The Killing Scripture (Alicia Stone Series Book 1)

by Afshan Jaffery

  “Why didn’t you try to go back home?” Ken looked mad at her. “And why are you wearing male sandals?”

  Garret came out of the kitchen at that moment, holding a pistol himself. Ken turned swiftly like a panther aiming the shot at him. They both locked eyes with each other without taking down their weapons.

  “How many letters are there in your name?” Garret hissed at Ken. His eyes seemed to be greener than usual under a threat.

  Ken didn’t reply instantly. “Less than Legacy.”

  Garret took a sigh of relief and lowered down his gun, but Ken didn’t follow. His gun was still pointing at Garret who looked ridiculed.

  “It doesn’t change anything.” Ken looked suspicious. “You can be one of us and still work for him.”

  “Listen,” Alicia tried to convince him. “He was also locked up with me.”

  “He could lock himself in a room to win your trust.” Ken was still unmoved which provoked Garret to point his gun back at him.

  “Or it can be you who kidnapped us and then followed us. How did you reach here so quickly, would you care to explain?” Garret asked.

  “This is a safe house for all brothers. I don’t need a reason to visit it.” Ken gritted his teeth. His hairs were roughly spread on his shoulder unlike other days.

  “Argh, I gave better excuses in school days.” Garret mocked him which was not a wise move in the present situation. “Alicia, bring me a rope from the kitchen. I have finally caught a turncoat.”

  “She knows me better to do this.” Ken said.

  “Really?” Garret took his eyes away from Ken for a second to look at Alicia, and the next moment Ken sprung like a wild cat and snatched pistol from him.

  “Err, he is my boss.” Alicia said. She was not sure what to say. Garret looked disgruntled without his gun.

  “Wait, what is the name of your bookstore?” Garret remembered something.

  “Bell, Book and Candle.” Alicia said.

  “This is crazy.” Garret said to Ken. “You might not believe me, but I was heading to meet you. You are the archiver, right?”

  Ken looked puzzled for the first time. He looked uncomfortably at Alicia, and put both guns in his pockets.

  “We can’t talk about this here.” Ken said to Garret tilting his head towards Alicia.

  “What?” Alicia felt alarmed.

  “You need to leave us alone for few minutes.” Ken said to her.

  “I am not going anywhere. I was kidnapped without doing anything. I need to know.” Alicia was persistent as ever.

  “Its fine.” Garret intervened. “She already knows everything about us. Let’s talk without wasting time.”

  “Wait.” Ken stopped Garret from leaning on a couch. “How does she know everything about us?”

  “Well, you know, some guy had already told her.”

  Alicia chuckled.

  “You will be responsible to answer for your action to your Head of Division.” Ken gave Garret a stern look.

  “Oh, sorry to break your heart, but I don’t have a Head of Division right now.” Garret went on. “He is dead.”

  Ken gave a thoughtful look to him. “It was the code you sent to me earlier?”

  “Yes, and for god’s sake, have a seat.” Garret said. Alicia and Ken set down around him on the sofas.

  “Why did you encrypt your research?” Ken asked again.

  “I was scared that it might get leaked. It was high profile, you know, and I was using university resources most of the time, and there were girls dropping on and off on my apartment so I encrypted it and sent the codebook to the archive to keep my eggs in two baskets. If they got their hands on my research, they would not be able to decrypt it without codebook. It was the best fool proof plan I could make up.” Garret said.

  Ken shook her head in regret. “It was strictly against the code of conduct. Sending research material by courier was a mistake. That’s how they got to know about me, by following your courier.”

  “Technically, it was not research material. It was a code book, and If I didn’t send it by courier, it would get into their hands.” Garret had a point.

  “Where is the research file?” Ken said.

  Garret scratched his head and, for the first time, looked a little embarrassed to Alicia.

  “I have it with me.” He said.

  “Give it to me. I have already logged the research and people want to read it.” Ken asked.

