“Then how did the blood get on the wall?” Arjun asked, not looking up.
Arjun stood, pulling on his coat. “That’s the question. And tonight is the third Sunday of the month. If the pattern holds, someone, somewhere, is already waiting for their visitor.”
The door had been bolted. The windows were on the 42nd floor, sealed shut. No vents, no secret passages. The security cameras in the hallway showed no one entering or leaving between 7:00 PM and 10:00 PM. Sunday Suspense
“A delayed mechanism? Ice holding a blade? A spring-loaded device?”
The autopsy report arrived just as the church bells tolled six. Arjun scanned it, then went still. “The incision. It was made post-mortem.” “Then how did the blood get on the wall
“He bled out from a wound to the wrist first. A slow, deliberate bleed. The carotid cut came after he was already dead. Someone wanted to make sure the message was written in fresh blood—but not his.”
The victim: Devashish “Dev” Mitra, 54, CEO of Horizon Aeronautics. Cause of death: Exsanguination due to a single, precise incision along the carotid artery. Location: His penthouse study, locked from the inside. Time of death: 8:15 PM last Sunday. And tonight is the third Sunday of the month
Inside, Dev Mitra had been found slumped over his mahogany desk, a glass of wine toppled beside him, and on the wall behind him—written in what appeared to be his own blood—the words: THE THIRD SUNDAY.