Thursday, November 8, 2012

A murder story - part sixteen

Welcome back to the continuing saga that is poorly titled (for now) "A Murder Story" although an earlier suggestion is really growing on me. This is the fifth part of the second day of this winding and twisting crime saga. I am currently writing this as part of NaNoWriMo -- let's see if I crack the 50,000 work mark.

If this is your first visit here, please feel free to go back and read the story from the beginning.

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“What’s the skinny here?” Perkins exhaled deeply as smoke poured from both his nostrils and his mouth, his shirt revealing years of a donut-eating habit and sedentary lifestyle.

“Well,” Danny began, “It’s definitely a homicide. We’ve got a trail of the victim’s blood leading from the kitchen to the bathroom and a pretty significant pool of blood around the victim.”

“Huh,” Perkins inhaled, taking a deep drag from his cheap cigarette, “do we know the victim’s name?”

“Becky,” Miranda said with a brief pause, “Becky Pinkowski. She’s 24 years old, single, lived here in town most of her life.”

“Ah,” Perkins said, pausing to spit on the sidewalk, “good work Grove. Do we know when this shit went down?”

“The next door neighbor called 911 just after 2:30 AM.” Danny interjected as he scratched at his thumbnail.

“We’ve got someone talking to the neighbor?”

“Yeah, I saw Officer Meyer talking with someone, pretty sure it’s the neighbor.” Danny responded to Perkins as he gazed at Miranda who was sniffling a bit, obvious to anyone with eyes that she had been crying moments earlier.

“Alright then,” Perkins began as he cleared his throat and spit a nasty yellow loogie on the sidewalk, “You two can get things better organized inside and start collecting evidence and I’ll check with some of the other neighbors and get a feel for how this Pinkowski chick lived.”

“Chi-” Miranda began angrily but was interrupted by Danny.

“Yeah,” Danny said as he grabbed his partner by the sleeve of her jacket before she said something that would tip off Perkins about her friendship with the victim, “we’re on it, Perkins.”

Safely out of earshot of Perkins, Danny began talking to Miranda in a hushed tone.

“Dammit, Miranda, you can’t do anything that’s going to show Perkins that you previously knew the victim. He’ll have you at a desk so fast that your head will spin. As tough as it is you have to keep your emotions in check and keep it together.”

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Be sure to check back for the ongoing second chapter of this intriguing murder mystery!

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