CHAPTER 4:DEC 10 THE DEAD LINE

Recap

• Alex and Abbu meet Charlie and explain everything about the investigation.

• Charlie starts his investigation and takes Alex's help for the investigation.

• Alex gets text messages from an unknown number which the police couldn't trace out.

• The dead body's postmortem report declared that it wasn't the dead body of Viraj but it was the corpse of a person who died in an accident.

• Abbu, Dine, Vaibhav, and Alex were again threatened by the text messages from the unknown number.

Chapter 4

DEC 10 THE DEADLINE

Charlie was confused and had no idea about the killer's intention.

He gathered all the clues i.e the emblems, the notes, message on the corpse and the text messages.

Charlie and Alex sit together in his cabin and start making certain assumptions to find out the killer's intention and try to trace out the meanings of the clues found.

Charlie asked Alex about the professor's last research so that he could get any information regarding the killer. Alex replied that he had no idea about the research because he had been in California during the demise of the professor but he advised that there might a chance of finding any research papers in professors room. Charlie and Alex make their way to the professor's place.

At professor's place.....

  Alex starts searching for research documents which could match the clues,  whereas Charlie examined the research papers and professor's wardrobe.

Finally, Alex finds a folder named "DEC 10" which had only one document which said, "ONLY WHEN THE SUN RISES YOU CAN HEAR THE MUSIC". 

Professor's laptop also had a screen recorder installed in it. Charlie asked him to open the last recorded video. The killer didn't know that there was a screen recorder installed in it and in the last recorded video, everything was crystal clear about how the killer transferred all the files from the folder and deleted the originals.

Charlie and Alex get back to the office with the laptop and Charlie call off for an immediate conference meeting with the special officers appointed for the case.

In the meeting...

Charlie explains everyone about the case and he also exhibits all the gathered clues and questions them whether they have any idea to take the case investigation to further level. There was massive silence for a while and everyone were waiting for someone to start.

John the youngest officer in the room made his statement this way "Sir, the killer is trying to divert us with the emblems and notes. And the text document was created 10 minutes before the professor's assassination that means the file might be saved by the professor to let us know something".

Charlie was impressed and the meeting ended thanking everyone for their cooperation.

John, Charlie, and Alex sit in the cabin and start decoding the quote.

They try making different assumptions but every assumption fails at some instant of time.

After 2 hours of works John says this"sun rises in the east and you can hear the music"  may be professor wants us to search for something at his place and he also says this to Alex "sir, professor knew that you would definitely involve in this investigation, so this clue was left only for you and its only you who can decode it".

Alex was confused and as John said they might get any clue at professor's place they again go to professor's place and start searching for clues. Charlie says "since it was mentioned that sun rises in the east so there might be a chance that professor might have hidden a clue at the east of the house". In the east, there was a small pond and they started digging it with great excitement which resulted in nothing.

This time John took them to professor's room and in the east, there was a window and a flowerpot. Alex broke the pot and there's solar speaker buried in it. Alex says "this is a solar speaker and gets charged when exposed to sunlight”. But Charlie was confused seeing the device because what would he play with that speaker without any audio. John starts decoding the quote again.

SUN:-Solar

EAST:-In the east of the room

MUSIC:-speaker

Hear:-???

John couldn't decode the word "HEAR”. Alex rushes to the living room where the professor keeps his hearing machine and he also interprets that the professor had little hearing aid. When they dismantled the machine they found a memory chip in it. Alex hands over the chip to Charlie and they play audio inserting the chip in the speaker.

Audio.......

It was professor's voice and his voice sounded worried "Alex I know that you will definitely find this clip, Alex, I had been working on a robot and I was seeking Dr.Manor's help in this project. In this process i got to know that Dr.Manor had been working on some drug which is capable of making a person 10 times stronger and the person can survive for a long time even if he gets injured and there's a plan that he would be selling the drug to our neighboring country for higher fares and gain huge profits. The main problem is that the country is planning to inject this drug to military and start a war and I also came to know that, they will initially test this drug on 5000 teenagers of our country among which 50% are women on DEC 10. Alex, I recorded everything on tape and in this process, I was caught and was targeted by them. I tried escaping but at that moment but they caught Viraj and I am worried about Viraj. Please save Viraj and bring this to the notice of the government".

Alex remembers they do this business behind the mask of a toy company and their logo is a power button.

Charlie asked Alex about Dr.Manor and what kind of person he was? Alex replied that Manor was a chemical scientist and he was one of the best scientists and was a dignified person too but he never expected that Dr. Manor would do this.

Dec 9th evening.....

The investigation came to some conclusion. The police could finally find the reason for the professor's death. At the same time, everyone was worried about the deadline. Alex was left to his house sorrowfully. At 8:15 pm Alex calls Charlie and says that his wife is the CEO of the toy company which professor mentioned in the audio. Alex was divorced with his wife 2 years after marriage due to a few serious conflicts. He also mentioned that She was a good hacker too and he thinks that she might be listening to the call conversation in her office. All the threatening text messages we received till date are all sent by her. Her name was Sameera.

After the call ended Abbu and Dine come to Charlie and say that Sai lied them that he used to live with his parents but actually he used to stay with his mother and when we got the messages why didn't Sai receive any message?

Charlie made all the police alert and the whole squad rushed to Sai's place and the factory where they arrest Sameera and Sai and all the package which was ready to be dispatched on DEC 10 was seized and the rest of the staff was also taken into custody.

This way the case was closed and its another victory in Charlie's career.

                                              -Thank you your's

Vinay Bollikonda        

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                      ---THE END---

I HERE BY THANK ALL THE READERS FOR SHOWING INTEREST TOWARDS MY FIRST FICTION.THE STORY IS NEITHER A COPIED VERSION OF ANY BOOK NOR A FILM.IT WAS WRITTEN COMPLETELY BASED ON AUTHORS IMAGINATION.