Murder

It was a beautiful night. There must have been a million stars in the sky. I sat in my dark office with just a desk lap on, my glass of whisky was getting low. I would drink a lot on nights like these. It was quiet and peaceful. I put my head back and rested my eyes. Then there was a light knock on the door,

"Come in." I said.

The door opened slowly creaking with every movement. Then I saw her, this lavishing beauty with long dark hair flowing to the middle of her back. It looked as so like silk. Her eyes were big and blue. She was stunning; she had the look like she knew what she wanted and got it every time.

" Can I help you?" I asked.

"Yes, are you Mr. Slater?" She asked as she walked towards me, every step she took was like an angel coming towards me.

"My name is Arable Smith."

"Yes I am Mr. Slater." I told her

"My husband was murdered and I want to know who the bustard was that did it, can you help?" She asked.

How could I say no to a face so beautiful?

"Oh course I would take the case I was indeed a private investigator." I thought to myself. "Well do you have any idea who could have done this; did your husband have any enemies?" I asked her.

She sat down in the chair across from my desk, reached into her pocket and pulled out a cigarette and lights it. While taking a drag she said that the only thing she has is a cufflink that she found under the chair next to where her husband laid dead. When she handed me the cufflink I realized a spot on her sleeve. I asked her what was on her sleeve she just looked at me and pulled her arm away.

"It looks like a cufflink that would belong to a football player." I told her

"How do you know that?" She asked

I pulled out my magnified glass and held it over the cufflink. I could see the initials JKS with the number 21. I have seen these types of cufflinks before on the old college football teams. Some players would wear them on their suits when they went to away games.

"I used to play football in college and some of my teammates would wear similar cufflinks at away games." I told her.

She looked at me with a confused look.

"Ok I will take the case. Where can I get a hold of you?" I asked her. She stood up and reached into her purse and pulled out a card.

"My number is on the card and I'm staying at the Sheraton on Cashmere St.

I watched her walk out of my office, god she was beautiful. As I looked down I saw today's paper "The Big Game!" The headline said. I started to read the article the college football game was tomorrow it was the big one, if they win this one they would be in the playoffs. I decided that I would go home to get some rest before tomorrow's big game.

As I pulled into the parking lot of Leites Stadium I noticed two figures standing in a shaded area next to a set of stairs. It was a man and a woman. As I walked closer I could see it was Arable talking to a strange looking man. I walked up to them and introduced myself to the man.

"Hello my name is Mr. Slater." I said and then reached out my hand to shake his. When he raised his hand to shake mine I noticed his cufflinks. I asked him where he had gotten them.

"I use to play on the Eagles football team in the twenties. It was the best years of my life." he told me.

Arable looked at me and told me that the man's name was Mr. Keiln her husbands lawyer.

"Well it is nice to meet you Mr. Keiln."

When I walked in to the stadium you could here the crowd cheering and hollering. It brought me back to those days, the feeling of the football in your hand and running like there was no tomorrow. Well back to reality, I headed over to an empty seat when I heard,

"Smith... GO...GO..."

I looked down at the field to see a young man running he was going to make, damn knocked down.

"He could have had that." I said to the man next to me.

"Yes, I thought I taught him better, Hi I'm his father." The man said.

"Hi my name is Mr. Slater."

"Smith, is that your last name?" I asked him

"Yes, why?" he asked.

"Common last name, I'm working for a woman as her PI on her husband's murder case with the same last name." I told him.

"Is this woman Arable?"

"Yes, do you know her?" I asked him

"Yes, she was my brother's wife. My brother was murdered a few month back." he explained.

He had this look in his eyes like a look of hatred. I asked him some questions about him and his brother's relationship. He told me he did not talk to his brother since high school. When I asked why he just looked at his son and then told me that he and Arable were high school sweethearts and then his brother took her away from him. He said his brother promised her the world and she fell for it.

"Hey dad did you see that pass?" asked the man's son.

"Yes son I did. Meet Mr. Slater he is working on my brother's murder case." he told his son.

"Why the man was an asshole?" the boy said to me.

I could tell the boy did not like his uncle. I had to figure out why the boy and his father hated this man so much.

"Mom!" the boy yelled as he ran up to Arable.

I was confused by this. It came as a shock she never said she had a son and never said she had a son by her husband's brother.

"I did not know you had a son. " I said to Arable

"Ya well if it was not for that ass hole my parents would still be together." The boy said with an uneasy smirk on his face.

Later that night I went to my favorite bar out side of town I had a lot to think about. There were new suspects to consider. I was singing my favorite jazz song, when a tap on my shoulder disturbed me. It was Mr. Keiln the lawyer.

"Can I sit?" he asked

"Yes, please." I said as I moved my drink and notes out of his view.

"Is there something I can help you with Mr. Keiln?" I asked

I could not help but be suspicious of to why he wanted to talk to me, but then he said something that made me think.

"Mr. Smith was worth about two million dollars alive and worth five million died." He said as he took a sip of whisky.

"What are you saying to me?" I asked

"Mr. Smith had a lot of people who hated him epically his brother Bob. Bob was jealous of Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith had all the money and the girl of Bob's dreams." he told me.

"Who was the money left to?" I asked

"Arable, of curse." he said.

Ok so I know what you're thinking, it was Arable, but if it was her why would she have hired me? This is all I could think about on my ride home.

I decide to go meet up with Bob, Mr. Smith's brother, to talk to him. I would love to get some information out of him. When I got to the house Bob invited me in. As I sat there drinking the thick mud like coffee I heard Bob's son in the other room talking on the phone.

"Ya my mom hired a PI, no she doesn't know anything." he said

"What was he talking about? What doesn't she know? This is what was going through my head. Then Bob walked in the room. I did not know what to say. This made a difference in the case. Maybe Arable did do it maybe they all three were in it to. Arable and Bob were high school sweethearts.

The next day I decided to follow Bob around, but when I was sitting outside his house I saw his son put something into the trunk of his car. I did not know what it was, but it looked suspicious to me. So instead I decided to follow his son around. He picked up some kids about the same age and they went to a field. When they all got out of the car I could see that one of the boys was carrying a black bag. They started heading towards the woods. So I followed them into the woods. They started to burry the bag in the dirt.

Later that night I went back to the field and into the woods to dig up what ever it was. When I finally reached the bag I opened it. I could not believe it I knew what happened.

When I got to Arable's house I asked to see the spot where her husband laid dead. As I looked around I noticed something. I asked Arable if there was a struggle. She said yes. I told her to get Bob and their son over I had cracked the case. When they arrived I started telling them how I followed Bob's son into the woods and found the bag him and his friends buried in the dirt.

"When I opened the bag and saw a bloody fire poke, I knew right away that your son was the one, who murdered Mr. Smith, but I did not know why or if it was planed until I came here and looked around. There was a struggle and then...

"Ok... Ok Yes I did it, but I did not mean to I...I I'm sorry." The boy said crying.

"No you didn't did you?" I said

"I came over here after my away game to talk to my uncle about my parents. I begged him to let my mother leave I wanted to be a family, but he would not let her go. We started yelling and one thing lead to another and I pushed him. He landed on the fire poke and when I went up to him my sleeve got stuck in the end of the fire poke. I pulled it out of him and ran. I did not notice my cufflink had fallen off. I did not know what to do so I tried to burry the fire poke it had my finger prints on it." He told us.

I had no other chose but to call the police, but boy did I feel bad.

As the police took him away all I could think about was how we never know how a split family can affect a child.