Detective John

CHAPTER 8

Lily was looking into some documents related to the case sitting in the sofa when suddenly Robert, Lily’s father, entered the house. John was not in the house at that time.

“Are you used to living here? You know you caused me big trouble! Lily, I can ignore your childish behaviors, but this relates to the underworld. I can’t hide from it.” Robert said sitting near Lily.

“I am a reporter. My duty is to report the truth.” Lily replied sternly.

“Believe it or not, I will warn you one last time. Stay out of trouble. You know I can’t bear to lay a finger on you. But I won’t hesitate to do something to your editor or burn down the newspaper office. I don’t believe you don’t have anyone to care about.” Robert warned and left the house.

When John entered, the house was very dark. He switched on the lights when suddenly Lily who was sitting on the sofa said to John to turn off the lights. John saw that Lily was in a bad mood so he again went and switched off the main lights and instead switched on the side lamp.

He saw that Lily was crying. Sitting on the sofa beside Lily, he asked “Your dad was here” which was actually a statement.

“How did you know? You know he threatened me.” Lily asked John surprised while wiping her tears.

“No one but him can make you this angry. And that’s normal, too. You made a lot of trouble. Listen, I don’t know what happened between you and him, but if I recall it right, among all the mafia leaders, your dad is the only one who does not sell crude opium.” John said.

“That’s because of my mother. He watched my mother die on the smoke couch.” Lily blasted emotionally. John didn’t know what to say so he sat still for a moment.

After sometime, he said “Your father is angry but he’s still willing to talk to you. You should feel content. Look at my dad. Growing up, there has not been a day when he liked me. In my memory, he never smiled at me or hugged me. Not to mention saying a word of encouragement to me.”

“That’s just tough love.Maybe he has too much hope for you.” Lily said trying to lift his mood. John understood her effort and smiled.

After talking with each other, they went to their respective rooms and thought about their first ever civil conversation. Maybe, this is the start of their friendship.

After sometime, John remembered about the factory and went to Lily’s room. Lily opened the door when John said “ Get ready. We need to leave now to the pharmaceutical factory.” Lily asked why when John answered “If we don’t go there soon, the lead is about to disappear.” This attracts Lily’s attention and together they left for the factory.

When they reached the factory, they saw that the factory was sealed. So they climb through the wall and went inside. Suddenly, they heard some howling sound. They got scared and hugged each other. But then, Ryan entered and saw them hugging asked “You two are dating behind my back?”

John and Lily realized that they were hugging tightly so they released each other immediately. Then they entered inside the factory.

“Split up and look.” John ordered and all of them started to search something when John suddenly said that he found it. But at that time, they heard some footsteps from the outside and hide there.

After sometime, Emily entered and switched on the lights when John suddenly said from behind “It really is you.”

Emily got scared and said “Why are you here? Please leave immediately, or I will call the police.” At the same time, Ryan and Lily also appeared before her.

John showed the document to Emily that he found and said “I read the file. I now know that what you researched here was a potent medicine for treating porphyria. It is a light-sensitive pigment. It exists in people’s skin, bones and teeth. Most porphyrins are benign in the dark and don’t cause harm to the human body. But when it’s exposed to the sun, it produces harmful substances.

Patients in the middle and later period of porphyria start to fear the sun, with symptoms of extremely severe anemia, their teeth become sharp and their complexion becomes pale. At the beginning of the experiment, the medicine’s effect was remarkable. But in the middle and late stages, the patients began to show lesions. The pharmaceutical factory’s owner was afraid there might be problems, so he immediately stopped the project and dismissed all patients. As a medical worker, of course, you couldn’t live with this failure. So you called all those dismissed patients and together you played a cheap-budget horror movie.

First of all, you pretended to be chased by a vampire. Your purpose was to have the so-called vampire combust under eyewitnesses when the sun rose. This was the first step in guiding public opinion. But I found a bug in your statement. The man who chased you and the one that spontaneously combusted under the sun were not the same person. You said that you hit the chaser with the bag but I confirmed it later that the dead has no signs of being hit. So, the one who caught fire under an eyewitness is a patient who died of porphyria. First, you hide his corpse in the shade of the alley. When the sun rose, you pretended to fall to the ground. The man who chased you took the opportunity to get out of the witness’s sight. Then, on the floor of alley corner, a prepared body spontaneously ignited under the sunlight.” John explained how Emily put up the stunt when Lily asked “How did the body caught fire?”

“I guess…..the body was covered with fire paper. Remember the blank paper I found at the scene of the first case? I knew it with one smell that the paper was covered with white phosphorous. This kind of paper easily catches fire when the temperature heats up. And there will be no ash of paper left after burning.” John replied.

“At this point, the first step of manipulating the public opinion had been completed. Next step, some real murders. Drain their blood with large-aperture pinhole, then use a brace to create bite marks, and later leave their bodies in public places. Five wicked people were killed in one night. The public opinion was turned to ‘vampire enforced justice for God.’ The purpose was to make the factory owner feel guilty so that he would restart this drug research and development project. The owner did come to you afterwards. It also meant that your plan was almost successful.” John said to Emily while she smirked.

“It surprises me that you are more naive than when you were at school. Your story is full of imagination but very illogical. You really think I’m stupid enough to use a large-aperture puncture needle to drain one’s blood while also leaving such obvious evidence on the body? You can question my character, but don’t insult my IQ.” Emily replied while John stood there thinking.

Emily continued “As a senior medical researcher, do you think I would be stupid enough to rely on folklore to create panic?”

Suddenly, a bulb was lit in John’s mind “I’m sorry. One wrong step in my deduction. Dr. Emily, please give me your address book. I want to talk to your patients.”

All of them went to another room inside the factory where there were many patients suffering from porphyria. Actually, these are the ones who killed those victims as they do not have any control over themselves because of their illness. Emily did all this only to treat those insufferable patients. After that, they were arrested by the concession police station for their crimes.

 Hope you like this chapter and follow me to stay updated.