Instagram to Insanity

Part 2

The next morning John got up early and went into work at the local police station. When John got into the station his boss was waiting for him in his office.

"I have another case for you John. I know you have a lot of cases now a days but you're the best at what you do and I need you to take a look at this one." John's boss said.

"It's fine I just finished up one of my cases last night. It's a balancing act I guess." John says with a chuckle, "I have three open and when I solve one, there's another that needs my attention more that the other two."

"Yes that's the unfortunate thing about this job; so many cases left untouched and unsolved for far too long." he paused in thought for a moment, "Well don't just stand there, get to work. Don't let this case go unsolved like so many others have."

"Of course. I'll start working right away." John says as he starts to leave the office. He spent most of the day researching the new case he had received from his boss, stopping occasionally to get something to eat or to stretch his muscles, sore and stiff from sitting in one uncomfortable position for the majority of the day. It was a warm and sunny Friday afternoon and throughout the office was talk of the weekend; people talking about their plans, people talking about relaxing, and people talking about leaving work and going home early.

"Hey John are you going to stay here till 8:00 like you usually do, or do you have plans for the weekend?", Ryan, one of John's coworkers, asked, "If you have nothing planned than why don't you come with us and get something to eat after work?"

"Sorry I can't. I just got a new case and I need to do some more work on it. Maybe next time." he said with a heavy sigh, "You guys know how much work I have to do now a days."

"All right. If you ever need any help on your cases feel free to ask. I'd be more than happy to help." he checks his watch "Well we are going to head out. See you on Monday John."

"Bye Ryan" John mumbles as he turned back to his computer and continues to work. John works on the new case for the next hour or so before taking a break to stretch his aching limbs. As he does this he notices a faint static noise so quiet he wouldn't have heard it unless it was completely silent at the office. It was so faint that he at first thought that it was his imagination but after moving around and listing for a minute he figured out that the sound was coming from underneath his desk. Upon checking under the desk John saw the PC for his computer in a jumbled nest of wires. He felt around with his hand and found a stray wire, not connected to his computer but leading somewhere else. He grabbed the wire and followed it to a small microphone taped up on the side of the desk. The small cord lead down to a little box with a blinking red light.

"Why is there a microphone under my desk? Is it part of the computer? No, if it was the cord would go to the PC not to a... a portable recorder? Who put this microphone under my desk and why?" he thought for a moment, "Ugh there's nothing I can do about it now, everyone's gone home."

John gathered up his belonging that had been scattered across his desk during the day, put them in his bag and left for home. He arrived home as his two sons and wife where cleaning up dinner.

"Hi dad" William and Joel say at the same time as they ran upstairs.

"Hi honey" his wife says as she hugs him, "I sent you a text over an hour ago asking you would be home. Why didn't you respond?"

"You sent me a text? Let me check." he says as he pulls out his phone and hits the power button. The screen blazes to life as he checks it for missed texts. "Oh you did text me. Sorry I- Wait... if you texted me over an hour ago then why does it says 27 minutes on the timestamp?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's broken or defective." his wife suggests.

"I don't think so."John says doubtfully, "This has been happening a lot lately. Texts not sending correctly, texts not showing up after they have sent, and texts being delayed. I don't think that this is just a glitch. I just got this phone. It can't be broken already." John put his stuff down in his office than ate a quick dinner before going up to bed. As he lay in bed he thought of the weird events that had occurred within the last few weeks; the tracking arrow, the microphone in his office, and the delayed text. What could be causing this? he thought It can't be a coincidence. It's all too sudden. Is someone stalking me? Or my family? Is it someone from one of my past cases? No stop. Just try to sleep. Keeping myself up at night won't help me figure out who is doing this.