KNOCK KNOCK CHAPTER 10 "HUMAN OR GHOST?"

 

CHAPTER 10

 

HUMAN OR GHOST?

 

C

harles woke up in the morning with the sound of his mobile. It was a voice message saying, “Hey Charles, I…ahh.. I just wanna apologize for what I said the other day, I was just a bit frustrated so I didn’t know what to say..”

Charles sent back Harry a voice message, “It’s OK… I am sorry too, I also said too much” Charles got up to take a shower.

 

*******

            Oliver opened the door in the morning and saw his daughter’s body on the floor. Oliver couldn’t believe in his eyes at first, then he fell down and started screaming and crying. Then after sometime, he called the police with anger as if he knew his daughter’s murderer.

“Sir we got another victim” John called Charles.

          Oliver was constantly telling everyone that Ryan had killed his daughter and police should arrest him for Julie’s murder quickly, “It’s Ryan, Julie’s boyfriend, he killed my daughter, she went with him last night.”

“Sir we couldn’t arrest him without any proof but we’ll interrogate him today and I assure you if he’s the murderer, I’ll be the first one to put him behind the bars” Charles tried to console the angry dad.

            Then there was the next clue for them, the spider web saying IT’S ME and a small red rubber ball stuck on the web.

“John, ask the doctors to make Jack able to answer our questions, it’s an emergency now” said Charles.

On the other hand, Charles asked everyone to make sure their presence in his office within an hour while he was going to bring Ryan there himself. The forensic team again searched the whole crime scene but there was not a single fingerprint, footprint, nothing at all.

 

******* 

            In Charles’ office, Ryan was sitting with all the team members. He was sobbing as Charles told him about his girlfriend’s death before bringing him here.

“Sir I loved Julie so much, why would I kill her? I had even planned our marriage and our whole life together” Ryan started weeping.

“Her father is more than sure that you killed her” Harry started.

“And she was with you last night. You’re our first doubt too” Charles added.

“I agree she was with me last night but I dropped her home safe and sound, I swear to God” Ryan tried to convince them.

“Then who killed her?” Sara questioned.

“Come on, surprise us with your plan of killing Julie” Madam JJ asked strictly.

“Trust me. I didn’t kill her” Ryan started crying again.

“Ok tell us, what exactly happened last night?” John tried to console him after getting an eye signal from Charles.

Ryan gradually stopped sobbing and said in a low tone, “After leaving from the party, we went straight to Julie’s home where I dropped her and went towards my own home”

“You saw her getting inside her home?” asked Charles.

“No, I just dropped her on the road and went straight because it was already very late” Ryan replied.

“Did you see anyone else there?” said Sara.

“No….” Ryan suddenly stopped and his eyes expanded with shock and horror.

“What’s it Ryan?” Harry stood up and asked curiously.

Ryan continued, “No, No, No…I did see something…someone was there…” Ryan started panting.

John gave him a glass of water and asked, “Relax and tell us what did you see?”

Ryan took a deep breath and started speaking, “When I went straight after dropping Julie, I saw something in the back mirror, there was something far back in the street, fully dressed in black and floating straight on the road. I got frightened, so I accelerated and went home without seeing back again”

            A silence suddenly spread across the room. No one knew what to say. Ryan, without noticing everyone’s reactions, continued, “I think it’s a ghost. I…I don’t remember hearing of any human on Earth that can float..”

“Thank you so much Ryan. You can go now. But remember you can’t leave the city without our permission yet” Charles asked Ryan to leave.

            After a moment of silence, Charles came up with a question, “Harry, you are saying from the beginning that it is a ghost, tell me why would a ghost kill random people, young ones??”

“Well…you know… for revenge maybe, ghosts can also be called and controlled by people sometimes to take their revenge or something.” said Harry hesitatingly.

“Don’t tell me that you’re convinced of a ghost now?” Madam JJ questioned Charles

“I know that feels stupid but everything is pointing in that direction so I have to think about it” Charles replied.

“Well maybe Harry’s right” Sara supported.

No one in the room believed what they heard at first because it was the very first time Sara didn’t oppose Harry rather supported him. A sweet little smile was passed by Harry.

