Sinister behind the Mask

Chapter 9

Diana’s POV

After finishing the story Sam and I wasted no time in meeting the first victim and then the others too as we were scared if there was going to be a pattern like we suspected there would be.

Sam and I drove to a cafe which was quite far from the city hustle bustle. Sam pulled out his phone as he called the first victim.

“Hello Ms. Lilly, Lilly Mayham?”, He said.

“Okay, We’ll be right there”, he said as he cut the call.

He looked at me and told me that Lilly was waiting for us inside the cafe. I nodded at him as I opened my seated belt and collected my bag. We got inside the cafe which had a rather dull look. The wall papers were run down and the window was rusty. The glass bottles for light lamps were a great idea and gave a surprisingly spooky look to it. There were no customers in the cafe at the time except for one, she was sitting there in the last corner and wearing a hoodie and a long skirt that covered her from head to toe.

I was sure that the lady over there was our visitor. I made no delay in going to her but, I was stopped by Sam as I tried to approach her.

“We can’t sit with her or contact her directly, he might be around watching us”, He whispered in my ear.

We decided to sit on the diagonally opposite table to hers. This was to have a better view of the entrance and also keep an eye on her and protect her from afar. I ordered a latte and Sam ordered tea as we pretended to wait.

“What do we do now?”, I asked

“We wait. Wait for her to leave”, He said

I didn’t quite understand what was going on but, before I could ask him much, I saw our visitor getting up and preparing to leave the cafe.

“Sam, she’s leaving!”, I whisper yelled.

“we will give her a good 5 minute lead before we start tailing her”, He said.

“I don’t quite understand, why are we playing chase? aren’t we supposed to talk properly?”, I said in total confusion.

“You will understand it in a while”, He said.

I was sitting at the table while trying to not stare her through the window. I was tapping my leg restlessly as I cupped my face with my palms. Sam held a stern look in his eyes as he was looking at the table.

He, sure was, acting weird. I wonder why was he acting like that. Suddenly I saw Sam getting up from his chair while banging the table with his fist as he ran outside the cafe. The loud sound was deafening, I stood up to peer outside the cafe when I noticed what that women had done.

She tried to commit suicide by jumping before the busy road. An on coming car had hit her that she tumbled over it and fell on her head causing her to lose consciousness due to severe blood loss.

Sam had run over there and pulled her aside and tried to prevent the blood from oozing out. I called for an ambulance as I watched her lay their unconscious.

“We should have done something! How could you do this? Her blood will be on our hands”, I screamed at Sam as the ambulance took her.

I was angry and most of all, I was disappointed in Sam. I thought we were getting a step closer to solving the case but, this just threw us back to square one.

“Don’t worry, I knew this was to happen”, He said “but, it was all planned. We have worked so hard and I couldn’t just let that go for nothing. I realized she would leave a suicide note behind or a confession and she did”, he said as he showed me the cassette.

“what?! So you mean, you let her die so you could have the cassette?”, I asked with a mean sense of sarcasm. Sam took me inside the car and closed the doors as he began to speak

“Hey, chill, as I said, all of this was planned. She’s not hurt and the car that hit her was Velibor. We had done our bit of search you know, and we realized that we couldn’t just let the witness be a prey to the killer so, we came up with a plan to stage a fake suicide. When you told me about the story that the first victim had received in her threatening letter.

I sensed something fishy. It looked like this killer was somehow controlling her. He wanted us to know about his sick obsession of killing people and making the other witness it. He was kind of challenging us, I suppose, to show off his ability to manipulate and control people. We tried to contact the victims before but, none of them agreed to give us a testimony in person.

All we had were the recorded statements of the victims given by their family. They never chose to speak of what horror they had seen that night or what had happened. At least they never came to testify in person and that is why the case was going cold.

But, when I got the letter mailed to me by Lilly, I faxed it to Velibor as well. We knew then that it was some piece of information that the killer wanted us to have. As we were working on it, Velibor was trying to find information on Lilly Mayham and we got her. Before deciding to agree to meet us she had promised that there was something she wanted to give us but, was scared for her life.

This clearly means she was not trying to commit suicide but, was being threatened while being watched. Now, to ensure her safety we decided to fake her suicide that way. If this killer was watching her then he would know that she’s dead. But, she will actually be under our care”, Said Sam.

I was okay with his explanation but, somehow, I was restless.

“Sam, how can you be sure that he can be easily cheated? Or he bought this act?”, I asked as I pressed my lips.

I was restless as there seemed to be one piece that was not fitting right. How could he leave his victims alive when he had made them see what he had done?

There was a call on Sam’s phone. He picked it up to answer it.

“Yes?”, He said

There was a silence for a long time before he spoke again.

“Understood, we will be right there”, He said as he put the phone down. I gestured him to ask what it was about

“Diana, they found the body of the PA and the DNA was a match. The bloodied cloth that Amy received in the box was actually that of the PA, Dr. Anna just confirmed it”, He said.

I was shocked beyond belief as I gasped. I was growing scared for my Amy.