Chapter 13

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Cody sat at the kitchen table, prodding at the jam tarts on the table. Callum was sitting next to him and Casey was studying in his room.
"I miss Katie," Cody sighed.
"Same, she really brought life to this house," Callum admitted. Cody looked at the pile of books in front of him.
"Cody, your coursework," Casey reminded his younger brother.
"I know, I just miss Katie," Cody replied.
"I miss the kid too, but she is happy and with her real family," Casey said.
"This Biology is really hard," Cody whined.
"I found all of my GCSE years easy," Casey said as he opened the cupboard.
"You are naturally gifted Casey, everything is easy for you!" Cody snapped. There was a knock on the door and it creaked open.
"Guys!" Katie's panicked voice rang out. Callum rushed to embrace Katie and she pushed him away.
"You have to help us. Leo is the murderer!" Katie gasped, Mikey was stood behind her, doubled over.
"What?" Callum asked.
"Leo is the killer. He killed your dad and we just watched him kill Lorenzo," Katie explained. Micheal pulled out a bloodstained note and placed it on the table.
"I found this on the ground," Micheal said, his breathing still worryingly shallow. Casey carefull opened the note. It read:

RG DZH NV. R PROOVW OZMZ XLLKVI ZMW NI XSFIXS ZMW R URMZOOB VMWVW GSV ORUV LU NB GDRM YILGSVI.

"What is this?" Callum asked, peeking over Katie's shoulder. Cody's green eyes lit up in excitement as he read over the note.
"It's a simple code. Just by looking at it I can narrow it down. It can't be Hexadecimal, Binary, Affine or even Pig Latin. This means that it can be columnar tranportion Cipher, Atbash or Ceasar Shift Cipher," Cody said enthusiastically. Katie shot him a look of confusion.
"I didn't know that you coded," she said, the others were just as confused as her.
"Why do you think I spend so much time off school? I am a government certified Code Breaker. I frequently have to go over to the HQ during school hours. Mum is in on it and asked the doctor to create me a fake, rare illness hat stopped me going to school sometimes. I am taking my exams early to work full time at 17," Cody explained.
"We have more pressing matters than Cody's coding," Katie urged. Cody picked up the letter and took a piece of paper.
"It isn't transportion cipher, and ceasar shift doesn't make sense. If it was Ceasar shift, then it shifts back three letters. To decode it, shift three letters forwards. The first sentence 'RG DZH  NV' translates to 'UJ ACK QY'. This leaves me with Atbash. The first sentence translates to 'IT WAS ME'. Just reverse the alphabet to get your decoded letter," Cody explained. He carried on decoding and it left him with a confession. 

IT WAS ME. I KILLED LANA COOPER AND MR CHURCH AND I FINALLY ENDED THE LIFE OF MY TWIN BROTHER.

"He killed three people. A serial killer on the loose," Katie whispered.
"He killed our mother," Micheal said, his breathing slowly recovering, but he had started coughing up mucus onto the kitchen floor.
"Are you okay Mikey?" Callum asked.
"I'm fine.… Just… dandy," Micheal struggled to speak, his words strained.
"I think he is asthmatic," Casey said. Then he continued: "The lack of oxygen is his airway constricting. If he carries on without a few puffs on an inhaler, then he won't  being able to breathe. I suggest you borrow one of my blue inhalers. It contains sabutalmol, a treatment of asthma," Casey said. He turned to the medicine cabinet and pulled out a box filled with small boxes of blue reliever inhalers. Casey opened a new inhaler and handed it to Mikey. Mikey took off the cap and placed the mouthpiece in his mouth. He pressed the top and inhaled the stuff inside.
"Thank you Casey. I had no idea that he was asthmatic," Katie admitted.
"It is no problem. He can keep that pump until he gets some of his own," Casey replied. Mikey had shifted to sitting on a chair with his elbows on his knees and resting his forehead on his hands. His breathing was still laboured and the coughing hadn't subsided. Callum grabbed a cloth and started to clean up the floor. He also grabbed a plastic pot and placed it underneath Micheal's head. Jennifer Church came in and spotted Micheal sat on the chair.
"What happened here?" She asked.
"Mikey has asthma. Casey just helped him," Callum explained briefly.
"He can't stay in here. I'm going to put him into Katie's old room and I will look after him," Jennifer said. She pulled Micheal to his feet and lead him out. Katie turned to the others.
"I need your help to catch Leonardo. He has to be put behind bars," Katie asked the brothers. They all looked decisively at each other and nodded.
"We will help you. What do you need us to do?" Callum asked.
"I need someone to fake being Mikey, as I don't have the real guy," Katie said. Callum and Casey looked towards Cody.
"Cody is just a little bit taller than Mikey and both are around the same height as Katie. Mikey and Cody both have similar hair colour. The eye colours are the only difference," Casey said.
"Great. I just need the other two to spring the trap," Katie smiled.

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