Shadows of Deception

"Mr. Harper, I'm warning you not to interfere again. If you do, I will have to remove you," Jason turned towards Harper and said in a stern tone, his voice carrying an unmistakable edge of authority. The tension in the room was palpable, the air thick with an unspoken warning.

Jason then shifted his gaze toward Juan, his face unreadable. Juan, however, did not return his look. Instead, his eyes were locked onto the intricate patterns of the bedsheet, his expression void of any emotion. But Jason knew better. Beneath the mask of silence, anger simmered, barely contained. Juan was healthy and fully capable of speaking. Yet, for some reason, he chose not to. Jason couldn't understand why he remained silent, why he refused to utter even a single word.

"Tell me, Juan," Jason’s voice rose with controlled intensity. "Why did you forbid your enemy's daughter from posting on social media and then abduct her?" His words sliced through the silence like a blade.

Still, Juan remained unmoved, his fingers gripping the edge of the bedsheet ever so slightly, his eyes scanning the fabric as if the answers lay hidden within its threads.

A soft rustling of paper drew Jason's attention away from Juan. Charlotte, her expression calm yet firm, stepped forward, holding a file in her hand.

"Look here… this is Juan's medical record, and it clearly states that he's suffering from depression, which is why he's stopped speaking," Charlotte explained as she handed the file to Kate.

Kate took the file, flipping through the pages with measured focus. The reports painted a clinical picture of Juan's condition—depression that had supposedly rendered him mute. But Kate was not so easily convinced. She handed the file to Jason but continued to study Juan with keen eyes.

While the medical record confirmed his silence was linked to psychological distress, Kate sensed something more lurking beneath the surface. She observed the slight tremble in his fingers, the restless shifting of his gaze, the flicker of something that looked eerily like fear. Anxiety. A deep, gnawing dread.

Before she could voice her thoughts, a sudden call rang out from the dressing area.

"Sir, come here!" Oliver's voice carried urgency.

Jason’s sharp gaze darted toward the dressing room. He cast Juan a final piercing look before striding toward the adjoining door.

"What happened?" Jason inquired as he reached the threshold.

"Sir, come here," Oliver repeated, his tone insistent before disappearing into the dressing room.

Jason followed without hesitation. The room swallowed him whole for several minutes, the silence thick and foreboding. Then, at last, he reemerged, his expression grave.

"Kate, come with me," Jason ordered.

Turning toward a sergeant stationed at the door, he issued a firm command. "No one leaves this room."

Kate exchanged a brief glance with Jason before stepping into the dressing room. Her eyes immediately fell upon the eerie display that had captured Jason’s attention.

Three handcrafted statues of Satan stood enclosed within a glass case, each one distinct in its coloring. One gleamed a deep, ominous black, its polished surface reflecting the dim light. The second shone in a golden hue, its presence almost regal. But the third… the third was red, as if it had been bathed in blood.

Kate felt a shiver crawl up her spine.

Then, her gaze shifted. Oliver stood with a photo album in hand, its pages open to a particular image. A photograph of Sasha Paula.

A sinking feeling settled in Kate’s stomach as she took the album from Oliver, her fingers tightening around its edges. She flipped through the pages, each new image deepening her unease.

Ryder.

Jonathan Miller.

Pauline Miller.

And several others—faces she did not recognize, but ones that undoubtedly held significance.

Her breath caught in her throat.

“Why does Juan have these photos?” Kate murmured, confusion lacing her words.

"And these satanic artifacts," she gestured toward the statues, the unease in her voice barely concealed.

"Because he is the killer," Jason declared, his voice as steady as steel.

Kate's eyes snapped up to meet Jason's. The weight of his words settled over her like a heavy shroud. She turned her attention back to the photo album, flipping through its pages once more, her mind reeling.

A sharp vibration broke the silence. Jason reached for his phone, his expression darkening as he scanned the notification on the screen. His jaw tightened. He turned the screen toward Kate, showing her the message.

Her blood ran cold.

"He's the bastard we've been looking for all over Adelaide," Jason stated.

Kate felt the pieces of the puzzle falling into place, each revelation more chilling than the last.

"Jason, it's baffling…" Kate said, still trying to process the information. "Remember how the forensic team searched Sasha Paula's room when she was abducted? They found nothing but her parents' and the staff's prints. But now, a new report suggests Juan Luu's prints were all over the place—on the window, on the side table, and even his blood was found on the window. How could this happen? How come Juan Luu's fingerprints weren’t found at the crime scene when Sasha Paula was abducted? And now, this forensic report suggests that Juan Luu must have visited Sasha Paula's house before the abduction."

Jason took a deep breath before answering.

"Two days ago, Oliver was rechecking the CCTV footage of Shawn Paula’s house from previous days. We wanted to see if some stranger had entered the house before Sasha Paula’s abduction, possibly to scout the place. That’s when Oliver found something—footage from the day before the abduction. A man was seen jumping over the back wall of the property. That man was none other than Juan Luu."

Kate's pulse quickened.

"Juan entered through the back lobby, which led him to the rear side of Sasha Paula’s room. He slid open the window and disappeared inside. The lights were on. After almost ten minutes, he emerged and left the house the same way he came in."

Jason’s voice dropped slightly, his next words laced with certainty.

"While opening the window, Juan’s hand was cut by broken glass. His blood was left behind. Yesterday, Oliver and Dr. Agastya returned to Shawn Paula’s house and collected samples. They matched the fingerprints on the fiberglass of the back wall and the blood on the broken glass of the window with Juan Luu's."

Kate inhaled sharply.

"When we went to Shawn Paula's house, didn't your team collect samples from the back of the house?"

Jason hesitated before admitting, "Some samples were destroyed during transit… That’s why we couldn’t determine earlier that Juan Luu had visited the house before the abduction."

Kate’s frustration boiled over.

"How could your team be so irresponsible that critical fingerprint samples were destroyed, and they didn’t bother to collect them again?" she snapped.

Jason exhaled, but Kate pressed on.

"If those samples had been analyzed earlier, we could have uncovered Juan Luu’s involvement in Sasha’s abduction much sooner. Maybe we could have saved her."

"It wasn’t that simple," Jason muttered.

But deep down, he knew—Kate was right.