Unraveling Secrets Of The Devil

Chapter - Five

After almost half an hour of my meeting with Mr. Akeeshoo I started driving to Ms. Cecelia's dance academy. She teaches salsa . I don’t know why but my instincts were saying that there was something wrong. I reached the place. It was a huge building. Here they taught almost every type of dance styles. I could actually come here for some relaxation . I love dancing. I used to attend hip hop classes when I was young. I had even started learning tap dance but eventually because of time constraint I had to leave it . It was one of my favourite hobbies. The music and the sounds of the shoes tapping fills some sort of energy in me, making me happy.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when someone tapped on my shoulder. “ Chief? What are you thinking ?” Stella asked and that’s when I realised that I was standing still in the parking lot completely lost in my thoughts. “ Childhood memories” I said and started walking towards the entrance. “ Oh nice. Please tell me about that while we drive back” she outer making me laugh . “ Ok. If everything here goes well” I said. I asked in the reception for Ms. Cecelia Brooks and she guided me to the fourth floor. It was written SALSA in bold letters on the door. She was teaching for kids who were around 4-5 years old. We just waited for almost an hour for her to finish the class.

“ Hi. I’m Dexter Lee and this is Stella . We’re from the FBI and we needed to talk with you about something personally.” I greeted her. “ Nice to meet you Mr. Lee and Ms. Stella” she shook our hands. “Sure. Let’s go to my room and we can talk there” she said as she gestured us out. We went down the hall into a room which was small compared to the class room but in fact for a room it was quite big. She gestured us to sit down . “How can I help you?” she asked us. “ Actually we have information that you have been visiting Dr.Hazel regularly for therapy . Why?” I asked her casually. I didn’t want to directly start with the topic, just my gut feeling. “ Who?” she instantly replied. “ Dr.Hazel, neurosurgeon and a counsellor” Stella replied. “ Sorry, but I’ve not visited any doctor with that name . Infact why do you think I would visit a neurosurgeon?” she laughed. That took me by surprise. “Because you had met with a terrible accident which damaged your brain and then you were diagnosed with savant syndrome” I told it as if confirming it to a memory loss patient. “What?!! No.. I have not been met with any accident like that in my whole life. I’m sorry but I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.” She said . I felt like she was telling the truth . She was genuinely surprised. “ Aren’t you Ms. Cecelia Brooks?” I asked her and she nodded a yes. “ I got the list from the hospital and it had mentioned your name, occupation and address” I said. “ Maybe , but neither I had any such accident nor met Dr. what was her name ?” “ Hazel” “Yes, I’ve never met Dr. Hazel” she said. I still couldn’t believe my ears.

“ It’s ok Ms. Brooks. I think there has been some mistake . Thank you for your valuable time and sorry we might still have shocked you” Stella said as we got up. I was about to go out when Ms. Brooks commented. “You both make a good pair. Make up some time to come and join my class, dance helps in building up romance in the relationship. I’ve couple’s classes too.” She winked. “ Actually, we’re not a couple, but thanks for your advice. It will be helpful in the future.” Stella said as she chuckled and we went outside.

I leaned back on my car door while thinking and Stella joined me. “ What does all of this mean Chief?” she asked . “ It can only mean three things Stella. One, either Ms. Brooks is lying” I said. “ I don’t think so Chief. She was genuinely taken aback and was really scared.” She said. “ I agree. Two, Dr. Hazel made some mistake with the list by sending the wrong list of other patients. I said “ Maybe Chief, possibility is there” she said. “ No. Not possible, because she has never consulted Dr. Hazel and moreover Dr. Hazel gave the correct exact details of Ms. Brooks. Three, Dr. Hazel has done this purposefully to distract us from the real victims” I said and she nodded. “ Let’s go back to the headquarters and check what the others have found” I said as I got into the car. We started driving back. “ Chief, there are many missed calls from the team” she said holding her phone up for me to see. “ Tell them we are on our way” I said and driving faster. Dr. Hazel and Dr.Ethan, if you both are trying to hide anything you can’t escape from us. You'll regret for sure.

