Chapter 3

After 18 minutes of continuous walking and running because Otto made fun of the inspector's balding head, they arrived at the police station. It was a three-floored building made of red brick that had almost lost its colour due to exposure to the elements. The police station had a slanted roof made of black tiles with moss growing on it. The roof appeared to have not been cleaned for at least 10 years. The police station was located at the edge of the town. The area around the police station was cold and carried a musty smell due to the rain.

Otto and the inspector entered the building and went over to the reception. "Hey there buddy, I have to enter the evidence room regarding 'that' case," Jeffrey told the receptionist very discreetly, as to not let anyone else hear what he said. "I see, please wait for a few minutes. I will go get the person in charge of the room," replied the receptionist as Otto and Jeffrey went to sit on the chairs placed next to the wall.

Looking around, there were a lot of people going about their day, doing their daily work. Many people came in to report crimes, and multiple criminals were also brought in and taken to interrogation.

"The person in charge of the evidence room is quite the busy person. Poor guy barely gets sleep, and half the budget for coffee is taken by him," said the inspector to break the silence, and Otto chuckled at hearing this.

A few minutes later, a man who looked to be half dead came over to them. His face was pale, and he had baggy eyes due to extreme lack of sleep. The poor guy looked like he hadn't slept or even gone home for days. He signalled for us to follow him, and we arrived at the evidence room. The person in charge of the room unlocked it for us, and as soon as they entered the room, they were greeted by the pleasant smell of paper. They were told that they had an hour until the time was over. Before leaving, the man gave Inspector Jeffrey a weird looking key, which the latter put in his pocket for safekeeping.

Looking around the room, you could see piles upon piles of documents and files. The room itself was quite big; the floor was made from wooden planks, and the walls were painted a dull shade of brown, which was wearing off due to how long ago the walls were painted.

"You wanted to show me something in here?" asked Otto. "Oh no, not in here. Watch this, I'll show you something very cool," Jeffrey said. "Oh, and don't tell anyone what you see in here or it might make problems," warned the inspector.

Otto walked through the door and was closely followed by the inspector. Inside, he saw a staircase that led downwards. The staircase led to another room, which was just as big as the one they had passed through, but this room was kept in a much better condition than the previous room. It was lit very well and was clean. The walls were painted white, and everything was organized here, unlike the previous room. There were multiple shelves containing documents, but there were also other types of evidence, such as murder weapons.

"This room is a special room for storing evidence for cases that are of extreme importance. This room was made to ensure the safety of the evidence. Only a few people know that this exists," Jeffrey explained to Otto. "I know I said that this case isn't a simple abduction case, but does the evidence related to this case really need this much security?" asked Otto, confused.

"Well, my dear boy, I was going to tell you this later, but telling it to you right now wouldn't hurt," Otto looked at Jeffrey with confusion on his face and asked, "What is it?"

"You see, on the morrow of the night John White died, I obtained a few leads on some warehouses where potential abduction victims might have been held. A special task force was dispatched to those warehouses, and indeed, they found the abducted victims. They were kept in such horrendous and inhumane conditions that it made my blood boil from anger. All of them were malnourished and on the brink of death due to starvation and thirst. Anyways, back to what I was saying, due to the new leads, we were able to safely say that this case is a lot worse than we initially thought, and so any evidence regarding this case is kept here where it's safe," explained the inspector.

"What did you want to show me in here?"

"This, it was found on John White the night he died," the inspector picked up a phone from one of the shelves and showed it to Otto. "A phone?"

"We found something interesting inside the phone. Look at these texts," the inspector opened multiple chats and showed them to Otto. The messages in all the chats, which he showed to Otto, were very odd. They seemed to be random symbols that a drunk person would type if he tried to message someone. But to Otto, who had learned the art of encryption, it would be very easy to spot that the messages weren't random nonsense but instead were encrypted messages. Although figuring out how to decipher this would be a problem because this was a very different method of encryption compared to what Otto had seen. "These seem to be encrypted messages; you have yet to figure them out, and that's why you brought me here, so you could have them decrypted by me," the inspector looked at Otto for a few seconds, then chuckled to himself and said, "Sharp as ever. It's embarrassing to admit, but that's right, I need you to decipher these messages for the police." At this, Otto gave a knowing smile, "Heh, sure I'll help you with this, but I expect a favor from you in return." Being curious, the inspector asked Otto what the favor was, and Otto replied, "I'll tell you after I decipher these messages," to which the inspector nodded. "Well, you can stay here for the time being to try and decipher it and see if you get anywhere with this."

