DECODE

CHAPTER 10; Bottle of Water [Part 2]

ASHER

I was sitting inside the office of Inspector Marcus, thinking about what happened to Nurse Janet. I immediately went here in the precinct instead of going to school when I heard what happened to Nurse Janet.

She was found dead earlier today in her cell. I already saw her body, and she seemed to be poisoned. But I'm not allowed to take part in the investigation because this is not within the school premises anymore. I resolved myself in this room, waiting for some findings about this incident.

"What happened to her?" I muttered to myself as I reclined to the couch where I was sitting. My mind started to dread for answers in the questions I'm having. The door opened and Inspector Mar entered the room. He has this agitated and confused look upon him.

"I am sorry I can't allow you to look at the crime scene yourself and examine it yourself. You know already the circumstances. It is not within your school premises anymore. But I took some photographs of the crime scene. You can look at these photos and see if you find something of interest." he said and handed me some photographs. And indeed, they were photographs of the crime scene in different angles.

"I understand. Did you find anything that can shed light in this mystery? Anything that can explain what happened to Nurse Janet?" I asked as I look at every photos the inspector gave me.

"Yes. We found a plastic bottle near the body. We're running a test on it to see if it served to be the portal of whatever used to her. We're sure, and I believe you would agree to us, that she was poisoned. We'll run a test on that bottle to see what poison was used to her." he said.

"This bottle, it seems from outside the precinct. It seems to me, it was bought and brought to the precinct and gave it to her by someone. Did you check already if there's someone who visited the nurse yesterday?" I asked him. He thought for a little while and then answered.

"About that, I already asked for the yesterday's log. And it's here with me. Let's see if someone visited her." he said. I'm sure someone brought that water to her. The bottle of water says a lot. You will not see this kind of bottle of water in the precinct. Unless someone will buy it from the outside and bring it in here, to give to her, purposely.

I leaned closer to the inspector as he run his eyes on the logbook upon his hand. And after a while, he stopped and spoke again.

"Someone visited to her yesterday. And his name is...Kelvin Celsius?" he said. My eyes narrowed upon hearing the name. Kelvin Celsius? What a weird name. Or is it really a name of someone existing, or just a decoy of someone who used to exist but don't want anyone to know he's existing?

"You know someone with the same name?" Inspector Mar asked. He even showed me the name in the logbook. I shook my head.

"No. I don't know anyone who has the same name. And I wonder, if that's really a name of someone existing. Kelvin Celsius? It sounds like unit of measure of temperature for me. I can say, your people were fooled." I said. I saw the embarrassment in the face of the inspector in front of me. I think he felt humiliated about what happened to his people.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean that that way inspector. It's just that, our man here is so cunning and succeeded to get through your people. But I believe, the person who came here yesterday isn't someone named Kelvin Celsius. I am sure he has a very different, far more different name than Kelvin Celsius. And it's our job to know who he is." I told him. He nodded.

"What are you planning to do now?" the inspector asked. I looked at him and smirk.

"I want to talk to the constable in charge of this logbook. I'm sure, he don't know the real name of this guy, but he can give us what he looked like. We'll try to profile this guy according to what your constable will tell us." I said. He nodded and immediately called for his constables. He asked to present us the constable in charge of the logbook yesterday as well as the profiler of their team. And in just a couple of minutes, everyone needed were inside the office already.

"This is Officer John Leopardo. He's our profiler. And this one is Officer Lance Benedictos. He's the one in charge of the logbook yesterday. And you two, this student is Asher Monteverde. He's a student detective and aided me in some cases in their school. And he will also help us to solve this case that happened to our prisoner." Inspector Mar said as he introduced his constables to me. I looked at the two officers in front of me.

The profiler, Officer John Leopardo is a well-built man. He has a serious face and a tattoo on his neck. I can say he can be useful for stakeouts also. But the tattoo on his neck showed me how inclined he is in arts.

The second man is Officer Lance Benedictos. He has the same height as me and have fine stature. He is fair-skinned and have a keen eye. Their composures are steady also. They're fit for their jobs. I bowed slightly to them and we all sat in front of each other.

"We called for you for the investigation of the case. We strongly believe that the victim, our prisoner, Nurse Janet Dadoria, was poisoned. And we all have the strong conviction that the portal of the poison was that plastic bottle that was found in the crime scene. And, we also established that, our precinct don't have that kind of bottled water. Therefore, it only speak one thing, that someone from the outside brought that bottle to her.

"And now, even though there is a name written in this logbook about the person who visited the victim yesterday, Asher suggested that it's not a real name of someone who is existing. In other words, a decoy. I also asked another constable of mine to try to research this name, but found none. That means that the man who visited her yesterday have a different name, different real name." the inspector said. I saw Officer Lance, gulped upon hearing what the inspector said. It seems he realised his position now.

"And since we don't have any lead aside from this false name, we will try to approach it in another angle. We will try to make a profile of the guy who visited her yesterday. Officer Lance, we all know you are the one in charge of the logbook yesterday. And I believe you can tell us the looks of this man. It would be a great help for this case if you can do so." Inspector Mar said as he looked at his constable eye to eye. I saw how Officer John gulped as he nodded to the inspector.

"Y-Yes. I-I can do that." Officer Lance answered. Inspector Marcus smiled to him and started to listen to what his constable will say. I saw Officer John readied himself to draw a rough sketch of the man Officer Lance will describe.

"Yesterday, someone came, saying he is a visitor of the victim, Janet Dadoria. He is wearing a uniform. And I am sure, you have the same uniform." the officer said as he looked at me. I was frozen at what he told us.

"A-Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yes, I am certain. You wear the same uniform. And I believe, yoi have the same height. But you two are different in appearances. That guy wears an eyeglasses. He has a messy hair and a fair complexion. He has keen eyes, pointed and regular nose and thin lips.

