“Okay, so now you’re trying to scare me to explain that we’ve done something
bad… You must stop kidding now! I’m trying to sleep and…” Lara chattered when
Charlie broke in.
“This is no joke. Denis is DEAD!”
“No Way! He Can’t Die… Please say you’re joking. Please!”
“This is true… the police is on its way… reach Denis’s place
as soon as possible!”
“What? You called the Police? Were you mad? We’ll have to
tell them the cause of this…! If we do…” And the line was dropped.
“I can’t lose Charlie now… I just CAN’T!” Lara mooned. She
got dressed up in her conservative black jacket over her formal white shirt,
pulled her blue jeans and brown shoes
and stomped out of her house to Denis’s place. On her way, her thoughts
kept on mesmerizing her mind. She couldn’t think of anything else except the
night when she had called John to her place and they drove to a creepy lake
nearby, along with Denis and Charlie. They drank some beer and started sharing
their very personal secrets. They hadn’t the foggiest idea that these talks
would lead to deaths. They shared with each other their crushes, and from
boring till the most beautiful people of University of South where all of these
freshmen studied. Then Denis went totally crazy. Unconsciously he joked about
John’s mother who was seen by a class mate loitering around with a drunken man.
Everyone started laughing hysterically. The rage inside John was simmering like
a cauldron full of gunk. Now it was time to payback. Splashes of water woke
Lara and she was in her present state of mind as Charlie embraced her in his
arms in order to make her feel better from the sensations they both were trying
to overlook. Charlie’s blue eyes were full of tears. He wore a blue polo shirt
and blue jeans with giant brown shoes which were covered with mud. They
couldn’t imagine what was happening. They didn’t want to believe all this but
they couldn’t even close their eyes. They both had to accept that Denis was
dead and John was missing. The police carried on their inspection. “It is
unbelievable… The murderer has wiped off all his or her fingerprints… We don’t
have any clues”. The Officer, known as Adam, said remarking bluntly in a state
of curiosity. “So Miss. Lara Croft and Charlie Bristly… These are your names I
suppose?” Another officer, who was called as Officer Isaac, questioned eagerly.
“Right Sir… I hope we don’t have to do anything with this
matter, right?” Charlie frowned.
“You have a lot to do, I believe! Tell me something… Did this
friend of yours, Denis I mean, have any personal enmity with someone? Do you
think you know the murderer?” Officer Isaac asked anxiously.
“Aye… I
don’t really think so, Sir? We know Denis since last three years … We’ve
studied together in the U of S and honestly speaking, Denis was the most
euphoric person in our university… He cannot have any enemy and in fact…” Lara
got interrupted by Charlie.
“No one ever
liked him except girls… He was a mess… He always thrilled people to bits but,
however he used to hurt everyone a lot through his dirty jests… That is why
even John…” and suddenly Charlie stopped chattering. As if he was going to say something
he did not want to.
“Won’t you
try and complete what you were saying or is that all you can tell us?” Officer
Isaac grimaced at Charlie and Lara.
“Aye… Yes
Sir…” Charlie hesitated.
“Are you
sure?” Officer Isaac puckered his brow abruptly.
“Yes … Sir!”
Charlie vacillated.
“Okay… Both
of you go home now and rest… we may call you at the police station tomorrow for
more inspection… Get going!” Officer Isaac gave an over-whelming glance, then,
Lara and Charlie recognized their way.
Lara was
stunned by Charlie’s reaction. All what he said about Denis was not just him.
Denis was the world’s most honest and hysterical person. He never intentionally
hurt anyone’s feelings. It was just not Charlie. He was behaving way too
different, from the Charlie, Lara had known since last three years. This was so
implausible. Charlie dropped Lara at her place. He kissed her hand showing a
gesture of sympathy and went on his way home. He seemed to be shocked by
something. Though, Denis’s death was just more than shocking, but, there was
something more than that, which seemed to be bothering Charlie.
It was a dank morning, overcast and
chilly. The stiff breeze could hypnotize any person in distress and make
capable of feeling the stifling sensation of nature. It was lovely. Lara could
feel her pain go away but a question mentored her strenuously to the fact that
something was peculiar around her. Her future was going to be difficult living
in. Then she received a message on her cellphone.
