When I woke up, I saw myself in a hospital coach of two beds, lying on a bed. I was seeing the faint figures of two men. I looked to my side. My vision became okay. I saw Fred lying unconsciously beside me. I looked forward. Ionen and a doctor were standing there.
'How, were the results of your interview, Ionen?' I said slowly. I was facing difficulty to talk. My whole body was tied with bandages.
'Well, I was successful in cracking the interview with pleasure. Their FBI riddles were very easy. But will you firstly explain how all these things happened to you?'
I jumped up from my bed on the floor on my feet but as my bones and muscles were not good, I gave a loud cry and fell upon the floor. Ionen and the doctor picked me up together and put me on the bed.
'Are you serious Ionen??' I cried 'I am so proud of you my boy!'
'Yeah thanks! To be honest, I would be very upset if I didn't saw this reaction from you even at this situation.'
I laughed lightly. My voice was much weaker than normal.
'I guess your office conference room was at fire and you jumped out of the window. Your colleagues were standing outside the office, when you and Fred fell down right in front of them. Thank god that you didn't land on your head. Your condition is not much critical. You will be fine by a month or so. They called me and I came immediately.'
'What!?? You again came out of the house without my permission?'
'By the way, my interview was just over during that time. I was in the police station.'
'Oh yes! But still.'
'How the hell can I leave you dying Mark? I had to come, giving a least importance to my promise.'
'Today I came to know how much you love me Ionen. Does mom and dad know about it?'
'Yeah, they surely do. They are surely very sad. But I have forbidden them to come.'
'Yeah, you did well. So are you an official detective now?'
'According to the bet which I set in front of The General, if I can bring Cruisons Macadam behind the rods by a month, then I will become an official one.'
'Good. But I guess I won't be able to be with you through your investigations. I have to stay in the hospital. Right?'
'No, no. I just said a bit excess. There is not much internal damage to you. You will be okay by a week.'
Fred woke up. He was much more damaged than myself. He looked around for some time. He murmured:
'Hey, where am I? Oh yes! I remember. I am glad that I am alive after that brutal incident.'
'Mark,' said Ionen 'wait a second. I am coming right away.' He went out.
Fred looked at me. I looked at him back. He stared at me blankly for some time. He gave a look of depression for some time. Then he revived himself and gave a wide smile.
The door flung open. Ionen Delbis and General Danny Frenzie Richardson came in. The doctor, Fred and I were startled.
'Doc sir, would you mind leaving the patients and ourselves alone for some time?' said General Richardson.
'No, no. No problem.' The doctor went out. He seemed to have got scared due to the arrival of the police.
Ionen came to me. He asked:
'Mark, explain the entire incident that happened in your office.'
'Well, I am saying in short. The high-fi cartoonist came for an interview after I arrived there. He was late. After talking for a while, he asked for a lighter to smoke his cigarette. Fred gave him the lighter. Then—'
'Did Fred just gave him the lighter or did the man it snatched away from him?'
'Mm…..Yes! You're correct! He snatched away the lighter from Fred.'
'Okay, continue.'
'Then, he lit his cigarette and dropped the lighter on the table, and it burnt away all our efforts of years in a split of a second. We all stood up. He was then screaming because his pants had caught fire. We all were determined not to help him because we were out of our wits that time. He destroyed all our efforts of years. But we should have helped him that time. He ran about the entire room and our whole room was at fire. All of my colleagues managed to escape and they locked the door so that the fire doesn't enters the rest of the building.
'Only I, Fred and James Beard were trapped. James Beard was burnt alive in front of us, because from his pants, now his whole body was at fire. I jumped out of the window, Fred followed me and he too jumped, and then I was blacked out.'
Ionen thought over the entire story thoroughly for some time.
'General,' he finally spoke out 'don't you find it strange, that from just a lighter, the entire room caught fire?'
'Yes. I think you are correct about It.' answered The General,
'And see, the lighter fell on the table. Isn't it? How did the pants of that James Beard catch fire?'
'Point.'
Ionen came up to me. He saw my hand. My hand was just a bit blackish. After that Ionen went to Fred and saw his hand.
'What the hell!?' I cried. I was totally surprised to see the sight.
The General was also surprised.
'I expected this.' said Ionen.
There was no palm. The hand ended just a bit after the elbow. I never saw this type of sights ever in my life. I was feeling to vomit, but I managed to control it back.
Fred was lying with a blank expression.
'General,' said Ionen 'when we asked the Boss of Mark, didn't he say, that around noon, he asked Fred to coordinate the sweepers to clean the room. And didn't he also say that it was Fred, who informed him about the coming of the guests the day after?'
'Yes. But what do you mean?'
'And you know one thing? Hugo Macadam mentioned thirteen of them were here at Moscow. But we caught only ten. I am sure that rest three are The Cabman, Fred Oliver and James Beard.'
'How?'
'As we know, Cruisons wants to kill me anyhow. And through Fred, I am sure, that the message of my, making so many of his team get arrested by my wits and then taking up the case of catching him, has gone to him. I am sure that he thus told a plan of killing me first in by that cabman case and then Mark. Why Mark too like me, it's unknown.