“Chief, the list itself is fake. Neither of them have been in any accident nor do they have savant syndrome. I think we need to visit both Dr. Hazel and Dr. Ethan” Mason said. “ Yes, we have to but not right now. Tell me in detail about your encounters with them” I said . “Ok Chief. I went to meet Ms. Aarya Smith at her home. I had previously called her to inform that I was coming. After I told her that she was in danger she was terrified. She asked me the details while crying. I consoled her and told her she was a savant. That’s when she calmed down a bit and then told me that she wasn’t a savant. I explained to her that Dr. Ethan gave me her name and address . She didn’t recognise him in the beginning but later she said that she was visiting that hospital to meet Dr. Zelda Williams for autism . She never met Dr. Ethan” Mason explained his encounter.

“Sarah?” I asked her. “ Chief, I went to meet Mr. Dominic King in his head office. I told him about the danger he’s about to face and that he might be kidnapped. He didn’t look even a bit shocked or surprised. He asked me who was k********g and I told him we’re still looking into it. I asked him about his talents and his syndrome . That’s when he got surprised. He said that he didn’t have any syndrome . I explained to him the whole thing about Dr. Hazel and she giving us the details about him. He told he doesn’t know Dr. Hazel personally but he has heard about her. He told me that his mother had a heart attack a few months back and he had her admitted in that hospital for treatment. I think that’s the reason they have his details” she finished.

“ Ansh?” I asked him . “ Chief, I had been to the botanical garden to meet Mr. Ingrid Rink. He was shocked to learn about the danger and then started panicking a lot about who will take care of his plants and stuff. But when he got to know the reason behind the danger he told me that he neither visited the hospital nor the doctor. His nephew is a doctor and he usually refers to him whenever he has some issues. I didn’t understand how Dr. Ethan got hold of his details.” He said thinking. “ It’s so simple Ansh.” Sarah said it as a remark. “ He’s a botanist . He is quite famous and many people go to his garden to see and buy plants. Obviously they’ll know about him” she said . “Oh ya. True” Ansh said.

“Sameer?” “ Chief, almost the same thing. But she says that she had been in an accident that damaged her brain three years ago. After that she has been experiencing some things. Like knowing about things she never learnt about. She never liked robotics but she started getting interest and ideas from some different types of robots after the accident. She told that she never thought that this would be because of some syndrome or anything . She just has some mild headache around twice a month so she didn’t bother to visit a doctor. She is now basically at home preparing engines and robots and selling them for mechanical shops and few small start up companies. I think she is a savant but she herself doesn’t know so she didn’t visit the hospital. When she met with the accident she had been taken to Dr. Ethan’s hospital but since he was on leave for some reason Dr. Laura had treated her”

“So, there’s a chance that Ms. Helena Kane is a savant. Call and ask Dr.Laura about her condition. Keep in touch with Ms.Kane and tell her to be extra careful because there’s chance of she getting kidnapped next” Sameer nodded and went to call her. “Where’s Luna?” I asked noticing her absence. “She’s busy working on some case in the lab Chief” Sarah replied. “She prefers working with cadavers finding their cause of death rather than investigating the suspects” Stella said and everyone giggled.

Dr.Hazel and Dr.Ethan are definitely trying to hide the patient list because there’s no chance of all people lying together about the syndrome and few people hadn’t even visited that hospital as patients. They might be involved with the kidnappers and leaking the savants information. “Ansh, track both Dr.Hazel's and Dr.Ethan's location right now. They might try to escape if they are the reason behind manipulating the list” He nodded and started tracking using their numbers. “Chief, he is currently in the hospital but she is moving towards the outskirts of Seattle. Probably she’s going to meet someone outside secretly or trying to escape from the city” he said. This increases our suspicion on her. “Quick, we have to follow her before she escapes or meets someone else” we quickly headed towards the basement. Ansh got into the driver seat and I took the shotgun seat while others sat behind. We drove as Mason directed while tracking her through his iPad. After 20 minutes we reached the outskirts and found her car. We got down and saw her searching for something in her car.

“Looks like you are in a bit hurry, Dr.Hazel” I said while crossing my arms. We had surrounded her so that she didn’t have any chance of escaping. She was surprised and confused. “Umm, yeh kind of busy. How come you guys are here? Did you meet the savants on that list?” she asked casually. “Oh wow, that’s nice of you to be so concerned about your patients” Stella said sarcastically. “Well, it’s my duty as a doctor and moreover they have trusted me in keeping their secret. So I'm worried about their lives” she replied. “Yeh, worried enough to give a wrong list to us and help the kidnappers” Ansh commented. “Excuse me? What do you mean?” she asked with surprised look. “The list which you gave has fake names and details. They aren’t savants” Sarah said. “What? No way. I remember the list which I prepared. I remember all of them” she argued without accepting her mistake. “Then what are you doing here right now? Trying to meet someone in private? ” Mason asked. “No, why will I do that? I got an emergency call from one of my friends. He got stuck here because his car broken down and his dad got a stroke suddenly. So I had to come here as soon as possible. If you don’t trust me then you can ask him by yourself” she said pointing at a man on the right side. He was making an old man drink water slowly in his car.

