Are the actors us, simply living the life of one who entertains the rest of us? Or are we the actors, prancing and dancing upon a stage we call life.
---Carmen.
It was somewhere around the end of October, on a Wednesday afternoon, about half an hour before one o'clock in the afternoon. It was the universal period for the department of HMC to have no class at all. It was the period when most club and society meeting occurred and the period when the incident happened. Most of the classes were empty except for a few replacements.
She walked down the hallway, glancing left and right. She seemed nervous. Maybe she was accompanied by another, maybe she was not. She took a peek at seminar room eight, the first classroom in the hallway past the admin desk. If she had someone with her, they might have been having a conversation.
She approached seminar room twelve and entered it. She was in the room, alone, maybe with her accomplice or maybe with her victim. The possibilities were numerous. Whoever or whatever it was, she was in there. She had to do something in there. She had a reason to be there. It was possible that she was there to place the piece of paper with the Sudoku puzzle or she was there to take it. It was also possible she dragged someone else there. The point was that she was there and was there for a reason.
She fainted. The faint was genuine; it was not faked. There had to be a cause to the faint or maybe a reason. The simplest answer would be that she was sick. She had a tendency of falling ill quite often. So, she just fainted. In turn, that would have ruined her current plan. That would be the simplest answer. Her plan was a subterfuge; it was supposed to be done in secrecy. That meant that everything had to fall in place, which clearly cancelled out the simplest answer. Maybe she was there with the intention of meeting up the future victim, Ashikin. Maybe there and then she kidnapped Ashikin until the week after. However, someone would have noticed Ashikin's disappearance during the weekends and that she had nothing against Ashikin. There was one more other scenario. It was that she was there to do something and she heard Jeremy coming. The only other option she could do was to knock her own self up. That way, no one would suspect a thing.
A poem was found on the whiteboard of seminar room twelves. She could have written the poem, however her style of writing was different. She could have changed for the intention of that alone but it was unlikely. She could have taken it from somewhere else. There was a possibility.
Five days later, Ashikin's soul left the world. That segment was explained by an anonymous person from History class. Carmen was absent from History class, or so they thought. She could have been hiding in the backseat. That would also mean that someone would have seen her. It was pretty possible that she was not there.
A few weeks later, there was the simultaneous crashing of computers by a network virus. It was unlikely possible for her to do such a thing. She barely knew anything about computers, let alone creating a highly sophisticated virus.
---"Carmen could not have done it," said Rachel who was lying on the floor. She was occupying the spot where Carmen had fainted in seminar room twelve. She occupied a bit more of the spot since she was slightly taller than Carmen. She was staring at the ceiling for quite a while before standing up. She got up and walked exited the room before entering once more.
---Jeremy.
It was the same afternoon in the same month of the same day except it was one o'clock. The hallways were strangely empty and only a few classes were occupied for replacement classes. Jeremy did not have any classes and yet he was headed for class. He said he was heading there to get something. He said he left something in class. He did have class there but it was only at eight o'clock in the morning. Five hours had passed.
He grabbed the handle of the door and pulled open. He found Carmen on the ground as soon as he opened it. He was shocked. He did the first reasonable thing he could think off which was call Rachel. As he did that, he went to check Carmen's pulse and followed Rachel's instructions. He took shots of the scene with his camera as Rachel called for help. Soon, the crowd built up and every passer-by stopped to look at the commotion.
That was only at about one o'clock. Jeremy could have been there fifteen minutes earlier and things would have been different. Or maybe he was there fifteen minutes earlier and things were different.
Jeremy entered the room casually and was surprised to see Carmen there. Both of them had different intentions for being there and his intention was not of the good kind. Carmen was too surprised to see Jeremy. Both of them were friends and they did not pose a threat to each other. That was until something happened. Carmen figured out or found out something. He had to eliminate the threat, but he knew he could not kill. Blood would be on his hands. It was too chaotic, too risky. It would also attract too much attention. He knocked her out instead, somehow, without a scratch. After, he did what had to be done. Maybe he was after the piece of paper which had the Sudoku puzzle on it but it was not there yet. Maybe the poem was there as a message for Jeremy.
So, he simply left the room, walked down the hallway, came back to seminar room twelve and opened one of the double doors. He was shocked and immediately called Rachel. But then there was no reason to write the poem, unless he wanted to divert the investigation.
If Jeremy did want to get Sudoku puzzle, it would have been a cinch to him. He could easily manipulate Rachel into obtaining that piece of paper. Maybe he did. He could have carefully taken the photographs and sneakily given the clues on a silver platter to Rachel. Even the clue from the History class was easily deciphered by Jeremy. The only problem was that he could not have thrown the paper to Rachel if he was sitting next to her.
He did have a motive against Ashikin. It was a minor feud which could have been blown out of proportions. He could have set the photographs to lead Rachel. He knew that the markings on the whiteboard could glow in the dark. He could have known what was behind the door as the three of them barged through, instantly taking a life. He could have known.
