The Red Markings

Claire and Sarah were going through the contents of the sealed box which were nothing except the rough scripts written by Alex.

"Why did he give me the rough scripts of his plays?" Sarah said. She didn't know what Claire knew. Sarah had already read these scripts before. She couldn't comprehend why Alex didn't tell her to open the box.

Claire was not replying and was picking up the stapled papers. "Is he…" She muttered while picking up a script and turning the pages to read it.

Sarah found it weird. "What happened? Do you know something?" She asked, looking at Claire reading the script.

The script she was reading was Alex's last script she critiqued. After that, she went to foreign for higher studies. When she returned, Alex was nowhere to be found. The script was titled – The Eternal Love, by Alex.

It was a tragic love story of a couple which doesn't end well. The male lead dies in the end and his love story never completes.

There was also a hand-made sketch of the man taking his last breath on her lap and the tears of the woman dropping on his face.

What Claire noticed was that the sketch was circled with a red marker. "Why is the picture circled?" She uttered. She was having bad intuitions in her mind but was trying to keep herself calm and rational.

"How would I know? Didn't he contact you yet?" Sarah replied.

"No, he didn't. What is he trying to tell?" Claire said with a quizzical expression, trying to figure out the meaning behind the scripts and the red circle.

"Actually, we should check if other scripts have the red markings or not Maybe we will figure something out," Sarah suggested, making Claire pick up a bunch of the scripts from the box. She kept them aside and picked up one to search for the red markings. Sarah did the same.

They didn't find the red marking until Claire spotted an underlined word – 'Professor Ryan'. It was underlined with the same red marker.

"Professor Ryan?" Claire uttered. She couldn't understand what it meant.

Professor Ryan was another character from Alex's plays.

Sarah also looked confused. "What does this mean?" She asked.

"I don't know," Claire answered.

"Why isn't Alex coming and talking to you personally. Weren't you two lovers? Why is he playing games?" Sarah said, unable to figure out anything.

Claire didn't reply and was looking at the encircled sketch and the name continuously.

After a while, Sarah spoke again with a smile, "I got it. I know what he is trying to do."

Claire turned to her. "What is it?"

"He is trying to give you a surprise. It could be a code or the name of a place to meet. Let's find out," Sarah said, turning the pages of the scripts again to look for the red markings. She was smiling. "If I had such a loving boyfriend who would look into my eyes and whisper me naughty stuff, I would have gone insane by now. You are so lucky."

"You are saying this since our college days," Claire remarked.

"But it's true. If only I had such a handsome and loving man as boyfriend… hah!" Sarah sighed while going into a state of thoughts for while before turning the pages of the script again.

Claire didn't say anything but her words made her remind of those eyes again. She couldn't tell her friend why he wasn't talking to her personally.

Meanwhile, at the police station, John was busy in his investigations. He told the police officer to check the shops around the city if the red comforter at the crime scene was brought from one of them, around the day of the murders.

"What did you bring?" John asked when the police officer entered. The police were advised to cooperate with the officers and help them in catching the masked killer.

"There were ten shops which sold around fifty comforters of the same piece last week," The police officer reported.

"Have you taken the list from them?" John asked.

"Yes, sir. We have. We will soon start interrogating them," The police officer answered.

"Wonderful."

The police officer had a question which was bugging his mind. "But sir… What if the killer brought the comforter from some other town? What if it's older than we think?"

"I know, officer. We are just shooting in the darkness. We don't know where to look," John sighed. "But we have to show some movement or the department would think that we are slacking off."

The police officer had no answer to this. He stayed silent until John spoke again.

"What happened to the girl? She is at her home, right?"

"Yes, sir. Detective Sam is keeping an eye on her," The police officer said.

"I know that. Let's just hope that his intuition is right and he finds something. Until then, we have to figure out the killer's next target," John said, keeping both of his hands on his waist.

"Sir, what about the previous three murders done by the masked killer?"

"Unfortunately, all the evidence which was collected got destroyed in an unknown fire. The case was under a different team that time. I and Sam were given this case after they were removed for their incompetence," John explained.

"I have heard about it, sir."

John nodded and said, "So, basically, we are investigating this case from zero. The previous team didn't tell us a thing saying that they didn't find anything from the three murders."

"It sounds fishy, sir," The officer said.

"It indeed is fishy, but what can we do?"

The police officer did not have an answer again. He started at the ground and said, "Sir, I will go and get the people from the list."

The police officer left after John nodded.

Claire and Sarah were still going through the scripts one by one when Mr. Hoover called them.

"Daughters! Breakfast is ready!"

Both the girls decided to get back on it after they are done with the breakfast.

"Coming!" Claire said when they both went downstairs.

"Come, daughters. Sit," Mr. Hoover said, pointing to the dining table. As they both were sat on the chairs, he said, "I have a surprise for you, daughter."

He was looking at Claire with an innocent yet mysterious smile. Both her and Sarah looked at each other as they were puzzled.

"What surprise, dad?" Claire asked.

"Just wait for a few minutes and you will come to know," Her dad said.

*Ting Tong* The door bell rang. Mr. Hoover's face lit up as he ran to the door. "Here comes the surprise."

Claire and Sarah walked slowly towards the door to see who it was. They were not supposed to let any strangers in, keeping the potential threat in mind.

But little did Claire know that the surprise would be the her biggest headache.

Yes, it was James… with a flower bouquet in his hand. It seemed her father called him to have breakfast with them.

He was having a four-penny smile when he entered as if he was the sweetest guy on the planet.

"Oof…" Claire rolled up her eyes and sighed. She had to deal with this guy again.