The Ghost

"Plan B? Right, Lucian told me his backup plan this morning. That was before he revealed his face to me. Well then, I'll have to prepare now.", Elias was in his room in Luther's apartment.

Meanwhile, the Vespera Museum was being handled by Dorian Vanholt, as Elias took a break from it. 

"He mentioned that in case he cannot get in touch with me through his phone, he will have someone deliver a message on that person's phone, even though that person will arrive here unaware of this fact, I will have to knock him down and read that message.", Elias was recalling all the details Lucian told him about his Plan B, as he was walking down the hallway, trying to reach Luther.

While trying to recall the exact conversation, Elias remembered another line, "The person I'm gonna be sending, don't hurt him or try to kill him or anything. Just neutralize him and that's all."

"At that time I didn't understand what that meant. But now, after knowing that Luke is Lucian Cole and finding out that the person he sent was Gary Loxley, it all makes sense. It seems like, even the 'Ghost' cares for his friends.", Elias entered Luther's office and said, "Now it's time Luther. Get ready!"

Current time,

"A lot of text it seems. If this was sent to Gary in order to drive him here, it means that the message written for him is on the surface, but for me, it is hidden in some way inside this document.", Elias was carefully reading the doc.

It was exactly this way - 

"this is elias blackwood typing. i Hire A lot of Expert assassins often, but this time, i did it to kidnap ralph and the other members of tgc. we found this number on his phone, and he requests you to come here because you hold critical information. come here and we might find an Alternative to end this. We are no Thief, just gangsters. come here Instantly."

The next para said -

"wear masks if you value your life. until you enter our apartment. map is given below."

"So that is how Lucian provoked Gary to come here? He wrote this in a mysterious way, so it doesn't sound over-explained, which reduces suspicion to an average person! But what could be the message for me?", Elias was finding patterns.

"I see. It's not that hard. All of the words here follow a specific pattern, except some. And those exceptions are the words I'll have to use to form the sentence.", Elias was piecing together the message.

"Why hasn't Karl or Zach said anything to me or Nicolo yet? Does that mean everything I assumed was wrong and Lucian did nothing?", Ralph was feeling uneasy all of a sudden, as he was staring at Lucian.

Lucian was preparing to take a nap on his sofa. He ultimately fell on the sofa and closed his eyes.

"How is he so chill? This makes me question my entire investigation! No no! My intuition can't be this wrong, there is surely something going on!", Ralph was drowning in thoughts just as Nicolo interrupted it.

"Ralph, are you listening?", Nicolo said again.

"Oh. Yes, I'm listening.", Ralph zoned in as he looked towards Nicolo.

"I already tried speaking to Zach and Karl multiple times, but none of them spoke anything!", Nicolo informed Ralph.

"What?!", Ralph's eyes widened instantly, as if it confirmed some kind of doubt rising in his mind.

"Why wouldn't they respond? D-Don't tell me someone overpowered them or something!", Ralph instantly stood up in hurry, "Nicolo! Stay right here! I'm going to Barlow Street! Keep informing me about everything!"

Ralph flew away from Lucian's house, again booking a cab.

In about 7 minutes, Ralph reached Luther's apartment in his cab. As soon as he opened the car's door, he saw no one in front of the main door, not even guards, which he saw many times before.

He slammed the cab door, shutting it up and running towards the main door. He quickly made his way to the main office, where Luther was sitting.

Ralph opened that door with a slam too. He was breathing in and out intensely. Luther saw him composing himself, fixing his hair and his shirt, and then coming towards Luther.

He sat on the chair and started the conversation with an instant question, "So Mr.Kane, why aren't there any guards at your door today? I see them everytime I pass this road."

"I would answer, but who are you?", Luther questioned instead.

"I'm a secret investigator, so sorry I can't tell you much about me. But please answer me.", Ralph insisted.

"Fine, I would. So just around 15 minutes, I was checking the camera, and I saw a masked guy come and fight with my armed guards. And surprisingly, he beat them! Empty handed! Then another two unknown masked and armed guys came and fought with that guy. And you know what? That guy beat those two as well! Then he made his way in here and then, I don't know why, maybe he was injured, he fell on the floor on his own.", Luther explained the story.

"That's strange for sure. By the way, what's that bandage all over your right hand?", Ralph said, looking at Luther's hand.

"Oh yeah I forgot another thing! After he fell on the floor, he gained consciousness again and suddenly stabbed me on my left hand, I was extremely hurt but I managed to neutralize him using a cloth infused in chloroform.", Luther explained the remaining part of the 'story'.

"Can I see that person?", Ralph asked Luther.

"Sure. You can. There! All of them are laid there on the mattress.", Luther pointed towards a temporary bed placed in the corner of the office.

