“The killer was standing!”

Dan walked through the studio, during his stroll he saw that there were pictures on the wall, some were framed posters of films and shows that the wheelchair director directed, and some were photographs of the actors and actresses that performed in aforementioned films and shows.

Dan passed by dressing rooms belonging to actors and actresses, the doors were all closed. The names of the tenets were embroidered on stars affixed to the doors. The first room he passed belonged to a man named Terrance, then he passed by the room belonging to somebody named Lily. After passing Lily's room he arrived at the door that currently blocked entry into Robert's room.

Daniel proceeded to knock on Robert's door, the door opened to its full extent and an arm lunged from the darkness and pulled Daniel into the dark room, the door slamming behind him as he entered. Daniel's eyes adjusted to this new light, and was instantly shocked by the state of the man standing in front of him.

Robert was as pale as a sheet, his eyes bloodshot, he looked as if he hadn't shaved in a week! He didn't look as he used too, he seemed rather sickly.

"What's going on?! Is this all because of those letters?" Dan inquired.

"Oh this?" Robert stated, he then tore off the facial hair like it was nothing. "No this is just makeup for the autopsy scene."

"So, will you only be appearing in one episode?"

"No, my main role is Dr. Saemon's assistant. The makeup is for me acting as the assistant's twin brother, the person who would be receiving the autopsy. Mr. Dunt is weird sometimes."

"Mr. Dunt?"

"You haven't met him yet? He wrote the books we based our show on."

"You mean to say Mr. Dunt wrote the Dr. Saemon books? I've only seen one of the books he wrote."

"Did you read it?"

"I only saw the cover. The contents of the interior is completely unknown to me."

"You have no idea of what you're missing."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door! Robert moved over to the door to see who it was. A beautiful young woman was revealed as Robert opened the door. The smell of raspberries quickly filled the room like a candle's light.

"Salma, come in." Robert stated.

"Looks like your ready for rehearsal, who is your guest? I like his crimson hair. He dyes?" Salma replied.

"My name is Daniel Smith," Daniel replied, "my hair is not dyed, this is it's natural colour."

"Awesome! Eddy wants you on set Rodger."

"Eddy?"

"Edgar Riot, he's the director, he got involved in an accident five weeks ago, that's why he's in a wheel chair." Robert stated.

"Sounds like you have to leave Bob, but I'll stay here to check these letters out. By the way, before you leave, when did you start receiving these?"

"I know that it's vital evidence for your investigation Dan, so I'll tell you that I started receiving the letters 2 weeks ago. Now that you know, that means I can go!"

"See you later Bob."

"I'll see you later as well Dan." After Robert made that statement, he and Salma left the room, Dan opened a draw which contained dark blue envelopes and also letters written on pink paper which were all addressed to Robert. Surprisingly there were 14 dark blue envelopes which all contained the extortion threats! All the other letters as stated prior were on pink paper, these were obviously love letters, the love birds were none other than Bob and Salma. Daniel carefully carried the love letters and put them in a much safer location as looking into the flame between his friend and his friend's co-worker was not of any concern to Dan. besides, he would have been barred from looking into it.

Daniel began reading the extortion letters. It took him an average of two minutes to read a single one, so he spent approximately 28 minutes to read every last one. They all had the same hand writing, all were worded in such a way that it made Daniel feel as if the sender had been involved in some sort of accident, however the time of the accident was left a complete mystery. The extortionist threatened revenge against Bob unless he payed the extorter all of his earnings, down to the last cent.

Dan didn't know who wrote these letters, or why they were threatening Bob specifically. Daniel thought that perhaps a handwriting analysis would solve the case immediately. So Daniel withdrew one of the dark blue envelopes, and deposited the many sheets of pink paper back into the drawer, and then proceeded to leave the studios and took a taxi to a laboratory that was able to do a handwriting analysis.

When he arrived there he made a beeline for the people in charge and asked politely if the people there would perform the analysis. The scientists accepted the request but they forewarned that the analysis was going to take a day or two, possibly longer. Daniel nodded and went back to the taxi stand, he then took another taxi back to the studio where Robert was working.

Daniel got a huge surprise when he arrived back at the studio. Police were swarming over the studio like bees on somebody who stole their honey. Dan swiftly payed the cabby and exited the vehicle, making this statement as he made his egress: "keep the change." Daniel searched for the person in charge and spotted David Lancer. Daniel cancelled his search immediately and walked over to David who was talking to a security guard at the gate.

Daniel noticed that David was equiped with a crutch under his left armpit, he must have gotten injured. A cigarette was in his mouth and his fingers were twitching. David however wasn't even attempting to reach for his lighter, he seemed on edge. David soon turned around and spotted Dan, he then proceeded to limp over to Dan.

"Dan, thank goodness you're here," David stated as soon as he was an arms length from Dan, "would you please take over so I can go and have a smoke?"

"What's going on around here, and what happened to your leg?" Daniel replied.

"Murder, unfortunately. Victim's name was Altwitch, he was murdered in his own dressing room. Look! There he goes now." Suddenly paramedics appeared out of thin air, they were pulling along a stretcher.

