Jacob DeBoer

Mrs. Roskamp

8B, LA

February 12, 2016

(Red – clue)

(Blue – Red herring)

Remember

– Death won’t fix your problems, it will only make it worse, so do what is right not what is easy –

– Jake DeBoer

 

“Come over here Detective,” my partner Brody called, “I think I found something.” I ducked under the police tape and walked over to where Brody was crouched over the ground. I walked cautiously taking note of everything around me. I was on a sidewalk next to a skyscraper for the ever thriving Boardwin’s Company I looked down at my feet and moved them carefully, so I wouldn’t step on the large pieces of glass. Nevertheless I still heard the soft crunch of smaller glass shards underneath my shoes. I glanced to my left to see red blood, that was not quite yet dry for it was still pretty fresh and hadn’t had time to soak into the concrete.

“What is it?” I asked from behind him.

Brody stood up straight from his crouching position, he had about an inch on me, but his facial features were still very young. “Here,” he pointed at a spot on the ground, “there’s a shoe imprint in the ground.” With his joy from his discovery he quickly added, “It’s about size twelve.”

I looked at him as to imply, anything else genious? After a quick moment with no reply, I stepped forward and looked at the ground where he had indicated. I dragged my finger thru the implant, then I examined my finger. Dirt. I looked at it closer and picked out a pellet of fertilizer. Farm. I got up and turned to Brody, he was standing there with a dumb smile of accomplishment of his face. This new guy is going to take a while to get used to, I thought. “I’m going to need to talk to everyone who was here today,” I told him, then walked back to the police line and back to my Buick. I opened the door to get in, I looked to where my new partner Brody was standing awkwardly. “Are you coming or not partner?” I asked putting emphasis on the last word.

He looked a little confused, then quickly hurried over to the car, tripped over absolutely nothing, quickly recovered, then stuttered, “Of course.” I almost rolled my eyes, as I got into the car, and we took off.

– – – – –

On July 20, 2014, at Boardwin Company, a woman named Jessica Boyle was seen flying out of a glass window from four stories up. Spectators say she made not a sound as she fell, when the authorities arrived they said that her body was missing two of her fingers on her left hand. The floor where she had been thrown out of was trashed. She had been working for Boardwin Co. for over ten years. She had a family, a husband and two kids. This was a very tragic…

I trailed off from the newspaper that was in my hands, I had more important matters to attend too. Bordy and I had a handful of interviews to look forward to.

“Alright first up is Catherine Lakewood, age twenty seven,” Brody spoke.

“Let’s get this over with,” I muttered.

“What was that Detective?” Brody questioned leaning forward on his toes.

“Just come on,” I replied.

We walked into the room, lit by a single light on the ceiling which gave off a surprising amount of light. There was a silver table in the middle of the room, with two chairs one on each side. The one on the right was already occupied by Catherine and the second was quickly taken by my overly eager partner. I stood behind him and began to pace back and forth, as if to intimidate the poor woman.

Catherine was sitting calmingly, but she seemed uncomfortable in the cheap metal chair. She looked at Brody, then to me walking behind him.

“So you were working at the Boardwin’s Company on July twenty? Is that correct?” I asked not making eye contact with her.

“Yes,” she replied, her voice was higher pitched, but calm, just as she appeared.

“Did you know Jessica Boyle prior to her death?”

“Yes, I’ve worked with her for three years. She was always a nice person, always helping out around the place.”

“I looked at the Company’s files and noticed that you were promoted after Jessica’s death.”

“That’s true, I was excited about it but I was also very sad for the loss of a co-worker, especially one such at Jessica.”

“Uh- huh, were there any people that didn’t like Jessica? Anyone who may have a grudge against her?”

“No,” She replied looking at me, “but I did overhear her yelling at Rick the other day.”

“Rick Juling?” Brody asked before I had the opportunity.

Catherine thought for a moment, then replied, “Ya, that’s the one.”

“Did it seem like he would kill her over it?” I asked, stopped moving, then looked straight at her.

