Room No. 21
It was the first few months of the new hotel. But which should have been grand became nightmare. There were robberies from tourists who have resided in Room No. 21.
The owner of the hotel approached Mr. Stevenson, a detective. It was Mr. Stevenson’s first major assignment to execute. He got the information that all the victims’ bank accounts were hacked and money were syphoned off. In each of the cases, the balance in the account were transferred exactly at 21.00 hours. What intrigued him the most was what could be the mystery with the number 21.
Mr. Stevenson browsed through all possible encyclopaedias of numbers to crack this puzzle of 21. He looked into its mathematical properties and its significance in all disciplines like science, sports, and politics. However, he did not get any clue.
He made a plan. He opened a bank account and linked the same to his mobile. Informing the owner he disguised himself as a tourist. He checked into Room No. 21 of the hotel.
He inspected every minute thing in the room: all furniture, walls, windows, portraits, lighting and other fixtures including those in the washroom. He even sampled the complimentary breakfast which was sent to the room every morning.
However, he found nothing suspicious even after spending a whole week. His account was not even robbed after all these days!
He was almost about to give up. In one afternoon, sitting at the reception he called all the victims and talked to them one last time in detail to get some fresh clue. By the time, he spoke to the last victim his mobile was getting charged off. He put that on the charging station installed in the reception area.
On the same evening at 21.00 hours, his mobile beeped. He knew that he was robbed off his account.
He immediately called back all the victims one by one asking whether they had charged their phone at the reception while being in hotel. He got the answer what he was expecting – all ‘yes’.
He at once showed his ID card to the front desk manager and asked for the CCTV footage of reception area.
All night he inspected the footages. He found the janitor spending some extra time at the charging station.
“That machine is delicate. So, I clean it carefully.” The janitor answered during interrogation.
Mr. Stevenson had no other way than to break the wall of charging station and found a tiny camera and wiring attached to it extended to the basement cabin. Opening the cabin he found a monitor and hacking instruments. A peep into the monitor revealed that the culprit was the hotel owner.
“Why 21?” Mr. Stevenson asked the owner.
“That’s just a number. No specific reason. It is to confuse investigation.” The owner signed.
“But then why did you approach me to solve this. This was a bigger mystery for me”, said Mr. Stevenson.
“Oh… just to check weather my plan is foolproof.”
Author’s note: I wrote this story getting inspiration from Sherlock Holmes
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