"Oh no! Not Robert!" Daniel exclaimed with a deep shock and sadness.

"Did you know him? Then you can identify the body at the morgue to confirm his identity, which I don't think is necessary since his ID and wallet were still at the scene."

"My goodness, how did this happen?"

"I'm kind of foggy on the details myself, but the scene of the crime is yours to investigate."

"I'll look into it and see what I can figure out." Daniel stated with a somber tone, he then began walking away.

"Accident!" David suddenly erupted at quite a loud volume.

"Pardon?" Daniel replied and turned back to face David, he took a few steps to get closer to David.

"You inquired about my injury. I was involved in an accident. I told my partner, who is new to the force and also a quite inexperienced drive, not to drive the car, but he doesn't listen to anybody but himself…"

"Sounds like someone I know."

"No interrupting please, as I was saying, he slammed into an electrical pole yesterday, he's currently in hospital for a concussion, luckily I only escaped with a broken leg. Unfortunately the doctors are unsure whether or not he'll survive. That's why, much to my dismay, you have to be my partner." He ended his tale and proceeded to light the cigarette and smoked it.

"Well, it'll be an honour to work with you."

"Yeah, but remember, I'm running the shots, I'll give you orders, and you'll present me with information. Got it little man!"

"Hey! You know, you're less then a centimetre taller than me, I'm not that little compared to you, I'll go to the scene of the crime, which you just recently gave me charge of, and you can go back to your conversation with the gatekeeper." Daniel replied with a tinge of anger in his voice.

"Oh come on! I just lit my cigarette!" David exclaimed as Daniel stomped into the studio lot.

Daniel walked down the same route he took earlier that same day, the only difference now was that police and forensic analysts lined the halls like armoured statues in a haunted mansion. Dan saw Selma being held and caressed by a man he had not met yet, tears were flowing down her face like the water in a waterfall. Dan knew it must have been hard on her since she just lost her boyfriend. He was at least glad to have knowledge that she had friends looking out for her. Dan was fast approaching Robert's dressing room once again. As he edged closer towards the crime scene, he bumped into a girl heading in the opposite direction who appeared too suddenly for him to dodge her. She didn't seem to be effected by the small collision, Dan also noted that she was heading toward Salma.

Dan finally reached Robert's dressing room, he opened the star embroidered door, the smell of blood viciously overwhelmed his senses as he did so, feelings of sorrow and deep regret filled his mind, body and soul. He wondered if there was anything he could have done to have saved his friend from such a horrid fate, but he was somewhere else at time, there was nothing he could have done. There was one thing he will do to get this heartache off his psyche, and that was to crack the mystery wide open and find the criminal behind his friend's murder.

Daniel reopened the drawer which contained the extortion, but when he did he was saddened to find that all the blue envelopes had been replaced by ashes, the pink letters which were also in the drawer were all still there which Dan could tell after a three second glance. Dan spoke to an officer who was also working the scene to take the love letters back to Selma, he then went back to his investigation.

He went back to the desk and noted that the lamp atop it was now broken, the light bulb was smashed, but not completely destroyed, some blood and skin tissue lined the sharp edges of the hole in the bulb; the broken pieces scattered on the table were covered in blood. The lamp was the presumed murder weapon, all the signs pointed to that presumption being true. Also atop the desk, under a very few of the aforementioned shards was an incomplete love letter, obviously this was intended for Salma. As it was technically at that moment police evidence, Daniel was able to read it without consequence, so that's exactly what he did. The following was jotted down:

Dear Sally,

I know that things have been tough, but nothing will ever break my love for you. I fear that this may be my last love l-

Daniel could tell that since the last word was scribbled, something bad happened at that moment. Anything could have happened at that moment, but it wasn't his demise, if Bob was murdered at the moment he was writing 'letter' then the scribble wouldn't look the way it did. Something surprised him enough to make him stop writing.

Dan decided to double check the ashes in the drawer and dug through them, and he saw a speck of blue, it was the same shade of blue as the extortion letters that had been burned up. He slowly extracted the blue speck to find that it was a completely intact envelope. It was an extortion letter! Daniel was surprised until he took a closer look, he was slammed with a feeling of dread as he read the name of the intended recipient. It was addressed to him!

Daniel's hands shook slightly as he opened this new extortion letter, an understandable reaction since the letter was addressed to him, he began to read the letter which had the following written on it:

'Dear D.S. Smith.

I made Robert, your friend, suffer the same way my special one suffered. Good luck solving the mystery.

Regards, the extortionist.'

Daniel was relieved to discover that the extortion letter was in no way threatening, he then proceeded to pass it over to a forensic analyst to get it analysed. Dan also spoke to the analyst about the other sample that he gave.

Suddenly the door opened violently, and then through the doorway Daniel could see David, crutch and all, he hobbled into the room.

"So what have you elaborated from your examination of this room?"

"From my close examination of the scene, I think that perhaps the light bulb was used as the murder weapon." Daniel replied, the tone of his voice made it sound like he was almost completely certain.