“Can’t argue now, it’s 3-2… What to do now sir?” John spoke up.

“You and Sara will go and get the CCTV record of the street where Ryan saw the ghost while others will go to meet Jack in the hospital with me” Charles told the plan.

 

*******

            On their way, John asked Sara about earlier, “Why did you support his idea today? That’s not like other days when you oppose him even if he’s right. Have you started loving him or something?”

“What?? I love Harry??? That’s the last thing I would like to do….haha… I supported his idea because if you honestly think about the case, it really seems quite right.” Sara stammered. Deep inside her heart, she knew that she had just lied to John.

 

*******

            In the other car, it was Madam JJ who asked the question, “When did you two patch up?? The last thing I remember was quite a bad argument between you two…What happened within a night? What did I miss?”

“Well, we’re very professional men you know and we believe in that famous saying *Yesterday is past now, forget it*, right Charles?” Harry boasted.

“Well…yeah, of course, we are the men after all. We don’t keep things in heart against each other” Charles continued Harry’s definition of men.

“Ohh, yeah… by the way who exactly said that famous saying of yours Harry?” Madam JJ hit the bull’s eye.

“It’s said by the famous Harry Karl, you must have heard about him” Harry showed off again. Everybody chuckled.

           

*******

            Jack was lying on the bed while three of them were around his bed and had asked the staff to leave them alone for ten minutes.

“Go on and tell everything you know about Sophia and what’s your connection with her? What was she going to sign?” Harry started questioning.

“I work for her; she was a kind of boss to me. She was signing a money transfer that day” Jack replied with deep breaths.

“What was that money transfer for? What work do you do exactly” Madam JJ put her question.

“Aaaa…I work as her manager actually and that money transfer was for her new project” Jack closed his eyes while replying as if he’s in pain.

“How did her husband die? Was it really a car accident?” Charles asked another question.

Jack took a deep breath before answering that one, “No….it wasn’t an accident, it was a murder. Sophia paid for her husband’s murder and made it look like an accident”

“Why?? You also helped her in that?” asked Madam JJ.

“I’m sorry. She gave me a lot of money for that. She wanted to own her husband’s showroom to sell it and use money in her own work” Jack started sobbing.

Everybody was shocked on hearing Jack’s statement. “So, it’s money which is the actual problem. Anyways you’ll get your punishment once you discharge from the hospital” Charles gave his final remarks before leaving.

 

*******

            Nights had become tough for the whole team now. Every minute they were afraid of another death by the ghost. And not only for the team, for the person in the dark room also, who stayed up at nights, as something used to haunt in dreams from the past. He’s working constantly and rechecking every single detail of the plan again because a single mistake could take away the only chance to relieve that person from the haunting past.

            The next morning in the office, autopsy report was there and once again it was natural death by sudden cardiac arrest. They all watched the CCTV footage of the street Sara and John brought, and the idea of ghost got stronger. A man like thing got on that street out of nowhere and started floating straight until it reached Julie’s home. Then it turned and moved towards Julie’s home and got out of sight from the CCTV camera. The face couldn’t be seen even after full zoom in because of the night and its full black dress.

“I know you’re thinking of a ghost but my question is that if it’s a ghost then why did it appear and float in the street where Ryan saw it? I mean why didn’t it appear inside Julie’s home, out of sight of CCTV camera and Ryan?” Madam JJ gave a very logical objection.

No one was able to answer that and everyone was expecting a reply from Harry which eventually came after a moment of silence in the office, “OK if we believe that it’s not a ghost and someone, most probably the murderer, is intentionally making us think that it’s a ghost, so that we can’t catch him then kindly tell me when did a human learn to appear and disappear on will and how can you kill a person and make it a natural death afterwards?”

“Ok calm down you both.. I know both of you have your own valid logics. We’ll continue our investigation at Oliver’s home now and I hope we’ll get answers to all our questions” Charles handled the situation.

            Charles got a phone call, he stood up with surprise and said, “Whattt??? What do you mean Chief by removing us from the case???”

TO BE CONTINUED.....

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