Nigel sees Mr Driscoll Unveiled

Next morning, Nigel arrives at the bungalow, which was in the streets of Oakville. He goes straight towards detective’s home and sees that the main door was open. First, he thinks of ringing the bell, but instead he steps inside and searches for Mr Driscoll in every room. When he climbs up the staircase, he sees someone aged forty or above, with blonde hair. Nigel says to him:

‘Who are you?’

‘Get out!’ the man yells trying to hide his face with a piece of cloth. ‘How did you enter inside?’

‘Are you Mr Driscoll? Tell me or I’ll expose you.’

The man gets angry and unveils his face removing the cloth from his face, ‘Are you threatening me? Yes, I am Detective Arthur Driscoll. What harm can you do?’

‘Please don’t be angry I was only kidding,’ Nigel says getting a little scared. ‘How can I expose you? You are the greatest detective of Toronto, nothing can escape you.’

Arthur feels very regretful and sits on a chair nearby holding his head tightly as if he was very much distressed about the fact of being exposed in front of Nigel. He stands up and says to Nigel:

‘You know it was very stupid of me that I let the door open. Which made a rat like you to enter inside?’

‘Look, Mr Driscoll…’ ‘Sir!’ he exclaims.

‘Okay sir, I’m just saying that I won’t expose you I promise.’

‘You won’t?’ Arthur asks angrily. ‘You can’t, ok? Is that clear? You can never expose me even if you take my pictures right now.’

Nigel gets a little angry on his attitude and says:

‘Okay, I’ll be leaving this place right now? But I just want to tell you that I don’t want you to interfere in this case. This is my father’s murder case. I’ll do the investigations myself.’

‘Look Nigel, I know this is your father’s case and if you want to do investigation then do it, well and good. But this is not about Mr. Steve Dahl as a father only; it’s about a well-known personality, whose assassination is a mystery to public and media as well.’

‘Okay, then I have a solution to this. You solve this case your way, and I’ll do the investigations alone as well…following the ways of your book.’

‘How about this, that we both do it together?’ Arthur asks gently.

‘…Ok but still I’ll make some reports on my own, and maybe I won’t like it that way. I want to follow those three rules of proofs, suspects and witnesses.’

‘I tell you what. You go with suspects and witnesses. And I’ll go for proofs and evidences.’

‘…Okay works for me’ Nigel says after thinking for a while.

Then Nigel takes out a piece of paper and gives it to him:

‘These are the names of all those suspects.’

They talk on the suspects for a while after which Nigel leaves detective’s home.

Narration of the Incident

That afternoon, Nigel drives his car towards his uncle’s home. He reaches the bungalow at Burlington and rings the bell twice. Mr Simon comes on the gate and sees Nigel,

‘Good evening’ Nigel says.

‘Good evening, come inside.’

Next moment, Nigel was sitting next to his uncle in his house. Nigel comes straight to the point,

‘Uncle I need you to narrate the incident of that night to me.’

‘Sure’ Simon replies not liking this, ‘let’s go to that door.’

They walk towards the main door from where Nigel entered inside. Simon points the gate and narrates the incident:

‘That night, while your father had gone to sleep in the room I had asked him to, I was still awake. It was around twelve o’ clock. This entrance door began to knock. I was surprised thinking who could it be but I still went on to check. As I opened the gate, I saw someone standing in white clothes with a blue handkerchief tied around his face, and with sunglasses on his face with blue shades. He immediately put something on my face due to which I…’

Mr Simon gets silent, and Nigel was listening to very carefully, so he asked:

‘Due to which you?’

‘I felt unconscious, it must be chloroform.’

‘I see, then what did you see after you woke up?’

‘I went to the room where your father was sleeping. As I reached there, I saw him lying dead stabbed with not just any knife, but a dagger sort of strong and sharp knife, on the left side of chest with blood all around.’

‘I know it was a dagger, but tell me the exact timings.’

‘Five minutes earlier than twelve, the door knocked and I got unconscious. And at quarter past two of night I regained consciousness.’

‘Oh I see,’ Nigel says seeing tears in his uncle’s eyes.

Nigel feels for a while that his uncle was not feeling easy being asked these questions, therefore, he thinks of leaving.

‘Okay thank you Uncle, I better leave.’

Uncle Simon says one last thing:

‘By the way, your mother’s okay. You better go and see her.’

‘Okay, I’ll see…’

Nigel leaves his home and sits in his car. he makes a phone call to the detective. The call is answered after a while:

‘Hello, Nigel?’

‘Mr Dris- I mean sir I just had a talk with my uncle.’

‘Oh good, what information did you collect?’

‘The assassination took place around twelve o clock, and the assailant was wearing white clothes with a blue handkerchief and sunglasses on his face.’

‘Great job, we have enough information now, but we’ll still need more because this case seems interesting to me.’

‘But I’ll solve this on my own as well’ Nigel replies firmly.

‘Sure, you may but I just need to tell you one thing, that your father’s brother might be lying. I mean we can’t trust him; he might be making some stories.’

‘Stories? I don’t think so; he was actually crying.’

‘Look, Nigel in this business, one has to be smart enough to recognize the crocodile tears. It means if he is on the suspect list, we can’t spare him until we believe him to be completely innocent.’

‘You must be right but if my uncle would have been a culprit, then he would never have asked you to do the investigation. He was the one who gave you this case.’

‘But remember what you told me yesterday, you told me that your uncle kept away all the security cameras away one month earlier.’

