I-Mode: Becoming A Famous Detective With A System

9. I- know who it is

"When I was in the garden, I caught her listening to my conversation, and I had no choice but to tell her the truth. However, she was scared of getting into trouble too and wanted to tell Mr Langley. So... I threatened her... or rather I blackmailed her with something I'd rather not talk about if that's okay with you sir."

Manchester shrugged, he couldn't care less about the blackmail.

"This is what I am going to do." He said,

"You will remain detained until we find the necklace, since we have your phone coupled with what you just told me, this case would be easier to solve. If what you have just said is the truth, then the necklace must be in the manor somewhere."

Manchester was about to leave the room when he remembered something and turned to ask him,

"Is there anyone in the manor that you suspect? Someone that holds something against you enough to want to get you fired."

Atkinson thought about this question for a while, but he shook his head when he couldn't think of anyone.

"I don't think so, and the voice was just a voice effect."

"That's fine, I'll get to the bottom of it." With that being said, Manchester walked out of the room, and toward Sophia's office. He was closer than ever to solving this mystery and it's only a matter of time before the necklace thief is found.

"Hey, I haven't seen anything yet, any luck?" Sophia initiated the conversation after opening the door to let him in.

"Check his call history," Manchester said before Sophia could finish her words, his sense of urgency wasn't new, especially to his department.

"He was on a call with an anonymous number a few minutes before the incident. If it's possible, let me know anything that you can find about the person behind the phone number."

"Certainly," Sophia nodded,

"I'll need to contact the tower service team for this one, it might take a while."

"How long?'

"Maybe an hour."

"That's fine, just do what you can. I want to report to Mr. Langley about the necklace before 5pm." Manchester concluded and walked out of the office immediately, toward the second Interrogation room where Emma was.

His words with Emma were quite brief, he wanted to make sure that she would tell the same honest tale as Atkinson. And she did because they added up perfectly with what Atkinson had told him, so Manchester held on to the belief that the culprit was still in the manor somewhere.

While Emma and Atkinson were detained at the station in the meantime, Manchester left for the hospital very briefly. It's been a few hours since he left and he just wanted to check up on his son, Nelson. He also deposited some money for his treatment to commence and promised the doctor that the rest would be paid as soon as he could.

Manchester also contacted the man whom he ran into at the red light to negotiate, however, the man behind the phone wasn't listening to him. He kept pointing out to Manchester about how expensive his car was, and how Manchester had ruined it with his reckless driving. He even threatened to call the cops on him if the bills were not paid by the end of the week.

Manchester took it all in with a deep breath, he didn't know how much he would earn from the first case, but hopefully, it's something tangible enough to start with.

His wife's action constantly popped up in his head, and since it was all shrouded in a lot of mysteries Manchester detective instincts urged him to investigate but he parried off those thoughts as soon as they came.

"I can handle all that later," he told himself.

Upon returning to the station an hour and fifteen minutes later, Manchester walked straight to Sophia's office and she was delighted to give him the good news.

"We have found the owner of the phone number, or rather should I say the name that it was registered with." She said handing over a paper with some information printed on it.

"It belongs to some guy named Noel Jackson, and the number was registered a week ago," Sophia explained while pointing to some details on the paper for Manchester to see.

"This was difficult to do because the phone number was registered for anonymous use only, but with fingerprints and order biometrics used for the registration, the service team were able to trace the owner. We just don't have his address." She added with a hint of disappointment in his tone.

"Noel Jackson huh?" Manchester uttered stroking his chin,

"Let me see if they know who he is."

"The suspects?"

"Yes," Replied Manchester,

"If he lives in the manor then they are bound to know him."

With that, Manchester walked to the chamber where Atkinson was detained and placed the paper on the desk before him.

"Noel Jackson, " he said,

"Do you know anyone in the manor that goes by that name?"

Atkinson's jaws dropped in astonishment,

"It can't be," he exclaimed and stood to his feet, a wave of shock washed over him and he was unable to keep his mouth closed for a few seconds.

"Why would he do this to me, what did I ever even do to him?"

"So you know who it is?" Manchester asked, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction that the mystery was finally solved. Now all he had to do was return to the manor and confront the real thief.

//+300 exp //

"Yes, I know who it is!"