four

Peter's eyes scanned the numbers on the screen, his brows furrowing. 'What the hell does this mean?'

Adi leaned in closer, reading over Peter's shoulder. 'It's some kind of code… but I don't get it. What do you love, Peter? That girl from English class?'

'Shut up, Adi' Peter gave a death look 'Maybe it's some kind of secret message'

'Or it could a nonsense' added Adi, scanning those numbers 'dude, don't you like numeric puzzles maybe this is why he left a puzzle for you'

'Yeah but I only see that this is counting from 1 to 53 with random gaps and I don't know what these gaps mean here'

Anne clicked her tongue. 'And this locked file…' She hovered her fingers over the second file. 'It has to be important if he put a password on it.'

Peter let out a frustrated sigh. 'Damn it, Dan. Couldn't you have left me a hint?'

'Or he could just have typed the thing for which, he made this code' added Adi

'It's obvious, he didn't want to let anyone know except us' said Anne

'But why?' said Peter

Anne, I believe in you

She whispered the words to herself before looking up at Adi and Peter. 'He wanted us to crack this. Which means… we can.'

A moment of silence passed between them before Adi spoke. 'So, where do we start?'

Peter tightened his grip on the steering wheel. 'We start with the numbers. And we don't stop until we find out what Dan was trying to tell us.'

Anne shut the laptop with a sigh and looked at Peter. 'Can you drop me at my place first? I have to meet someone there. We can figure this out after that.'

'Yeah, sure. Who are you meeting?' Peter frowned slightly but nodded

"Just...some YouTuber…wanted to do a quick interview" answered Anne giving Adi a look 

Peter started the car. The ride to Anne's house was silent, the weight of Dan's message still hanging over them.

When they arrived, Anne quickly got out. 'Come inside,' she said. 'It's better than waiting in the car.'

Adi and Peter exchanged glances before following her. The house was quiet, dimly lit, with a slight chill in the air.

'Have a seat' Anne said, motioning toward the couch. She checked her phone, typing something quickly before slipping it back into her pocket.

'Ok, so guys I'll be back in 30 minutes' said Anne and went for the interview

Peter stretched his arms and let out a yawn. 'Well, we got half an hour. Might as well try to crack that numeric puzzle'

Adi finally looked up at him, a smirk forming. 'I was hoping you'd say that.'

Peter pulled the laptop closer and opened it. He opened that PDF with the number

'It is a counting and what about these lines below some numbers?' asked Adi

'I don't know man'

Peter squinted at the screen, rubbing his chin. The numbers seemed to go from 1 to 53, but some were missing, and a few had small lines underneath. It wasn't just random—Dan had structured this.

Adi leaned in closer. 'Okay, let's think. You said it's counting but with gaps. What if—' he paused, tapping the screen. 'What if the missing numbers mean something?'

Peter frowned. 'Bro how will there be a missing number, in continuous counting'

'Yeah. Or maybe…' Adi trailed off, eyes narrowing. 'Maybe the numbers with lines under them are important. What if Dan wanted us to focus on those?'

Both of them focused their mind's full power on underlined numbers but still no help, 'what if, we change numbers into numerical order alphabets?' asked Adi

'It will just make 1-2-3… into A-B-C…' answered Peter

Peter exhaled. 'Exactly. But Dan knew me. He knew how I think. What if it's something personal? Something only I would recognize?'

Adi raised a brow. 'Like what?'

Next 10 minutes they spent their time scrolling through old chats and gallery images…to find something, Peter saw the photo of Dan's letter, so he took a pic of it before leaving Dan's home.

He started to read the letter again. He stopped at the line - I know you will investigate my death, but there is nothing to find - he started to scroll again but found nothing useful. The line - I know you will investigate my death, but there is nothing to find - got stuck on a loop repeat in Peter's mind.

As he was staring at those numbers on the screen, he started to count the numbers in this sentence - 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…..53 - there were 53 letters in that sentence. Completely useless information – but wait.

The counting of numbers is also till 53, and Peter's heart started to beat fast. He scanned that line on the screen, ten times. Then he noticed they were the same, there were 11 gaps in numbers and sentences.

Then after 2 minutes of silent war in mind, he wrote something down, and his hands were shaking. Adi hadn't noticed him shaking yet.

1 2345 678 9101112 1314151617181920212223 2425 2627282930, 

I know you will investigate my death,

313233 3435363738 3940 41424344454647 4849 50515253.

But there is nothing to find.

Every letter in the sentence was given a number in that number series then he started to underline the letter given to the underlined number

I know you will investigate my death, but there is nothing to find.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw it. He could never have believed to find something like this. It was the secret Dan wanted to tell them -

Investigate my death, there is a thing to find

1314151617181920212223 2425 2627282930, 3435363738 3940 4344454647 4849 50515253.