After saying this, Inspector Jeffrey went and sat on the sofa that was in the corner of the room and started to observe Otto. He watched Otto pace around the room back and forth, open his phone, and scroll through something, then close the phone and go back to pacing around the room. He watched Otto almost hit the wall multiple times, but each time, Otto stopped walking at the last possible second.

After 30 minutes of constantly pacing around the room and checking his phone, Otto sat on the floor and closed his eyes so that he could think better. The inspector knew that he should not interrupt Otto while he was thinking, or else he'll forget everything. Otto had this peculiar habit of forgetting what he was thinking about if he was interrupted while he was thinking. Because of this, he always isolated himself in the study room whenever he wanted to think of something. Only the butler, Bartholomew, was allowed in the study because he somehow never made a sound when entering the room. Even the door never creaked when he opened it to enter.

After a few more minutes, Otto started scratching his head due to not being able to figure out how to decipher the messages and said, "Ahhhh, Mr. Jeffrey, I need more time. One hour isn't enough for me to figure this out. Can you do something about

the time limit?" Jeffrey thought for a minute and replied, "I might be able to pull a few strings to get what you want, but I'll have to talk with a few people. Come with me for now." The balding inspector led Otto out of the room they had just been in, making sure to lock the door, and went back to the waiting lounge. Jeffrey told Otto to sit there for a while, saying he'll be back in a few minutes. After saying this, he walked over to the staircase that led to the upper floors and didn't come back for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes had passed, Otto saw the inspector return with a sly grin on his face.

He came over to Otto, "Hey kid, I not only got permission to let you inspect it for a longer time, I also got permission to allow you to take the phone back to your home and keep it for as long as you want so you can figure the encrypted messages. Aren't I great?" and smirked after saying this. "No way! That is really convenient for me. It's great having someone with a lot of links! Thank you, Mr. Jeffrey," said Otto cheerfully, to which the inspector smiled, "Now we wait a few minutes; the phone should be brought over to us."

Five minutes later, the same man they saw an hour ago, the one in charge of the evidence room, came over to them and gave the balding inspector the phone, and after that, he left without saying anything to either of them. The inspector gave the phone to Otto, who put it inside the inner breast pocket of his coat to keep it safe.

Jeffrey told Otto that he can leave if he wants to and when Otto inquired whether he wants to come over to his house for some tea, Jeffrey said that he has some work left to do and that he'll come some other time for tea.

After this interaction, Otto left to go back to his mansion where he was greeted by Lloyd whom he said that he was going into the study room and to bring his stuff there. Lloyd, who knew Otto extremely well, had already brought all the stuff into the study room.

Otto then went inside the study room and started brainstorming ideas on how to decipher the messages, and whenever he couldn't think of anything, he would play his violin to calm his nerves and allow him to think with a clear mind.

The next day at sunrise, laughter could be heard coming from the study room, to which all the servants of the mansion were very familiar. It was the laughter Otto did whenever he cracked the code for something important.

Otto came out of the study room with a huge grin, ruffled hair, and baggy eyes, and entered the dining hall where the servants were eating breakfast. He had always preferred to eat breakfast with everyone instead of eating alone.

Upon entering the hall, he was greeted by Lloyd, "Good morning, Master. Would you like your morning coffee and breakfast?" Otto replied with a loud and cheerful 'Yes' and went to sit on a chair. The butler brought him his coffee and breakfast, which Otto finished in a matter of minutes.

After eating, Otto decided to go for a morning walk to refresh his mind after which he went to sleep. Before going to sleep, he told Lloyd to inform Inspector Jeffrey that he has deciphered the messages and to come to the mansion at five o'clock. Soon Otto fell into a deep sleep due to the tiredness from working the whole night. "Good work, Master Otto. Your father would have been proud," whispered the butler to himself and left Otto's room.