After careful analysis of the footprint, it is revealed that the feet belong to a man with a feet size of 8 and the shoe belongs to the company, ‘Shoeper’. “Shoeper is a premium shoe brand from England. They only make sales from their stores and we have only 5 stores in our state.”, said one of the forensic assistants to Sarah. 

Nishant was a very supportive leader who supported Sarah in her every decision recognizing her intelligence. When Sarah told Nishant about the shoe brand and size, Nishant immediately launched an investigation and picked up data about men who bought shoes of similar feet size, and design. Every one of them was investigated by their nearest police stations and also ordered to bring those shoes with them during the investigation. While the suspect was being investigated, the shoes are sprayed with luminol and examined under a blue light for blood stains. After checking almost 800 guys for a week, the police wound up with nothing. “How can this happen? This is our first clue. This is supposed to take us somewhere. Lead us closer to solving the case. Where have we gone wrong?”. And then all of a sudden an assistant said, “What if it wasn’t a woman?” “Don’t be stupid. These are men’s shoes. How can a woman use them in a situation like that?” “Sir, actually the shoes are unisex.” The room was silent for a while as Nishant suddenly fell off and sat on a chair with his palm being hit to his forehead. “Get the details of everyone we missed. Start the investigation again. We’re gonna catch this criminal once and for all.” Sarah started to feel a little light-headed again but this time she withheld that feeling and immersed herself in her work again. Gradually, the feeling increased, for a second she felt a little unconscious and fell onto a chair. The assistants in the room rushed to catch her and when they tried to check her temperature, it was very hot. Nishant reported this, 

N: You do realize how important you are to this case right? Most of the findings you made and the patterns you helped figure out are the ones that helped us come this far along in this case. Take some rest for a day or two. It’s only gonna be a whole lot of investigations so it’s not like you’re missing out a lot.

S: Nishant, I am fine. I just felt a little light-headed. I’m fine.

N: No, everyone in this team along with you is my responsibility and after Rajat’s story, I don’t want the department to get another reputation of working their employees to death. So, go home, take some rest and come back when you are okay.

Sarah left for her home only to find her neighbor’s door being banged by a guy. “How can you do this to me, Anita? I loved you so much. I gave you everything you wanted. And you slept with that douchebag …..” she closed her doors and went to sleep. The next morning when she woke up and looked at her phone, there were 25 missed calls from Nishant. “What happened Nishant? I am sorry I was asleep taking rest.” “Come out and see for yourself.” Surprised by this answer, Sarah opened her door in her pajamas and looked out to find Nishant and all her team lined up at Anita’s house. 

S: What happened? Is it Anita?

N: Yes, it is her. She was found with her eyes removed and stabbed in her neck. It was she who called us but we are too late. 

S: Oh my god. She was a good person. Did you have any leads on the killer?

N: Yes actually, the neighbors reported an angry boyfriend banging at her door all evening and yelling at her. Our team is bringing him in. After we’re done here, we can go investigate him. By the way, how are you feeling?

S: Yes I am fine. Give me 10 minutes, I’ll change and be back. 

At the station;

N: So Abhi, Why did you kill Anita?

A: Sir, I didn’t kill Anita. I swear. I was there the whole evening then I left for a bar, got drunk like hell, and went back to my home.

N: And later you woke up early in the morning, very angry at Anita. So you went to Anita’s house and waited for her to open the door when she did, you took the chance and stabbed her, didn’t you?

A: No sir, I didn’t do that. 

N: You are a smart guy, Abhi, you also carved her eyes out so that this case can be diverted to the Blinder.

A: Sir, but I did not kill her. Please you have to believe me. 

N: Do you have an alibi?

A: No…

N: Being such a smart person, you should have made up an alibi by now. How can you act so dumb?

A: Sir, you have to believe me. I didn’t kill her. I loved her. Please, please believe me.

N:                             (to a constable)              Take him away and lock him up in jail. Hand him over to the Homicide department later. They’ll take care of it. We already have enough on our hands.

C: Sir, don’t you think we can close this case by showing him as the killer?

N: No we can’t. From all the killings we’ve been seeing, it is safe to assume that he’s trying to make a mark of himself. A mark that he is to be feared, to make this his identity. If we attach this case to Abhi, the killer might get angry about his identity being stolen and can attack more women to prove the false identity of whom we arrested. It’s gonna be chaotic. Now! Take him away to the precinct and let the homicide department deal with it.

Sarah heard everything he said;

S: You seem to have a lot of information about how the minds of these serial killers work. 

N: Yeah, I’ve been assigned to this team for that specific reason. I have expertise in how to work with cases involving psychopaths.

S: Interesting. So do you really think Abhi is the one that murdered Anita?

N: Yes, it does look that way. He clearly has the motive, opportunity, and all the dots connected to him.

S: What about the murder weapon? Did you find the knife? 

N: Not yet. But the police are already ransacking his place. So it’s only a couple of hours before we have permanent proof.

S: I don’t know Nishant. I have a feeling that Abhi is innocent.

N: Why do you think so?

S: I don’t know. It’s just a gut feeling.

Sarah starts to feel light-headed again. And she almost faints but stands up keeping her balance by standing against a wall.

N: You sure you’re okay? You don’t look that way.

S: No. I am fine. I might be stressing myself a little too much. That’s all. A good nap and I’ll be fine. 

N: Why don’t you get it checked out?

S: I did, he said it was s…………….stress, stress. It was a result of……. me…… overworking my body….. Yes. That’s all it is.

N: You sure? If you want to take some rest, you can. We’ll call you when we need you. You don’t need to overwork this case.

S: No. No. I wanna work on this. I wanna be involved in this case. It’s just…. Okay Nishant, if you promise to not remove me from this case I’ll tell you something. I ha…….

Suddenly, another constable came running into the room. “Sir, she’s…. She’s…..” “Cool down, take a breath, tell me now what is it?” “Sir, she’s not dead.” “Who?” “Anita, She’s alive” Nishant rushed to the room shouting, “Finally, SOMEONE ALIVE!”