Alter Ego

Fragment 1

"Good work, Detective Foster. You did a great job on completing the investigation about the Side Road Killer." Chief Sarmiento claimed and handed me a cup of coffee which I immediately accepted.

"Thank you, Chief. Well for the record, I wasn't the only one working on that case. Officer Valdez and Officer Molina helped me." I answered as I took a sip on my coffee.

"You all deserve a bit raise then. Well then, I won't hold you any longer. Go home and rest, Detective Foster. See you tomorrow." Chief said and raise his cup. I also bid goodbye before stepping out of the office.

As I step out of the establishment, I bump into a man with a huge brown sling bag. I immediately help the guy to pick up some of the envelope fell from the bag and hand it over to him.

"I'm so sorry, Sir. Do forgive me." The guy said and looked at the envelope I am handing to him. He immediately accepted it and looked at me.

"Thank you, kind sir." He said put the envelope back in his bag. He has a lot of letters to give out, I guess.

"No problem. Be careful next time." I said and he nodded.

"You seem to be heading out but may I have a minute with you, sir? I was hoping if you know where Liraz Foster is?" The guy asked as he brought out a small brown envelope from the bag.

"That would be me." I answered. A letter sent for me? I wonder who sent it.

"It is kind of a special request. I was ordered to give this to you, Sir. Which is weird because that person, doesn't give me the complete address. He told me to just look for you. " The guy handed me the envelope and bid goodbye.

I was left alone, standing with a brown envelope in my hand. Something feels of with this envelope.
I started walking towards my house while stealing glances on the envelope in my hand.

This must be sent by a friend of mine or perhaps a client. As a reach my home, I immediately went inside, locked the door and headed in my room. I sat on my chair and placed the envelope in my table. I looked at the back of the envelope, nothing was written in there.

Now that I mention, I forgot to asked who might be the person sent me this envelope.

I opened the envelope and brought out the folded paper and some pictures. It comes also with a paycheck. So this is not just an ordinary letter, this must be some sort of case.

I proceed to open the folded paper and start to read the letter.

Greetings,

Please do forgive my abruptness. I salute you for solving a lot of difficult cases since you started being a detective. To be honest, you inspired me so much that I decided to be a mystery-thriller writer. You solved the mystery behind the Side Road Killer recently, that must been tough. Despite that, I hope you can continue your genuine service and keeping our city in peace. I do wish you strength on your upcoming cases.

Of course this isn’t just a simple fan letter.  I will get to the point. Once again, do forgive my presumptuousness. As you may have guessed already, this is a commissioned case. Mostly, commissions supposed to be discuss and entrust in  person. But I’m still far from the city, I do hope you understand. A few weeks before I went out in the city, my roommate and I found a black bag outside our apartment. We went and search inside the bag hoping to find any information about the owner, when things wasn’t the same way we thought that the bag have inside. So, we rushed on the nearest police station and gave the bag to the officers so that they can investigate it. The day after that incident, we received a strange envelope. The envelope contains a lot of our personal information and pictures of our family and friends, it also came with a letter saying not to go report to the police stations or else one of our love ones will disappear one by one.

That didn’t stop me from asking the authorities for help. I went and report that an anonymous person sent us a threats and it could be after us due to reporting the possession of the black bag. A few days later, my sister went missing.  We can’t reach her. We went to search everywhere she could be– friends and co-workers, but none of them know where my sister is. On that same day, I receive a message from the anonymous person saying that he knows where my sister is. That person may have my sister as a hostage.

That’s why I am reaching you out hoping that you will take the case and investigate it. I trust you to solve this case faster than anyone else. I also sent a bit of clues that might help your investigation. I’m willing to give up all my fortune for the sake of capturing the man behind this and for the safety of my sister. Even if, hope it never happens, the worst had already happened, I still hope that you could find out who is the person behind this. I will pay no matter what amount for any clues.  I entrust you solve this case and our safety– especially my sister.

I look forward your respond with telegram or mail as soon as possible. About the enclosed paycheck, take it as my admiration for you. And please, use it for lodging and travel expenses. I will leave everything to you, L. Peculiar.

Your Sincere Supporter,
Hector Fredrick Atkinson  
   
Aside from the hefty check, something made me very concerned. This man never addresses me as Liraz but… L. Peculiar.

An alias almost nobody knew, but me.

After reading the letter, I heard a loud bang sound coming from the living room. I got up from my chair and slowly walking towards the living room. The living room is dark so I start touching the walls to look for the light switch.

As I walk slowly and touching the walls, I heard light footsteps from the kitchen so I stopped moving.

I turn my head where the kitchen is and focus my sight in that area. I begin to walk towards the kitchen when suddenly, something came jumping in my chest and almost scared the hell out of me.

As soon as I felt something, my body relax and I let out a sigh.

It’s my dog, Henry.

“Don’t go jumping into me like that again, Henry. You almost kill me!” I exclaimed as I scratch his head and getting him off me. I walk towards the kitchen wall since one of the light switch is nearby. As I touched the switch, I pressed it to turn on the light.

I also walk towards the light switch for the living room and turned it on. As the light spread across the room, I saw a scattered glass from the picture frame  fell from the table so I immediately went and picked it up. It was a picture of me taken when I was receiving my first promotion, brings back memories.

While picking up some small shards of glass, I notice the glass of the frame wasn’t shattered so much. A huge crack is made in the glass that made my picture seem to be disoriented. As I stared at my picture, my dog suddenly bark loud that made me drop the frame and made me stumble on the shattered glass causing me to cut my palm.

“Henry, what the hell is wrong with you today? You’re being weird.” I said as I groaned in pain while removing some small shards in my palm. I stood up and went to the sink to clean up my cut, it is quite big. It must have been one of the big shards that cut me.

As I gently rinse my hands, I turned my head into the direction where Henry was looking and barking a while back. It is just probably someone who just passed by.

I grab the clean cloth next to me and press it into my wound gently, my eyes start to wonder around. Then my eyes landed on the glass on the top of the counter.

I’m about to grab the glass when suddenly, I stop and remember something.

“But I haven’t even drink anything since I came home.”