A Murder Of Our Own (Inevitable Darkness)

by Michael Thompson

  “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Three.” She said with assuming she was right.

  The judge looked at her at the stand.

  “Can you not see miss?” Judge Lynn asked clearly having doubt in her sight or intelligence.

  “I just forgot my contacts today. That’s all.” She said.

  “So may I ask whether or not you were wearing your contacts the night of the murder?”

  She stalled to answer.

  “I need you to answer the question.” Judge Lynn said waiting to hear her response.

  “No. I didn’t put them in that night.”

  “So how could you see my client follow his girlfriend on to the trail? If you couldn’t tell that I was holding up two fingers, how could you know that it was my client?” Christian said.

  “Because I could tell what color jacket he was wearing. It was the jacket that only was given to the football players. They wore them before and after the games.”

  “Wasn’t there a game that same night?”

  “Yes.” She responded.

  “So it could have been any football player that attend the party that night… I have no further question.” Christian took his seat looking over at his opponent.

  Christian walked down to the firm of doctor’s offices. He walked up the stairs up to the floor were Kyra’s room was. She made it to her door to discover a note.

  “Christian, today I want you to meet me somewhere different. A change in scenery for my sessions. You can meet me at a nearby café. Chase café. Don’t be late.”

  He folded the note in his hands and walked back down the stair to the street.

  He walked to the café where Kyra sat sipping from a coffee cup. She smiled with welcoming intentions.

  “Hi Christian, I ordered you a cup of coffee.”

  Christian sat down.

  “Why did you want to come to a café? You could have chosen anywhere else.”

  “I know I just chose somewhere where I felt I could relax. How did your case go?” She said still smiling.

  “It went well. I just made one witness an unreliable piece of the case.”

  “How did you manage to do that?” Kyra said with eagerness take a sip for her cup.

  “She couldn’t have been sure that it was my client she saw. She said she saw someone with a special type of jacket. It was only given to the football players. That could be any one that was at that party.”

  Her eyes opened wider in amazement at his good detective skills. She tried to speak but instead swallowed the coffee that was in her mouth.

  “The last time we spoke I asked you who you were.”

  Christian nodded in agreement.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m no one.” Christian said taking a sip for his coffee cup.

  Kyra looked puzzled.

  “Why won’t you tell me who you are?”

  Christian picked up his cup of coffee and took him a sip.

  Kyra dug her purse. She pulled out the police tape and sat it on the table before Christian.

  “What is this?” Christian said as he held the cup up to the face.

  “It is the key to solving your case. You tell me about your life and I will give you the ring of your victim. So start talking.” Kyra said intertwining her hands.

  “Do you know that you created a felony that could have you and me thrown in jail? Not only that but you have a family and you can lose your diploma.”

  “Because I’m a go getter. That’s how eager I am so… make it worth me while.”

  “I was child that no one cared to know. I was isolated and at most times abused.”

  “When you say no one care to know you…”

  “I am not who I say I am. It’s more to me than anyone know.”

  Chapter II

  “I was a child who was isolated from all others because they saw this brilliance in me, that filled me with disgust. I grew sick looking at myself in the mirror. I went into a depression and the brilliance went away.”

  “What do you mean the brilliance went away? Something like that just don’t vanish.” Kyra asked.

  “I made it go away. The fire that was in me when I enjoyed to be the smart one, the one who was stared at in amazement at my intelligence and the one who parents wished I was there son. It grew old and I didn’t feel like a human anymore. I felt like nothing more than lab rat. A experiment of the world but I knew that if I wasn’t smart anymore…”

  “You faked that you had lost your intelligence to not be the center of attention anymore.”

  “Yes…”

  Christian grew silent.

  “Something else happened.”

  Christian looked blankly into space and then stood preparing himself to leave.

  “Where are you going?” Kyra said standing up.

  “You do yourself a favor and take that ring you found to the authorities and don’t waste your life away trying to fix what you think is broken. I am fine and I don’t need to be saved. The world is filled with bad people and I know that you were in this world long enough to know this. Just leave what is okay alone.”

  Christian walked away leaving Kyra at the café alone. She sat back down looking down at her cup in total embarrassment.

  Kyra walked through her door to her home. It was later than she came home usually because she spent most of her time cruising around the town trying to clear her mind. She didn’t want to come home agitated or upset so that her husband would worry about her. He had already caught her in one of her episodes before. She didn’t need to have another one in front of him.

  “Hey. Where have you been?” Victor said holding Lily in his arms, cradling her.

  “Nowhere just been cruising around town.”

  “Is there something wrong with you?” Victor asked worried.

  “Nothing it has just been a long day. I am going to go to sleep.”

  “Goodnight,” Victor said.

  “Goodnight.” Kyra responded.

