Master of Deception

(Any resemblance to the real people and/or events is completely

accidental)

An early hot summer night was gathering over the streets

of the capital. A girl was returning home after her evening
classes. The dark, shadowy alley she used to shorten her route
instilled fear into her, but she never gave in to its terrifying look.
She went through it once again. The evening, however, had a
chilling surprise in store for her. In the obscurity of the alley she
witnessed a misdeed so sinister in its nature, that it made the
silence tremble. The culprit and the observer knew each other all
too well, but only one of them realized the misdeed had to be
repeated.
The darkness has a misleading sense of camouflage which
tricks even the most careful into believing they were unseen.
Tonight, the darkness revealed a hideous secret, a secret worth
killing for.

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 Chapter One

Kathryn and Nina had known each other since kindergarten when
they fought over the same boy. For more than a decade they were
inseparable; they confined in each other, shared happy moments,
secrets and fears, and could always cheer each other up. Best friends,
one would say. Kathryn was a down-to-earth kind of girl; realistic and
self-assured. Nina, on the other hand, was gullible and easy-going.
Surprisingly, this was a match made in heaven – Kathryn’s sense and
Nina’s sensibility fitted perfectly making the girls a mixture of both. A
year ago, they even enrolled at the same college. They moved in
together and for them, life seemed promising as well as everlasting.

That morning Kathryn got up around 9 o’clock determined to

study for the rest of the morning. She called out for Nina to get up and
went into the bathroom. Only couple of moments later did she realize
that Nina didn’t answer back.
“Come on, don’t make me-,” she abruptly ended her wake-up
call when she realized Nina wasn’t inside. Why would she leave
without me, wondered Kathryn. Furthermore, her bed was made. Then
it hit her; last night she went to bed early, and she never heard Nina
came in. Disturbing thoughts raced through her mind but she pushed
them away. She tried calling her cell phone. When that proved a dead-
end she decided to go to the college. She has to be there, Kathryn
thought. She couldn’t possibly have known how right she was.

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 Kathryn took the elevator to the second floor. She exited and
noticed the well-known inscription English Department, II floor.
Pleasant sensations overwhelmed her, she felt safe. Although Kathryn
was Serbian, she always believed she was English in her heart. That is
why she decided to major in the language. But on entering the floor,
she noticed something was wrong. It was empty. The second floor was
constantly crowded and somehow today that wasn’t the case. Around
the corner, at the intersection of the two corridors, a huge number of
people attracted her attention. Among the crowd, she spotted a couple
of reporters and camera crews. They were trying to enter the reading
room. Nina, please be ok, echoed in her mind.
Confusion alongside with fear suddenly gripped her when she spotted
two police officers standing in front of the reading room doors.
“Poor Nina,” she heard someone saying, “I heard it last night on
the news, and I couldn’t believe she’s gone. That’s just awful.” She
turned around and spotted her two colleagues.
“Oh my God, haven’t you heard,” started one of them, “It
happened last night. The library assistant wanted to lock up the
reading room and she noticed Nina was still there. She thought Nina
must have lost track of the time. She came up to her and she seemed
to be sleeping. She tried to wake her up when she realized Nina was
dead. Apparently, Nina had a heart attack and no one was there to
help her.”
Kathryn felt paralyzed with fear and sadness. They kept on
talking, but she switched off. She couldn’t believe Nina was dead. She
knew Nina had a heart condition but she never imagined her friend
would end up like this. And so untimely. She felt a huge pressure on
her lungs. She needed air. And quickly. She ran to the nearest window.
Fresh air didn’t help. Nina was gone. The pressure was unbearable.

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 Nina was one of those students who tried their best but just
couldn’t achieve much. She was always studying, constantly trying, but
her results always fell short. She must have pushed herself too much,
overburdened herself. Jesus Christ! Someone should have been there
for her. An immense sense of remorse suddenly came over Kathryn.
She felt guilty, as if she had betrayed her friend. She would have
stayed in that state of living nightmare, had she not heard someone
saying the words suspect and being arrested. A detective hurriedly
passed by her.

The detective entered the Department staff room and

handcuffed their translation teacher, the college’s living legend, Mr.
Peters. The officer told him the reason of his arrest, manslaughter,
read him his rights and they disappeared behind the elevator doors.
The crowd was shocked and an awkward silence filled the hallways.

Chapter Two

Nina’s heart condition was exceptionally rare. It restricted her

from excitement and sudden surprises. What was great about it was
that she missed PE classes; pop quizzes had to be announced to Nina.
On the other hand, her life had to be calm, peaceful and uneventful.
She wasn’t allowed to go out at night, to play video games, take up
sports or have birthday surprise parties. Even the boys that liked her
were afraid to date her since the possible mention of a break up was
unthinkable. Everybody knew about her condition, everybody needed
to know in order to help her, and still she was alone in the end.

