Stars - part 4

His heart was pounding in his chest and his head was throbbing. He was sitting against the wall in an empty alley. At that time, he finally understood what had been keeping him from joining as an investigator. The fear of making the wrong decision. The wrong judgement. He had seen criminals walk free because the police misjudged the situation and ended up putting an innocent behind bars.

He had made a decision, a judgement, and was afraid that he had made a wrong one. He had left the man from the pub who had introduced himself as Star-Killer and run away. After a few minutes, he got up and started to walk down the roads aimlessly. As he was walking past a small café, he saw that another breaking news report was live. He went in to hear it. The news blasted loudly in the empty café:

"A body linked to the Star-Killer was discovered just minutes ago on North Bridge Avenue, according to police at the scene...."

For a moment, his heart felt like it would break his ribs with all the pounding but after listening to the news, he went still. His mind began connecting the dots, and then he calmed down completely. He sighed in relief and sat down. He had made the right decision. His judgement was correct.

He had figured out a lot about Star-Killer, by now. The killer would never show his face just like that. It would kill the fun and thrill for him. He loved to remain in plain sight. One could see him going around, talking about his own murders from a third person's point of view, call himself an evil disgusting creature or look at his own victim's pictures with teary eyes acting as if he actually cared but he would never ever tell anyone who he is, unless someone figured it out on their own.

Thus Aaron knew that the guy who claimed himself as Star-Killer was nothing but distraction, and the news just confirmed it. The locations were too far away. That guy could have never made it to North Bridge Avenue after talking to Aaron in Third Street, given that those streets were miles apart.

He ordered himself coffee and sat down to plan his next move. If he had stayed with the guy and listened to his lies, he probably would have wasted so many hours but now he could focus on Mr. Fairmaner completely. 

It wasn't so difficult to track down a private seller. In fact, they make it easy for people to reach them. Aaron had gotten the contact and even the address to contact him physically too but he was wondering if he should do it or not. Should he just go to the police? Should he become an investigator and take over the case legally? Or should he deal with the Star-Killer with his own resources?

He decided to go with his own resources and was standing in front of Mr. Fairmaner's house now. Mr. Fairmaner opened the door. He was a tall man, probably in his late 30s and definitely strong enough to carry out the killings. He spoke in a rough voice, "Yes? How can I help you, young man?"

"Mr. Fairmaner? I came here for house viewing. You said in the advertisement that anyone could come by anytime." Aaron replied.

"Oh, yes!" Mr. Fairmaner smiled, his voice quickly turned sweet and professional and pulled Aaron inside. Aaron came to know that everyone is an extrovert in this town except for him. The house was big, beautiful and probably newly made. Mr. Fairmaner started showing him around the house. He was a jolly, sweet man. There were no signs that could prove him killer in any way, but Aaron knew no killer walked around looking like one. He kept a close eye on his reactions. He knew that if Mr. Fairmaner was indeed the Star-Killer, then he would already be cautious of Aaron but there he was being very relaxed and showing every corner of his house like there was nothing to hide at all.

They walked to the kitchen. Aaron was looking around at everything. He had a good opportunity. He could inspect every corner to find clues and it would look like he was just checking everything to see if the house was fit to buy. He looked inside a cup on the kitchen counter. His eyes went wide when he saw teeth inside. He gasped but before he could get ahead of himself, Mr. Fairmaner chuckled and put it away, "My little nephew is kind of into goth stuff so he was experimenting with prosthetic fangs. He's a bit careless so didn't put them away afterwards. I apologize for the fright it gave you."

It definitely scared Aaron. He forced out a laugh. "I-I understand. I did stuff like this as a teenager too. Um, I need to go now, but I will visit the house with my uncle once more before making a decision. I'll get going now. Thank you for your time, Mr. Fairmaner."

Mr. Fairmaner said his goodbyes to Aaron at the main door. Aaron went back to his apartment finally. He was going to have a long night, just thinking and figuring out everything. He was feeling tired. It had been a long day, and the night wasn’t going to be any easier. He needed something to keep himself awake, so he went straight to make coffee and turned on the news channel. He stopped in his tracks when the screen lit up and showed a large picture of the fake Star-Killer, the guy from the pub, on the screen. News reporter spoke:

"Breaking news: Star-Killer has confessed to the murders. Police confirm he is Bernard Crowley, son of the town's sixth mayor!"

To be continued.....