‘So, do you mean that he kept them away because he was involved in this murder?’

‘It’s possible,’ Arthur replies.

‘Well, okay then, I’ll keep an eye on him.’

‘What are you doing right now?’

‘Going to my father’s widow,’ he replies in a little stress.

‘Ma’am Stephanie, am I right?’

‘Yes, I’ll see you then…’

They end their calls and Nigel turns on the engine of his car.

The Letters

Later that afternoon, Nigel goes to Stephanie Dahl’s house. She allows him to enter inside and talks to him formally. Nigel keeps on talking about her health, but she talks more about her father’s death. Stephanie takes out an envelope and says to him:

‘I need to tell you about this…’

‘This must be something about my father’s will.’

‘No, it’s something unusual.’

‘What is it?’ he says taking the envelope from her.

‘I found this letter at my post box.’

Nigel opens the envelope and sees a yellow paper with something written on it in typed form. It reads:

I AM BEHIND YOUR HUSBAND’S DEATH…MY NICK NAME IS WILLY

Nigel feels strange seeing this statement and says:

‘Is anyone playing games with us or is it just a prank by someone?’

‘No Nigel,’ Stephanie says, ‘it must be something very serious. Maybe the killer is up to something mysterious and dangerous.’

‘I guess you’re right,’ Nigel says looking at the paper. ‘Don’t worry I’ll catch him sooner or later.’

Nigel stands up and immediately walks outside her home without saying any words such as ‘good bye’ or ‘see you soon’.

Nigel sits inside his car, keeps the letter in his pocket and after turning on the engine, he drives the car as fast as he could.

Moments later, he arrives at Oakville and goes straight to the detective’s home. As he knocks the door, Arthur comes after a while with a mask on his face. Nigel enters inside his house and says:

‘Sir, we got another clue…’

‘Oh really? What is it?’

‘First, put off this mask…’

Arthur angrily puts off the mask and throws it aside.

‘Now will you tell me what’s the clue?’ he asks.

‘It’s almost an answer,’ Nigel says taking out the letter and showing it to him.

‘Let me see this,’ Arthur says taking it and reading it.

‘What do you make of it sir?’

‘Willy, someone by the name of Willy is the murderer.’

‘You mean the assailant and the person involved were the same guy.’

‘No, I didn’t mean that,’ Arthur says examining the paper, ‘but we’re actually looking for the person who hired the assailant to do this.’

‘No, I’m not looking for that person. I’m looking for the assailant.’

‘What? Assailant?’ Arthur asks looking at him getting surprised. ‘What is our concern with him?’

‘No, I need him only,’ Nigel replies.

‘Oh I get it, if we catch him first then we can easily be led to Willy, right?’

‘Wrong, even if we catch Willy first, then also I’ll ask him to tell me who was the serial killer or assailant hired by him.’

‘Why, what do you want?’ Arthur asks getting confused by his own thoughts and Nigel’s words.

‘Let me tell you in detail, first when the assailant comes in front of me, I’ll ask him that why did he took away a very precious life, which had nothing against him? Why did he make so many people cry just for a sake of little money? I’ll offer him three times the amount he was given by Willy for murder, and after offering this money I’ll say if he can bring back my father from death, I’ll give him this amount.’

‘Wow,’ Arthur taunts, ‘isn’t that something? I just don’t get it, we are always investigating that person who orders a crime to take place, the culprit is always he who is behind the crime.’

‘Look sir, my point is that Willy must have ordered this because he had something against my father, he must be having a solid reason. But the assailant had nothing personal against my father, then why did he do this just for sake of little money.’

‘Okay, this is a valid point, but you’re acting as if you are not all concerned with Willy.’

‘I am,’ Nigel replies, ‘and we will catch him soon…’

A loud bang on the door of storeroom interrupts Nigel speaking. He gets a little frightened and asks:

‘What was that?’

‘Don’t worry, it’s my pet, she has woken up.’

‘Oh…but sir I wanted to ask you that why did Willy wrote this letter in typed form?’

‘To hide his hand writing,’ Arthur replies gently.

‘Oh, I see…’

‘Okay Nigel, you better leave now, I have to do this investigation on my own for a while like yourself. Therefore, I’m going to solve clues for Willy and you solve them for the assailant.’

‘Sure!’

They both shake hands and Nigel leaves, leaving Willy’s letter for him.

The Culprit

Next morning, as Nigel leaves his home for doing inquiries of the suspects, he thinks of going back to Uncle Simon. But as he leaves his apartment building, he sees media all across the Silver Street. He sees the team of reporters, cameramen and journalists. Most of them come towards him and ask him different questions, regarding his father’s assassination and its investigation. He gets a little irritated, but firmly says:

‘Okay, listen to me now, I will tell you only one thing and nothing else. As we all know that Mr Driscoll is doing the investigation of this case, therefore I’m telling you that I have no concern with his work and I’m only looking out for the assailant hired by the culprit.’

‘Do you have any suspects?’ one of the reporters asks. ‘Can you give their names?’

‘No comments!’

‘Sir, one last question,’ another reporter says, ‘have you seen Mr Driscoll personally? Knowing how he looks.’

Nigel gets surprised and angry on this question that he turns towards that reporter and sees him angrily. But he gets more shocked when he sees that the reporter was none other than Mr Arthur Driscoll himself.

Arthur winks giving an evil smile.

So, after a big pause, Nigel then replies…