University mysteries - Ep. 8 - The Master

Grace was still trying to find William. She searched the house and the garden again, but there was nothing. She tried to phone him. Still, she only heard that the number she´s calling is not available. 

“Where could he be?” she gave a sigh.

Kate was calling soon: “Grace, hi. So, did you find him? Molly is already here, but she came alone. She says she didn´t saw him anywhere...”

“Even I didn´t manage to find him. I´m starting to be worried and I have...”

“...a strange feeling?” Kate finished the sentence.

“Exactly. Do you have it too?”

“I think we should call the police. Sebastian will surely investigate it. Phone me back, if there´s anything new.”

There was still one thing Grace had on her mind: “How could he get drunk so quickly? He could hardly manage to go for that drink before he started to speak with Molly. And she says he could barely walk by that time. It seems strange to me...only if... Drugs!”

It was just an idea, a surmise. But what if it´s true? She started to search the places William was walking through last night. Maybe she won´t find out, who gave him that drink, but she might find his beaker, if no-one tidied the trash yet. Apparently no-one did. There were a lot of beakers. Which one could be his? If the abduction was planned, someone could take it away. Suddenly she noticed one. It was fallen under a coffee table in a study room, where William was passing through when he went out. It was hardly noticeable. It could be the one. William could drop it in that place and the beaker rolled under the coffee table.

She squatted down and stretched her hand above the beaker. She felt William´s presence out of it.

“You lucky devil,” she smiled.

She took it into a plastic bag to keep potential fingerprints undamaged and hurried to the dormitory to take it to the police station as soon as possible. Molly went with her. Grace told Molly about her surmise with drugs during the ride. At the station they came immediately to Sebastian. Grace gave him the beaker.

“Could you send it for a chemical analysis? I think someone put some drugs into William´s drink. It would explain a lot.”

“I´ll send it right there. Otherwise I must disappoint you so far. We tried to track his mobile phone, but probably it has dead battery or it´s destroyed. Also I have to ask you for answering a few questions. You´re witnesses now.”

Sebastian put them many questions. They told him about progress of whole night, what Will told them and who was there. Sebastian paused in surprise of what he told Grace about that two strange guys.

“Didn´t he describes them? Even a little?”

“I´m sorry. Only that one probably fell in love with him and the other one hated him.”

“Both of those feelings can be very dangerous,” Molly remarked. 

“But I think there were mostly his classmates.”

“OK, I´ll find out if any of his classmates has a police record. I hope the beaker tells us more... Johnson? Take this to the university for the analysis.”

Meanwhile, Will was thinking about how to escape. Obviously he was in some cellar. The ropes were tight and firm. There was a small window in the room, but he wasn´t able to shout with the rug in his mouth. Suddenly he heard footsteps. Someone was coming. A handle moved, the creaking door opened and an unknown person entered.

The person had a mask plus there was dark inside. He approached Will from behind, tilted and whispered him to ear: “Worry not, it won´t take long. Your misery will end soon...as will the mine.”

It was a man´s voice, yet it was very tremulous. Like he´d be scared, worried.

“Why do you do it to me? What do you want?!” That was on Will´s mind, but with the rug he couldn´t say that. He spoke through his eyes instead. 

“It has to be this way. But it´ll be quick. You won´t even know about that.”

William was horrified again.

“He wants to kill me?!”

When the man was leaving, he looked back at Will once more. He looked straight into Will´s eyes. That was the moment Will realized one thing. He saw these eyes before. When? Where?

At the dormitory Grace wanted to try to connect with Will like she did it recently, when they were looking for Alice. Grace started to utter the spell, however nothing happened. Something blocked the connection with him. Kate took her hands and started to cast the spell with her. It worked.

Out of the blue Grace jumped away.

“What happened? Tell us!” asked Molly.

“I´m not sure. It was like something would impede the connection. It was just a flash. I saw a dark room, probably in a cellar. And I felt he has tied hands and legs. But it was gone before he could say anything.”

“So, we still have nothing,” Kate sighed.

“At least we know he´s alive. And can´t you try it again?” Jack asked her.

“Maybe later. It drained my power.”

The phone rang. It was Sebastian.

“The lab results came. Grace was right. There were drugs in that drink. Unfortunately the only fingerprints we found belonged to William. I also sent one officer to search the house. He found a dragging trail on a lawn.”

“We know William is in some cellar,” suddenly said Kate to the phone.

“And how do you know that? Or...don´t tell me. But how it gonna help us?”

“Well...I have an idea. It´s a kind of blank shot, but we know the student´s addresses. So we find out which of Will´s classmates live in a house with a cellar. I think we can exclude the dormitories and also his female classmates. William is well-built...even a boy would have a problem to drag him away. So we are probably looking for a boy living alone in a house with a cellar.”

“It´s really more likely a blank shot, but it´s probably all we have now. OK, I´ll investigate that and let you know as soon as I´ll find something.”

William heard footsteps again. This time there were more of them. They came to the door, but didn´t enter the room. They stayed out and started to chat. They were two, both men. William hardly heard them.

“There he is. Do you still need him? Do you want to take him elsewhere?”

“No. He already served his purpose. The Master is satisfied.”

“And our deal?”

“I´m a man of my word. He´s yours now and the Master will take care of your misery soon.”

“Who is the Master? And what will be with me now?” This was crossing Will´s mind.

The door opened and the one who entered the room was... Shane?! Will´s classmate! That´s why his eyes were so familiar! Meanwhile the other man went away.

Shane came to him and whispered to his ear: “Now we´ll gonna be together forever. As it always should be. Just you and me...”

William was scared of a look in his eyes. Out of a blue, Shane took out a knife. He was looking at a knife edge for a while, then he started coming closer to Will, he raised his hand to strike and...

“Freeze! This is the police! Put the knife down!”

The door swung open and there was standing Sebastian, his gun aimed at Shane. He was surprised so much he was handcuffed before he even realized what was happen.

“It didn´t miss much and I could lose you. I even didn´t tell you yet, how much I love you...” Molly flung her arms round Will´s neck though she seemed to be totally calm for all the time.
“This was the third house we searched. I was so frightened.”

“I was frightened too, my lovely sister. Frightened you aren´t a human, but a robot, because you have never showed your feelings.” William smiled to lighten the atmosphere.

“You idiot... still I love you. And what will happen now?”

“I´ll take Shane into custody. Go home now and have a rest. I have to ask you to come tomorrow morning to the station to take yours statement.”

They spent the evening together to recover from that. Immediately in the morning they went to the station. William told them about what Shane told him, about the other man and that they were talking about some Master.

“Shane will have to explain that,” said Sebastian.

He stood up and went to detention cells.
“Good morning Bill. What was the night like?” he said hello to a warder sitting by the cells.

“Peaceful as usually. He didn´t even peep.” 

Sebastian took few steps, froze for a while and then he darted into the cell. Shane was lying lifeless on the floor.

Sebastian tried to take him the pulse, then he looked back: “He won´t tell us much. He´s dead! It seems he was strangled.”

 

Unfortunately I´m going to study at the university now too, so I don´t know, when will be the next episode. I only hope you won´t have to wait until the Christmas for a next episode, and that I won´t have my study such adventurous.