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 For Kathryn, the rest of the day was pretty much a blur. A few
reporters tried to interview her, but she refused. She didn’t even
remember how she got into bed. She broke out into a fever which
lasted for almost a day. She struggled with guilt alongside with anger.
It tore her apart that she hadn’t been there for Nina. The local news
covered the story saying that Nina’s parents dropped the charges
concerning Mr. Peters. According to the library assistant, Mr. Peters
had an argument with Nina later in the afternoon after which she
became very upset. He was detained because the police believed that
having known about Nina’s condition he should have never started any
kind of dispute. They believed that Nina agitated her heart to the point
of hyperventilation, which proved to be fatal for her. Her parents were
devastated but they didn’t want to press charges because they knew
no one was to blame here except themselves.

The next couple of days were painful and enormously sad for
Kathryn. The funeral was the most difficult. Nevertheless, it all passed
and everybody returned to their normal lives. Except Kathryn. She
couldn’t accept the fact that Nina was gone. Enormous guilt still lurked
inside her soul.

That night, as she was browsing through the English Department

forum, she noticed a topic dedicated to Nina’s death. There were lots
of heartbreaking thoughts, sincere apologies, expressed condolences,
and remembrances of the good times. One anonymous post, however,
caught her attention. It was very bitter and harsh on Mr. Peters.
Somebody apparently thought he had caused Nina’s death and that he
had to pay for it. It said:
Ghost999 date: 05/20/2008 time: 8.11 a.m.
I just want to express my satisfaction with the latest events. At
last a righteous development. I say – you asked for it and you got what

5
you deserved. God forgives for one’s misdeeds. But people are the
ones who punish. Does that make sense?
Wow, thought Kathryn, this person must have been furious when
he or she found out that the suspect had been released.

The next morning Kathryn had her writing class. Life had to move
on. The lecturer was a woman from the USA, Ms. Jacky Warren. She
was an exceptionally enthusiastic person and could lift everybody’s
spirits. She had this funny habit of writing things she needed to do on
the back of her hand. Kathryn considered it very useful and practical.
But, one thing Ms. Warren hated was when students didn’t do the
assignments. She despised it. She would often punish the forgetful
ones by assigning them loads of extra homework. Nina used to clean
forget about the assignments, Kathryn thought, and all the memories
came rushing in. Nina would come in and put on an apologetic
expression. However, her illness posed no problem for Ms. Warren to
assign her new tasks. Kathryn looked around expecting to see Nina in
the classroom, but she wasn’t there and never would be again.

Kathryn abruptly ran out of the classroom. She wanted to cry but
simply couldn’t. Suddenly she was filled with inexplicable anger and a
sudden hate for Mr. Peters. If he was the reason Nina died then he had
to suffer, at least to feel some kind of remorse. The anger was boiling
up in her. She remembered reading that post about him; she wanted to
get in touch with the person who wrote it. She needed somebody who
could understand her loss and sadness, who could comfort her. She ran
to the computer lab, logged on and again she was reading the post by
Ghost999.

Strangely, she felt relieved, she guessed the two of them had to
share the enormous love for Nina and that made her happy for the first

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time in days. She scrolled the cursor to the reply button and paused.
What was she to write? She wanted to express some kind of gratitude.
As she contemplated the contents of her private message, her eyes
wandered to the date it had been sent. May 20th; it was the day she
found out her friend had died. And Kathryn was on the verge of crying
when she spotted one strange detail – the time of the post. Her aghast
was so enormous that she forgot to breathe, and she almost fainted
due to the lack of air. A hideous discovery was made, and Kathryn was
alone in her sadness all over again.

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 Chapter Three

The message had obviously been posted before Mr. Peters was
arrested. There’s got to be some kind of explanation, Kathryn tried to
assure herself. She thought of three. Somebody accidentally wrote the
message, which was tantamount to an infeasible even. The second
meant that Ghost999 somehow suspected Mr. Peters before he had
been arrested, which was the most reasonable explanation. The third
one was so terrifying it scared Kathryn to even consider it. If the
message wasn’t about the culprit, was it about the victim, about Nina?
All those awful words about her ‘misdeeds’ and that ‘she got what she
deserved’ made Kathryn recoil in horror. Not only had she lost the only
person she thought sympathized with her, but she almost sent a
message agreeing to those hideous fabrications about Nina. And to the
person who was glad Nina was dead. How ironic, she thought, the
language I love has deceived me. Its gender vagueness made me
believe the wrong thing. You traitor, back stabber! In fact she was mad
at herself. Then the strangest thing began to seem very plausible.

