D&C 2.18; Sleuths; Professional and Amateurs

Sleuths; Professional and Amateurs

With the rich century olds of writers giving us wonderful plots, detective writing still remain as thrilling to many readers. Writing a mystery tale is like have an intellectual game in your mind where you have to play the steps sometimes more than twice in your mind, before you write it. And sometimes, come back to retraced your steps again to move it differently. Its a game of chess, but one with words that you write to show the moves, and how the game would end depended on your moves. There are so many variations with the set squares and pieces.

I read the notes on the blog of the dead victim. He was the reason I had to dropped Jenny off on the Sunday morning at Church alone, and went to the crime scene. He was found at the rear of the library with the gunshot wound on the back of his neck. He never had a chance. I got his name and went over to his room nearby; it was a rental room from the elderly lady who moved in a wheel chair. She gave us permission to see his room.

"Steven was a good kid." Melanie Diane told me. She rented out her rooms at the top level to students. Besides Steven, there was two others who occupied the room; a fellow student and another neighboring High School student.

It was a High School student room, and the dead person was the occupant. The correct term was ex-occupant when the person was a victim of a stabbing. His name was Steven Harris, top achiever, board games champion and librarian. In his room, I also saw the stack of books on the walls; the victim was an avid of detective books. He even had a 221B mug in his room, with the pipe that resembled the one used by Sherlock's. I saw his tablet; a new model and was tempted to try it. It was then I read his blog which was on the startup menu.

"I am sorry." The young man blurted out. "I thought Stevie was around."

I looked at the young man; freckled face with emancipated looks and oversize clothes. I invited him to hold a discussion. I found out more; Steven was part of a three person team of amateur sleuths; the young man was one of the trio.

"Charlie Steen was our Data Processor Man; he do have access to his father's PC which have accessed to some databases." The young man paused and the sheepishly looked away. "I hoped I did not give out something inappropriate".

I got his name; it was Harley Morley. He was the Stalker; the one who does all the tailing, he had a bike and was fast on his legs. Steven was the Analyzer. They called themselves the Third Eye. He also told something interesting; Steven was investigating something but we won't tell. He told them it was personal and needed time to work on.

I needed to find out what he was working on.

"Our son was a brilliant kid." Mrs Harris was heartbroken at her son's death. He was working at the Library to cover his expenses. His dad separated from the the mother worked on the oil rigs off Alaska.

"He spend all his time on studies and detective works." She showed me the commendations he got from the local bodies. He was helping a lot of the organization in their audit and also in solving cases of thefts. He got one from our Precinct for doing a citizen arrest on a burglar. I did not recalled as I did not attend those functions. It was the Public Relations Section that does the work there. I met Dan on the next day.

"Poor kid. If I were the parents, I would killed the person who did this." Dan was always acting up when it comes to kids on his table.

"Ok, Vigilante. Tell me what you found."

"A 9mm, went through his neck. Missing casing and still searching for it." Dan showed me the wound entries.

"He may had bitten his attacker. We found some skin samples on the teeth. DNA testing would tell us more, but till then, that's all I got."

Dan looked at me and smiled.

"Victim was six feet two and given the angle of entry, the attacker was about five feet five." I smiled back at Dan. I got something to work on. I went over to Di Angelo.

"Such sucks to be die so young? When something like that happens we get really so lively on life." Di Angelo gets into this mood sometimes, and then it would lead to some religious findings. He did.

"Do you know nobody ever came back from Hell?" I looked at Di Angelo and shook his head. He would had continued on if not for the arrival of Dan.

"We all died. Go to Heaven or Hell, nothing would replace here." Dan sat down while Di Angelo worked out the coffee and dogs. Dan looked to me.

"Tox report came back with nothing." Dan sipped his coffee served by Di Angelo. "Have anyone seen Frank?"

I recalled not seeing Frank since yesterday. I left Di Angelo and went back to the Library. I met the Administrator; Abigail Dane, and she was one violent one with the words.

"Detective, you find out who murdered Steven." Abigail voiced out. "We are librarian. We do not like to get killed. If they want killing, asked them to refer to our books. There's a lot of killing there."

I diverted the topic and asked if Steven was working on any project that involved the Library. Abigail said nothing but did recalled Steven spent a lot of time in the archives. I looked into the records with the help of Forensic. They keep records of the files retrieved and also who accessed it. Steven was looking at the records of a kidnapping that happened fifteen years ago. The victim was a three months old baby belonging to a young couple. He was looking at a lot of news clips and statements.