Ralph just stood up and walked towards the bed. He saw 4 people laying there, unconscious. He recognised two of them, Gary Loxley and Karl.

"Wait, what?!", Ralph quickly turned towards Luther and asked, "Who was this intruder you were talking about then? The one taking down everyone?"

"Umm. That 3rd one!", Luther said, but just then a person from the doorside said, "That's Gary Loxley, Luther! I'm shocked that you don't know him."

Elias Blackwood entered the office. 

Ralph started looking at Elias and didn't stop until Elias spoke again after a handful of seconds, "Who are you? May I ask?"

"He is a secret investigator, that's what he said. Maybe he knows something about this intruder and those two unknown masked guys as well?", Luther looked towards Elias and answered.

"Wait", Ralph said aloud, "Where is the second unknown guy you are talking about?!", Ralph was talking about Zach.

Luther became silent for a moment, so did Elias.

"Tell me! Where did he go then? If the first person is here, then where is he?", Ralph's voice became slower.

"H-H-He is dead. Amidst the fight, he died from a bullet. So we sent his body to the morgue. His family would be notified if he has any.", Luther talked with a low voice.

"H-How could something like this happen. Gary Loxley out of nowhere came here and killed Zach?", Ralph sat on the mattress too. 

"It's all my fault! If I didn't have told Karl and Zach to wear masks, then Gary would've identified them, as he had seen Karl before, and he wouldn't have hurted them, nor the vice-versa! It's all my fault!", Ralph was fighting with his own self, "No no, I can't break down yet. What has happened can't be undone, I'll have to find the remaining clues. Like, like what drove Gary here? I told him a thousand times to not take irrational decisions against Elias, yet he did? No. There's for sure something behind it!"

"Where is Gary Loxley's phone?!", Ralph asked aloud, reaching both Elias and Luther's ears.

"It's most probably in his pocket!", Luther said, "I saw it glow one time."

Ralph quickly saw the phone and picked it up from Gary's pocket. He opened it through the password Gary had told him before.

He went through the phone calls and messages. He ultimately found nothing suspicious.

He then picked out his laptop from his backpack and connected Gary's mobile to his laptop through a cable. He pressed some buttons and kept staring at the laptop screen for about 45 minutes. Initially Luther and Elias were looking at him, but then just grew out of it.

"Finally it's rooted now. No phone calls or messages? I have another way to find out inconsistency.", Ralph thought as he went to the screentime section of the phone, he found out that the screen time of the document viewer app for today is literally 10 minutes. He checked the screen time of when it was 1 hour ago, and he found out that it was 9 minutes. And rewinding it to 1 hour and 5 minutes ago, he saw it was 0. 

"This means, Gary started seeing the document application around 65 minutes ago and kept using it for another 5 minutes or so. Which can imply that he was watching some kind of map, which drove him in here.", Ralph was solving puzzles in his own mind.

"Mr.Kane, can you tell me the exact time when he entered your office?", Ralph asked looking at Luther, while Elias was sitting on his chair, looking at his computer.

Luther nodded and looked at his computer, checking the security cameras.

"I can't lie about this. This is specifically recorded information!", Luther thought before answering, "It was exactly 59 minutes ago."

Ralph's eyes widened barely as he thought, "This means even after he fought his last fight and became unconscious, his phone was still being used!", Ralph quickly checked the phone's screen timeout duration, and it was only 5 seconds, "If Gary entered his last fight with his phone in his pocket 59 minutes ago, there's no way for its screen to be still turned on for another 2 minutes! Which means someone opened the phone later! But it wasn't Gary, because he was unconscious by then!"

Ralph quickly thought, "I was told that I can not include Elias Blackwood in this investigation, at least not directly. But I was also told that if necessary, I can watch over him or investigate him for a maximum of one day!" and spoke, "Elias Blackwood! I'll have to place surveillance in here, watching over Luther Kane and you. And the surveillance is….myself!"

 "I thought so. Whenever investigators come, they always put up this kind of surveillance!", Luther looked at Ralph.

 "I have no problem. This is my rented office and room only, so I don't have much to say.", Elias replied in the same way.

Around 1 hour later,

Ralph was still sitting in the same spot, while Luther and Elias were sitting on the same chairs, doing their own job.

"These four people haven't woken up yet, but I'm sure they will, and once Karl does, I'll ask him to enable the signals here again. But only after this Elias investigation is over! Nicolo said he is completely watching Lucian all the time as well. There's no way Elias or Lucian can escape it this time!", Ralph was thinking, but his thoughts broke as his walkie talkie made a sound, he put it on his ears and heard Nicolo.

After hearing Nicolo's news, Ralph became devastated.

"What did Nicolo tell? Lucian is right in his house with no connection to the outside world, and Elias here? Is in the same condition. Yet, the information piece from Harper Street's 12th house has been stolen...