Hebrew has left the house a while ago and Eric is busy, busy with searching out Hebrew's entire bedroom. He knew the cartoon boxes contained the cases Hebrew had solved in his whole career. He opened the drawers and that is when he found something strange.
"This woman..." He mumbled.
He took that photo and matched it with the photo pinned on the glass board.
'Abigail?' He wondered as the name written beside that photo on the glass board said.
He went back to search more in the drawer.
"I was right, these belongings are of those victims." He mumbled.
'Why he has it here instead of in a lab?' He questioned.
And then he remembers what happened last night.
~~~~~~
Last night...
When Hebrew was fast asleep, Eric tiptoed in. He wanted to know what has been worrying his friend lately. The room was dark but the lamp on the table was still on. Eric slowly moved towards the study table but then, his eyes fell on a small pocket diary fallen on the ground.
He picked it up, going through some pages he sensed it was some sought of daily accounts. He knew Hebrew wasn't the kind of man to keep a diary. And so, he knew this was of someone else's. As he went through the whole he saw a phone number on the last page too, 'John Harlow?' He read in silence. He noted down the number on his palm and went outside, quietly.
~~~~~~
"Should I give a ring to it?" He questioned himself.
Taking in a deep breath he nodded and went towards the hall.
Dialling the number he waited as it kept ringing. Losing his patience as some seconds passed by, he was about to disconnect when the other side received.
"Hello?" A lady picked up the call.
"Um- Hello, can I talk to Mr John Harlow?" Eric asked.
"John Harlow..." The lady on the other side whispered.
"Hello?!" Eric spoke up.
"Um... There is no such man is living here. Wrong number." Lady replied and without any second she disconnected the call.
Eric frowned at her behaviour.
'Why she got so tensed up?'
'Who is this John Harlow?'
'Whose diary was that?'
Eric had many questions and the only man to answer them was Hebrew.
~~~~~~
Here Hebrew reached the school address written on the last page. The school building wasn't quite huge but, it seemed to give a good education service.
"Good morning mister, you need any help?" A man asked as he saw Hebrew walking inside the building.
"Um- Good morning. I just...wanted to know about a guardian of a student who studies in this school." Hebrew replied.
"Mhmm. And you are?"
"Uh- I..." He hesitated.
Hebrew couldn't say his name, because it could be dangerous for him. But there wasn't any other name popping up in his mind.
"Mr Hebrew?" Another man came forward.
Hebrew looked at him, his eyes unsure if he could trust that man.
"Mr Flynn Hebrew. I am Peter stan, a huge fan of yours! I love the way you solved all your cases." He gave out his hand for a handshake.
Sighing lightly in relief, Hebrew shook his hands with the man and smiled finally.
"How come you are here?" The man asked.
"Umm, Mr Peter, actually I wanted to know something about a guardian of one of the students who might be studying here."
Peter nodded. "Yeah sure, please follow me."
Hebrew nodded as Peter took him inside one of the building.
"By the way which class?" Peter asked.
"Huh?" Hebrew who was busy looking at the interior of the school looked at Peter.
"I mean it would be easier to find if we know in which class the child studies."
"I- I do not know." Hebrew declared.
"I see, so...is the student a girl or a boy?" Peter asked further.
Hebrew cleared his throat.
"I just know the name of the guardian, She is Martha Stewart. "
"Ah... then it would take a lot of time to find then. Cause you see we aren't among swells who can afford those huge electronic boxes to save our information, all we got here is files. Handwritten files." Peter laughed and so tried Hebrew, but it was merely a little scoff.
Soon they reached a huge room with shelves filled with files.
"These contain all the information about the students who study here, their guardian's addresses contacts everything," Peter informed.
Hebrew nodded, "Thank you, Mr Peter. I hope you wouldn't mind if I search all by myself."
"No worries, Mr Hebrew. You can go ahead and search. And if you need any help just call me out. I'm inside the premises the whole day today."
Hebrew nodded and thanked him one more time before Peter left the room. Now in this perfectly lit up the room, was just Hebrew and bunches of files. The room seemed to be small and had shelves in it. It's white washed walls reflected the light back, making the room brighter. The shelves kept there has files all over containing the details of all alumni and the students studying at present.
He started searching. Going through the name of the guardians of each student in each file. He read all the files meticulously, sometimes while standing in a corner, sometimes while leaning on the shelves, while sometimes roaming or sometimes sitting on the ground.
No one should be missed, this may take a lot of time and hard work but, Hebrew was adamant about finding anything about one of the victims. Hours passed by and after three hours all the files were read but, Hebrew didn't find anyone named Martha Stewart in the guardians.
He sighed and walked out of the room
"Mr Hebrew...what happened? It didn't help?" Peter asked while frowning.
Hebrew shook his head,
"I guess, I'm standing at the wrong place."
His sounded disappointed. After thinking for a second Peter's eyes sparkled, "Wait...Mr Hebrew. I have another file. I do not know if that will be of any help-"
"I would like to take a look."
Peter nodded and quickly went inside a room. Sprinting out he had a thin file in his hand.
"This is it, it's the file of those students who left the school. Records date back to this and the last year."
Hebrew nodded and started going through the pages meticulously. Because the school wasn't much popular they didn't have many students and so, not many names were there. After fifteen minutes passed by standing there and looking at those names. The frown at Hebrew's face faded and a tiny smile blinked on his lips.
"I found her." He whispered.
Before Peter could ask anything, Hebrew thumped the file in his hand.
"Thank you Mr Peter!"
"It is a pleasure to help someone like you out."
Hebrew nodded and ran out of the school towards the road.
"Towards Leman street." He ordered as he sat in the taxi.
He tapped his foot and kept looking out the window. He was glad to actually find her family. Was it nervousness, anxiety or excitement to meet her family? He didn't know.
But all he knew was, finally he can apologise to the people who are hurt and can't find justice because of him. He was ready to be punished, to be cursed upon. But he won't step back now.
Soon the taxi stopped as he was taken to his destiny.
"You may stop, I'll find my way from here."
Giving the fare he stepped down and after walking past two to three houses he found the one he was looking for.
"121 A." He whispered...