She glanced at the end of the message - ‘people are the ones
who punish’. She paused for a while. A few minutes ago she was
convinced the word ‘people’ referred to the police and the justice
system. Now it seemed more and more probable that it referred to a
specific person. Maybe even the very sender. Oh my God!

She had made a misconception at the very beginning – while

reading the message she had assumed it was for Mr. Peters. But the
realization was so daunting now, because instead of for him perhaps it
was from him. Her power of deduction quickly discarded that
possibility. First of all, Mr. Peters was one of the college’s most

8
distinguished and renowned professors. Not only had he made a career
of translating, but he also taught American history and several other
English-related subjects. She had been attending his lectures for
almost two years and if there was one thing she learned about him, it
was that he was vain and conceited. He always used such complex
constructions that his writing style almost proved his calling card. The
post, however, was written in a plain and colloquial style. She excluded
the possibility of him deliberately writing in such a manner in order to
deceive the readers. She thought he would never compromise his
impeccable and flawless knowledge of the English language. Not even
to cover his own tracks, because that was just who he was.

So, if Mr. Peters wasn’t the perpetrator, then who was it? And
why? What could Nina have done wrong to cause such an outcome?
Kathryn couldn’t believe what was happening. And she only wanted to
release her sorrow somehow. Unfortunately, she knew that the
enormous rage and hatred for the person behind the message would
only strengthen that awful feeling. The only way to find out more was
by clicking reply which she meant to do a couple of moments ago. Like
from a deep sleep or a hypnotic session, Kathryn jerked and with a
strange glow in her eyes pressed the button and psychotically started
to write a reply to the mystery villain.
“I know what you have done!” the uncalled-for response made
its way through millions of wires and signals to a computer
somewhere.
She waited.
Nothing happened.

All sorts of thoughts tormented Kathryn while awaiting the

answer. Maybe she got it all wrong. She looked once more at the
message. It was all there. It had to be. All of a sudden, she wanted to

9
back up, to undo the message. She feared she was wrong, but alas,
nothing could be done now. She tried to steady her nerves, pull herself
together, but she couldn’t. She was having a panic attack. Her tears
started falling down her cheeks. She wiped them clean and forced
herself to calm down. She kept staring at the screen and her eyes
soared but she didn’t avert her gaze from it. A bell marking the end of
the class seemed so loud and so unexpected to her that she flinched in
her chair producing a slight scream. Some people in the computer lab
turned and looked at her. Helpful stares turned into scornful ones when
they noticed she was fine.

The embarrassing feeling faded away as she again focused on

the dusty and greasy 17” screen. She had had little sleep last night,
and she had gotten up at 7 o’clock to get to her eight o’clock class.
Exhaustion and weariness took their toll on her attention and she felt
sleepy. For one moment, she closed her eyes but the strength of her
will reopened them. I wish I had toothpicks, thought Kathryn. After a
couple of minutes she reached for the off button. No one in their right
mind would be awake at this time of day, let alone checking and
answering messages. The second she tried to turn off the computer,
her screen started blinking. Except for murderers.

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 Chapter Four

A chat window opened and some words appeared at the bottom

of it:
Ghost999: Well, aren’t you a smart one?
“Oh my God!” She accidentally said it out loud and the same
people looked at her again. So that’s it, she was right after all and
thoughts came rushing in. She couldn’t think properly. She focused her
gaze on the small blinking cursor in front of her forum nickname. The
cursor kept on blinking, waiting for an answer. She knew the right thing
was to drop everything and call the police. But her inner Sherlock
persuaded her not to do it because she didn’t have enough evidence
and the police wouldn’t believe her anyway. There was only one thing
she could think of – typing.
sNoW_aNgEl: Why, WHY did you do it?
Blink, blink, blink.
Ghost999: What do you mean?

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 sNoW_aNgEl: Don’t play dumb now. You know what I
mean, you freak, how could you?
Ghost999: Hey, hey, I’m the victim here!
sNoW_aNgEl: I want to know why, she was my friend, I
deserve to know
Ghost999: I’m not saying anything without the presence of
my lawyer ha-ha
sNoW_aNgEl: At least tell me who you are
Ghost999: lol! I guess you are on the dim side. All right you

can call me Mr

sNoW_aNgEl: mr as in Mister?
In this crucial moment Kathryn couldn’t help thinking that Mr. is
written with a period. But she discarded it because a new thought
rushed into her mind.
sNoW_aNgEl: Are you trying to impersonate Mr. Peters?
You’re trying to frame him. And I know you’re lying. I know
he didn’t do it.
The answer came after couple of long moments.
Ghost999: No problem
sNoW_aNgEl: I want to know more
Ghost999: You ask too many questions. You know the story
about the cat... gotta go!