“Then what about that fake list? Who gave us the wrong information?” Stella asked. “It can be Dr.Ethan but he isn’t worried at all even though we would have obviously got to know that it’s fake. He would have tried something to cover up or at least try to escape. So I feel like someone else is involved” I said and everyone agreed. “How is that even possible, because we both prepared the list personally and nobody knew about this too” Dr.Hazel said. “What if we check the CCTV footage to see if anyone entered your cabins to change the list?” Ansh suggested. “Good idea. Let’s go and check it. Sorry for the inconvenience Dr.Hazel” I said. “It’s fine Mr.Lee, it was your duty and it’s natural to be suspicious about me” she replied with a smile.

We got back in our car and headed towards the hospital. We reached within ten minutes since it was nearby. We entered the control room and showed our IDs. “We need to check the CCTV footages of Dr.Ethan and Dr.Hazel's cabins from past two days right now” I asked. “I’m sorry sir but due to some error in our servers from morning we can’t give the footage right now. It may take a while, probably in the evening or tomorrow morning” he informed. “Oh ok. But try to give it in the evening because it’s really important for our case” he nodded and went back to work with other technicians to retrieve the footage. We walked out of the room and stood in the corridor. “We can’t trust anyone right now, so Mason stay back here and make sure you get it as soon as possible” he nodded.

“So, what next Chief?” Ansh asked as we got in our car. I checked my watch and it was almost 4 pm. “Nothing much for now because we have to wait to see the footage. So, you guys can relax for a while now” I said. Stella sighed with relief. We got back to the headquarters and went to the cafeteria to have lunch. Luna also joined us. “So, how’s the progress of the case?” Luna asked as she sat in front of me. “Someone has replaced the actual list of other savants to be kidnapped with a fake list received from Dr.Ethan and Dr.Hazel. So we went to check the CCTV footage of their cabins but due to some error in their servers they can’t retrieve the information right now it seems, so we have to wait” Sarah explained. “Isn’t it weird that exactly when we had to check the footage there is some problem with the servers” Luna said. “Yes, they would have guessed that we would come to check. So Mason is staying back there to make sure we get the footage soon without anyone changing anything in that” Ansh replied.

“Ansh once call Dr.Ethan and Dr.Hazel to ask who and all usually enter their cabins to check files. One of them could have sneaked in and exchanged the list while taking some files” I said. “Got it Chief” he replied and left the room. “You guys can go home and relax. We may not get free time later once we get a hint to lead our case. But stay alert and don’t keep your phones on silent ” I said. They nodded and walked out of the room. After lunch I went upstairs to spend some time alone. I felt good standing on the roof top here, by seeing so many buildings around and people busily walking around on the streets. I inhaled the fresh air as I sat down. It was so relaxing, better than sleeping at home. I just wanted to forget about this case for a while and enjoy the weather here.

“Caught you” someone yelled from behind. I turned back to see Stella. I smiled as she came and sat next to me. “Not feeling like going home Chief?” she asked. “It’s more peaceful here” she nodded. “So, you can tell about your childhood memories now because we have a lot of time” she said with curious eyes. I chuckled at her excitement and continued “I was very much interested in dancing, infact I wanted to be a professional dancer when I grew up. But everything doesn’t go as we plan right. Different circumstances led me to opt this profession. It’s not like I’m complaining about this job right now, but I just wonder how my life would have been if I had continued dancing” I sighed as good old memories flashed through my mind. Everything would be different.

“You still have a chance, it’s not like you don’t have time to dance at all right. It’s not good to leave our hobbies behind just because we have moved on with our professional life” she said. “Yeh, I can consider it once I complete this case successfully. It’s stressing me out so much that I want to solve this case as soon as possible and arrest that bastard behind all of this” “Don’t worry Chief, I have a strong feeling that we'll succeed” she said by showing a thumbs up. She looks very cute when she is in this excited optimistic mood, cheering me up. “Hope so” I muttered to myself as I smiled at her.