Live Online Murder - Part I The Act
Live Online Murder - Part I The Act
Mr Mike was addressing a global gathering that involved leaders from the media, business, and investor communities. It was a quarterly financial update via video conference, a much-awaited one. Mr Mike had joined Z9 technologies a few months back and going by his track record he is a very aggressive CEO who would start delivering results from the very first quarter.
A leading personality in the tech industry Mike was influential and result oriented. Outcome mattered most for him, and he always knew the better way to achieve the desired results. Over 30 years in the industry, Mike an industry stalwart was delivering yet another financial report, something which he had been doing for a long. This time, however, it was going to be very different.
Mike had recently designed his new office at the Bangalore tech centre from where he was addressing the gathering. He was addressing the audience via a state of art audio-video system. Dressed in a premium suit with the latest smartwatch, his presence was bold.
While the address was in progress something distracted the attention of the audience like never before. A hand-holding knife appeared on the video from behind Mr Mike and before he could react, the knife slit his throat. All this in a fraction of a second. Mike was in the blood, he fell, going out of the camera’s range. The last audio that the shattered audience heard was a beep sound. Then hand slowly pulled back and disappeared into the wall behind Mr Mike’s chair.
What puzzled everyone was that they could only see the hand and the knife. that's it, no one saw the rest of the body of the killer, it appeared that the hand somehow came floating into the room and executed Mike with perfection. The audience who was present locally in the office from where Mike was addressing the financial update rushed to Mike's room, only to find him dead in the pool of blood. Police were informed and they reach the crime scene in quick time. Since it was a high-profile case, the murder of an ex-pat CEO staying in Bangalore, police thought it was best to hand over the case to the most efficient investigating team of the crime investigation department.
As news of live murder went on like wildfire, a senior team of investigators along with a forensic expert were rushed to the crime scene. The team wasted no time in reviewing the recording of the financial briefing. Everyone saw the hand appearing from behind Mr Mike and slitting his throat in a matter of seconds.
Pallavi who happens to be a digital forensic expert and part of the team had a point to make about just seeing the hand and not the body of the criminal.
Pallavi "This looks straight. Mr Mike was using a virtual background which masks anything more than 2 feet behind him with a poster, this ensures that anything more than 2 feet behind him is covered by this virtual background and no one on the call could see more than 2 feet behind the presenter, in this case Mr Mike. Looks like the murderer is a techie who knew about the virtual background and he executed this murder fearlessly in front of a live audience without even being noticed."
Rita, executive secretary of Mr Mike had a counter-argument "Not exactly, if you look properly there is no virtual background. It’s the same office that you see in the background where Mr Mike was seated and as I remember before the call, he was very clear about this. He wanted the audience to see his new office".
Pallavi "It’s simple Rita. What you see is the virtual background that uses photos from the same angle as Mr Mike's camera was placed. This gives everyone the impression that Mr Mike is using actual background and not the virtual background".
However, Das an investigating officer was quick to point out that around 18 mins into the call, staff entered the room and served hot coffee to Mr Mike while he was still addressing the audience. This housekeeping staff is his primary suspect. In all possibility after serving the coffee housekeeping staff never left the room and around 25th min of the address executed the plan."
Das "We should review the cameras that monitored in and out movements of Mr Mike's office".
Rita "Sorry, Mr Mike's office area is not covered by CCTV, as many of his meetings were confidential, he never wanted any video traces of guests visiting him".
Das "We live in the 21st century where every look and corner of the city is recorded day in and out and you trying to tell me that in this sophisticated building the most important area is left uncovered by the CCTV!".
Das was visibly upset but helpless as well. You cannot record your top boss without his permission and that's what the staff and Rita followed.
The investigation team had 3 other members, officer Kamath and Suresh. This team was led by an old fox, Samarth Sinha. While Samarth was already in his early 50s, he was up to date with technology, criminal psychology, and legal process.
"Team, please carry on with your primary investigation. We shall meet 60 mins from now and share our initial findings. Ms Rita could you please block a room for us? and ask everyone in the office to be at the main conference hall, I don't want anyone to leave this premise without my approval." Mr Samarth needed results fast. He knew that with every minute pass they will face enormous pressure from various influencers, after all, Mr Mike was not just another executive he was among the best in the business.
