At the house

Mary and Alex are standing in front of Alex's car to go for their own investigations. Just when they were about to enter the car Cheng called them from behind. "Yo, I am also going with you."

"Why?" said Mary.

Cheng started to scratch his head. "Well, it's kind of boring to investigate alone,bI'm kind of at a dead end too."

"Okay, I guess," said Alex.

"Sorry for the third wheeling, guys," he gave them a slight smile.

Mary smiled back. "Oh, come on Cheng, you are my little bro, it's okay." She started walking forward with a smile plastered on her face, suddenly she realised something and her expression changed from happy to embarrassed. "Wha... What are you saying Cheng, you can't third wheel us, because we are not a couple."

"Yeah, right. Anyway, let's go," said Cheng.

Suddenly they heard a loud thud from the house. Alex ran inside and saw that Meera had fallen from the stairs. Annie was standing at the top of the stairs staying still, shocked. "What happened?!" said Alex.

Annie started crying. "She.... she slipped and fell off."

Others also came there shortly after. "What did you do, Annie?!" said Catherine.

"I didn't do anything, she fell off her own!"

"Guys, don't you have something more important to do than arguing...." said Meera while struggling to get up.

"Oh sorry Meera," Alex went over to her and helped her get up, Vishnu also gave a hand.

"Are you okay, Meera?" said Vishnu.

"Not really, it kinda hurts," said Meera.

"Let's go to the hospital, then," said Vishnu.

"I'm coming with you, we can go in my car," said Alex.

"Thank you," said Meera. They both took Meera to the hospital.

"I always got a psychopath's aura from you, Annie. Turns out I was right," said Catherine with a cold look.

"I told you it wasn't me! If I did something, Meera would've told you," said Annie.

Akbar laughed. "Don't worry Annie, she's just messing around with you."

Catherine remained cold. "Oh, am I?"

"Oh come on, stop it already, you are scaring her," said Akbar.

"Right," Catherine went back to her room.

"She really doesn't like you, huh?" said Cheng.

"Why do you think like that?" said Mary.

"I mean she's probably the nicest woman in existence," Cheng paused. "Well yeah, she's kind of weird but she was always nice and kind towards all of us but she is always cold towards Annie," said Cheng.

"Maybe it's because she's the only woman who's almost as beautiful as her, maybe she feels threatened?" said Akbar.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Nonsense, she isn't the type to get jealous," said Cheng.

"I think... I think it's because I'm quiet," said Annie. "Everyone..." Annie shreds a tear, "everyone always hated me for being quiet but..." she started to weep, "but it wasn't in my hands! I tried so hard to talk but I really wasn't able to do that."

"That's probably not the case, Annie, don't cry." Mary looked at Cheng. "Cheng, I think you should apologise to her for what you said."

"I'm sorry," said Cheng.

"So Mary, let's go," said Cheng.

"Where?" said Mary.

Cheng was confused. "Weren't we supposed to do investigations."

"But Alex isn't here anymore," said Mary.

"That's fine, we can do it without Alex. Don't you wanna prove that you are capable of doing things without his help?"

Mary thought about it for a few seconds. "Hmm, okay then."

"Right, that's the Mary I know."

Cheng stopped the car in front of Mary's house. Mary peeked outside and got confused. "Why are we here?"

"To question people," said Cheng.

Her eyes widened for a bit. "Don't tell me you asked for my help because you suspected me."

"No, I am here to talk with your sister," said Cheng.

"You want to hit on her?"

"No, it's for investigation purposes!"

"So you really do suspect me, huh?" said Mary.

"Just wait, you will understand what I'm up to," said Cheng.

They got inside and there was no one there. Cheng sat on the sofa, Mary called her sister and told her to come home fast and sat on the opposite side of Cheng. "So Cheng, why do you suspect me?"

"I don't, I really don't. I wouldn't have teamed up with you if I really suspected you. I could have questioned anybody else than your own sister if I really do suspect you, it'd just be a waste of time."

"Then why?"

"Tell me, when did she start mistaking your phone as hers?"

"Now that I think about it, it started around 2 months ago. She never mistaken my phone as hers before that, but it was because she suddenly bought a phone similar to mine. There's nothing suspicious in it."

"Right, but this phone is an old model, why did she buy an old phone? Have you ever thought of that?"

"Yes, I did, in fact I even asked about it. She said she got this phone for free from one of her friends. I thought it was funny that her friend had the exact similar model of phone as mine and was glad that she got stuff for free and didn't think much of it. So, all your doubts are cleared now, don't you dare suspect my sweet little sister."

"Then again she had a newer expensive model of a phone. Why'd she go for the downgrade? Taking the phone is one thing but using that phone over your slightly newer and shinier phone is weird, isn't it?"

"I don't know about that, so to answer your question...."

Suddenly she noticed something in his words. "Wait, how do you know which model of phone my sister used before that?"

"Can you give me your purse please?" said Cheng. She gave him her purse, he slowly opened it and took out a picture from that purse. "I saw it from this picture." It was a picture she took with her aunt and sister, her sister was holding her phone in one hand. "You know, I became suspicious of you when Akbar said that you lied to us that day, so I started looking through your stu-"

Mary cut off his words. "It's not very nice to look through people's stuff."

Cheng bowed his head due to shame. "I know, I'm sorry, it was for investigation purposes after all. Back to the topic, I saw this picture and got even more suspicious. Your phone was plain and dull and hers was shiny and pretty with cool accessories, there's no way she can mistake it as hers. Then I thought people were bound to make mistakes no matter what. So in order to clarify everything I went to your aunt because she seemed to be the type to have a sense of justice. She told me the same things you told me but things only became even more confusing when I talked to her. I found all of these things strange, I mean really strange, so I started stalking her." He paused, "you can smack me in the head for this, because I myself feel guilty-"

Mary stood up and smacked him. She looked at him with a scary expression. "Go on."

"Ye... Yeah. So when I was stalking her, I saw that she hid a note on the bus stop. When she left, I took the note and it read "Meet me here at 12 AM." He sighed. "Well of course I couldn't be outside for that long, If I did I'd be the no.1 suspect. Anyway, since I couldn't go there I hid a camera there, and this is what it caught that day." He handed a USB over to her, she copied the file and played the footage.

In the footage

Cayla, Mary's sister, was waiting for somebody at the bus stop. After a while a man with a hood came to the bus stop. Cayla barged at this man. "What are you doing?! You said it's not that big of a deal and it was something like a prank, but now..."

He put his hand over her mouth. "No Cayla, it's not safe here, let's go somewhere else and talk." He put down his hood, his face was fully visible now.

Mary paused the footage. "This man... he... he looks familiar."

Cheng smiled at her. "Of course you know him, he's a helper of this kidnapper that we are so desperately trying to catch after all.”