And the chat screen was gone. She slouched back into the chair,
more desperate than ever. As she was pondering the implications of
this dialogue, she heard the door slam. She instinctively turned
around. A sudden flash of intuition made her realize what she had been
missing. The chat window that appeared a few minutes ago was part of
the English Department website forum, and everybody knew the
Department had its own internal network. She also knew that the

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network could only be used by the Department staff and the students,
meaning that whomever she was chatting with was in this building, on
this floor, perhaps in this very room.

Thus, the exhilaration of noticing someone exiting the computer

lab in a rush made her do the same. She grabbed the doorknob and
headed down the hallway. The adrenalin rushed through her
bloodstream and she felt so close to the final discovery. Kathryn looked
down the corridor and saw a girl running away towards the next
intersection. She went after her. The girl slowed down inexplicably and
Kathryn managed to get close to her. Kathryn decided to make herself
known and grabbed the girl by the shoulder making her stop abruptly
and drop the notebooks and papers she was carrying.
“Hey,” the girl reacted angrily, “watch it.”
When she turned around Kathryn recognized her. It was Maya
Radovich, a third year student. Kathryn had psychology classes with
her. Kathryn said she was sorry and started collecting the things Maya
dropped. As she was doing that, she noticed a newspaper flipped
exactly to the page containing an article about Nina’s murder. She
looked Maya straight in the eye hoping to get some answers. Maya,
however, was furious and quickly averted her gaze and continued to
collect her things. She gathered them and hurriedly disappeared in the
corridors. Kathryn wasn’t sure if Maya was Ghost999 but she felt she
was on the right track. Kathryn heard the bell marking the beginning of
a class. She went back to the computer lab to get her bag.
She entered and noticed it was half-empty. Class had begun. She
reached for her bag and glanced at the monitor. Ghost999 was gone.
Mr. Murderer. The mister. And then it hit her. MR. Maya Radovich.

Kathryn couldn’t breathe. It was there all the time, right in front
of her eyes. She knew she had no evidence to implicate Maya, and her

13
brain was running 100 miles per hour working out the possible why.
What could be the reason for killing Nina? What was the motive?
That’s, Kathryn knew, one element of the sacred three for solving a
crime: Who; How; and Why. And it was the third one that caused
problems. She thought about it for quite some time and missed her
second class. It was of greater importance to think of an explanation
before going to the police. But her pondering led her nowhere and she
decided to consult one of the teachers, to present them with the
situation and perhaps solve it together. She left the computer lab once
again and headed for the staff room. Although the class had already
begun, she knew there was always someone there. She was hoping it
wouldn’t be Mr. Peters.

She knocked politely and entered. Two teachers were inside, one
of them unknown to Kathryn. The other one was Ms. Warren.
“Hi Ms. Warren,” Kathryn began, “I just wanted to apologize for
leaving class like that, but I felt sick. It’s been extremely hard for me to
deal with the loss of my friend, and I guess I’m oversensitive to
everything now. I hope you understand.”
“Hey, no problem. I understand.” No problem, Kathryn thought,
that’s funny.

“I’m sorry but there’s just one thing I wanted to ask you, actually
to consult with you.”
“Ok, just a second,” said Ms. Warren and assisted a teacher who
asked her a question. Kathryn sat next to the teacher in need and
watched Ms. Warren as she was leaning over from the other side of the
table clarifying something to the teacher. Kathryn observed it and
instinctively looked at the paper. It was some kind of text and one
sentence needed paraphrasing. Ms. Warren was showing him what to

14
do with the misplaced words, by pointing with her left index finger (Ms.
Warren being left-handed) on the text.
“Does that make sense?” said Ms. Warren to the teacher and a
clicking sound went off in her head, but she discarded it. Her right
hand rested on the table just in front of Kathryn. She chuckled as she
noticed that her American teacher had written a reminder on her right
hand. Kathryn wondered what would her hand look like if she wrote all
her to-do things on it. The chuckle subsided into shock when she

realized that it wasn’t a reminder. It said ‘Mr’. It was the same symbol
that Ghost999 had written a couple of moments ago. But as she was
looking at it she realized she was reading it upside down. She bent her
head in order to read it properly. It said JW. Jacky Warren.