Divid suddenly had a look of one struck with an idea. He took a book from out of one of his coats interior pockets, it was entitled: 'Dr. Saemon and patient zero.' "I believe that our killer was following this narrative."

"What makes you think that?"

"After my perusal of the scene I set up a temporary office nearby, follow me and I'll show you." David proceeded to walk toward his temporary office, Daniel followed him. Soon they arrived in the area just outside the door belonging to the director. David opened the door to the room that was directly beside the directors office. They both went through the now accessible doorway. David proceeded to sit on the seat facing the door on one side of the desk that was inside, Daniel walked to the seat opposite David's chair and sat on it.

"Here," David opened the book and put his finger on the beginning of a paragraph. "I would like you to read this part. Once you finished reading this paragraph you too will realise that the criminal was following the book."

Dan started reading the paragraph aloud:

"'Simon was looking through his twin's mail, when he discovered some dark blue envelopes, they had all been opened before. He read through them, and he was shocked to find out that his twin was the victim of extortion. The one who wrote the letters mentioned an accident, the writer also mentioned having lost their loved one.' Wait, the contents of the letters I found in Robert's room were similar to what is described here."

"Precisely!"

"'Simon remembered the accident, after all he was in the car as well, but his brother David wasn't responsible, he wasn't the one driving, in fact I was Simon who crashed into the extortionist's car. Simon became extremely afraid.'"

"Okay, you've read enough of that part." David picked up the book and skimmed through it until he found the next part he was looking for, he pointed at the beginning of another paragraph. "Now read this."

"'Eleanor examined the body and then wrote some findings down on a piece of lined note paper, which she then passed to Simon. "Give this to Dr. Saemon." She stated in her quite timid voice, Simon read it.

"This says that he was killed with a light bulb." Simon replied.' Wait a second! That's how Robert was killed, the murderer was indeed as you were saying, following this book."

"Yes, our suspect list is narrowed down to the people who read this book."

"I guess that means you can eliminate me, this is the first time I have ever read this book."

"I know."

"I would like to meet the author, Mr. Dunt."

"I'll see what I can do." David picked up the phone on his desk and used his right hand to dial a number, he then activated the loud speaker.

"Dunt residence, Nathaniel Dunt speaking, how may I help you?"

"Hello Mr. Dunt, this is sergeant Lancer, of the Everleason police department, working aside the HPD. My acting partner, Daniel Smith, would like to meet with you."

"Yes, I understand. Tell him that I will see him tomorrow at 10 AM. That is the earliest I'll be free."

"I'll pass the message on. Farewell." David stated, after which he gently put the phone back into its place and he looked Daniel in the eyes. "You heard him, if there is nothing else you want to do, then you should go rest up."

"So, you're not going to make me your slave?"

"Mr. Rodgers stated that you're specially talented, so, as much as I hate it, I must treat you with respect."

"So, you hate me being here?"

"Look, just be happy that I've had this much patience, you still don't know me that well yet."

"Well, I better leave then, there's a high chance I might not like 'knowing you'" Daniel then proceeded to walk toward the outside, once he was outdoors he hailed a taxi, the cabby drove him to the closest hotel. He checked in and received a key, he proceeded to the room he was assigned, he prepared himself for bed. After he had finished doing all the things he needed to do, he proceeded to the bed and laid on top, he found it hard to sleep. Dan was still trying to accept the fact that the criminal used a story to commit their crime.

Nathaniel Dunt's house, 10 AM, March 31st.

Daniel's head was throbbing, it had been since he awoke. He felt as if his brain was about to overload. He probably shouldn't of stayed awake thinking about why someone would use a book to commit a crime, he was slipping green tea, hoping that would help him feel better.

"Biscuits?" Mr. Dunt stated with an inquiring tone.

"No thank you, I prefer to have the tea just on it's own." Dan replied. "Did you know that the killer copied your narrative to commit the crime?"

"Yes, David came by here earlier and told me all about it, he also gave me some items to pass to you." Nathan opened a drawer that was a part of the table and withdrew from it a letter and also a file. Daniel opened the file and found that the contents were none other then the autopsy report. It stated clear as day that the victim was overwhelmed by somebody who was taller then him. This could only have meant that the killer was standing.

Dan then opened the letter, the handwriting inside belonged to David, who used an introduction. The contents told Daniel that David had received an anonymous phone call, the person sending the message used text to speech, the electronic voice from that call explained that the actress who plays Dr. Saemon has knowledge about the accident for which Robert was being blackmailed.

Daniel now knew that in order to get to the bottom of this mystery, he first had to figure out who Dr. Saemon was.

Dan got up from his seat and turned to leave, but there was still two questions he wanted to ask.

"You have a power, don't you?" Dan inquired.

"As a matter of fact I do." Nathan replied.

"Your power, it's dreams isn't it?"

Nathan was slightly shocked. "Yes, my rank is C."

After Nathan stated this, the events so far now all made sense. The piece that his puzzle was missing now found. Nathan wrote what was in his dreams which meant that he personally saw in his minds eye something similar to a real event.

Daniel was now relieved, but the mystery wasn't yet solved, he had more work to do. So he proceeded to leave Nathan's domicile and return to solving the case.