60 minutes later, the team gathered in the room that Rita had allocated for them.
Samarth "I need to know 3 things from each one of you. one, your critical observation, second, your key suspects and third motive. Let's get started team."
Kamath " Let me go first. There was nothing unusual in the room where Mike was murdered. I also checked the visitor's list there was no one who entered the premise seeking an appointment with Mr Mike. My belief is that it is the job of an insider, and my primary suspect is Rita. Motive, unsure but could be that they were in a relationship, other women but that's best that I could think of."
Samarth "so where was Rita when the incident occurred? "
Kamath "apparently she claims to be at her desk which is just next to Mr Mike's office. No cameras there as well. which Makes the job easy for her".
Samarth, taking note from Kamath's briefing "Good, who goes next".
Das "I reviewed the recording, while the murderer had put on gloves and his skin was not visible, I believe that hands were definitely not of Rita, they looked quite strong. But I have my doubt, so I spoke with the housekeeping staff who served coffee to Mr Mike, his name is Raghu who mentioned that he left the room immediately after serving the coffee. Thereafter he stayed in the pantry which I have already verified via CCTV camera. There is something very strange though, Mr Mike did not sip coffee between the 18th and 25th minute but when I examined the cup someone had taken a few sips, it was half-filled."
Samarth, "What are you trying to say?"
Das "Point is very simple, there was someone in the room and Mr Mike knew him. However, Raghu in his statement mentioned that Mike was alone in the room. In my understanding, the murderer was a guest of Mr Mike who was invited by Mike".
Pallavi " Let me share my observations. I checked the visitor's list and CCTV footage of the office. There were no visitors today for Mr Mike, strange but true. Since morning he has been working on this briefing and he consulted the finance team but only over call. Here is my take, it is someone insider who knew everything about the office and wanted to settle some old score with Mike".
Samarth, "nothing really impressive here Pallavi, I expected you to do a better job. Either way, what's your thought, Suresh?"
Suresh, "I knew my team is good at observing things around, so I decided to do a little investigation on the history. There are 3 individuals in this office who had worked in the same company as Mr Mike in past. Dhanush worked at Akash Top-tech where Mike too worked as CEO. Dhanush was laid-off 5 years back, he and Mike had an overlap of 2 years and probably Dhanush thought Mike was the reason for his job loss. Next is Shruthi, she too was laid off and she worked with Mike at RX technologies, she was the HR manager, and the overlap time was just 6 months. Third and last on the list is Arjun, he is an IT expert, who monitors all systems including CCTV. He too was employed at RX technologies. Again, was laid-off during Mike's tenure."
Samarth, "I see where you are heading towards, interesting."
Kamath, "Sir what's your observation?"
Samarth, "I asked for all in and out entries of today, this list is in my hand and has all records. It seems everyone who entered the office today has already left, except a few who are in the main conference hall. The count is accurate. But since this murder is executed quite neatly, I took in and out of the entire week and now I see that there is some mismatch of numbers. If I subtract all entries with all exits and exits including people in the main conference hall then there are two additional entries for which there are no exits. I believe we should be looking for these two names".
Kamath, "You mean that there are 2 people who entered office in last one week but never left and these two are our primary suspect".
Samarth, "Yes, and if I am not wrong these 2 are still in this office. Let's get them".
The team was in a state of shock. How could this be possible! and what would be the reason? why these 2 murderers have stayed back?
Samarth. "It is evident that the murderer knew the course of the day very well. He or She also in some manner had access to the system that Mr Mike was supposed to use for the conference. Lastly, this someone is an outsider who received help from an insider."
A gruesome murder was executed on the camera, that too LIVE. The audience only gets to see the arm of the killer holding the murder weapon, a knife. A high-profile team is on job to nab the culprit, who according to the lead investigator for some reason decided to stay back at the crime scene. This is a high-profile case; delays will only build more pressure. Samarth, the old fox, and his team have a task on hand, and it is to identify and nab the killer who executed the murder live on camera.
Stay hooked, part II will be published shortly.