  Victor still worried that something was wrong but didn’t bother to care to ask. He figured that she would figure it out on her own. Hopefully…

  She sat on the edge of her bed and couldn’t stop thinking of what could upset him. Wasn’t that her job, to listen to the emotional problems of her clients and give a solution? She was devoured into her work that she couldn’t stop even when the time was up and the sessions where over. Very much so that she took a crucial piece of evidence as blackmail to have her client open up to her. She changed her clothes into the clothes she usually jog in. She put back on her running shoes and headed out the door.

  “Kyra?” Victor spoke half-conscience from dealing with the baby. He fell back asleep as Kyra pulled her car from the drive way and to the police station.

  She arrived outside the precinct building but hesitated to leave her car. She looked at the ring tied around in the brightly yellow police tape and through what if they asked questions would she crack and have herself thrown in prison for tampering with evidence. She don’t have an alibi today and she has been harboring this for a few days. She started back up her car preparing herself to leave. She thought to herself. She couldn’t leave with the ring again that would prolong the time she was in possession of the ring. She turn her car back off and began to tear up sitting her head onto the steering wheel.

  “What have I gotten myself into? I was so into my job that I thought that blackmail would work.”

  She even grew more in depth with her thought.

  “Blackmailing a client. That such a good plan. And what if he decides to expose me for what I did.”

  Her franticness paused. She stood frozen in space.

  “I already messed up.”

  She opened up her car door and headed into the precinct building.

  It was busy inside. The air was filled with ringing phones and the discombobulated outburst of drunken men and women. She walked to the front desk to an officer. His hands was full already with rapid phone ca
lls and paperwork. She stood waiting patiently for him to finish. He stopped in between the two things and came to her assistance.

  “May I help you with something?”

  “Yes can I speak to one of the detectives that was on the case for Lisa Balmore? The missing girl who was found dead two weeks ago.”

  “Sure.” He walked in the back and she followed.

  The officer began talking to a man and on his name tag was Setter.

  “This is Detective Felix Setter. He was the lead in investigation on that case. He will be the one you talk to.”

  Felix was young. This surprise that someone his age was at his ranking.

  “Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Said Felix.

  “You’re young.”

  Felix smile nearly blushing.

  “I do what I can. You are just surprised on how I am lead of investigation when I am thirty.”

  “I would have guessed younger. But yeah how did you get to the top so quickly.”

  “Most of the promotion I got was because my dad was here. He was one of the best detectives here. He believe that I was like him and promoted every time he had the chance”

  “What ever happened to him?”

  He passed away last year in a pursuit of a crook. It was drug deal gone wrong and when he tried to find the leader of the cartel. He was hit by a speeding car. ”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Yeah, everything different without him but we still manage to survive. Some days I feel like he is still here to assist us. But enough about me what did you want to tell me?” Kyra dug in her purse.

  Félix handed her a visitor pass.

  “Can you do me a favor and put this on. There is a lot of nuts that get a loose.”

  Kyra grabbed it and put it around her neck. She continued to dig in her purse. She pulled out the ring and handed it to him. Felix stood confused.

  “What is this?” He said smiling.

  “This is a ring I found while I was running along a trail.”

  “Ok. Thanks I’ll have up flyers soon for this.” Félix turned around starting to walk away.

  “Wait! There is something that I am not telling you.” Kyra said.

  “What is it?” He asked curiously.

  “This is a ring that was found at the same place as the body of Lisa was found.”

  Felix grabbed his phone and called someone.

  “Hey, Francis. I got a present for. It was brought in by this woman that was running along the trail.” He turn towards Kyra.

  “Thank you. You don’t know how much you have helped…”

  “Um Kyra. Kyra Black.”

  “Kyra. Such a pretty name…” He stared into her eyes that sparkled a greenish blue like he was stuck in a trance.

  “Oh, I have to go. Thank you again for this.”

  “Wait I have one question. Say that I didn’t run along the trail today and I actually found the ring a few days ago for my own cruel intentions. Wouldn’t that be a subject of tampering with evidence of an active case?”

  “I knew you had the ring already. You don’t recognize me do you?”

  Kyra thought about it and she did not recognize him at all.

  Felix smiled and walked away.

  Kyra left to the front desk and gave the officer the visitor’s pass and left the building to his car.

  She got in her car and waited before starting her car up. She sat thinking. It was hard for her to think about one thing because her mind was so cluttered with so many things. Her mind soon went blank and she drove home.

  She came back home and walked up stairs. She kicked off her shoes and got into her bed. She wrapped in her cover and looked at her clock before closing her eye and falling asleep.

  Christian received a call on his phone. He answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello. This is Melodie. I have some information I will like to share with you.”

  “What is this?”

