Anna picks up Issac’s call, “Anna? This is Mr. Issac, the detective. It is going to sound weird but, I got a case to work on. I’ll need your help as well, so why don’t you come to the office immediately!” hearing this Anna is overwhelmed with happiness and replies in a jolly tone, “I’ll be on my way, see you in a bit!” within a few minutes Anna knocks at the office door.

Issac lets her in and before he discusses the case with her Issac lays down some rules that she must follow if she has to learn from him. “One: always let me take point when we have to investigate a place. Two: before getting to a conclusion tell all your findings and concerns to me. Three: you are a student under me so don’t try to become my teacher, listen to me and follow what I tell you. Agreed?” Anna nods rapidly as Issac opens up the files of the case.

“Four scientists that work for MSAT are reported missing and one of them is dead, come here, look at their profiles and tell me what you can gather from them.” Issac gives Anna some space on the couch. She sits on it and starts going through the files while Issac decides to clean up some mess. After she is done analyzing the file she calls out, “Mr. Issac, I am done!”

Issac replies, “Just call me Issac, so what have you gathered so far from the files?” Anna starts to explain, “So, first off it is pretty obvious that these scientists work for MSAT but none of them have visited MSAT for a long time. Here, take a look at the last time they reported back to MSAT.” Anna lays all five profile papers and points towards the last contact dates.

She continues, “Secondly, if this was just a kidnapping of MSAT employees, why would the kidnapper take scientists that are working on the same project. I assume this is all planned and there is someone who is interested in finding out more about this project. Maybe someone doesn’t want their project to be completed, that’s all I could gather!”

Listening to her findings Issac is impressed and answers, “Good start Anna, but here are some things that you missed. The scientist who was found dead, he was aged the most out of the four; also all of these scientists haven’t checked back at MSAT in a long time. So even if they were working on a project, MSAT wouldn’t have known which is good and bad news.”

“Good news because I won’t have to go to Maximus Tower to investigate, bad news because if we don’t find them all soon, we won’t know what they were working on. We must be cautious too. The kidnapper might be luring us to himself.” Let’s go to the HPD (Hawkesbay Police Department) headquarters.”

“There are a few people I must meet and we can see the evidence from the crime scene of the killed scientist too.” Issac and Anna leave the office building and stand near Issac’s dusty car. Issac looks at the car and says, “I’ll fix her up, let’s take a cab for today.” Anna nods in return. Issac calls a cab and they reach the headquarters.

The headquarters is a clean but busy building, there are many officers on the phone, some taking emergency calls, while others are eating donuts, some officers are locking trouble makers while others are enjoying off time in the games room. Issac stops near a tidy desk; the name plate reads Jeffery Jackson. A slightly fat man is sitting on his chair and going through different files, unaware that Issac is staring at him.

“Yo! Jeff, you gonna treat me like a stranger now?” Issac says. Jeff looks at him and smiles, “You motherfucker, you haven’t called in a year and you have the audacity to make me look like a wrong doer?” Jeff leaves his chair and hugs Issac. “Good to see ya too man!” Issac replies. He introduces Anna to Jeff.

He tells Jeff that Anna was partly responsible for him taking the case. “Thank you very much Ms. Anna, I don’t know how you will put up with him, but he is a fine fucking detective that’s for sure!” Anna smiles and shakes her head.

“So Jeff, show us the victim and the evidence you guys collected!” Issac says. Jeff takes them to the autopsy room at the second floor of the headquarters. Inside, the dead body of the scientist is placed on an examination bed. Near the bed is a table with all the evidence placed inside plastic bags.

“So here lies Mister Sebastian Lowe” Jeff says. Issac goes to the evidence table and looks at various things from the crime scene, while Anna is stunned and keeps staring at the body. Issac goes near Anna and says, “It’s alright, I know this is your first day, and seeing a dead body this early isn’t good for your morale, but we must do what we have to. Let me take a look at the dead body, why don’t you take a look at the evidence.”

Jeff calls for the doctor who did the autopsy and leaves the room. Issac looks at the body and finds nothing of interest, he talks to the doctor, “So, he wasn’t killed? There are no signs of struggle, no wounds on his body.” listening to Issac the doctor replies, “Yes, it is very strange. At first I thought maybe he was poisoned, but the blood samples confirm he wasn’t. He didn’t suffer a stroke or a heart attack either. Here is an interesting thing though; his MRI scans show that his brain wasn’t stable.”

Issac replies, “Stable as in was he crazy?” the doctor nods and says, “Yes his brain shows instability like that of a person going crazy slowly!”

While they both converse Anna goes through all the objects collected from the crime scene and finds nothing of interest. Only that the second hand of the watch keeps twitching without moving forward. She finds it a little interesting and calls out, “Issac look at this! The second hand is twitching.” Issac takes a look at the watch and says, “Could be a faulty watch, nothing of use here!”

Anna keeps the watch on the table and they both move out to see Jeff once again. Issac talks to Jeff as Anna drinks some water from the break room. After he is done Issac and Anna leave the headquarters and Issac calls for a cab. Issac asks for Anna’s address and she replies, “Ford Avenue, near the 24/7 Mart” when the cab reaches the destination she gets out of the cab and points to an apartment building, “I live here, on the 5th floor, room 507. Thanks for the cab ride, I hope I helped today!”

Issac smiles and says, “Yeah you did, see you tomorrow at the office at 7 A.M. sharp, don’t be late!” as Issac leaves her Anna let’s off a huge sigh and enters her apartment building. She takes the elevator to her floor and opens her apartment. She lays down on her bed and says, “Shit! This is going to be harder than I thought, this guy is too good. I have to be very careful!” suddenly her watch starts to buzz she looks at it and it flashes a text warning, “4 days left!” seeing it Anna’s face shows signs of worry and she shouts, “Fuck I don’t have much time, I have to hurry!”