the name, Jenna?” asked Eric.
“Yes,” said Elina.
Eric got up and left the room. Emma followed him out.
“Kate, you are back on Anthony’s case. You accompany Joey and Emma,” said Eric. “I’ll handle Vitaly’s case.” He left towards his room immediately.
“What got into him?” asked Kate.
“Don’t know. Elina identified this Jacob guy as a suspect. Said Jacob wanted something related to Jenna,” said Emma.
“Jenna? Who’s Jenna?” asked Kate.
“No idea,” said Emma.
Emma went towards Eric’s room and saw Vik talking to him.
She opened the door, and heard the words, “I’m going to TS – 19. I need to find Jenna.”
“Sorry, sir. I forgot something here,” said Emma, as Vik stormed out.
Emma pretended to grab a couple of papers, and saw Eric was worried.
“Sir, who’s Jenna?” asked Emma.
“No one,” said Eric.
“Well, she’s clearly someone. And even Vik knows who she is. He’s talking about going to TS – 19 for her. So she must be important,” said Emma.
“When it comes to Jenna, it clouds Vik’s judgment. He’s been after that name for more than three years now,” said Eric.
“Why? Who’s she?” asked Emma.
“There’s something you should know. Because I think you can
stop him from making a wrong decision,” said Eric.
“Sir, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong with Vik?” asked Emma.
“I’ve known him for almost four years now. He’s..” said Eric, before he heard a knock on the door. It was Joey.
“Sir, I just learned how Jacob and the missing husband are connected. There’s something you should know,” said Joey.
“What?” asked Eric.
“I didn’t tell you everything. The kid that told me about Jacob told me something else too,” said Joey.
“What did he tell you?” asked Eric.
“He said that Jacob had killed 2 people – a girl and an old man,” said Joey.
“Who are they?” asked Eric.
“The kid doesn’t know. Also he said something about Jay. That they are looking for him,” said Joey.
“Oh god!” exclaimed Eric.
“Sir, do you know who he is talking about?” asked Emma.
“Yes,” said Eric.
“Like I said, I have known Vik since four years. Back then, his name was Jay,” said Eric.
“And who’s Jenna? His wife? The one who died?” asked Emma.
Eric looked at Emma, and said, “No. The cops who investigated the murder of Sarah Daulton had got an anonymous tip that placed a woman named Jenna at the crime scene. Jenna was Sarah’s friend, and the primary suspect in Sarah Daulton’s and her daughter’s murder.”
“What is happening?” asked Joey.
“Wait, you mean Daulton Daulton – as in Victor Daulton?” asked Emma.
“Yes, Sarah Daulton was the daughter of Victor Daulton!” said Eric.
To Joey and Emma’s horror and consternation, they weren’t mistaken. Victor Daulton! That name was etched on the heart of every breathing soul on the planet.
“The Devil Incarnate or the Devil himself, depending on who you asked,” exclaimed Eric.
“So, Vik’s real name is Jay and he used to be son in law of THE Victor Daulton. Did I get that right?” asked Joey.
“Vik doesn’t get to know you two know about this, am I clear?” cautioned Eric.
“Why?” asked Emma.
“Some secrets are meant to be buried forever. Believe me, you don’t want to get in the middle of this. Hell, I don’t even know what’s going on half the time. There’s a bigger game that’s being played, that’s for sure,” said Eric.
“What do you mean, bigger game? Between who?” asked Joey.