Extortioner

Chapter 11: Murder Mystery

Selene locates the missing person profiles on the database. To her surprise, it was exactly 15 males and 15 females. Those people were of the same age group and belonged to the same college batch. She tries to list out their names to conduct an enquiry for learning details.

Selene finds they belonged to Xavier's College. They were all graduates of the 2007 batch. They were murdered with a sharp object. She couldn't find the murder weapon but all the murders showed a similar pattern. One person has killed 30 people in a month and used someone's support to translocate their bodies to the parallel world.

Selene sends those bodies for autopsy to determine their cause and the timings of death. She informs their respective families about the death. In the meantime, she reports Hudson about the follow up of those murders.

The tape about the President Liza talking with her ex-husband gets leaked. The kingdom of Ladon gets disappointed to choose such a president and she gets arrested for her committed crime of corruption.

Hudson's Uncle Tom is a doctor in the Kingdom of Ladon. Hudson approaches him to have a word about the mysterious murder happening. Tom says...they all have specific marks on the body. It's like a burnt chemical mark. I had instigated the bodies and found those marks are cytotoxic agents of arsine. It is a flammable highly toxic gas.

The people were exposed to the toxic gas before their murder. The turning point to find the murder mystery is to locate the source of toxic gas. It may be a chemical factory where they were exposed to arsine.

If we find the chemical factory, there will be a chance to get the murder weapon. Hudson reports Selene about the instigation made by Tom.

Selene: I will try to find the chemical factory.

Hudson: Ok.. the toxic chemical used is arsine. You have to locate the factory that produce arsine.

Selene: Sure...will do.

Hudson: Be careful the killer is dangerous, he might either work in the factory or may have spies to keep the follow-up.

Selene: Ok, I will arrange a forensic team to reach there.

Hudson: Ok... The murder weapon could be there. Try to find it...

Selene: Ok... I will.

Selene traces 5 chemical factories that produce arsine in the town. CIDs reach there to gather information about the unused chemical factory.

Juve chemical factory is the one where the m*********r took place. The forensic team traces the arsine exposure in a specific room. People were first exposed to the toxic chemicals then they were released and brought to the nearby room where the murder took place.

The crime division team visits the murder room. They find dried bloodstains on the floor. The dried blood stains are collected as samples. In the corner of the room, they see a knife.

Selene goes to have a look at the knife. The knife is covered by the dried bloodstains. The murder weapon was the Buck Razor Sharp Knife. Selene covers the knife with a kerchief to get the fingerprint of the murderer. The evidences are bought to investigate by the forensic team.

The fingerprints of the knife is matched with the criminals record. There is no match to any of the criminals. It was a new murderer out there. The impressions showed the killer is a female. Selene finds it confusing to understand the purpose of the murder.

A new murderer who killed 30 people in a month and disposed of their bodies to a parallel world. How could a woman do this all alone?....

Selene's POV

I have to find the murderer soon.

It's difficult to trace a new murderer without knowing the purpose of the murder.

I have to investigate their families about anything strangely happened before their murder.

The murder investigation starts ~

Everything was normal with those people until they were all invited to a party.

Selene thinks...

What is the party all about...?

Where would they all gathered?.

Who invited them...?

There is one solution those 30 people had a common friend. Now I have to find their mutual friend..... Selene checks the social media profiles and makes 200 lists of mutual friends common to them.

She takes the printout copy of those names, scrolls their social feed and any invites they received.

To her vain, she couldn't trace anything related to the murder. Among those 200 mutual friends, 180 were females.

Now Selene asks their family if they received any party invite at home or through a post.

One family member hands over the party invite to Selene.

"This was the invite we received in a post".

The party invite was pink in colour and it showed it was a friend's get together. The date and venue was written. But the card didn't show the name of the invitee.

Selene could sense the murder was pre-planned. Someone hold a grudge to kill them. The venue was Hotel Lake Placid on the night of October 20th.

Selene visits the Hotel Lake Placid to investigate the party. The receptionist says the party was organized by Luke. She traces to find that Luke was already killed in the m*********r.

Selene gets a clue to the murder. She tries to listen to the phone calls of Luke and finds Ben told him to book the hotel.

But Ben was already dead from the list. Everything seems to come round and round to form a circle.

Selene investigates the party planner and the hotel receptionist about anything strange that happened at the party. They say an A.C bus was arranged for them after their party. Soon after their dinner, they left the hotel.

Selene asks if there was any video footage of the party or the recordings of October 20th. The receptionist asks permission from the hotel owner to check their security footage.

They can see only 30 members, all gathered at the party. But they were a few uninvited guests nearly 10 people in black masks leaving the hotel that night.

Selene questions the receptionist if she had seen the black masks, people. The receptionist has no idea, ........

She says...Mam.....It was quite late at night, so we went to have dinner at that time only the security cameras were on.

Selene got no clue about the hotel, but she can smell that there are some missing parts in the murder mystery.