"His voice was cold but his face seems so innocent. That is the reason I never thought that he is up to something, because he does not look like someone who will do something horrible. He has a black bag. Drawstring bag." Officer Lance described. I tried to think of someone who fits his description in our campus. I tried to remember faces of students there that might possibly fit his description. And, no one that I know matched his description.

"That is all?" Officer John asked with his deep voice. The officer in question nodded. Officer John turned to Inspector Marcus and showed him the sketch he made for the man according to how Officer Lance described him. Inspector Marcus nodded and the officer turned back again to us.

"Is this the man you saw yesterday?" Officer John asked and showed his rough sketch to Officer Lance. I looked also at the sketch the officer made. I saw someone, a face that I don't know, a face I can't recognise. I never saw anyone with that face. Not even in our school.

"That's him! Yes, that's the face of the guy who went here yesterday and who visited Nurse Janet. I am certain about that. I will never be mistaken about it." Officer Lance said. Inspector looked at me knowingly. And, with such burden in my heart, I shook my head.

"Inspector, I don't know anyone with that face. Even in school, I don't know anyone with the same face as that. Are you really certain, sir, that we wear the same uniforms?" I asked Officer Lance. He nodded.

"Yes. I am certain that that is the uniform he wear yesterday. I am certain about that."

I looked again at the drawn face of the man who was said to be the one who met Nurse Janet yesterday. This guy, this look, I've never seen him before in our school. Is it really someone from our school? Or another one hired to confuse and mislead us all? And who hired him? Could it be the Spider? If that is so, then the Spider was involved in that drug case. He really is something, so cunning. And it annoys me.

×××××

When I came to the school, I immediately went towards our clubroom. I'm not in the mood to go to class. My head was focused on the case of Nurse Janet. What really happened to her? And who was that guy Officer Lance saw yesterday?

As I am sitting inside our clubroom, pondering for answers on my questions, the door opened and two people entered our place. It was the council president and the head of the school. I stood up as I saw them.

"Mr. Orson, what brought you here?" I immediately asked, wondering why these two people were here. Leon has no expression upon his face while Mr. Orson seems to be agitated.

"Asher! We need your help." the head of the school said. And it increased the curiosity in me.

"About what?" I asked. Leon answered me this time.

"Follow us towards the cafeteria. Your friends are already there."

I don't have any choice but to follow them towards the cafeteria. What is happening? Why Mr. Orson seems so agitated? And what is it about the cafeteria this time?

We arrived at the cafeteria. The place were full of students eating their luncheons. Zay and Silver were already there. The two of them were looking inside a box.

"What's happening?" I asked. Silver answered me.

"Asher, look at these bottles of water." he said. I looked at the bottles of water inside the box. And my body froze upon seeing them. Those bottles of water, they're the same bottles of water used to murder Nurse Janet!

"And here, too. A note was seen stucked at the bottom of it." Zay gave me a piece of paper.

"That was reported to us early this morning by a cafeteria staff. And that is also the reason why we came for you on the way here." Leon said. I looked at the piece of paper upon my hand and read the typewritten message there.

Aloha! Facing a busy day, eh? Really, everyone is hungry. Also, everyone is thirsty after working so hard. Under this kind of circumstances, they needed water. Don't you think you can give them?

Sometimes, we need things so much. Purely because we're lacking it. In fact, that's why we need it. Danger is still there, but we will ignore it. Engaged to it because we need it. Really, there's a poison in those bottles, but you will make them drink it, because they need it.

My body froze and chills ran in my spine as I read the note. My eyes went back to the box of water and saw that they're not full right now. And I noticed also other empty boxes beside it.

"Who saw this note?" I asked. A lady came in front of me.

"I-I saw it earlier. I saw it when I am taking some bottles of water in that box." a lady dressed in cafeteria uniform said but I don't remember her as a staff here.

"Who are you?" I asked. She was startled by my question, but still, gave me an answer.

"I'm Karen Labida. I'm a new staff here. Pumasok ako dito as a working student."

"Who brought those waters here?" I asked. The head of the cafeteria answered.

"They were just delivered to us by our usual producers. They said that they have no stack of our old water and decided to deliver us that boxes of waters. I just accepted it because I don't know that there is something like that in there." Linda Aquino said. I remembered her for she's one of those people we questioned on the drug case.

"Asher, they've already given so many water of this kind to several students..." Zay said. I looked around the cafeteria and saw several students having the same water. My jaw tightened. This is another Spider's doing!

"We need to let them know–" I was cut to my own sentence when I felt a vibration upon my pocket. I took a phone, and it was the phone given to us by the Spider. Ever since, I never let this phone leave my body for this time, time where the Spider will call or communicate with me again.

I opened the message sent to us.

It's so satisfying to see your faces twitch like that. I love it. The head of the school is funny also. Also, the head of the council. But the most satisfying face of all, is yours.

How is it? How is the feeling of being helpless? Is it fun? Did you like my joke, honey? Do you see our stands right now? You are in my web. And, you will never escape me. You will always be in the palm of my hand. Just there, running, played by me.

Until then, I love playing mind games with you. But next time, it will be different. Blood will fall. And it's the start of the real chase.

–Spider.

I was left confused by the text message I received. What does he mean? What joke?

I reread the note again. And I can't help but get annoyed and pissed upon realising it. But still, it gave me a smile.

"What happened Asher?" Mr. Orson asked. Everyone is looking at me right now.

"The Spider is cunning. He loves bad jokes. And I love it, too. It just stirred up my will to catch him." I said laughing and left the cafeteria.

This man is so cunning. But, I'm not in his palm anymore. I'm near him. I know that. He's not far anymore. In fact, I'm looking at him eyes-to-eyes now.