'Firstly, Fred made a wrong story of the cartoonist arriving to his Boss. He also said Mark's Boss that the cartoonist said that he would cut a big amount of income of the company if anyone is absent. This full statement is confirmed by Mark's Boss.'
'Wait, wait, wait,' said I 'so you questioned Boss. Right?'
'Well,' said the General 'not only your boss, your every colleague. Mr. Delbis was finding the entire matter suspicious from the beginning itself.'
'Okay, so shall I continue?' asked Ionen.
'Yes, of course!' said I with eagerness.
'This was the first step of his plan. After this in the morning, when Fred was to coordinate the sweepers to clean the conference room, he had added some kerosene or some sort of any fire-improving liquid to the phenyl in the bucket. The sweepers unknowingly cleaned the entire room with it.
'As I mentioned earlier, there was nothing official going on, else James Beard would never had snatched away the lighter. Criminals are always interested to execute their plans as fast as possible before they are caught, and James was interested to execute the entire plan at once, and thus he snatched it instead of just taking it.'
'Wait a minute,' said I 'if there was so much amount of Kerosene, couldn't we all just smell it?'
'You could surely smell it if the room was wiped with kerosene only. But Fred added Kerosene to the phenyl. The fragrance of the phenyl was stopping the smell of the kerosene to execute. And moreover I am not saying that it was kerosene only. It might be some other fire-improving liquids too. This I deduced because Fred's hand is burnt completely, but not Mark's, even though they received the same amount of heat. When he added the liquid to the phenyl, the liquid came in contact with his fingers too, and he forgot to wash his hands.'
'Hmm, I guess you are correct. Okay, continue.'
'The catching fire into the pants was intentional. When he stood up, after the accumulation of fire, his thigh touched the table and due to excessive accumulation of fire, due to that liquid, his pants caught fire.'
'But I can't understand one thing, isn't this plan a bit risky, intentionally making fire rage in your pants.'
'I and The General went to the remains of the conference room. There we saw a tattered and burnt, anti-fire pant. He wore it beneath his official pants. His plan didn't work and his clothes too caught fire because he was late to remove the fire.'
'Okay, then after that I myself can deduce and say. James Beard ran around the entire room to rage the fire.'
'And Mark, try to remember one more thing, when you all were running out of the room, you were at the last. Right?'
'Mm…..Yes, and Fred and James were ahead of me. Oh I see, that way they tried to lower my pace but they themselves got trapped. Am I right Ionen?'
'Perfectly.'
'But one more thing. Fred is working with us for so many years. But now suddenly he did all this. I still can't believe it.'
'Of course!' cried Fred 'I will never do such a thing you know. I am working for this company for so many years. Why will I do such a thing?'
'Then why did your hands burn away, if you didn't add such a liquid to it?'
'I stood much more close to the flame than Mr. Nora.'
'Well, if his hand didn't burn away, he was surely standing in a safer place. And you say that you saw your hands burn in front of your eyes but, you didn't go to that safer place? Do you think I am crazy?'
'No---- I mean---err----'
'No more excuses. I think you are Fred Oliver's twin, you know. Because I too can't believe that Fred Oliver, after working with this company for so many did something like this.'
The door flung open. A constable came in.
'Did you find out anything in Fred Oliver's house?' asked The General.
'We started searching for clues through the whole house. In a drawer in the house, we found out an envelope. In the envelope, we found out two birth certificates- Fred Oliver and Clark Oliver. This also showed that they were twins. We were still searching the house when we saw the big wooden cupboard which was locked. We together tried and broke it. The sight was terrifying sir, it was------'
'The dead body of Fred, I guess.' said Ionen.
'Yes sir, it was terrifying. The body seemed to be about a week old.'
Ionen turned towards Clark Oliver.
'You should be sentenced to death, firstly for killing your brother, and secondly for the attempt of killing Mark, and thirdly for being a secret spy of the Most Wanted, Cruisons Macadam.'
Clark was lying their blank. He opened his mouth but again closed it. He finally spoke out:
'Mr. Ionen Debris, sorry! I mean Mr. Ionen Delbis, I am very sorry for whatever I did. I promise to improve myself in future.'
'Don't say me sorry. Try to say sorry to General Richardson. Whatever done to you will be decided by him, not me.'
Ionen looked towards me.
'You'll revive very soon Mark. I need to leave now. See you soon.'
'Okay, good luck with the case.'
'Okay bye!'
'Bye!'
Ionen and The General left. The scared Doctor came in. he was still shuddering due to the shock he received.
I looked at Clark Oliver. His face was filled with disappointment. He was looking up at the ceiling. He didn't speak a word. He then turned towards me. I got frightened and turned towards the other side.
I thought of my works. All the important papers were already burnt. Our industries had to be ruined after this. I had always expected that someday I will get a news about it. I needed to find out any other way of survival if that had happened.
I again looked at Clark. He had closed his eyes and was sleeping. The doctor went to him.
'Alas!' cried The Doctor 'He is no more.'