“Hey! Are
you there Lara? It’s Officer Isaac here… I want to ask you something. Come and
meet me at the police station at 12.pm... Regards, Isaac.”
She walked inside
her room from her balcony, searched for some fine clothes to wear and got ready
in no time. She drank some coffee and was on her way to meet Officer Isaac. She
reached the police station and walked inside Officer Isaac’s office. He greeted
her in a considerate manner and asked her if she wanted to drink something like
tea, coffee, some kind of soft drink, etc. but Lara denied saying that she was
full and just wanted to know why the officer wanted to meet her. She felt
better due to the officer’s courteous behavior.
“Your life is being threatened. You have to tell me… who is
this guy John?” this was all that the officer first said.
“He was one of us… our classmate… and… umm… he went missing
last week… I don’t know anything else…” Lara sighed.
“There’s
something you’re not telling me… Miss Lara Croft, now listen to me carefully…”
Officer Isaac’s eyes gleamed as he talked with great determination. “Last night
I examined Denis’s whole house. I looked for every kind of clue and I was
astounded that the murderer had neatly cleaned every single clue from the
house. It seems that he was given a lot of time to complete his work but, you
know, no one is perfect. It is the human nature that every crime must be
caught. Thus, I found this green sticky note under the side table of Denis’s
room. See for yourself then you might understand what I’m trying to explain to
you…”
He handed
over the green sticky note to Lara. There were five names written on it, John
Hale, Denis Martin, Lara Croft, and Jean Graham and at the end Charlie Briskly.
John and Denis’s names had been crossed out and Lara’s and Jean’s name was tick
marked.
“John and
Denis were my best friends…” the words ripped from her in a painful moan. “I
told Denis not to do that but he and Charlie wouldn’t stop. I tried to explain
John that it was all just a joke and we had never tried talking to Jean but he
was so raged that he could explode any minute. I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Please
come back Denis… Come back John… Please…” cried Lara.
“I
understand this is hard for you… but as you can see, that butcher might come
for you too… I want you to be safe. You just need to tell me everything very
clear. Co-operate with me.” The Officer
alleviated Lara.
After long discussions with Officer
Isaac, Lara was quite calmed now. She felt way too exhausted after all the
misery. She still had some unknown questions in her mind. She was most
terrified from the sticky note she saw. Her name was tick-marked but, why? Was
she the next victim? What about Jean? Did she get into all this just because
she had some relation with John? But she was just John’s girlfriend and knew
nothing about all this. So, why did she get involved? She decided to give Jean
a surprise visit, as she was told by Officer Isaac. Lara reached Jean’s place
in no time as it was just round the corner of Main Boulevard Street. She kept
on knocking the door but no one answered from inside. Lara felt weird. She
pushed the door slightly and it flung open. Now this was weirder. Lara searched
the house and it was empty. No one was in there. The house looked really scary.
As she walked, she accidently stepped on something. It was a HAND, which was
followed by a body. It was Jean, she lay dead on the floor with a spear in her
chest like the one that was found tearing Denis’s chest, but besides blood, the
butcher had left a rose and a note with Jean’s body. Lara was horrified by this
scene. She felt numbness all over her body as she saw blood flowing. She had
been cruelly killed before Lara could reach there. How did this murderer even
know that Lara was going to meet Jean? This was mindboggling. The first thing
Lara thought of doing was to call and inform Officer Isaac that Jean was
murdered too. But, he wasn’t picking up his phone. He was probably busy
somewhere. She took the note and read it. It said,
“I tried to
explain you my love for you, but you won’t ever listen. I had to do this. If
you don’t belong to me then no one will have you. May your soul Rest In Peace beautiful.”
It was
getting miserable. Suddenly, Lara remembered her name on that sticky note. She
was alarmed. She ran out of the house as fast as she could to the police
station. There she saw Officer Isaac attending a phone call. She rushed in and hollered.
