When John returned to town, his eyes were filled with determination, but also fatigue. The more he learned, the more he felt that the case was far more complicated than he could have imagined. His intuition told him that the skeleton found and its mysterious origin was not just a tragic accident. It was like a jigsaw puzzle where every piece didn’t fit together, creating even more questions than answers.
Meanwhile, the boys – Tom, Jack and Bill – began to realize that they were part of a much scarier story than they could have imagined. They felt pulled into this terrible vortex and tried to find some explanation for what was happening. But their search led to more and more discoveries that seemed to leave no trace in the official records.
One evening, as the forest was beginning to darken and fog was billowing between the trees, John decided to return to the mill. This time he was ready for something even more sinister, for his gut told him that something was hidden right here in the heart of the old woods. The mill, shrivelled by time, still stood as a silent witness to the crimes of the past.
With each step as he approached the mill, John felt an increasingly strange tension in the air. Leaves under his fingernails, the sounds of nature seemed to be muffled, and only in the dark corners of the forest could he detect movements too fast and sharp for normal animals. Just as he reached the old wooden doors, there was a faint scraping sound from inside, as if something large and heavy was shifting. John instinctively grabbed his flashlight and shrank back, ready for any surprise.
The mill was empty, save for a few rusty gears and old shelving units. However, among the debris and old tools, John noticed a few strange footprints on the ground leading to one of the windows. These tracks were not left by animals, but rather by something heavy and human. He groped the walls and lifting one of the wooden panels revealed a hidden room. Inside, among the old boxes and dusty cloths, lay a note covered in bloodstains.
The note was written on an old piece of paper with mangled handwriting:
“We made a mistake. This is not the man who should have been killed. He has seen more than he should have. Now he’s in the woods, and they won’t leave us alone.”
Desperate to understand what it all meant, John read each word carefully. It was like a chain that was finally beginning to connect events. Someone had tried to cover up the murder, and now perhaps the remaining witnesses were trying to warn others. Someone was continuing to hunt for those who knew too much.
