September 28

  Mr. Basil House was never a man of feelings. He found the concept interesting to study and to learn, but he himself thinks it's a matter of human error. It is like finding the enjoyment in studying a lion, but it would be foolish for a man to encounter one, and yet that feeling he felt the day before, that sense of warmth, was something he had never felt. That tension in his chest, that feeling in his stomach, was all too strange for him. But Basil, still lying on his couch, face stuffed with sweets, thought about it with curiosity.

  But his thoughts were unfortunately interrupted by a quiet knock on the door, followed by a woman walking in. Grace Avery. He looked at her, observed her as he did with all things. He saw fresh scratch marks on the side of her shoes and a slight limp in her right foot. She had nearly tripped on the way here, but saved herself, twisting her ankle as a result. He saw how she wore her long, wavy hair down to her waist, how it was layered, and how her bangs covered her forehead. The way she dressed —sharp yet with a soft undertone. She was a woman who cared about her image and perhaps even took pride in it... at least early on in life.

  But what caught his attention the most was the yellow folder in her hands. It seemed quite thin, meaning it most likely had only two or three sheets of files or documents inside. She held it casually, meaning it wasn't anything too important or tragic, contrary to the last time she came here. But she also held it tight enough to hint at its value.

  "Are you just gonna sit there and not say anything?" Grace's voice cut through the silence.

  Basil's eyes flicked back up to her face, realizing that he had zoned out.

  "I got the stuff," She said as she waved the yellow file in the air.

  Basil stood quickly and marched towards Grace, taking it out of her hands in excitement. Inside was just 2 sheets of paper that had all her credit cards and debit cards, and on the top right corner, it had Emily's phone number. Basil and Grace leaned to look at it.

  "020 7483 0274..." Basil muttered.

  Basil went back to his little couch and lay back down, "call it," he said.

  Grace looked up at him, "Why me?" she asked

  "You have a phone?"

  "Your phone is literally on the table". Grace snapped back, "You call it."

  "Too far."

  Grace grumbled and dialed the number into her phone. As Grace pressed the dial button, she waited... Silence. Then...

  Beep.... Beep.... Beep....

  Basil turned his head fast, eyes widened, and stood up once more. The call had gone through, meaning the phone still worked. The slightly muffled beep sound went on for quite some time, around a good six seconds, before an AI voice message came through.

  Basil smiled and opened his laptop, which he kept buried under the coffee table, under all the mess. "Based on the sound of the AI, Most likely Samsung," he said.

  "So now we just have to track the phone down."

  "That's right, Gracey Grace~" Basil replied with a smirk. He typed in the phone company's website. Putting the information would tell them the exact location of the phone.

  Basil first put in Emily's mail, which he saw numerous times on Emily's fridge, notebooks, and sticky pads. Now it was the password to the phone. Basil sat there, thinking.

  "You said that Rachel was code for a password. Did you figure out what kind?" Graced asked.

  "Thinking," Basil replied.

  "could be a Caesar cipher. It's quite common."

  "Nope, phone passwords must have numbers. A Caesar cipher wouldn't make sense."

  "Then what could it be?"

  Then Basil opened his eyes, "numeric cipher... Specifically A1Z26 Cipher," he said

  "A1..... what?" Grace asked

  "It's a type of cipher in which each letter in the alphabet correlates with a number. For example, A being the first letter in the alphabet, its number would be 1, B would be 2, C would be 3, and so on."

  "So then Rachel would be the same. R would be 18, A would be 1..."

  "Yes! Now you're getting it!" Basil exclaimed, "Beautiful character development!"

  Grace glared at Basil, "Anyways... the could would be 18138512."

  "Excellent!" He said he typed the numbers in.

  The screen loaded for a moment. Then. A red dot appeared on the map, blinking slightly. But the location shocked Grace and even Basil. It was right in front of the Bakery, the phone, Emily's phone. Was somehow at Basil's home. How? That shouldn't be possible. Basil deduced that the phone was indeed active, meaning that it still had battery. That would only mean someone else had it, and that would almost have to be the killer.

  "How is it here...?" Grace said as she stepped back from the screen.

  Basil slumped back on his couch, surprised. This was impossible and something Basil never could have predicted.

  "DAMN!" Basil yelled, throwing a couch cushion on the floor, "How is it here!" He said as he buried his face in his palms.

  The more Basil thought, the more he spiraled. Could he have been wrong? Was he chasing a dead end the whole time? Grace saw him, though his fingers,' she could see how stressed out Basil was. She sat beside her and put her hand on his shoulder, comforting her.

  But Basil, at the moment, paid no attention to Grace. He was sure this wasn't a dead end. Everything pointed to the fact. But "how" was the question?

  "Holmes once said that, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth."

  Basil looked at the screen once more, his brain working overtime, thinking of possibilities. Then it finally, he finally got it. He stood up, put on his coat, and walked towards the door.

  "Where are you going?" Grace asked, but she got no response but a:

  "Fresh air.."

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  .

