The Mind Engine

Stay Careful

Chapter 4
The Decipher

"We are responsible"
The line struck James  somewhat hardly.
This particular line matches out.
Carefully examining the footage, James can take out following features-
It was indeed Noah Forester.
The bulb which was flickering was a Morse. It was identifiable the moment you start to see the oddness in the flickering. The Morse was not meaningful. It was 'BMFVQUSZMPWZ'.
Currently, James was looking at audio of the footage. It was mostly radiostatic noise, but sometimes, it created unusual jumps. Spectrogram might help.
James took the audio from the video and tried to spectroscope it.

1637

The spectrogram showed that particular numbers. 1637 as what?

"Hey, James, a cup of coffee?" Alex knocked at James' door. Alex was standing outside with two cups of coffee. James opened the door, he didn't want to but anyways invited Alex inside.
"I do know that you don't love these types of notifications, but tomorrow is my date with Linda, 7 PM, so I will be out." Alex said. Linda Hinders was this pretty young woman, same age as Alex, whom he met about a month ago. This was their third date. James couldn't care much. But he knew.....
I know who spread this rumour
The man who kidnapped Mayor knew where Alex and James lives. He somehow knew when to start footage exactly when James and Alex turned on the TV. Doesn't explain as to why it was silent for a few minutes.
"Okay. Just tell me when you will leave." James replied to Alex.
"What's up with the case, found anything?" Alex asked.
James blocked his microphone, looked for any devices in the room that might catch sound and asked Alex to turn off his phone for a moment. James told Alex everything, about 1637 and the Morse.
"Hmm...1637 is not a place. Neither is that gibberish mix of letters." Alex whimpered after James finished with his brief explanation. James knew how to solve, he just needs to prove and look for all options.
Still he didn't knew what 1637 meant. Was he forgetting or overlooking something?
Alex left. It would be his work time in about 5 hours. He has only 5 hours. He looked at all the information he had in hand. The Morse code, the number and the footage. We are responsible. We are responsible. We are Responsible.
Vigenére Cypher with key as Responsible.
It could be it. It matches with everything. He performed the cypher and the answer came.
KING CHARLES I. It was it. King Charles I in 1637, did what?
James knew whatever the answer is going to be is going to make him reach closer to the place of captivity.
James relentlessly thought what did King Charles did in 1637, and it struck him.
Hyde Park! One of the oldest parks in London. James checked every other cypher technique, and every other way to decode, and none of the made sense except this one. Now he knew what was the answer, Hyde Park. But the question was, should he go there now or tomorrow?
It will be too late anyways, the killer will be out, because the footage is edited. But he said that whoever reached there would find him...

James woke up the other day. His laptop, mobile and everything he saw before sleeping was right around him. Today was a work day. He needs to go to work. Given he is a polymath researcher, he today has to work on complex problems in mathematics.
He was uninterested in the thing, not because it was difficult, but rather it was easy but too complicated to explain.
But then James remembered. He had decrypted the code, Hyde Garden. King Charles I built the Hyde Park of London in 1637. A very lame puzzle, but rather interesting. Why would the criminal want the police to reach him?
This is the time for thinking and anticipation. Think about it, he said that the puzzle solver won't find the Mayor there. The footage was edited, which means that he has had enough time to change the location but he strictly mentioned that the solver would get to meet or 'see' the criminal or the person who was speaking. There was more to it.
Maybe the person recording the footage was not the one who actually committed the crime. But then why the mask?

Of course, a dumb thought. To not reveal themselves, which means the person who was in the footage was a close ally or known person to not just the criminal, but also to the mayor. If that is the case, James should expect a direct encounter with the person in footage. How would James know? He would need a microphone to know whether the person was the same by matching his voice tone and quality with the one in the video.

That was one possibility, but what if everything James thought now was wrong? Then another thing that could happen is that the criminal is calling for the genius behind the rumour to deal with them, means the James, themselves. Then the best approach is to go with the police or an armed man. But amidst this, how would it lead James close to the Mayor. Maybe he will receive a new puzzle in the Hyde? Or maybe he will find the dead body of the Mayor there, likely not.

Or maybe James is wrong about the Hyde Garden at all. It isn't the place. But that option has to be the least possible. There is nothing else you can extract from the video for now.
While thinking this, James didn't recognise that he had involuntarily brushed teeth, bathed, cooked the breakfast and got himself ready with the overcoat, blazer and a tie and his daily work pants. He was ready to go off to his boring work place. He opened the door and walked right off. He had realised that Alex already left. He usually calls James when he leaves but maybe he forgot today. James locked the door and went down the stairs of his apartment. He walked to the road and saw a car stop in front of him.
Arthur Whitzlock. What was he doing here again? Doesn't matter, James has to go to work, he won't be coming with him.
"James. God damn it. You were correct" Arthur said. His breaths were getting louder. James offered a bottle of water to him and he took it. After drinking water, he got into correct posture and looked straight at James who was also looking at him.
"Mrs.Forester, the wife of Mayor has-"
"Ran away from the house. The house is locked. She and her two kids might have dozed off in the midnight, but you might be wondering-"
"Even with the presence of guards?"
"Midnight. She might have added sedatives to the water she gives them." James blatantly presented his opinion. Yes, an opinion.
"How could you be so sure she ran away?" Arthur asked.
"It doesn't explain the carelessness of the guards. If I am correct, her main car would still be there in the house, but the second car-"
"Second Car? Noah Forester only on records owned one car." Arthur argued. "Aston Martin. It is right there in the house garage."
"When I entered the house, I noticed that the car marks in the house parking spot was of two different cars. One was recognisably an Aston Martin, but the other car was not identifiable. Think about it for a second, Arthur. You are a wealthy mayor who only owns one car? I don't believe it. Either they have two cars, or one of the cars is from a relative or a friend. But for all I know, all of the Mayor's close friends owns not the car that would create the other tier marks." James explained. Arthur was confused, but he seems to agree with the statement. James himself didn't knew how correct it could be, as number of factors could have caused the other tier marks, but he knew one thing, that if he was stuck on what's possible, he won't be able to move further into the case.
"So what to do now?" Arthur asked. Interesting question, James thought the correct answer would be to let him leave for the university and wait until 3PM, when James would be back and tell him about the Hyde Park.
"I have solved the puzzle. The answer is Hyde Park. I will be coming home around 3 PM in the afternoon. Meet me here, with a gun and a police uniform, or anything that would you feel like a police."
"Hyde Park?" Arthur asked. Confused, but he was sure that it could be an answer. The other detective he knew also gave him 4 possible answers ,out of which the most likely was the Hyde Park.
"Yeah, Holloway also gave me the same reply" Arthur replied. He started to leave. James was standing still.
"Mortimer Holloway. The crooked detective is in your alliance?" James asked coldly.
"Yeah, more the intellect, more the power?"Arthur replied.
"What if that intellect wants to be superior to you? What if it wants to mislead you?" James asked that questions. This Mortimer character was not a good guy in James' people list.
"Is there a problem?" Arthur asked politely.
"No, not to me. But maybe to you. Stay careful while working with this man." James said and left for the taxi.
Arthur was suprised. The words James said were exactly same as the words Mortimer said earlier this morning. He was an offican criminal investigator, star of the Scotland Yard.
Which side to believe?

"Stay careful while working with this man."

Arthur remembered James' word, but then he remembered that of Mortimer's words.

"James? Be careful with that boy, Whitzlock."