Mrs. Alexa Lopez

By Viral Murudkar

Anna was exhausted from all the work she had been doing. It was one o'clock in the morning and she decided that she finally had to take a break. She pushed her chair away from her table and took her now empty glass of coffee for another refill. She had been looking through Mrs. Lopez's file for nearly three hours now. The deeper she tried to look into Mrs. Lopez's life, the more she wanted to stay awake to uncover what exactly happened to her. exactly four days ago her husband, Mr. Andrew Lpoez had come to Anna's workplace looking all worried and scared. She remembered how he kept asking for her to find his missing wife because he worried something horrible might have happened to her. 

She put her glass of coffee down on the kitchen counter and opened the cabin above it. She put sugar and coffee in the cup and added some milk, she then took one sip from the coffee. She then kept it in the microwave and turned around, waiting for it to get heated. Her mind spiraled back to the case again. At seven o'clock the day before, the police had found Mrs. Lopez's phone in an abandoned car, parker on the wrong side of the road. They also found one of her shoes in the car and her money wallet. She started to remember her first interaction with Andrew, he told her some weird things about his wife, and he said she had been acting distant from him for almost a month now. He also added that she hid her phone from him and whenever he asked her about it, she used to give lame excuses. Anna had her doubts starting from then. Initially, she thought that Alexa might have had an affair. She also thought that this might be some sort of robbery gone wrong, given the fact that Alexa was a billionaire, but she had tried so hard to not jump to conclusions. Andrew told her that once Alexa had come and told him that some guy kept texting her and that she was gonna report it to the police. That was a dead end for Anna as she could not find any such complaint from the police station. 

Mr. Lopez though, gave out a very important clue to Anna, which instantly made her take the case, he said that he doubted that this was a drug-related case. His wife, Alexa Lopez had been to rehab for addiction to drugs, and that was where he met her. He suspected that she relapsed again, and had gotten herself into something even worse. That's why he didn't go to the police when his wife went missing. When he came to her four days ago, his wife had just been missing for a day and thought it was very unlike her to not tell him if she was not going to be home. Anna had informed the police at that time, yet even they couldnt help her much. 

Another disappointment Anna faced was looking through Alexa's phone. There was nothing even minutely related to drugs, she just found out that Alexa was having an affair with an employee of hers, Julio Sanchez. He was a couple younger than Alexa and was working under her guidance. He looked too innocent to do something when Anna tried finding out more about him on the internet. She initially had doubts about Alexa eloping with her lover, but that was not the case, because Anna had already talked to the office and booked an appointment with Julio under a fake name. Now the question arose that if Alexa was not eloping with Julio, then who was she eloping with?  And did she have more than one lover? 

 Anna took the cup filled with coffee and sipped it while murmuring to herself, "It would have been more interesting if it were a drug-related case." Anna returned to her seat. She instantly noticed a message pop up on her screen, it was from her friend Mark who was in the police. The former had asked the latter to run the licence plates on the car and find who the car exactly belonged to. Mark had dropped an email to her regarding the same. Anna hurriedly opened the mail, and read all the details word by word. It said that the car had been purchased about three years ago in the name of Drake Willson. anna thought to herself, "It can be another one of her lovers. She has a more interesting love life than me" A laugh escaped and she shook her head. She was a young detective and had only gotten a few cases yet. That is why she was so excited when she got her first drug-related case, and also why she was saddened by the fact that this was just another case with a cheating wife. though one thing standing out about this was why would a billionaire run away from the empire she had built, when she could easily leave Andrew?

Mark was just like her, a young officer, but he had more experience than she did in their field of work. She envied Mark a little bit because people he got more cases than she did, but she couldn't ignore the fact that he understood her and helped her to his best.

She called Mark and waited patiently for him to pick up the phone. When he finally did, a frail voice asked him, "Are you busy? Have you slept already?"

An instant reply came, " With the life I chose for myself, is there any scope to be busy?"

She smiled. "Well at least I made you smile" he said.

She instantly stopped smiling. She began talking again, "Well if you are done with your flirting, I have another favor to ask. Could you also find who this Drake Willson is?"

He replied with a smile on his face, " Already did, he is an interesting chapter. According to my database, there are two Drake Willsons. One of them is a child, and the other one has been dead for nearly four years now. So whoever is pretending to be Drake is not doing a good job."

