Mercy Abbott - The Kiss of Death

The Consultant Detective

Mercy couldn't believe her eyes that such a vital piece of information was hidden in her bag all this time? But when did she put the letter in her bag? Then she remembered their last encounter when she met with Amy and sat with her on the park bench, she must have sneaked the letter then.

But what is she supposed to do now? The stalker? The secret boyfriend? Are they same person? But why would the boyfriend disappear only to reappear and haunt her? Was she murdered because she faced her stalker?

All these questions made her adrenaline rush. She jumped out of her bed and began to walk up and down her room trying to put the pieces of the mystery together. She looked at her table clock- it was almost 3 in the morning - "the devil's hour"- as they say. Mercy felt like she was possessed by the devil itself- she couldn't sleep anymore. Amy had trusted her as her only reliable friend and here she was thinking that she never thought of as her friend. She felt sorry for her and at th same time - she knew that she had to do something for her- but what could she do?

"Yes! The party! Amy said that she met the guy at some after party- I need to start looking for some names of the people who came to the party….yes… but which party? Probably the one that the boys from the university celebrated after they won the amateur Chess competition…but that would mean that loads of people were invited, it would be like looking for a needle in a bucket of needles! No… I just need to find about a french guy- who's a professional Chef. But what was a french chef doing at a party in our university? He said he was invited? I need to know more about this party….and I think I know exactly whom to ask.",

Mercy thought as she sat on her bed.

It was almost morning and Mercy still didn't feel like sleeping. She went to her kitchen and prepared some tea. She then took out her diary and copied down the key words and phrases from Amy's letter and circled those words. Words like - Chef,Party,French,Stalker,guy disappears,stalker appears…etc made her list. Then she thought about contacting the police and handing the evidence over to them but then they would arouse more suspicions if they started investigating in the boys hostel. She thought it would be best that she'd better find all the evidences on her own and then invite the police to help her.

She looked at her clock again- almost 6 a.m. She thought it would be better for her to take a cold shower. She had her classes at 9 but she thought of skipping class and investigating the case on her own.

An hour later, she got ready to go out and do some investigating. She opened the door of her room and stepped out. As soon as she did , she stepped on something. She looked down and saw a flower- a single hydrangea flower sitting right on her doorstep. Mercy gasped. It was the same type of flower that she saw on Amy's bed. She immediately looked around to see if there was anyone else. But all she saw was an empty hall way and all she heard was the relentless gossiping and laughing coming from the rooms of the other girls in the hostel.

Mercy kneeled down and picked up the flower. What was a flower doing at her doorstep? Does this means that the killer had spotted her? But how?

She stood up and looked at the flower- there was nothing special about it - they were very common and easy to find, nevertheless she put it in her bag and began to walk down the stairs. As she descended downstairs - she began to wonder whether it was a co-incidence that she found a flower on her door step or was it the killer's way of letting her know that he has found her and he knows that she has the letter. Mercy knew that this would mean that the letter holds the key to the killer's identity.

She walked out into the morning sun- she felt warm and cozy. The grad students were rushing towards their classes and a few of the professors were slowly walking behind them. Mercy walked towards the cafeteria- she knew it was the best place to start her investigation and also she was starving.

The cafeteria was in a rush that morning - some of the grad students had their semester exams in a few hours and they gathered there to grab a cuppa joe and to discuss about their exam strategies. Mercy never liked coffee- she prefered tea. She stepped upto the counter and ordered a simple breakfast of an omelette and bread. She took her meal and sat at the corner table. She looked around- she was surrounded by noisy, nervous kids- some going over their notes in silence- others arguing over football.

She started having her breakfast in silence but her eyes were fixated on the door- she was waiting for her junior- Rudy. She knew Rudy came here every morning at the exact same time and sat there in silence while she had her morning coffee. Everyone kept their distance from Rudy- she was known to be weird and it was also rumoured that she practiced Black Magic! She stayed with her aunt in a remote neighbourhood who dabbled in the black arts and voodoo. Mercy never believed in all these rumours and actually thought that Rudy was a shy but brilliant kid but lacked social skills. She never talked much and kept to herself but she had a keen sense of observation - she somehow knew things that no one else knew- she kept her eyes and ears opened and always had information on anything going on in the university. She was like a spy in disguise except everyone knew about it and people would approach her and ask for some information for a small fee.

Mercy nervously kept looking at the door and her watch. It was almost 8 a.m. Rudy would come any minute. She began to shake her legs in nervous anticipation.

" I promise I will bring it back...."

" Let me come with you then..."

" They won't do me no harm..."

"Look out!!" I cried as I opened my eyes and realised that I was dreaming.

"What in the world!" I said to myself wiping my face.It was a terrible dream, I saw her arguing with the bandits and one of them pushed her off a cliff, I tried to grab her arm but she fell screaming into the dark abyss.I looked at my watch it was almost three in the morning- a few minutes of sleep did me no good. I was worried about her perhaps more than the diary, more than anything else in the world I wanted her to be safe, to come back to me.I decided that I had to do something but I had no idea what- should I wait for her or go out looking for her?

The room was still dark and I had no spare candles but the moonlight fell through the window on the table and my eyes fell upon the peculiar map as I noticed that something was glowing on the map, a dim green glow. I reached out and opened the map. To my amazement the entire map was filled with random glowing dots which lit even brighter as the moonlight intensified. I was awestruck and took the map closer to the window and let the moonlight fall directly on the map. It was a series of dots from the southern part of the map leading all the way upto a certain point on the north east part of the map. The final point was shaped like an island!