---"...He could have known," she mumbled. The thought of it almost made Rachel shed a tear. It was too cruel to think that a close friend could use someone like a puppet on a string. The closer a person got to another, the more biased that person would be; something which Rachel could not be at the current moment.
She stood in front of the entrance to lecture theatre four, reliving every painful second in her mind of the day she opened the door to someone else's death. And she opened the door once more, as though it was the last thing she would ever do.
---Joshua.
He happened to be everywhere when something was happening. It could have been coincidence he was everywhere or he could have had help. He knew people. Being the photographer for multiple organisations, it was possible he got the latest news.
He was there when Ashikin was the centrepiece of attention in lecture theatre four. He was taking photographs as usual. Flash after flash filled the room. He had to use flash. Flash was built to freeze an object in motion as the light reflects on it. He could not take without flash because his hands were shaking. He was cold, but he was sweating as well. Death could have a strong affect on another, the same with guilt. He seemed somewhat guilty. It could be possible that being the photographer for multiple organisations allowed him to access all the photographs laid out for Rachel with the writing behind. The thing was that he himself added his own photograph. It could be a small diversion or not. It could also mean that the first clue Rachel found on the piece of paper with the Sudoku puzzle was intentionally done by him.
There was a minor problem. He was incapable of doing such an act. Such a grand scheme required someone with a great imagination and sharp observation; none of which he had. He did not have the courage to knock someone out, let alone take someone's life.
---"He had too much to lose," stated Rachel as she glanced through all the photographs which had been laid out in front of her. They were all over the floor, all over the desk and all over the chairs with flipped tables in lecture theatre four. She walked over to two particular photographs and picked them up. One was a photograph of Joe and the other was of Jian.
"So much to gain," she said to herself, "But not the kind of people."
Though, the thing was never to rule out anybody.
---Joe.
He had a great motive. Everything that happened had increased the popularity of his website. He did not know Carmen or Ashikin well enough to pick them as targets. If he were to do it, it would have been someone else. He would have killed two birds with one stone. He would not have gone through all the trouble to kill someone random.
---Jian
He too had a great motive. Everything that happened had increased the popularity of the newsletter called the Matrics of which he was in charged. Increasing the readers would increase the production and in turn he would be able to get more sponsorship. The style of the events that occurred was not his. If he had his way, he would not target female students. He would target male students instead. But he could never do it; it was not his way of doing things.
---"Sorry to say but the narcissistic, dramatic guy would never such a thing," commented Rachel as she had the Matrics laid out opened in front of her amongst the photographs. She had been cracking her skull since the investigation started.
---She did not fit in the big picture. She was too busy. During the event of where Carmen had fainted, she was having a meeting with the student council members. She might have been indirectly involved. But she was clearly not there. She had an alibi.
She was just too busy to do all the dirty work on her own. She could be the mastermind, but she was not the one who set up the complicated rigged as shown by the glowing marker on the whiteboard in seminar room twelve. She was smarter than that as well. Though she was not smart enough to hack into the college network and install a virus in there.
---"I'm running out of suspects," muttered Rachel as paced up and down on the floor littered with photographs and papers. She picked up everything from the floor into her book bag and took a glance at her watch. The room was going to be occupied and she had to leave. She absentmindedly walked down the hallway with her heads filled with thoughts. Dazed, she walked down the hallway as though she was in dream. She sighed. It was like a burst of thoughts which was previously blocked by the dam. Voices flood the mind. It was mental torture. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She realigned her thoughts and began concentrating on her current objective.
Wednesday once more. Deadlines getting closer and the excitement of the mystery to the others were dying out slowly. She was dressed presentably. Rachel had a presentation earlier for Critical Thinking Skill classes.
She hesitated before calling out for Ben who was sitting at one of the benches. She hesitated because she realised that she had been walking to the Wi-Fi area and she did not notice that. She stood there for a moment before realigning her thoughts and realising what she had to do.
"Ben," she called and he turned towards her from behind his laptop, "Are you free now?"
"Yes, I am free," he replied, "I was just doing a website but I supposed I could take a break."
"Oh, okay. I just need to ask you a few questions about the virus."
"If you are talking about the incident which happened in all the Learning Spaces, then I know nothing of it."
"Where were you at about ten forty last Friday?" she inquired.
"Well, I was having a replacement class. There are about thirty over eyewitnesses and an attendance record to prove as an alibi," he replied sharply.
"Sorry," she apologised, "The stress is getting to me, with all the things coming up."
"I can imagine. There's the investigation, the last minute presentations and research papers plus the upcoming finals. It's no wonder you're so stressed up."
"I guess I have to deal with it," she said, "So, do you know anyone who might have been able do such a thing?"
"Not really, no," he answered, "But there is someone else who probably knows a bit more than me in the field of computers?"
"Who might that be?"
"