"Wait a minute, Drake is dead? So that means I have struck another dead end? What are you hiding Mrs. Alexa Lopez?" 

She kept on hitting dead ends and that had frustrated her a lot. Mark advised her to sleep for now and do all the remaining work tomorrow. She was exhausted already and that coffee did not do a good job of keeping her awake. She fell asleep. 

The next day, she set off for her appointment with Julio Sanchez. She was a little shocked to meet him, he looked innocent and she did not think he was capable of even killing a worm. Yet she couldn't get a lot of information about his relationship with his boss. He seemed a little shocked when she did ask him about his boss, more frightened than shocked. He instantly got scared and called the meeting off. He asked her to leave politely, yet she was not going to give up so easily.

Anna found from his Facebook account that he was friends with a guy named Joey and set out to find the hardware store where the latter worked. She was successfully able to retract a few important things about Julio and Alexa's relationship. Firstly, she found out that they had been together for almost two months now.  Then she found out that Julio initially did not know about Andrew. And lastly she found the most important yet surprising information. she found out that around ten days ago, Julio was confronted by Andrew, and that confrontation ended in a fight. That was new information for Anna because, in her previous interaction with Andrew, he did not even remotely mention his incident. He seemed rather certain of the fact that his wife was not having an affair and that this was a drug-related case. 

Anna felt more than confused at the newfound information. On one hand, she felt sorry for Mr. Lopez for being oblivious to the fact that his wife was cheating, and on the other hand, she felt he was hiding something. she was not sure of what to make of this, therefore she called Mark again. She called and told him of all the newfound information. He did not think much of it though. he said to her, "See you previously stated that you doubted she had more than one lover and that Julio didn't even know she had a husband. So couldn't it be possible that another lover of hers found out about him and he threatened him, and he mistakenly thought it was her husband?"

"Yes, that is possible. Andrew didn't mention his meeting with Julio so it can be possible that he was not the one to confront Julio. But then who threatened him in the first place? Oh god, this thing keeps getting bigger and bigger and I keep jumping back to square one."

She was frustrated with this case because the more information she got, the more clueless she kept getting. She kept hitting dead ends no matter how hard she fought. She was more confused about the part Andrew played in this story. She was not sure if Andrew was lying about the violent confrontation with Julio. She still asked Mark to do a background check on Andrew. 

She returned to her office all frustrated thinking that her whole day had been wasted and that every piece of information she got was completely useless. her meeting with Julio was no good and now he had refused to see her again. Her search through Alexa's phone was also useless because that got her no information about anything even remotely related to drugs. If anything, it only gave her information about her affair. And lastly she started to doubt the very guy that gave her this case in the first place. Her head kept spinning around and around. Then the name Drake Willson popped into her head. She started her computer and searched for the name. She did some digging on him and found out that Drake Willson was married to a millionaire, Claire Willson.  Coincidently, his wife also died a few months before him. She was not able to find any picture of the married couple, yet she noted one very important fact that his wife was a drug addict and that she had been to the same rehab as Alexa. 

Anna was overwhelmed with this information. She called Mark and told him about this newfound information and he was as surprised as she was. Even if both of them were overjoyed, he controlled himself and told her, " You had asked me to do a background check on Mr. Lopez, and turns out he is an ideal man. He is a stay-at-home husband and he used to work at a rehab center where he first met Alexa. But  found out he is very nice and ideal, almost too good to be true."

"Well, I cannot concentrate on that right now. I have to focus on this new lead that I have just found. I will find the number of this rehab and go and talk to them tomorrow." Mark was hooked to this case now. He begged Anna to take him with her, and she was reluctant at first, but eventually she agreed. 

The morning arrived and both Mark and Anna set out for the rehabilitation center, they had even disguised themselves. Anna and Mark disguised themselves as parents of a son who had been addicted to drugs. Soon enough they reached the rehabilitation center and were successfully able to fool the manager of that center. Mark said that he was friends with Alexa and that she had recommended that center to them. They both were surprised to see that the people who mostly came to this center were rich. when asked about Claire Willson, the manager told them that she couldn't give information about patients to anyone outside her family. This was another important discovery for them as they realized that Claire was not married to anyone when she was in rehab. So she would have met Drake during her time in the rehab, or after her rehab. 

