The Dream

Chapter 19

I wrapped up all my work and got ready to go and meet the real Mr. X a.k.a Joe Jacobs
I had a ton of questions for him, starting with why would he kill his own family? Why Sarah? Why not kill me that day? The bastard had a lot of explaining to do.

I went to the place and I instantly recognized the place. It was the place I saw in my dreams. There was the pendulum clock I could see. I looked around a little to find everything the same as in my dreams. I definitely was in the right place.
I reached the place I was called to. It looked like an old beat-down factory of sorts. Tons of machinery here and there. There was grease and oil on the floor making it slippery. It looked as if this factory was shut down years ago. It was a perfect hideout for all kinds of shady groups with crooks like Joe as their head.
I hardly saw anyone around.

I was frisked by one of Joe's henchmen at the entrance to the building. Any weapons or communication devices I had were taken away, which included my phone, department radio, pistol, a knife and believe it or not they even took away the nail clippers I had in my pocket. How scared are you to do this? I was actually laughing inside but I couldn't show this on my face.

I was shown my way into a room, where a man was sitting on the chair, facing the other way. As soon as he turned towards me, memories flashed in front of me. All that running, all that turmoil, all that suffering, all for this. He had exactly the same face as Mr. X.

"There you are Joe! You bastard! How could you do all this!"
"For firsts Richie... I am Mark not Joe. Joe is dead"

He said this so nonchalantly, with absolutely zero guilt. How can a person be so cold towards his family? And wait a second! Did I hear that right! What does he mean he is not Joe, He is Mark?
We had confirmed Mark's identity by checking DNA records of old suspects.
Then it struck me, identical twins have almost exactly the same DNA structure. We might have ignored a little variation as sampling error. But then fingerprints wouldn't have matched.

"Wait a sec.... I don't get it. I can understand the DNA, but how did the fingerprints match."
"You didn't read the report your friend made closely, did you? They did not find any fingerprints. You know why? Because my plans are always perfect. My poor brother Joe had Nasopharyngeal Cancer. I, being the nice brother, consulted him to a doctor who gave him Capecitabine on my orders. Ain't I a nice person?"

This made me furious. Standing before me was an absolutely shameless and ruthless man who was planning this since a long time.
Capecitabine is an anti-cancer drug which has a long term side-effect on fingerprints. It causes the destruction of fingerprints if taken in high doses for a long term which I suspect were given to Joe under his instructions.

"You are a complete absolute scum!! Using your brother like this. Practically killing him long before he died. And all this for what? Just so you can be let off the hook? By staging your death and by killing your own brother? Ruining these many lives? You are a complete psychopath!!"
"Oh you don't get to say that. He brought it upon himself. I had a very disturbed childhood because of my brother and sister, and I had to take revenge. So why not? It was fun having them work to get me free and then kill them!
I wish I could have killed Joe myself, but nevertheless you did a great job! Those were some amazing blows you gave on his head!! Oh I am sorry you don't remember it, do you?? HAHAHA..."

Hatred was brimming in me. What kind of a person can do all this? I was already guilty about killing someone, now to know that it was indirectly for a scum like him, I played right into his hands.
"This petty a reason. Seriously? Do you even hear yourself when you say something? How can a human be so cold? I still don't understand why Sarah helped you? Or did you hypnotize her too?"
"Oh no no Richie, what are you saying. I could never do that to my cute little sister
She did it because she didn't want to lose her brother. Even though I am Mark but I look exactly like Joe whom she was very close to and Joe was about to die. You see emotions are very funny. If you don't control them, others will control you...
Sad I had to kill her too..."

I had completely lost it now!! My eyes were red with anger. I wanted to strike him down so badly. I wanted to kill him right then and there. I was about charge towards him, but then I realised that he had Jessica captive.
"Where is Jessica? I am here now, release Jessica."
"HAHAHA.... There you have it again. Emotions indeed are really funny.
Don't you think so too partner?"
"What do you mean??"

"What he means, is that you are a complete idiot. Do you think Mark could do all this all alone? It was all part of an experiment that I was conducting which helped Mark in a way."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was a familiar voice. I just hoped I was hearing it all wrong. But then I turned around and my face turned pale.
"Oh heyy Richie.... Surprised seeing me free? HAHAHA...Well I hate bursting your bubble of being a saviour, but I was never captive in the first place"
It was Jessica. She had that sinister smile on her face. She was not the victim, I was.
I was trapped now.....