  “People? What people?” Garret raised his eyebrows.

  Ken didn’t reply and looked the other way instead.

  “Oh you mean Elders? You can say it. She knows about Elders as well.” Garret said realizing a point. “Wait a minute, Elders are interested in my research? Wow, that’s big.”

  “File please, Mr Garret.” Ken’s patience was running low with Garret.

  “I think you really need to leave us alone.” Garret said to Alicia apologetically.

  “Why?” Alicia said.

  “It will be uncomfortable for you.” Garret said.

  “I will close my eyes.” Alicia promised, but she had no idea that she would have to do it literally when Garret opened his blue bathrobe.

  “What the hell.” She stammered looking at his sculpted body which was covered with tattoos. Ken came near him and started to examine it.

  “Can you read it?” Garret asked him.

  “I have eidetic memory.” Ken was anxious. “I need to read the whole.”

  “As you said. I am an expert at taking clothes off.” Garret winked at Alicia opening his trouser button and swirled if off in a single move. As expected, he didn’t have any undergarments on. The tattoos continued to his lower body as well. His back was bare which meant he did it himself. Ken continued to read down as if Garret was a pillar with calligraphy on it.

  “That’s my clue.” Alicia murmured and left the room. On the kitchen counter, the laptop was still open showing her bookstore as the final destination of GPS co-ordinates. She closed the lid and set in silence. She wondered why was she kidnapped on the first place. She was not a part of the Legacy then why the killer suddenly felt threatened by her? The only thing she did different yesterday was to make the phone call on the Garret’s number which the killer picked up. He was the same guy whom she saw when she was locked up. He didn’t switch off the phone expecting that a member of Legacy would call on Garret’s number, but instead Alicia called. There was a possibility that killer assumed that she was also in Legacy so he kidnapped her. Alicia thought about that for a minute. If the killer thought she worked in Legacy, she could use it as a leverage.

  When she returned to entrance hall, Garret, fully clothed now, was talking to Ken who was looking out of the window with an expression of sitting in detention.

  “Believe me, girls in Poland are way …” he left the sentence incomplete when he saw her.

  “Can we go back now?” She said to Ken who instantly left his place with a sigh, but Garret didn’t move.

  “I will not recommend that.”

  “You are also coming with us. First you need to report to the Head of Division. Second, you need to transfer this file to paper.”

  “Why do I need to transfer it to paper?”

  “Because I cannot archive you alive.”

  “Excuse me, there is a mass murderer rampaging in your city. You want to commit suicide, do it. Don’t expect me to follow you.” Garret rejected.

  “It’s okay, princess. I will protect you.” Alicia pressed her lips which sent Ken chortling.

  “It’s not like I am scared of him. I was just asking to be diligent.” He walked through the front door ahead of them.

  Garret dozed off in the few minutes of the start of their journey to return to Georgestown. Sitting beside Ken in the Jaguar as dark as his hair, Alicia struggled for several minutes with her urge to bombard him with questions.

  “Say it.” Ken checked Garret on the back seat.

  “Say what?”

  “Whatever is bothering yo
u, but first tell me, why did you leave your mobile at home?” Ken said without taking his eyes off of windshield.

  “I forgot it. I needed to take my laptop bag yesterday so I just forgot to pick mobile at the last minute.” Alicia said.

  “Tell me about the kidnap.”

  “Nah, I better tell that to the police. At least those guys trust me.” Alicia made a face.

  “And I don’t?”

  “I met Garret less than twenty-four hours ago and he told me everything about your…” she struggled with the word brotherhood, “organization which you didn’t tell me in three weeks.”

  “Garret, I am still trying to understand Mr Garret.” He checked him again in the back view mirror. “I was not telling you because it is dangerous.”

  “And I still got kidnapped. If there is a killer at large, isn’t it better to share information so I can protect myself?” Alicia went on in agitation. “Or perhaps you also think that I am a useless woman who should better stay at home and not meddle in crimes.”

