The Cursed Carol ( Season - 1 & 2 )

Season 1 Episode 6 : The Endeavor

Every life is complicated. Every mind, a kingdom of unmapped mysteries. 

"Do we have a story?"

Charlie repeated, "Do we have a story? About whatever facts we have. About Ben. About his death, or about that night. Whatever we've found till now. Let's make a story of what might have happened."

"Yeah, that's better. We, thereby, may get all the missing aspects of story," I said. 

Freddy continued, "Right. At least, we will know what we need to find out."

Many things were unsolved. Many questions were unanswered. What we had was just an endeavor to find who was behind the death of our friend. 

I started to follow our leads to frame a story of what happened. 

"So, Ben's father suddenly texted Ben's mother after a long time stating that he would kill both of them. He came to their house at that time when Ben had left Kate in the park and gone back home. He went upstairs and tied Ben. But Ben somehow untied himself. He blackmailed him by pointing a blade toward his hand. Maybe because his dad didn't want to kill him. But, what happened after that we don't know. However, Ben was dead by that time.

"Maybe after that Ben's mother came into the scenario. If Ben died between 8:30 - 9:00, there are just 3 people who could have murdered Ben. The first one is Kate because she has been acting suspicious and lying to us. The next is Ben's mother as the police suspects. Or it can be Ben's father because the time of his arrival was succeeded by the clicking of the photo, according to which Ben was trying to kill himself. "

Freddy continued, "Fine, so let us start by elimination. If we somehow find out where Ben died, we can eliminate our first suspect. If Ben died at his house then surely it couldn't be Kate. But if he died outside the house, the murderer is not Ben's father because we saw him going inside in the CCTV footage. He died just 5-6 minutes after that. So either he killed Ben, then killed himself. Or...." 

"Or someone just tried to show us that he did kill himself. Like someone did with Ben to make us believe that it was a suicide," Lucy stated. 

Charlie continued, "Very correct, Lucy. And Freddy as well. So, we need to anyhow find out the place where Ben died."

I interrupted, "Guys, if you remember, Ben died of suffocation and it was not water. Maybe someone just didn't let him breathe. Ben is or rather, was quite muscular. Don't you think it is'nt possible for Ben's slim mother or our delicate Kate to actually stop a muscle man like Ben from breathing?" 

"Then let us just find it out. Mrs. Mathews has been arrested. Come on. Let us go back to the scene of crime. Ben's house," Lucy suggested. 

We left for Ben's house thinking about the possible outcomes that might have happened that day. 

There, we started with the garage. But we found nothing because the police had already cleared the place. Then we continued with the backyard around the garage.

"Dustin, there is something you should see," Freddy called. 

None of us could believe it. We found another pair of black rough shoes, about the same size as that of Ben's father, the footsteps we found outside the garage and of the shoes near the shoe rack. 

"These are probably Ben's father's shoes. It is of the company 'Footprint'. Ben's family is the only family who wears footwear from 'Footprint'. It's kind of like their family company. The way we have a family doctor. The very same way," said Freddy. 

"If these shoes are Ben's father's, then whose shoes did you both find earlier near the rack?" Lucy said,  pointing toward me and Freddy. 

Freddy replied, "So there has to be another man. That day at Ben's house, two men came, wearing black shoes. First, Ben's father who died in the garage. And then, another man. "

"The man who killed Ben and his father."

"How can we find that guy?"

"There is one thing that watches everyone. CCTV," I said.

We went to check the CCTV, again. We checked the entire day's footage. But we found nothing. 

"Maybe, he didn't come through the gate. Maybe he came from somewhere else," stated Lucy. 

"Or, he came a day prior. Charlie, just check the footage of 30th November instead of 1st December," I said. 

So, at last we found him. He was a tall, handsome man wearing black shoes slightly different from Ben's father's shoes. But they were thesame as the pair which we found near the rack. He had entered the house at 11 in the night. But what we found next was amazing! He went back at 2 a.m. and came back 15 minutes later. He drove a four wheeler, as we guessed by the key in his hand. When he re-entered the house, he was carrying George with him, who was bleeding. 

We came out of Ben's house. We all were terrified because if this man was the killer, then he was still out there and maybe he knew about us looking for him. 

"So, Kate did hear something, right?" I said. 

I continued, "On 1st, she said she heard the sound of a car horn and an animal growling at 2. It was this man. And the growling was George's. " 

"Whatever it is, whoever killed Ben, at least we now know that our Kate is innocent. And at least, she wasn't one to betray The Fleet," Freddy said. 

So, we decided to go to Kate and apologize for what we thought and we did. 

"It's all right, guys. I am happy that finally it is clear. Also, I was not lying. Ben's left hand was burnt but that didn't mean I would not have held his hands. I did. I don't even know what you're saying about the injury in his legs because he was fine when I last saw him. He ran with such a great speed that I can bet there was nothing wrong with Ben's leg," Kate responded to our apology. 

Charlie continued, "So here is the new episode now. If Kate is sure about Ben's leg, why is the autopsy report lying?" 

"Charlie, it's too much for today. Not more now. Let's just leave it for tomorrow."

"Yeah. Even I think he's right." 

Kate questioned, "By the way, how was Ben's father included in the case?"

I answered, "The photo, Kate. Ben's father entered the house at the time when Ben was trying to kill himself as we saw in that photo. That was around 8:45, when the picture was captured. "

"What time did you say the photo was captured?"

"At 8:45, after he left you."

"I think you saw it wrong. I am very sure he left the park after 8:50. I saw the time when he left. So how could he be in his room at 8:45? "

We all were just looking at each other when Freddy burst out. 

"Oh, great then! What the hell is going on around here? Man, Ben died. His mother has been arrested for killing him. His father just came back from the dead. His body was found in the garage. And then suddenly we come to know about another man who came a day before to Ben's house. Ben's body was found at the riverside. He was trying to kill himself in a photo. It was all already hard to believe. And then now we have another thing in hand. An all new two Ben theory. Suddenly, we find Ben was at 2 places at the same time. At 8:45, Ben was not only with Kate in the park having romance but also in his room trying to kill himself or just pretending to kill himself in front of someone who wanted him alive. Is this some kind of a joke happening here? How can Ben be at 2 places at the same time?"

I continued, "Only in one case. If one of them was not real. And if the real Ben died and his leg was injured between 8:15-8:30, the one in the park was not real because his legs were fine, as Kate says. So the one who was with Kate romancing and the one who was with us all the time that night was not our Ben. Guys, it's not a fairy tale, now."

Then, just like always when we took a step toward finding the truth, reality took another turn. The evening newspaper came. The police released Mrs. Mathews and stated her innocent. And  the next line in bold italics said 'BEN KILLED HIMSELF. IT WAS A SUICIDE.'

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