  .

  Basil stepped outside, staring at the ground. He saw a slightly damaged black Samsung phone lying on the ground. The phone case faded, the edges chipped, the screen slightly cracked. Basil then looked around. He looked to his left, two couples, mid-30s, smiling as they flirted in public. A kid riding his bicycle with his mom behind him, and an old guy sitting on a bench nearby. Then he looked to his right: a middle-aged man walking into a gift shop, a sharp haircut, a thick beard, a blond woman crossing the road, and lastly, a man waiting for the bus. Basil smiled as he picked up the phone and made his way to the bus stop.

  He stood there, just beside the man, like a normal person waiting for the bus. He glanced at the man every so often, observing. He saw how there was dirt on one of his keels, meaning he likely bent down recently. He saw the man pull out his wallet to get money for the bus, and that moment, Basil saw a picture of two kids, one who was shorter and looked younger, with longer hair and wearing what looked like a blue striped shirt, and the other was taller, a bit older, and had shorter brown hair and was wearing a grey hoodie. Basil's eyes shifted to the man's finger, a golden ring. Wedding ring, decently clean.

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  Basil smiled, "Bingo"

  As the bus came, both men stepped on. Basil sat right next to the man, smiling as he looked at him.

  "So..." Basil said quietly, "how'd you do it?"

  "Do what?" The man said.

  "You know what I mean, Mr....." Basil said as he recalled the ID he saw in his wallet, "Mr. William... Fate."

  William sat there in silence for a moment before turning and smiling, a warm smile. Perhaps a bit too warm, "you must be Mr. House. I've heard of you, the "Great Detective" People say."

  "If you know me, then I'm sure you know that there's no point in hiding."

  The bus came to a stop. The driver announced the stop, and the familiar ching beat the door would make when opening. One by one, passengers got off.

  "I believe this is our stop," Whillam said.

  "And if I don't follow?"

  Hearing this, William pointed something at Basil's abdomen, a gun, which was hidden in his pocket, but a gun nonetheless.

  "Dull," Basil said in a unimpressed tone as he got up and stepped out of the bus.

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  Grace watched as Basil stepped out of the Bakery. She watched everything from a window, Basil finding the phone on the ground, the way he turned left and right, and finally, how his attention on the bus stop across the street and the way he got onto the bus to go god knows where. Grace could sense...no, feel the trouble that'll happen. She looked back at the computer, seeing the red dot moving, she grabbed the computer and rushed out without a second thought.

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  .

  Basil and William arrived at a park, families walking around in joy, Kids playing with the red and orange leaves on the grass. If under different circumstances, William and Basil may have looked like two friends walking around in a park.... but this was nothing like that. At the moment, William still stood behind Basil closely, pointing that Gun at his back.

  They arrived deeper in the park, more isolated, a place where, if a person needed help, it would have taken at least 15 minutes for people to hear it and arrive. Basil and William sat on a bench next to each other, prepared.

  "Care to tell me how you killed?" Basil broke the silence, "How did you kill without leaving traces?"

  "Nothing special," Williams said. He had a strong British accent, heavy enough that even for Basil, some words seemed unclear. "I just talked to them, and then... bang, they die."

  Basil sided with him, not believing him.

  But William only laughed, "Oh, Mr. House. You know, the human mind is truly fascinating. So smart yet so fragile. All it needs is a little push," he said...

  "I gave all of that 'push', just like how I'm going to with you," he said once more.

  Basil grinned, "Me? You think you could push my mind to its limit? How? Tell me?"

  William pulled out his gun and placed it between them, "curiosity..." he said.

  "Huh?"

  "You, Mr. House, are curious. You are the detective whose mind is like Holmes; curiosity runs in your blood." He said, "But you know the saying. Curiosity often killed the cat."

  "And how will you do that?"

  "With a game, of course."

  William gilded Basil's eyes to the revolver on the bench, "This revolver only has one bullet in it. We take turns shooting our selfs. If you survive for three turns, you win."

  "Or I could just walk away and call for back up." Basil said, "What's in it for me?"

  "I haven't gotten to the best part." William said, "If you win, I'll tell you who my funder is."

  "You're founder?"

  "Yes... You can't expect me to do all of this by myself, right?"

  Basil stood, thinking. He knows playing was a bad idea, but at the same time....

  "Sure.."

  Basil took the gun and pointed it at his head, "Let's talk about you while we play," he said with s smirk, pulling the trigger without hesitation.

  William's face dropped hearing it. Baqsil saw his feet shift slightly as he handed the gun to him.

  "You have a wife, Emily to be exact. But she was unhappy in the marriage..."

  William pulled the trigger, CLICK.

  "Emily found you boring after so many years, so 4 years after the marriage, she started to have affairs, sleep around with different men, and eventually, get pregnant from it."

  William's eyes twitched, his jaw tightened, and his hand's tight as he handed the gun back to Basil.