  “I never doubt your ability, Alicia.” Ken looked at her worriedly. “You have no idea what you are getting into. It’s not about the killer only. It’s about us, the brotherhood. You don’t know what it really is.”

  “Garret said ….”

  Ken interrupted. “Even Garret doesn’t know everything. He is just a bloody scientist.”

  “And you? What are you?” Alicia wanted nothing better than to get an answer to this question.”

  “It is complicated.” Ken face grew grave again.

  “Garret said you are an Archiver.” Alicia tried to make sense of everything. “But what about the key? Why did you give me that key?”

  Ken didn’t answer her. Several minutes passed with absolute silence in the moving vehicle. The countryside outside was serene and peaceful contrary to the atmosphere inside the moving vehicle.

  “This is not fair.” She said after few minutes biting her lips in frustration.

  “You can ask me any question you want.” His voice was so calm that it was not possible for her to stay mad at him. “But, I cannot tell you everything so how about if we achieve a consensus here? You ask me anything and if I can answer it, I would. All right?”

  “Fine. Why didn’t you come to the store yesterday?” Alicia started with the first question that came to her mind.

  “I was in London that day. I told you in Le Forno that I would be going to London for a week.”

  “But you came back on Monday.” Alicia looked at him in confusion.

  “I had to return because….” He left the sentence unfinished to take a deep breath and resumed. “Because there was some emergency in town so I had come back only for few hours.”

  “You didn’t come after Sam was shot?” Alicia said looking out of the window.

  “You might think I am the villain here, but I am not. Whatever I was doing in London, it was necessary to make sure that the killer doesn’t strike again, and as he was choosing to kill only my kind, I couldn’t even imagine that you or Sam could be possibly in danger.” Ken said.

  “What about Rebecca? Why did you fire her?”

  “She was spying on me.” He confirmed. “The moment I came to know that I gave her notice.”

  “You told me about the books going missing from the shop. What was that?”

  “There are parties who are searching for Garret’s codebook. They thought I was keeping it at the store.”

  “There were housebreakers in your house when I … broke into.” She finished the sentence anyhow.

  Ken laughed. “It sounds like the first line of a poem.”

  “Rebecca was in Warsaw in May.” Alicia changed the topic, “and so were you.”

  “Can you do me a favor? Just put Warsaw out of your mind. You are clever. You might help us in catching the killer, but whatever is happening internationally is too political for you to understand. Take my advice and focus on solving one case at a time.” Ken said.

  “Fine, how did you find us today?”

  “I was in London when I saw a phone call coming to Flora’s number from one of our phone sets. I traced the signal and ended up there.” Ken said.

  “But Garret said that number was untraceable?” Alicia was amazed.

  “Garret is an idiot. It is untraceable for outsiders, not for us. We have the technology to trace signals originating from our own mobile sets.”

  “And why were you tracking Flora’ mobile?”

  “I knew if you get into trouble, you will call her. Luckily, it paid off.” Ken said. “Now it’s my turn to ask question. Why did you bring the laptop bag?”

  Alicia thought for few minutes about telling him about their database hacking and calling the killer, but then she didn’t like the idea. “Well, if you can’t answer some question so can I.”

  Ken looked at her and chuckled.

  “Fair enough. Tell me about the kidnapping.”

  She tried her best to summarize in as fewer words as possible. When she reached the part, where she picked the lock and free herself and Garret as well, she was unable to stop her excitement.

  “It was like a horror video game. I was so scared that he might come at me from behind like a genetically modified immortal zombie.” She was focused on telling him every detail that she didn’t see, he was laughing at her expressions.

  “You must be having the time of your life, but question: Where did you learn to pick a lock?” Ken was amused and shocked both.

