the other cranium or rather the ear that was straining itself was that of augustin neptuno . his bald plate glistened with sweat, was working overtime. his eyes were closed. a letter was placed near his right ear and a soft cooing sound was emerging from him at regular intervals.
he was using his gift,the gift of far hearing. there are people in the world who are far sighted some possess something called sixth sense there are a few odd ones who can start a fire but there was only one neptuno who could hear what others could not. it was all because of his ears. they resembled that of an over sized cauliflower. being endowed with such kind of satellites as ears neptuno had the unique gift of far hearing making him capable of tuning into frequencies of materials i.e. a piece of paper placed near his ear would tell him how it was made from pulp, the factory that it was made in, what was done to it, to whom it was sold, who had written on it et al thanks to his deconstructive and re constructive ear.
with every gift comes responsibility and a higher probability of being labelled as a freak.
in neptuno's case the former was given a lower weight resulting in the the latter being given a higher weight. his childhood had been miserable and being the weakest of the lot also did not help. it all cumulated in knowing the secrets of his tormentors and using it against them which resulted in being called freaky cabbage ears.
his snooping activities led him towards a career of a private detective. it had been a successful career till now, investigating secret liaisons and adulteries of the rich and famous and he already had a long list of satisfied clients.
it was when he was at the crest of his career that the scarlet killer became famous and the ears of neptuno pricked in attention upon hearing the methodology of the killer resulting in the soft cooing noise that was emerging from.
neptuno's present location was at his office situated in the middle of press and a carpenter.the carpenter used to go knock knock knock throughout the day while the press went clickety clack clack clack throughout the night. in the midst of such noise neptuno could fine tune his skills sothat no other object's frequency reached his ears except the one placed near his ear. sometimes the headlines of the next day reached him or the history of the wood being used in the new cupboard reached him but that could be kept out as he was doing now. his right ear had a scarlet letter(procured from illegal sources) near it and in the mind of neptuno flashed the images ofit being kept in a police file, the policeman handling it, the ill fated reader, the inside of a mailbox but this was where the trail came to end. it was all blank before that. his left ear had also given him the same information.this had never happened before. neptuno was puzzled leading to the cooing sound to relax him and remind him of happy times. all the time he was thinking
why could not neptuno's skill of far hearing help him?
who was this scarlet assasin? coo coo coo...

the man who died leaving 12 small chests behind(part 4)...a tall order I

12:57 p.m.

written again was a cryptic message

when the giant sleeps
then snippety snap you go
armpit hair you take

and before the clock struck 1, our protagonist whom we refer for now as r took his position inside the chest. after the lid had been secured, r waited patiently till the grandfather clock hanging over the chests i.e. cranky man's bed struck 1. the machineries inside the chest(wherever they were) started whirring and r experienced weightlessness and felt himself hurtling at a great speed to godknowswhere.
after approximately 10 seconds(trusting r's slow counting) of this rumbling tumbling, the chest came to a halt with a dramatic flinging open of tis lid. r hurried out for he knew about the hour deadline of completing each task. the task as r thought, was difficult. but challenges were something he enjoyed.

the strange land in which he had landed was indeed very strange...



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the man who died leaving 12 small chests behind(part3)...the plot thickens

12:55 p.m.


so the first task was done, finding the boy. for the lawyer it was all following his twisted knotted plans. in 11 hours 5 minutes he would be the owner of the mansion and the various other estates that cranky old man had possessed. he knew the remaining tasks would not be so simple. the cranky old man with all his secrets, worshiping the occult and performing black magic was sure to complicate his plans. again he cursed the old fool, squandering his family estates doing his mumbo jumbo, it did not make good business sense. the lawyer felt it was his obligation and his duty to take upon himself the role of the custodian of the estates and the mansion. more importantly the mansion, a nice heritage hotel could come up, it all made good business sense.
and caught in the midst was our protagonist, promised money, food and bedding for a day he had been whisked away from being a beggar to being a heir. he was not complaining but looking wide eyed at the riches all around.
now for the next task the lawyer thought, it was almost time, the clock was striking one.
opening the lock of the second chest, he read the second cryptic message and yet again cursed the cranky old man.


...if liked may be continued

the man who died leaving 12 small chests behind(part2)...arrival

12:03 p.m.


except only a cryptic message was left behind

a boy not too tall
has to be thin lean and poor
can complete the job

and then in the doorstep stood our protagonist fitting the description for the same message had reached him along with a set of twelve keys. more questions no answers. the boy was unaware of what had happened, a distant relative he said. he showed the letter gave the keys and all 12 chests were opened. inside each was a note all filled with different gibberish messages. finding nothing there after upturning each chest, the whole house was searched. no one else lived there and the mansion had no other secrets to hide. the family lawyer who had also arrived with our protagonist was also questioned but even he called the old man cranky and showed them his will where our protagonist was mentioned. so they left, sending the body to the morgue and writing it officially as a suicide attempt for they suspected no foul play except the old man was cranky.

and so the boy was left behind with the lawyer. the boy was no distant relative of the cranky man, the cranky man had no relatives. he was just picked up from the street following the instructions given by cranky man.


...if liked may be continued