  “There was another piece of evidence found.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It doesn’t belong to your client.”

  “Really. Who doesn’t it belong to?”

  “I call to the stand Maggi Saxton.”

  She walked up to the stand and swore to honesty.

  “Can I ask a question? Before when we had you, why did you lie?”

  “Excuse me.”

  “You were the woman we had on the stand who had claimed that she had forgotten her contact lens at the party and at the stand correct.” Christian said pacing back and forth.

  “Yes.”

  “And are you the same woman to have claimed that you had saw someone in a jacket that had close resemblance to my client?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay so please tell me why you lied to all of us here.”

  “I did not lie about anything. I told you what happen and how it happened.”

  “Oh but you did because you weren’t at the party. You were on the trail with the victim before she died. You were never were you said you were and never saw what you said you saw so why don’t you do us all a favor and start from the beginning and tell us what really happened.”

  “Me and Lisa was on the trail talking that’s all. She was crying about her ex-boyfriend. He was yelling at her at the party about something. I was just there to comfort her in her time in need like a real friend.”

  “Yeah. But you are still lying to us.”

  “No I am not. I am telling you the truth.

  “No you are not because we discovered a ring were Lisa’s body was found.”

  “The ring could have belonged to Lisa.”

  “But it didn’t. This very ring was a diamond engagement ring. Why would she buy an engagement ring for herself? Unless she didn’t but it was given to her buy you. You must had a very special bond with her. She gave you the emotional support that you always wanted. She listened to you when no else would and you did the same for her. You loved her didn’t you?”

  Magi eyes started to tear as Christian spoke.

  “I loved her but she loved him more. I thought she felt the same until that night I seen her crying in the woods. I followed her as she went deeper and deeper in. She finally stopped and I called her name. She came walking towards me. She hugged me asking me why people hurt her. I told her I would never hurt her. I kissed her and she backed away looking at me like I was some type of freak. She said she wasn’t gay and she kept saying she was sorry that I got the wrong impression. She thought we were just friends.”

  “You grew upset didn’t you?”

  “Yeah. I was mad but I still wouldn’t kill her because I still love her. I just can’t believe she is dead.”

  She broke into more tears. The court was given a recess. Christian gathered his papers and left them in his suitcase. He walked out into the commons area.

  Kyra walked up behind Christian as he was going to walk outside.

  Christian scoffed. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see how you were doing.”

  “I am doing fine.”

  “That’s great. You think you will be able to come by to finish your session.”

  “If I am doing fine. I think it would be intuitive and obvious that I would not need any more counseling.”

  “Well I think that you are not doing well but you are just saying that so that I will leave.”

  “This is the same person that thought it was a good idea to blackmail one of your own clients. But I have to say you are right. I haven’t been doing well and I really don’t want you here.”

  “I am sorry for what I did the other day. I just… there was something about you I didn’t. My job is not interesting. All I do is listen to people problems and there is no challenge behind. You came around and you were like this mystery book and I was wanting to learn more about you each session.”

  “I have to say that I am flattered.” Christian said. “But you still had no right to do what you did.”
/>
  Christian turn and prepared to walk away when Kyra grabbed his arm.

  “I am truly sorry.”

  Christian continued to walk as Kyra grasp loosened.

  Christian went back to his home and sat down looking down at the written overview of his case. Kyra had helped him by turning in the ring. That took some of the pressure off of his client but he felt that he could not free himself of worry yet. He felt like there was something in hidden in plain sight. He couldn’t put his finger on it. What was it that he was trying to find? What was hiding? He looked at a bottle of One hundred year old whiskey his grandfather had gave him, before his death. He kept being tempted to drink it. It could alleviate his stress. He could make all the headaches go away with one sip, one little taste. He would let himself let go. He stood firmly, backing away from the temptation of having himself consumed into what so many fell victim too. Even in this case he saw what it did. It changed people for the worst. Logic soon tempted him. Maybe the people were bad before they put that bottle to their lips and took that first sip. Maybe they were already liars and cheats before they went to the party. Maybe I will be alright if I just drink a little.

  “No.” He spoke to himself. He got up and put the bottle away into a secret spot in the floor boards. He laid the bottle down into the hole in the floor and sealed it back up with the missing wooden piece. He sat down next to the compartment and rubbed his hand through his hair slightly rocking back and forth.

  The doorbell rang of Judge Lynn’s home. She came to the door. Mr. Hoffman was presented dressed nicely holding a bundle of flowers in his hands.

  “I hope you’re not trying to get on my good side to win this case now Mr. Hoffman.”

  “Not at all. I just came her to give and beautiful woman something that could be of equal beauty.”

  “How long did it take you to think of that?” Lynn said.

  “Just the ten minutes it took me to drive here from the flower shop.”

  “Come in.”