"Well I'll be damned.... this is what the Yorks are after...the location of the secret island of Croatoan..."

I remarked trying hard to put together the facts. But why is it glowing green?How did Mr. White incorporate glowing substances into the map? I scratched my head as I stood beside the window which was pouring bright moonlight onto the map. But then I suddenly felt upset.I gave her the diary without the map and that made me feel uncomfortable. If the bandits knew about the map and asked her about it, she would have no idea what to tell them. I felt sorry for her but I had to get to her before anything bad happened.

The map was John White's most accurate description of his last findings . Apparently he never took the diary back with him to England, maybe he was forced to hide it here in America. I hadn't had the time to read his diary but I bet that both the map and the diary together would lead to Croatoan. I went through the map again, this time the illuminated dots made the landscape clearer.

It was a map within a map! For instance Old pike road, which previously seemed to end at a narrow crossing by the river was actually a longer stretch of road which went north, straight towards where the tavern was supposed to be.And so were other spots I thought were accurate but the glowing stuff pointed out a different map altogether.

Suddenly i recognised something familiar in the pattern of the glowing spots. I tried to join together all the points in the map as I held it out into the moonlight with my arms stretched.It looked familiar...like a bow, like a belt...I tried to recollect images in my mind of the pattern- I have seen it somewhere. My eyes went up into the direction of the sky- towards the stars-and I then it struck me. The glowing pattern on the map was an exact replica of the stars - the constellation of Orion- the hunter! I stood there for a moment and tried to make sense of it all. The constellation in the sky was now shining brightly in the east , where the eagle mountains were supposed to be in the map...

With all this mystery and secrecy inside one three hundred year old map, what else could it be hiding and what other mysteries lay ahead - perhaps the legends about the island were true?

It was almost dawn now and I heard the sound of hooves approaching- I quickly folded the map and put it inside my pocket. I was relieved as I saw a familiar figure approaching on my horse. She came back! I was overjoyed and ran outside to welcome her. But I hesitated as I noticed five other men on horses following her. They all stopped a few feet in front of me. As they got off their rides, a grizzly looking man took out his gun,pointed at me and said-

"You're one lucky son of a gun you know..."

"Who are you?" I asked in a commanding voice.

The man smiled through his tobacco stained teeth, spat on the ground and came towards me rolling his Colt in his fingers-

"I am the one who put this girl to spy on you...and I am the one who knows about the map and the diary...and I will be the reason you die today if I don't get what I want..."

Those words struck me like thunder, she worked for these York bandits? I was starting to like her...

The man pulled her by the arms as the rest of the crew giggled me mischievously -

" Tell him ... tell him the truth...and ask him for the map..."

She was shaken with fear and guilt and said-

" I am sorry Michael... please give him what he wants..."

I held her in my arms and wiped her tears and told the bandits to go to hell. But the leader giggled and pointed his gun on me and said-

" Even John White's ghost can't stop me from getting what I want...I was being polite but ..."

*Bang*

He fired, but she stood in front of me and the bullet hit her left shoulder.I couldn't believe my eyes as I held the collapding girl in my arms soaked in blood. I cursed the bandits and tried to take her into the house to help her. She was semi conscious- asking for my forgiveness. The leader stood in front of me and demanded the map again. I hastily took out the map from my jacket pocket with my blood-soaked hand and gave it to him. They all broke into laughter and prepared to ride off while I held the poor girl in my arms and picked her up. She was light like a feather, her beautiful face had gone pale, her long hair was untied and flowed down to my feet, her white dress stained in crimson red. I had to stop the bleeding somehow...

Suddenly it became all windy, the horses began to whine and jump as if some unseen force spooked then. The gang tried to calm them but it didn't work, one of the men caught his leg in the saddle and was dragged away by his horse! The others watched in awe as the winds grew stronger and dust and leaves flew everywhere. The leader held on to his map and asked his men to take cover inside the house. I quickly rushed in and placed her on my couch and locked all the doors and windows. The men rushed in as the winds grew stronger and they yelled at me to open the door and threatened with their guns. They tried to firce the door open but I put my back against it with all my strength. They kept banging and yelling, the leader even smashed the window glass to pieces, but I held on to the door - I pushed back so hard that I thought I had passed out for what happened next was beyond my comprehension-

As I held on to the door I saw a white light through the cracks of the door, it seemed to get brighter and drawing closer.The men outside were yelling and screaming frantically as if something was out to get them- I heard a few gunshots- but I couldn't be sure because of the howling wind.It was so chaotic outside, I fell the entire room was shaking, I closed my eyes and pushed back till at the door as hard as I could and a few moments later- Nothing!!

I found myself passed out on my writing desk with the open map on my hand. There was nobody, no bandits nor the girl.I raised my head and looked at my watch it was four in the morning- the candle had burned out and I could see the faint glow of the morning sky through the window. I looked around and found the bloodstained couch but I couldn't find her- the door was cracked a bit and the broken window panes were on the floor. I was shocked!!

Was I dreaming?

But it couldn't be a dream for there was evidence of what had occurred.For instance- the empty bullet shells, the foot prints on the ground...

But where's everybody?

I strolled across the front porch like a mad man.It seemed as though I skipped an hour of my life.I didn't know what to think! Then I saw her standing besides a rock staring at the open sky above. She seemed to be in trance. I ran towards her and hugged her. Her blood stained dress slowly turn back to normal. She seemed calm and peaceful and everything around me seemed to br simply turning back to normal again. I looked towards the sky, I could still see the constellation slowly fading out in the sunlit sky.

Who or what helped us? What happened in the past hour of my life? I still think it was just a dream.