They then asked the manager to show them around the facility and she asked one of the staff to show them around. This was another bonus for them as they could easily bribe the staff member to give them a few more clues. Firstly he confirmed that Claire and Alexa both were in rehab for roughly a year and Claire was their patient 3 years before Alexa was. He then showed them one picture of Claire. He also said that Andrew was there for both Calire's and Alexa's terms and that he was the health care in charge of only Alexa. Yet before he was promoted to healthcare in charge, he worked as a general staff member for both of them. He did not know anyone with the name Drake Willson though. The staff member was almost surprised though when Mark first took Aandrew's name, given the fact that he had quit the job twice in the past few years. It was evident that he was hiding something, but they were unable to force that information out of him. The staff member immediately asked Mark and Anna to leave him alone and left them there. Mark tried to go back to him, but it was too late. They then finally left the facility and went back to their car. They both discussed all the information they had collected and left for their own offices.

The day had almost come to an end. It had been almost six days since Alexa's disappearance. Even if she had a few clues, they were not definite hints to break this case major that would have cracked this case. She was completely disappointed, but then she had another idea. She looked up the name of Claire Willson and found the name of the comanpy she was the CEO of. She was able to book an appointment with the manager of the company for the next day. She thought it would be a good idea to ask Mark to come with her because she feared that if she asked any wrong questions, the manager would immediately get a lawyer and this would too be another dead end. The very next day Mark and Anna set off for their appointment with Claire's company. Mark initially kept his identity a secret on Anna's recommendation. As expected the manager was soon unwilling to give much information on their ex-CEO, yet after Mark showed his batch to her, she began speaking. She said that Claire met Drake after her time at the rehab. He had met her and they got married very quickly within 2-3 months of meeting each other. She said that the police had found her and her husband's cell phone in his car and that the manager had that phone. She lastly said that it was tragic how their married life ended within a year. She remarked that Drake was very sad when his wife died.

Anna was more than happy with this information. She had hit a very big clue, rather than two big clues. She had got their cellphones now. She searched through them the whole day long and got to know a series of things. Firstly she found out Claire, just like Alexa was having an affair with a person in her workplace. Secondly, she found one contact on both Claire and Alexa's phones to be common. It was a contact named Alex Hansen. She still couldn't figure out why Claire and Alexa would choose to run away with their lovers if that was the case. They could simply leave their husbands, given the fact they were multi-millionaires. Why would they leave their whole empire when they both could easily leave their husbands? She tried to search for the name 'Alex Hansen' on the internet, but couldn't find anyone significant with that name. She then doubted if Claire had actually run away with her lover, therefore she searched for the detective who took Claire's case. She was just starting to read all the articles when another shock hit her. She found out that the detective who had taken Claire's case was now dead. She also found out that the detective who had taken Claire's case was not very renowned. This got her into another big question, why would a millionaire, who could have all the luxuries of the world, come and give that huge a case to someone who was not even renowned?  She then called Mark and asked him if he knew anything about Claire's case or anything about a guy named Alex Hansen. 

Mark put his phone on speaker and started speaking, "Okay, so I have searched about Claire Willson's case on my database, and here's what I have found. The detective who was in charge is now dead which you already know. But here's the twist, the detective was dead when his statement was recorded. The husband, that is Drake gave his statement as a witness and these are the events according to his testimony. He said that Claire and the detective both shot each other and that's how they both died. Claire shot because she thought it was the drug lord who was after her and the detective shot her in self-defense."

"Wait for a second, even Claire was hiding because of a drug-related thing, this is exactly my case."

"What....how.... wh..what do you mean?" he stuttered as he spoke.

"Okay so my case was also given to me by a multi-millionaire, but if u think carefully, why would someone so rich come to someone so ammeter? That too with a case so big? It makes sense that he wanted it to be kept quiet yet if he had asked another renowned detective, the case would still be kept under wraps. It makes me wonder, why me..... why did Mr. Lopez come to me?"

Mark heard all that she was saying while searching for information on Alex Hansen. "I am sorry but I have to interrupt you there. I found your Alex Hansen. So get this, he is not even from here, he is a person who lives thousands of kilometers away from here. He was a small-time thief who was charged with several crimes including robbery and money laundering and has been in jail as well." he said but Anna stopped him in between.

"Can you send me his picture?" She asked and he replied "Yes I was just downloading it, this might take some time.