I went back to the Precinct and asked Forensic on the update of Steven's laptop which I had sent in earlier. He also had a folder on the kidnap case. There was not much to work on.

So I went to school.

A lot of students knew the Third Eye and had sought their help on trivial cases like missing boyfriends or books. I ran background on all the boys. Clean records and so were their parents. They even went to the same bank, social club and one of each spouse was from the same city. I smelled a rat in the records.

It went to a litter of rats. I got a call from the US Marshalls.

"I am Marshall Kabe. We were alerted that you had accessed some old records of ours." Marshall Kabe looked like Wyatt Earp; the stetson and mustache. The only thing missing was the double gauge shotgun and he was shorter than me.

"We could haul you up for questioning but your Commissioner protects you well. We can't even dragged you to the cells behind." Marshall Kabe questioned him. "So tell us why are you accessing our records."

I brief him on the victim and was checking his friends. Marshall Kabe then told me to backed off. He marched off before I could even sneezed. I went over to see the Commissioner.

"Go on with your investigation. I would cover you." I got the approval from my Commissioner. If the US Marshalls are in, then I needed another leverage. I called up a friend of mine at the Federal Bureau Investigations. We do helped each other out. He told me he would checked. I was to continue my works when I got the call from Harley.

"Charlie with his friends help had gather some information that he wanted your help. Or more to help you." Harley was direct. We agreed to meet at the Library.

"Charlie is in there." Harley motioned to the Library. "He's in the basement."

I met Charlie there. He was not a baby faced but a prized catch for the prom, but he wore spectacles. He looked like Clark Kent minus the suit. I meant the blue suit.

"So Charlie, tell me."

"I found out what Steven was researching on. He keeps a personal folder here in the server." Charlie asked me to join him. There was a lot more of the data there. Steven was good, and better at analyzing the information. I saw the information that Steven may had seen.

"I would have that now, Detective Barnes." Marshall Kabe stepped in with Harley in tow. "You boys are good but I am better."

The boys looked frightened and the Marshall was holding a gun. It was intimidating to them and also to me. Not when the person holding it looked Wyatt Earp. The legend was stated to had shot his own deputy once. I pulled Charlie behind me.

"Kabe, let go the kid. He knew nothing. It was Steven who discovered it all. He found out that he was the kidnapped baby. Why was he so important to be reported as kidnapped then?" I asked.

"He was Steven? I thought it was Charlie. He looked like the baby." Kabe replied. "You meant I killed the wrong boy."

"Yes, you did." I told the Marshall. "Steven was the protected one."

Marshall Kabe pushed Charlie in and left me there standing like a fool. I had the two boys under protection while calling on a BOLO on Marshall Kabe. They found him on the freeway driving aimlessly; intoxicated and in state of depression. Later I got more US Marshalls in.

"Kabe was involved in the case, when we planned the kidnap to hide the baby. His parent was state witnesses which required him to be hidden. He was not their baby but someone they picked up. As they were on the runs, they decided to give him up for better adoption. Kabe arranged for his adoption, just like the other two kids. Kabe was good at it." Marshall Blake briefed me.

"Kabe must had discovered the search and went to looked for the source." Blake continued. "Kabe was too involved in the case. At one stage, we stopped him from seeing the kid. He was checking on the kid for six months, and we stopped him. He was transferred and stuck to his word to leave the kid alone. We had two kids placed with adopted parents; ex Marshalls or reputable citizens. We did our works; single mothers with amended records but they may had moved on with new lives. It was coincidence that the three were here. We lost track after ten years; too many cases and limited resources."

"Why did he kill Steven that day?"

"He never knew the kid's name but he kept watch on the kid then. The kid grew and changed since he was a babe. Kabe claimed that the boy tried to run, when he scared him with the gun." Marshall Blake was protecting his men.

"I doubt so. He executed the boy." I laid it out plain. We did not convict Marshall Kabe, but the Marshall had him down for second degree homicide. With their appeal on his good records,Kabe got twenty years. The other two boys were spared the details but there had renewed survelliance on them.

As for me, I found Frank. He was holed up in an apartment over his son's decision to divorced his wife. He was upset at it. He felt the young couple never tried to keep the marriage going. I got Dan and Di Angelo to joined me there with more scotch and whiskey.

"Guess what I added to the list?" Di Angelo showed us his dozen dogs. We saw a movie called the Three Amigo's.