Dorian Mystery - Art of Murder

Chapter I

It was early in the afternoon when I've received the news about the serial murderer that was rampaging on the streets. People were calling him "The Artist" because near the victim it was a small patch painted with the victim's portrait. No one was able to catch him as this guy was always one step ahead of everyone. No fingerprints, no clues about his identity, nothing at all. All the people knew was that he was always hunting at night, during full moon.

I was reading the newspaper about this maniac when I heard a knock on my door. I opened it up just to see two police officers standing in front of me.

'Is something wrong, officers?'

They looked at me suspicious and shown their badges. They were not just some random officers, they were from FBI. Why would they visit me in person?

'May we come in?' said the gray haired guy on the right and invited himself in. The other one was much younger than the first one and his brown hair reminded me of my old days from Highschool.

'Make yourself comfortable' I replied and shut the door after the young guy entered the room.

They both took a seat on the armchair and were looking at me very suspiciously. I was already starting to feel awkward and for couple of minutes there was a pure silence.

'Would you like some tea? Or maybe a coffee?' I asked to break the awkward staring.

'No, no, it's fine. As you can see, Mr. Hydes and me came over to talk to you about the serial killer named "The Artist" if you're familiar with the case.' The grayed guy, whose name was Daniel Shrevenport, informed me really quick.

'Yeah, I am aware of the case, I've just read something about it in the newspaper, but I didn't knew FBI came over just to talk about this case. Am I a suspect or something?'

Mr. Hydes was still looking at me when he replied:

'We don't know yet, certain is that the murder from the last night, had something else aside of the victim's portrait. We didn't informed the media because we know that's what this maniac wants.'

He put his hand in the inner pocket of his coat and handled me a small plastic bag with a weird patch. I took it in my hand and my blood ran cold all of a sudden. On the patch there wasn't a portrait as I expected the first time, but it was a message saying "Catch me if you can, Dorian Mystery!"

I was looking at the message and back at them and I was still in shock. How could he know my alias? Aside of secret services and FBI no one else knew about me and about the mysteries I've solved a long time ago. But it seems that he knows me somehow. Was he working for any of the secret services? Was I negligent and left a trace long ago?

'I hope this is not a prank." I said still amazed of the message.

'Unfortunately is not. This killer knows about you and if we don't do anything about it, he will keep on killing and killing until you get involved. For some reason this patch gave us some leads.' Mr. Hydes said with a suspicious voice.

Mr. Shrevenport was still quiet on his seat examining my behavior and tried in his mind to connect all the dots while Mr. Hydes told me exactly what I was thinking:That the murderer is or was working with Secret Services or FBI or he was a very big fan of mine who caught me one time while I was solving a mystery.

I looked at the message again and something about it seemed familiar. It wasn't about the texture of the patch or the painting that he used. It was more about the text. I know I've seen it somewhere, but I could not remember right now. I took out the patch from the plastic bag and examined it real close to my eyes. It seems it was not just the paint that was used to write the message. It could hardly determine that the message was sewed initially with a thread of the same color as the patch.

'Gimme that magnifying glass.' I said while still examining a certain spot from the patch.

'I don't think you'll find anything there, but here you go.' Mr. Shrevenport said and handed me the magnifying glass from the table besides him.

Using it on that particular spot I've noticed something unusual. The thread was interrupted multiple times and looked out of common. It looked like this: -.-. --- -. --. .-. .- - ..- .-.. .- - .. --- -. ...   

'Hmmmm, I think there's a secret message in here.' I said while notating the dots and lines on a piece of paper.

I heard how Mr. Shrevenport raised himself from the chair and looked at me notating everything. This guy, this killer is a guy that wants me involved, but how? What's our connection.

'Seems that the message stops at this point. Looks like Morse code. Allow me a moment to look into it to decipher it.' I said noticing the dots and lines on the paper.

'I think I can help out with that.' Mr. Hydes remarked himself and told us he used to work in Secret Services Military as a messenger between the operational base and the deployed troops using Morse code so for him it was all easy to decipher it.

'It just says: Congratulations." He translated it astonished.

'What is that supposed to mean?' Asked Shrevenport.

I looked at them both and told them that one phrase that changed everyone's life:

'It means that his game just began and we are on it, whether we want it or not.'