  “At home. My mother used to lock me in the attic in my childhood. It was used as a storage room at that time and there were not enough lights. It was scary for me to stay there for a long period of time. I thought picking the lock was the easier thing to do as compared to remaining in the dark.” She tried to sound casual. “Well, I learnt something good out of it.”

  Ken didn’t say a word after that until they reached the town. The afternoon sun had continued his journey downwards and taking a last peek out of the pitched roofs in her alley. Ken stopped the Jaguar in front of Stone Manor.

  “Goodbye, Miss Stone!” Ken said. He had crawled back under his cold and detached skin. Garret was still snoring on the backseat.

  “Well, see you tomorrow.” Alicia said.

  “Actually the store is not going to be opened tomorrow.” He informed her. “We have made some considerable development in catching the killer and we will remove this threat in few days, so it is … a goodbye until then.”

  “Goodbye.” She murmured not knowing when she would see him again. Only after his Jaguar turned the corner she realized that he called him Alicia for the first time in life.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Final Resolution

  The rest of the week was a nightmare for Alicia. Lucy and Steve did not accept the fact that Alicia was kidnapped and then escaped all by herself. They were confident that Alicia had spent night with a man and now telling stories to fool them.

  “In fact, you are right. I did spend night with a man, and you know why?”

  Lucy and Steve exchanged scared looks with each other, as if she was going to give them the “talk”.

  “Because he was locked up with me.” She yelled at them before climbing up to the attic.

  She spent most of her days with Sam at the hospital or with Flora at her divination shop. She was in such a bad mood those days that she didn’t buy anything from her salary. Her laptop was still MIA so she was unable to catchup with the recent developments on the case.

  Kripke was also out of town. He was gone to London after the attack on Sam to ask Feds for help in the case. Alicia felt bad for him as not solving the first case could have affected his career.

  By Saturday, her life had become so dull that she kept staring at the ceiling for an hour before deciding to get a new laptop. She roamed for two hours in the local departmental store and ended up buying a laptop for herself, a Gameboy for Sam, a salt lamp for Flora, a food blender for Lucy, and a lawn mower for Steve. She put some brain in buying things fo
r her parents, because, in case, they ended up disliking it just like always, they were still going to use them anyways as the food blender and lawn mower, at home, were both deteriorated beyond repair. She could buy something better than salt lamp for Flora, but if she did, Lucy would end up comparing prices of their gifts, and the evening would be ruined.

  She stopped at the men’s section to look around. There were so many things that she could dream about giving to someone special in her life, but there was no one. Back in college, when she was poorer than a church mouse, she used to borrow money from Cady to buy gifts for Harry, but she never saw him happy looking at her gifts. How strange was that, now when she looked back, she didn’t have a single happy memory with Harry.

  For some reason, roaming in the men’s section, she thought about Ken who always donned best of the clothes. Just a look was enough to tell that the price of his every outfit was way more than her salary. On her way to hospital, she wondered what was cooking between Ken and Melanie. They were raised together in the same house. Melanie didn’t have any brother or sister, nor did Ken have. They could take up each other as brother and sister—or perhaps not.

  She stopped on her way to drop the heavy stuff at home and purchased an internet dongle because she really needed to get back to her investigation. In hospital, Sam’s father was stayed by his side most of the time so she usually didn’t get to talk to him about their last rendezvous. Finally, when he went for lunch, she showed him the gift. Sam was pleased to find something which he could do from lying on hospital bed.

  “Look, I need your help again.” Alicia smiled sheepishly at him.

  “No, no help, take your Gameboy and go.” Sam said in good humor. They both laughed together.

  “I also got kidnapped, so now we are even.” Alicia said

  “Wow man, getting shot and getting kidnapped are not equal. You tell me, does the law treat both crimes in the same way?” Sam was sharp for his age.

  “No it doesn’t, but sorry to break your heart, the bullet was not for you. It was for me.”

  “Really?” Sam looked disappointed. “Here I thought that I have become such a great detective that criminals are trying to kill me.”