  "Out of kindness, you took the kids in. You were a kind man. You took care of them, sent them to school, called them you're own. I'm guessing the younger one is about to enter middle school, and the older one is in their senior year in high school."

  Basil pointed the barrel at his head and pulled the trigger again:

  CLICK

  And handed the Gun back to William.

  "But then, something happened that made you lose it. Emily had a baby, your baby, your biological daughter, whom you named Rachel... died due to your wife's carelessness."

  William pulled the trigger to his head.

  CLICK

  Basil received the gun once more. If he survives, he wins.

  "I believe that's your motive, yes? But why kill all the other people?"

  William stared at Basil intensely; perhaps it was anger, perhaps it was guilt. But Basil could see it, William Fate was not a bad man. He was just in bad circumstances.

  "The funder whom I spoke about promised to send money to the children if I continued killing. Emily was just a special matter..." He finally said, "But all of that doesn't matter now. This last shot is now a fifty-fifty chance. What matters now is your choice.

  Basil thought about it. He wanted... no, needed to know who the funder was. But that would be admitting that William's way of killing works, even on someone like him. He slowly raised the grey revolver to his head. He calculated, based on the number of rounds they "shot, the probability of the fifty-fifty chance being on his side was extremely low at this point, but he still wanted to try.

  "FREEZE!"

  In this crucial moment, Grace finally arrived. Out of breath and her hair a mess. She pointed her gun at William, demanding that he get on his knees and put his hands where she could see them.

  "ALSO! BASIL!" She yelled, "PUT THAT DAMN GUN DOWN, YOU CRAZY BASTARD!"

  "Oh... hey, Grace~" Basil said casually, waving at her with the gun, "welp, Grace is here, meaning there's no need for me to play any more," he said to William as he got up and stood, "It was a lot of fun~."

  Basil started to walk towards Grace with a happy look on his face, expecting some kind of compliment for his amazing performance. But instead, William's voice shot from behind.

  Ohh come on, don't you want to know who my funder is? I know you do," He said, "or are you too scared to play?"

  Basil stopped and turned back. Looking back at Grace, who was giving him a "Don't you dare" look, he slowly walked back to the gun and lifted the revolver once more.

  "NO! BASIL! STOP!" Grace yelled.

  "Go on... pull the trigger," Williams said.

  It was like an angel and a devil whispering in both of his ears. One said, "shoot", the other "don't shoot," and Basil was going to listen to both. Basil pointed the gun towards the ground and pulled the trigger.

  CLICK

  nothing came out, it was a blank. Grace was relieved but also mad. William had an indifferent look on his face, as if Basil had just ruined the fun. But Basil was staring at William with a smile.

  "So? The name?"

  William chuckled, "You're good. I guess it's only fair," he said. "he's a bit of a fan, but I doubt you know him."

  Basil raised an eyebrow, "Name drop?"

  "his name is Que-"

  BANG!

  Frozen..... everything froze in that second. Grace's shocked expression, Basil staring at the ground, still registering what happened. And William's body... falling on the ground with a thud. Blood spilled from his head, painting the grass crimson. The sound of the shot echoed throughout, making Basil's ears ring. Grace immediately went on high alert. She whipped out her phone and called for backup as she pointed her Gun high, looking everywhere, and yet saw no one.

  Through the Phone, Grace was instructed to get out of that area until backup arrives. She grabbed the stunned Basil and rushed out of there, far enough to be safe, close enough to still keep tabs on the area.

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  Shortly after, Backup arrived. Basil was taken by an ambulance for some tests while Grace talked with the police. She explained everything she had seen before going back to Basil to check on him. She saw him sitting on a curb with a blanket on him, staring into nothingness.

  "You ok?" She said

  "Confused," he replied

  "I understand that could shock people."

  no," Basil said back, "I'm confused on why I have this blanket on me," he said, "why do they keep puting this blanket on me."

  Grace chcukled, "It's for shock."

  "I'm not in shock," Basil said as if insulted.

  "Well, I'll leave you here for a bit," She said as her attention was taken by forensics.

  "Ms. Avery..." one of them said, " we have an issue..."

  Basil was sitting there, dozing off, thinking of what he would eat when he got back. Perhaps even buy a new mystery novel he's been seeing. But his sweet nothings he called thoughts, were interrupted by Garce's panicked voice.

  "Basil!" Hse said, "You have to see this!"

  "Oh, what now?!" Basil said, "I can't be doing this, I'm in shock, look, I've got a blanket," he said as he flicked the blanket like a cape.

  "the body... it's gone..."

  Basil's eyes widened, and he rushed towards the crime scene with Grace falling closely behind. Pushing through police officers and police tape, the body, which was lying lifeless beside the bench was no longer there; only a puddle of blood was left. Basil walked up closer, confused.

  "Where's the body? How is it gone?" he asked himself.

  "hey look..." Garce said to him while pointing at the bench.

  As Basil turned his head to the brown bench, He saw it. The letter "Q" is painted in the middle of the backrest with blood, dripping slowly.

  "shit..." Basil cursed under his breath.