The terror in her eyes grew as her mind processed information,

linked the signs. She was interrupted when Ms. Warren turned to her
and said,
“Ok, what is the matter?” As Ms. Warren addressed her, she
noticed Kathryn staring at her right hand. Their looks met and
Kathryn’s was full of apprehension. The next couple of seconds went
by like hours. Hours in which hatred and fear were mixed with
vengefulness and sadness. Kathryn couldn’t sit there anymore. She ran
out of the staff room in tears, yet determined, leaving behind a puzzled
teacher and an angry one.

15
 Chapter Five

In her room, Kathryn hopelessly tried to pull herself together.

She kept rewinding the day, the past week. She no longer suspected
Maya Radovich, she was sure it was Ms. Warren all along. She couldn’t
believe, she wouldn’t believe, she even tried to disparage the facts,
but couldn’t. Everything pointed to her teacher. Everything, except
‘the why’. That remained hidden for the next couple of hours.

The six o’clock news reporter was standing in front of the

college. He was presenting the breaking news to the public.
“The case of the girl found dead in the college library
finally got its closure today when another teacher was arrested.
Later this afternoon the police held a press conference stating
that the autopsy proved Nikolina Marich died of asphyxiation.
Due to her specific heart condition, an autopsy seemed
unnecessary only days ago, but now the case took a new turn.
On the crime scene, a human hair was found, and since the
accident overnight became a murder, the hair was an important
piece of the puzzle. It led the police to another suspect, another
teacher, Ms. Jacky Warren.”
“Unofficial sources say that, when searching Ms. Warren’s
place this morning, the police found incriminating evidence that
undoubtedly suggest Ms. Warren suffocated her student. A
pillowcase, which had Marich’s imprinted face on it, was used to

16
 cut the girl’s air supply and smother her. We do not know the
motive behind the murder or why Ms. Warren chose this
particular student. Maybe we will never know. One thing is
certain; our children are not safe even in school.” The reporter
finished his speech and the anchor reappeared, “Moving on, this
just in…”
Kathryn turned it off. She had heard enough.

She thought about it for a while. Everything was there, black and
white. But somehow it was too obvious, too apparent. I guess that’s
just how it is, the culprit is always in front of your nose, and you just
don’t notice her. She felt a huge emptiness inside her. She missed Nina
so much. She lost her friend, she lost her teacher, and she was still
feeling an enormous sorrow. Kathryn wasn’t sure how much time
passed while she sat there motionless. Brooding.

17
 Chapter Six

A couple of days went by. She heard her American teacher was
deported to the USA to be tried. Life continued at a usual pace. She
was in the computer lab, adding finishing touches on her final essay.
She logged on to check her forum messages. Many people
sympathized with her after the arrest, and everybody apologized as if
it was their fault. It only made her guilt even more unbearable.

Unexpectedly, a chat screen appeared. The message at the

bottom said,
Ghoust999: Hey, Angel, is that you?
Kathryn couldn’t believe her eyes. She was flabbergasted, she
couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t type. The blinking of the cursor
hypnotized her.
Ghoust999: And they say no crime goes unpunished! I
fooled you all! I must admit I felt scared when they called it

18
 a murder. I never thought they would conduct an autopsy.
A pillowcase does not leave any clues. Today when they
came to question Jacky I knew they’d take the bate. It was
so easy. The only thing I needed to do was to put the
pillowcase in her apartment. Piece of cake. Poor Jacky, but
I had to choose somebody! Yea, yea, I know, life’s a b. Ta-
ta!
The screen disappeared. Ms. Warren is innocent, echoed in her
mind. She couldn’t stand it any longer. In tears and distraught, Kathryn
ran out of the room. She even forgot her bag and books. The world was
becoming a dreadful place for her. She knew she was going to faint.

A couple of yards away a computer screen popped out a

question, Ghoust999: Logging off, are you sure? Y/N. Someone pressed
yes, turned off the monitor, and exited the room. A cleaning lady saw
someone approaching her in the hallway. A familiar face greeted her
silently. She answered, “Have a pleasant day, Mr. Peters.”

Several weeks ago, a couple was strolling down the street.

The man, wretchedly unhappy and embittered, had planned this
walk for months. The woman, blissfully unaware of all this, was
enjoying the hot summer evening and refreshing breeze. They
turned the corner and stepped into a dark alley. He couldn’t wait
any longer, he had to do it right now, and he wanted so badly to
get rid of his troubles. He put his hands around her neck,
whispered something in her ear, kissed her lightly on the cheek
and tightened his grip. Pure, untainted silence, he thought,
finally.

19
 A muffled shriek was heard and a girl ran off. His troubles
were beginning all over again.

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