It was just a regular day for John, when two police officers came to his door. “Is this John Alexander?” said one of them. John immediately came rushing to the door wondering what he had done wrong.
“Yes, this John Alexander. May I ask what this is for?” he responded.
“You are under arrest, for the murder of 10 people, on June 27, 2037. You have the right to remain silent and to an attorney,” exclaimed one of the police officers.
John was super confused on how he had been accused for the murder of 10 people.
“This has to be a joke right? I would never do something as bad as that,” John exclaimed in frustration.
He thought someone was playing a prank on him, until they got into the car and the other police officer went into his house. “Do you have a warrant to search my house?” asked John.
“We have probable cause which is all we need to search your house. The warrant can be filed later.”
John had no reason but to comply, but he really wanted to know what exactly he was accused of doing. The police officer started the car and drove all the way to the police station. Once he got there, a full armed security team greeted them and escorted them inside. At that point John was furious because he did not commit the crime that he was framed for. Whoever committed the crime had committed something really horrendous because he was being sentenced to a possible life in prison. Once John was transported to his holding cell, he thought about how he could get out of this mess.
He waited for about an hour and then a man showed up in his cell...
“Hello John Alexander, My name is Robert Bob. I am the lead investigator of the city wide terrorism prevention unit,” said Detective Robert.
“Officer, there is absolutely no way that I committed this crime. I was at home at that time,” exclaimed John.
“Yeah, that’s the issue; I did not think that you were guilty. The problem is that all the evidence leads to you. You also have no one to give you an alibi. If we don’t find anything else leading elsewhere the court has no reason not to arrest you. When ‘you’ or someone else drove the car into the crowds and ran away, we got that on camera. When we put it into the facial recognition software it matched with you,” said Detective Robert.
John had no words for this experience. He thought about his family and friends who would be shocked to hear about this. He could even be put on death row.
“Since you don't have an alibi or any evidence someone else did it, we will give you two weeks to find the killer. Just to make sure you aren't the killer, we have to put a bracelet on your leg that will tell us your location. Also, if you do anything wrong, the bracelet will kill you…” his voice trailed off, “And there is no way to disable the bracelet other than the key at the police office.”
The detective then led John out of the room. Two police officers came by, and put the bracelet on his leg. The detective said that he was free to go. John walked out of the building deciding what he was going to do. How was he supposed to find a killer in two weeks, when the entire police task force couldn’t? John thought about that during his walk home.
After about 30 minutes, John arrived at his house and went straight to bed.
John slept really badly that night. He thought about just giving up, and enjoying the last two weeks he really had to live his life. He went to sleep at about one am the next morning. When he woke up he found a strange letter taped to his door.
Dear John,
You must be wondering who I am. Well that's a question I ask myself. You might know me as the person who basically ended your whole career. Back when you were a detective in Canada, I was the one person who you couldn’t catch. You probably don’t remember me because it was 10 years ago. You might know me as the following:
Clown Face
Car Chase Killer
Or my personal favorite,
Maseratti Murderer.
You will probably never catch me your entire career. That day when I committed the crime it felt good taking my anger out on someone. Possibly haunting the rest of their life. Just so you know, it was me who committed the crime two weeks ago.
Hope you enjoy life to come.
-From your new best friend
Maserati Murderer
John was very confused on how the killer had found out where he was. It had been a long time since anyone had brought up his previous career. John knew right away that this guy had framed him due to some personal grudge. John contemplated turning in the letter to the police station but he realized that the letter was probably wiped clean, and right now he was the one they “wanted”. They would most likely think that he wrote the letter. John knew that he had to catch the killer in order to gain his freedom.
John walked downstairs where he took one of his old evidence boards and started out from the beginning. He took out his computer and rifled through the saved case files from the original event 10 years ago. John saw all of the cases that he completed, until he found the one case that was not solved. He then looked inside of the case file and read the case description many times over. He read the news report about the event two weeks ago, and compared the details to the previous event. To John’s surprise they were exactly the same.
He printed out all of the details and attached them to the board. Everything matched in place, time, and escape route. Both events happened on days with heavy fog, and major crowds. He looked at the event closer and closer until he figured out how the guy escaped. John took this information and tried to figure when he would strike next. He opened a weather application and found the next day predicted to have fog. He then looked to see if there were any big events on that day where a lot of people would be crowded. He saw that it was the very next day. At that point all he needed to do was turn in this information to the police. John picked up his cell phone and dialed in the number for the police station.
“Hello, this is the New York City Police Station. How may I help you?” asked the secretary.
“This is John Alexander, and I am calling to speak with Detective Robert,” said John.
“One moment, please hold,” said the secretary.
“Hello, Detective Robert speaking.”
“This is John Alexander, the person you ‘arrested’ yesterday,” said John.
“Ah, yes John, what do you need?” asked Detective Robert.
“I figured out the case and when exactly the killer is going to strike. He is going to strike--”
“John, there is no possible way you figured out when the killer is going to strike, the man is wanted in every single state, and by interpol. You nor anyone has any leverage over this guy!” exclaimed Detective Robert.
“No, but--” said John instantly thinking about the letter, which he did not want to bring up yet.
“He is going to strike tomorrow at the Giants playoff game,” said John with anger.
“How do you know that, he could be anywhere,” said the detective.
John then told Detective Robert about the letter and his entire backstory as a previous police officer. He told him the things in common and how this killer does the same thing over and over again to the people he kills, every single time.
“Now it all makes sense… he always strikes in heavy fog…and large amounts of people. The one day it all lines up is tomorrow. This would also settle the days between each attack,” said the detective enthusiastically. “Good thinking, I am going to hang up now because I need to make the arrangements for tomorrow, bye!”
He could not sleep until four in the morning. The next day John woke up to loud banging on the door. To his disbelief it was the detective. “Hey, we looked into your case and to our surprise we actually found the guy. I came here to do two things. For the record of the police team we are very sorry you got mixed up in this and hope it never happens again. The first thing I came to do was offer you the reward of one million dollars. This guy was wanted in almost every single state for major terrorist attacks. The second thing I came to do is take off the bracelet on your foot.”
John was speechless. The past couple of days had been horrible for him but also very rewarding. He went inside and turned on the television. The first thing that came up was a breaking news report talking about the murder of 30 people in California. They had died due to someone driving over them in a Maserati...
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