Michael lived on the 44th floor of an apartment. In the middle of a cold rainy night he saw something weird happening in the street. It was unclear. He took his binoculars and witnessed a man getting stabbed. Michael rushed down. The victim was stone-cold dead. The killer had vanished into thin air without leaving a trace. Michael was a private detective. He called the police. They all came and surrounded the body and after an elaborate scrutiny realised it was impossible to solve this murder. The killer had left no trace at all. Even the footmarks had been washed away by the relentless rains.
But Michael had a plan. He looked at the dead man. He was about his size. He told the police not to inform anyone at the moment. Not even to the man’s relatives. They were more than obliged if the murder could be solved. Michael put the plan into motion.
They took the body to a morgue as quickly as they could. It was unfortunate but fortunately in this case, there were no marks left on the road to indicate that something out of the ordinary, let alone a murder had taken place.
Once in the morgue they checked the body again. The man was wearing jeans and a brown shirt. Shoes without socks. Other than that there was nothing on him - no wallet, no ring, no watch. Nothing to declare his identity. Even better - thought Michael. And whatever little he had witnessed from his 44th floor, he could say robbery wasn’t the motive.
Well, whatever little perception to help solve the murder.
He got a pair of jeans and similar brown shirt the victim was wearing. No need to replace the shoes. He tore his shirt where it was torn on the dead man, lied down on a bed, put a fake oxygen mask on himself. He attached some random tubes on the mask and plugged to a stand which had a water bag but looked like glucose. Basically, he dressed himself as the dead man unconscious lying on a hospital bed. But gave an effect as if he was still half alive. Because of the mask and the tubes his features were kind of camouflaged. He told the police to take a picture of him and a small video, and ran it on a news channel announcing that an unknown man was stabbed but still alive and if any relative knew him then to come and visit him. There was a phone number but no address.
And they waited. The neighbourhood was just about waking up. Before the first light they received a call. A lady, not really sobbing but telling the police she knew the man. His name was John. She worked for John at his house doing laundry and a bit of cleaning. John lived alone. As far as she knew, she wasn’t aware of any relative or any friend visiting him at his house. They thanked the lady and told her to call back if anything else she knew of John.
They waited, waited for a long time for the phone to ring. Nothing. Dead end. No one to claim Johnny boy? Michael thought and changed his plan a bit. The police had a safe house in that area. They did their secret work there. Michael resent the video and the picture they had taken earlier to a few more news channels informing them that John was still alive. But this time they sent an address - the address of the safe house.
They moved to the safe house and changed the place a bit to make it look like a makeshift hospital. They stationed two good policemen outside the house dressed as hospital staff. Two more on the street like hawkers. Few video camera to monitor the movements in case they missed anything.
The stage was set, the trap was set. The waited for the killer to perform his act. The clock ticked on. Nobody came to see the body. Late afternoon a postman came and delivered the post. Michael was tired acting as a dead man. Half dead man to be correct. Come on John, if no one knew you then who randomly killed you? In the evening Michael finally got up, taking off the tube and all the paraphernalia. He went to the video room just to pass the time. The only footage of someone other than the police guys was of the postman. Michael was about to switch off when he realised it was Sunday and no post was delivered on a Sunday. He rewound the tape. And there it was. The postman was looking a bit suspicious and he was checking the surrounding suspiciously after delivering the so called post. Michael ran and checked the letter or mail he had delivered. There was one envelope with no address. He opened it without taking a permission from the police. There was a note that just said “ NUTS “
Michael gaped at it.
They had drawn in the killer. Enticed him with a brilliant bait. They almost had him but for the last minute goof up or oversight……