"Yeah sorry please continue," she said asking him to tell her what he planned to tell her.

"Thank you, as I was saying he was a part of many small operations and a few drug-related cases as well. But I don't see how he can be related to either Alexa or Claire. I mean...." the call went silent. Anna couldn't hear a single sound from his end. She said "Hello..... are you still there? You were saying.."

Mark cut her sentence in between. His voice had a shock in it as if he had just seen something truly terrible. "I found the connection, I am sending the picture of Alex Hansen to you. You have to see this."

Anna waited and as the picture came, she was utterly surprised. " It's him. How can that be?" she exclaimed.

"So Alex Hansen is Andrew Lopez. This doesn't make any sense." Mark said it after her. She tried to put all the missing pieces together. It made a little sense now. 

Why would someone so rich give such a big case to someone so amateur, because they didn't want anyone to uncover the truth. Also, it would be really simple to frame them. It would make sense that Andrew worked at the rehab center because only rich people could afford it and the patients there would be vulnerable enough for him to set his trap. It also made sense why he would want to keep this undercover, because if a lot of people knew about this, then his secret would be out soon. Now she was starting to get a sense of all this. She had a new theory altogether, but it was incomplete. She knew that Andrew planned to frame Anna for the murder of his wife, but what she couldn't figure out was how was he related to Claire. Was he just another crazy fan of 'The Claire Case' and did he just want to recreate the whole case, or was he somehow involved in Claire's murder? It would make sense why Andrew seemed so sure that she was not cheating on him.

She started to zone out and forgot that she was talking to Mark. He called out to her once but no reply came. Then he called to her again and she got to her senses. " You get zoned out so often. I wanted to tell you that when we first came out of the rehab, I contacted the manager and asked her to send me a picture of the couple. She initially said that she didn't have any pictures of them because they had an intimate wedding and that Drake didn't like to take pictures. But she has now texted me saying she found one picture of their marriage and she sent it over to me. I am sending you the picture."

This was it. Anna had finally got her last clue. The picture that Mark had now sent her was her final clue out of this case. She was wrong about this whole case. It was never a drug-related case or even a case where the wife eloped with her lover. It was something even bigger and Andrew was the mastermind behind it. The photo that Mark had sent over was the picture of Andrew and Claire if that was even his real name. She found out that Andrew, Alex, and Drake were the same person. She now was able to put everything in it's chronological order.

The story started when Alex, was a small-time thief who was a part of many small operations. But then he decided that he wanted to do something big. He then took the identity of Andrew and worked as a general staff member until he found his first(maybe) victim, Claire. When she got out of rehab, Andrew met her claiming to be Drake and they got married soon enough. After seven to ten months of their wedding, he killed her and hired a detective to find her. He then framed the detective for killing his wife and inherited all her wealth. Yet that was not the end, if he stayed as Drake Willson any longer, it would be a threat to him as people would want to ask more questions given the fact that his wife was rich. He then went ahead to make the elaborate story of the death of Drake Willson. Then he went to work in the rehab again as Andrew and was assigned Alexa, who became his next victim. Then the story played the same way again. But this time he made a mistake, he went ahead to go and confront Julio Sanchez. He also underestimated the capacity of Anna, who according to him was immature and impatient. But she was not worried about herself or what Andrew wanted to do with her. She was more worried about Alexa, for all she knew, Alexa could be dead by now. 

That's it, she had all the evidence she needed. She told Mark about her theory and asked him to issue a search warrant in the name of Andrew Lopez and told him to just find where Alexa could be. He understood how serious this case was. "I am not going to let you be alone now that I know that this sick person might kill you. I need you to stay where you are and wait for me to come and pick you up. Please tell me you have a weapon next to you and..." he was about to continue when a familiar sound caught their attention. The doorbell had just rang. Anna was speechless. They now understood what she had gotten herself into. She was just a small part of the big plan Andrew had for her. 

The bell rang again and a voice came from the other side of the door, "Miss Anna, it's me.  I am Andrew Lpoez. Could you please open the door, I have just received a message from Alexa. She wants to meet me." Anna froze in her position. She couldn't even get up to go and grab her weapon. She was on the call with Mark who told her to act, but she couldn't move. That's when she was terrified. Shivers went down her spine as she heard him call out to her again. She clenched her phone as she told Mark that he knew she was home alone. He knew because the lights were turned on and he had peeped through the window and could see through the curtains a figure sitting on the chair. 