The Officer quickly got up and held her in his arms. Perspiration ran down her
forehead. He made her sit in his chair and sat beside her squeezing her hands
in order to calm her down. He persistently asked her what had happened at
Jean’s place and if she had met her or not but Lara was in great shock and not
in a condition to speak or explain anything. Officer Isaac took his jacket,
wrapped it around Lara, made her sit in his jeep and drove to Jean’s place. The
Officer himself was traumatized with that scene. He called Officer Adam and put
him in-charge of the inspection for Jean’s murder and then he drove Lara to her
house. She was scared, scared to be left alone. Officer Isaac was making coffee
for her when he saw Lara’s phone charging. He didn’t want to but he checked her
phone and found six messages of Charlie. In the first message he was like,”
Where are you?” the second, “Reply me quick!” in the third, “Why aren’t you
replying? Where have you been all day? I came to your place but no one was home
and the door was locked?” in the fourth, “You’re making me angry now!” in the
fifth one, “Jean’s dead. Yes… someone killed her too!” in the sixth one,
“What’s wrong with you? I’m coming to your place at 6pm. We’ll have coffee
together… okay?” and as Isaac read this last message the bell rang. Before Lara
reached the door Isaac caught hold of her and whispered in her ears,
“He’s here…
It’s Charlie… Beware… I’ll be here hiding somewhere… Just don’t let him know
that I’m here too… give him a cup of coffee and tell him that you made it
especially for him and...”
“But…”Lara
muttered.
“Just do as
I say… behave as if you didn’t read his messages before because you were
resting and watching movies all day and that you did not know about Jean’s
death… clear your mind… Don’t panic...”
Lara opened
the door and Charlie walked in.
“What in the
world took you so long to open that damn door?” Charlie exclaimed.
“Oh I was
making coffee for you… Sorry I didn’t have any credit to text you back… Come
in.” Lara chattered.
“It means
you don’t know about Jean’s death?”
“Aye…what?
Jean? She’s dead? How and when?”
“This afternoon!
I’ve been waiting to meet you… my work won’t be completed without your help…”
“Help? What
kind of help?”
“Denis asked
me the same thing! I swear he was the most difficult one… But I wonder, you’ll
look so beautiful even after dyeing… Wow!”
“Stop joking
Charlie… This is no time to joke… enough please…”
“Oh, poor
you! You still think that I’m joking? Haven’t you read that book ‘Dance with
Death’? You know, the girl had her cousin Jean Guy to save her from the butcher
of Bois… But you don’t have any do you? You are so dead!”
Then Charlie
suddenly caught hold of Lara and squeezed her hand tightly in order to make her
helpless. But Charlie didn’t know that Lara’s Jean guy was with her the whole
time. Officer Isaac jumped from behind the door in a heroic motion and put his
pistol on Charlie’s head. He broke a vase on his head and Charlie fainted. This
night was extra-ordinary. If Isaac hadn’t been there Lara would have died too.
Isaac called his team and got Charlie arrested in the case of four murders.
The late afternoon sun speckled the grass
with patches of warm sunlight. Officer Isaac had talked to Charlie and had
found out all the reasons for the forest fire that had raged inside him and
caused four subsequent deaths.
“He killed
John because he was Jean’s boyfriend. Charlie told me that he was deeply in
love with Jean and was ready to do anything for her. But, she did not want to
break John’s heart. Charlie forced her several times to get with him but she
kept on denying. Then on the night when you four went on that lake and Denis
casted creepy jokes on John, he became angry and drove off. Denis dropped you
home but Charlie himself went after John at his place. They argued about Jean
for quite a long time. Charlie insisted John to leave her but he wouldn’t
listen to him. His anger troubled him and he cut out his chest and drowned his
body in the same lake. At that time Denis had been following Charlie and he had
seen all this happen. They argued a lot. The next morning, Charlie murdered
Denis too so that he might not inform the police. Then he made that note so
that no one accuses him of these murders. He went to Jean’s place the next day.
She still didn’t listen and her fate decided death for her. Charlie thought that
you might figure out all this and he decided to kill you too. I understood his
intentions when I first talked to him. I just needed proof.” Isaac explained
the situation.
“So he had
been cheating on me all this time… he destroyed all of us.” Lara mooned.
“Every crime
is perfect until the criminal is caught. These are your bubbling desires that
lead to such situations. Dangerous temptations of you teenagers, I suppose.
Want some coffee?”
“Thank you
so much! And yes I’d love to…”
Charlie drooled in jail. He always used
to tell to go wild but his wildness lead to him getting caught in the most
tragic situation.