“No way, old Rick wouldn’t take it that far. Of course he will yell all gruff-like sometimes, but he wouldn’t kill anyone.”

I thought for a few moments on that, then proceeded to ask a few more questions. Brody spoke once or twice more but for the most part, he just sat there awkwardly unsure of why he even was there.

The second interview was with a rather large man, named Jason. He sat in the small chair quietly, but his eyes kept darting back and forth across the room. I figured this guy wouldn’t be to hard. Even Brody could intimidate him. I looked down at the big mans feet to see dirt covered shoes that seemed to be around size eleven or twelve.

“Do you live on a farm?” I asked.

The big man appeared confused for a moment. “Aren’t you asking questions about Jessica?” His little eyes in his big body darted back and forth once more.

“Answer the question,” I replied sternly.

“I do.”

I thought to myself for a moment, wouldn’t someone who works on a farm be better built? I temporarily discarded the idea, “Did you have any relationship with Jessica?”

Jason smiled and slumped back, “Boy I wish, she was a fine young lady. I asked her out once but she said no. She was going out with that stupid Rick guy.”

“So Rick and Jessica were in a relationship?”

He sighed, then mumbled, “Yes.”

“Did you notice any people in the office that day that weren’t usually there?” I asked leaning against one of the walls of the small room.

Before Jason could answer, Brody got up and began to walk towards the door in a rather weird hobble.
“Where are you going?” I questioned him.

“Well, Mr. Detective, I’ve noticed that I don’t really need to be here, so I figured I could take my leave.”

I looked at him quizzically for a moment, then dismissed the subject, I’d rather him gone then continue to be here. Even though he was mostly quiet he still annoyed me. I waved him away, “Go ahead.”

He walked out and closed the door behind him. “Now, were there any people that seemed unusual around the office?” I repeated.

“Yes actually a man that looked a lot like…… your partner,” Jason answered.

The air seemed to be sucked out of the room. My partner? What was Brody doing at the Boardwin’s Company that day? I got a hold of myself and spoke, “You may go.”

The big man grunted, and the seat groaned as he got up. Jason left the room without another word, his eye’s still bouncing back and forth across the room. This was going to be harder than I thought.

The third and final interview was with Rick. This time it was only me and him, Brody was off somewhere after he decided he didn’t want to take part in the interviews. I sat in the chair opposite of Rick. We both were silent and unmoving, not even willing to blink. Rick was well built, and had a short dark beard.

After a few minutes had passed, I spoke, “What were you and Jessica argueing about before she was murdered?”

He refused to speak.

“What were you discussing?” I asked.

Silence.

Alright I see how he wants to do this, I thought. I smacked my hands down on the table that made loud ringing noise that bounced of the walls in the small room, “Answer the question!”

“I have the right to remain silent,” he spoke.

“I have the right to ship your sorry butt off to prison for murder! Answer the question!” After saying those words I stood up knocking the chair I was sitting in to the ground.

Rick looked up at me and sighed a breath of defeat, “We just had a misunderstanding, that’s all.”

“About what?” I inquired.

“I tried to give her LSD,” he confessed.

“Illegal drugs are a crime,” I told him.

“You don’t think I know that? Why do you think I wasn’t talking? Did you think I murdered Jess? No, never, I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“Well maybe she did take your drugs and that made her commit suicide,” I accused.

“No, Jess was too good of a person, she wouldn’t even come close to me after I said that,” Rick looked to the ground somberly.

“How can I know you weren’t the one who took the drugs which made you kill Jessica?” I questioned.

“I didn’t take any, you can go to my office, in the third shelf in the back is the whole supply, an unopened package.”

The interview finished quite soon after that. Rick still in custody for he was still a suspect, and awaited charges after we had confirmed what he had told us.

– – – – –

I walked into Rick’s office to find out if he was telling the truth or not. Boardwins Company had been temporarily shut down during the investigation, so everything was still as it was from the day of Jessica’s demis. Brody was with me, so I decided to ask the question that was on my mind, “Why were you here the day before Jessica Boyle was found dead?”