"Okay listen, Anna listen carefully. I need you to get your act all straight. I need you to act all unaware and go and open the door. Act naturally and indulge him in a conversation. Go in the kitchen and give him an excuse, make him some tea, and grab a knife, just in case u need it. I am in the car and I am on my way to you, I will reach there in ten minutes. You don't need to get scared at all. Don't cut the call, I am gonna stay with you until all this is over. Don't worry Anna."

" Mark you don't get it, for all I know he is here to kill me. God knows what he did to his wife?"

" Anna.... Anna listen, you cannot raise any suspicion. You have always been underestimated because of your gender and your young age. Here you have a chance to prove the people wrong. Take this chance, don't let them be right. And please don't get scared. I am here with you. I will find you ..... always. Now I need you to stay put and stay safe."

Somehow whatever Mark said made sense to her, she opened the door and let Andrew in, the whole while he was there in the room with her, Anna kept her phone close to her. She then offered to make him some tea, but he refused. She needed an excuse to get to the kitchen so that she could get a knife. But Andrew was smart enough. She gave him a few excuses, like getting him some water, some hot coffee, or even tea, but he refused her. He showed her his phone and she saw that Alexa had messaged him. She then gave him the excuse of going to the bathroom, and that's when he doubted that something was off. But he didn't need a reason. He threw a punch at her stomach, which almost knocked her to the ground. But she was not going to give him an easy fight. She got up and punched him in the face, blood started dripping out of his nose. He wiped it and smiled looking at Anna with anger in his eyes. She was quick to throw another punch at his face, but he smartly blocked her move. He caught her hands and twisted them against her back, leaving her in immense pain. She screamed in agony as her body hit the floor again.

" You are one to give a tough fight missy. I have truly underestimated you. It is a pity you have to die now, otherwise the world could have used people like you. You are so young and you had to die tragically." he pulled her from the ground by her hair and she screamed in pain, blood was dripping from her mouth. He took out a rope and tied her hands and legs as she resited to break free from the constraints. She struggled to breathe and she was losing sight, her vision became blurry. He then took out his gun determined to finish his job. Anna had made peace with the fact that this could be her last breath. Her life flashed before her eyes. With tears in her eyes, she closed them and started saying her prayers. "Do you have any last wish, Miss Anna" mockingly asked Andrew.

" Yes, I want to know if Alexa is alive or not?" she asked. She was about to die, but she couldn't die not knowing what she was fighting for.

"You are a tough cookie, Anna. If you must know, I killed her. She has been dead for a week now, she was dead way before I came to you with her case." he took a brief pause. Anna finally let a few tears fall out of her eyes. She was sad knowing that the person she was supposed to save was already dead and that she had failed. She finally let her tears fall one by one. She looked into Andrew's eyes with disgust. "You are a monster. You could have had a nice and normal life, but you made it all about the money. You became greedy and you wanted more, didn't you? You killed Claire, but it wasn't enough, you had to play with another vulnerable soul and kill her brutally."

He laughed as Anna said her feelings out loud," Oh Miss Anna, you could have been a good detective, but you easily let your emotions get in the way, you tried to solve this case as if you were a part of it. It will be sad when tomorrow's newspaper begins with the news of your death."

He pulled the trigger and aimed the gun at Anna. She closed her eyes accepting her fate. That's when a loud noise started her. The door, behind Andrew, had fallen and Mark was on the other side of it. At that point, Anna could think of him as her friend, she thought Mark was an angel sent by the gods to reward her for their work. He was like a warrior who had come to save his lover from the evil. Soon enough a bullet being fired was heard. Mark had just shot Andrew putting an end to his story. He quickly went over to Anna and freed her hands. 

She couldn't wait any longer. She hugged him immediately and she cried her heart out while saying, "Mark, I lost, I had been fighting a battle that was over even before I started. She is dead Mark. Alexa is dead."

She cried and cried on his shoulder. "Listen to me carefully Anna. you are not a failure. You solved the puzzle. You were the reason the story of Andrew came to an end. You are the reason why the real story of what happened to Claire and Alexa will come to light. So never call yourself a failure again." he wiped the tears off her face and the long night was finally over. They both lived to see another bright day.

By Viral Murudkar