He looked at me surprised, “What are you talking about? I haven’t stepped foot in the building before today.”

“Jason told me that you were here, right after you abruptly left the room,” I pointed out.

“That’s because interviews are so boring, and I never did anything,” he complained. “That day I was at the department working just ask anyone there.”

“I’ll have to look into that,” I replied, for I didn’t know exactly where he was that day, I wasn’t with him. I dismissed the subject and opened the door to Rick’s office, and stepped in. Brody didn’t follow me, but began to wander around randomly. I gave him a suspicious look, then turned to where Rick said the LSD was. I opened the drawer and looked inside.

Empty.

“Hey Detective you might want to see this!” Brody called from outside the room.

I hurried over to where he was standing looking down at a desk with a drawer half open revealing a supply of LSD. “Why is this here?” Brody asked the obvious question.

“I don’t know,” I thought aloud, I noticed some red on a filing cabinet, I opened it, and saw two fleshy fingers on the bottom, and blood all over the inside, I gagged and closed it, then I looked to the name on a plaque on the desk.

Jason.

We both looked at each other knowingly, one more interview.

– – – – –

The big man was once again in the small metal chair. His eyes going back and forth and up and down.

“Jason, why did we find illegal drugs in your desk?”

Fear shot through his eyes, and he got up out of the chair in an attempt to run, Brody jumped in front of him and shoved him back into the chair before he could go more than a couple of feet. “Try to run again, I put a bullet in you,” I heard Brody whisper. It was an empty threat, but Jason didn’t know that.

“Alright,” he began, “I overheard Rick and Jessica yelling at each other the other day, something to do with a drug, so when they both left I snuck into Rick’s office and stole the drugs from him, then stashed them away in my desk. I took some, while nobody was around during lunch break at 12:15.”

“Jessica was seen flying out the window at 12:20,” I said half to myself, “Are you sure that she had left the building?”

“I-I,” Jason began, but he couldn’t finish his sentence.

“I think after Rick and Jessica stopped arguing Rick left, like everyone else at the break, but Jessica stayed behind for a little bit. Little did she know that you were sticking around getting drugged up by yourself. She heard the commotion of where you were and came over in her good nature to see if everything was ok. You saw her and the hallucinogens in the LSD made you see Jessica as a threat, you strangled her and she got her hand stuck in the filing cabinet, you slammed it shut severing two of her fingers, then you continued to struggle with her knocking over tables and trashing the place until finally she went cold. Unsure of what to do you threw her body at the glass window shattering it sending her already dead body to the ground, which explains why she was quiet when she fell. You left the building as innocently as possible before the authorities arrived, leaving your dirty shoe print in the ground,” I finished looking at him, daring him to correct me.

Tears started streaming down his face after what he realized he had done, he had no complete knowledge of what happened, but he felt like he remembered it. “Jessica,” he moaned, he put his head in his hands and began to whimper.

“Jason Carter, you are under arrest for murder of Jessica Boyle. You have the right to remain silent,” I said as I cuffed his chubby hands together. I brought him out of the room and handed him over to the police from the department. “Release the other suspects from custody, they are clear to go,” I told them. I turned back to Brody, “I called Greg and he said you were here, sorry for not trusting you…. partner.”

I huge smile lit up across his face, “It’s all good Detective,” then he came in for a hug.

I stepped back, “You hug me, I taz you.”

“Always joking aren’t you pal?” Brody asked still smiling.

“Don’t call me that,” I said getting annoyed with him again.

We started walking out the door, “Hey maybe we can celebrate Christmas together this year!” he suggested.

“It’s July,” I grunted.

“Then we can make plans!”

“No.”

“I could make my famous Holiday Strudel!”

“No.”

“Hey do you like cats Detective?”

“No.”

“What about-”

“Another dumb question, I take you down right here,” I replied, challenging him to speak.

He smiled then asked, “What about dogs?”

As we continued to walk, I couldn’t help but smile.