then stood up, preparing to leave.
"I've got to go you two, I promised my date I'd pick her up at 5:00."
"Don't tell me." Steve began, grinning. "You're going to leave the game right
as we score three times in a row, to go have a dinner with some pretty lady?"
"You're wrong, we've scored two hits, not three. And going on a date is better
that watching a game of which you don't know which team will win. Besides,
when you're with your date you know what you're up against." Jesse said, grinning.
(45 minutes later)
"Ah, here it is." Jesse said as the waitress set their food down. Jesse's date looked
at the food with satisfaction. The menu included: Fried Chicken Breasts, a wide
assortment of vegetables, two kinds of breads, a huge baked potato, a large amount
of stuffing, a kind of pudding, and a good sized bowl of cherry strudel. Jesse took
up a moment to to look at all the food.
"You certainly have a big appetite, Katie." He said to his date.
"Well, actually, my doctor said that I should eat like this for a while because I
needed to put on a little weight. It's his desire, not mine. But then, it can be
rather fun getting to eat all you want without having to worry about getting fat.
I work off practically everything I eat with my dancing." She paused for a second,
and looked around their table. "I don't seem to have any utensils-"
"Oh, have mine. I'll go get me another set." Jesse offered.
"Thanks." She replied.
Jesse went up and got a second pair for himself, and then stopped to pick up a paper.
Then he returned to the table and began drinking his tea. All of the sudden, Katie began
to look strangely, then she clutched her head for a moment, and before Jesse knew what
was going on, she was lying across the table not breathing. Jesse yelled for someone to
call an ambulance, and he immediately began doing CPR. Though he soon quit, because he
realized she was dead.
**********
Amanda finished her autopsy and walked out to give Mark and Jesse a report.
"Well?" Jesse asked, anxiously.
"Well, it's obvious that it was some kind of poison, probably in her food
she ate that killed her."
Mark suddenly interrupted her. "Jesse, did you eat any of that food?"
Jesse paused for a moment, thinking. "No, I got up to get a fork and when
I got back she had already started eating. Right after that she stopped breathing."
Mark sighed with relief. "At least we don't have that to worry about."
"So, who would possibly want to kill her?" Jesse asked.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Mark said, seriously "Did Katie
ever mention any enemies or people she didn't get along with well, Jesse?"
"No, it seemed like everyone she knew was friends with her. She mostly talked
about stuff like her jobs, or her love of dancing, stuff like that."
"You say she liked to dance?"
"Yeah, she was always talking about it. I think she said she worked at some place
called....'Hardley's Dancing Palace' or something."
"Yeah, I think I've heard of it." Amanda said.
"If one of us could enroll for dancing lessons, we could possibly figure something
out." Mark said, grinning.
"And I know just the person who could enroll." Jesse said, his eyes twinkling at
Amanda.
"Hey you guys, hold on." Amanda said, glaring at Jesse. "Dancing is not my strong
suit, and.......well, I guess I could do it better than either of you two." She
finished, sighing. Mark and Jesse grinned at her.
Two hours later, Amanda was standing at the front desk inside 'Hardley's Dancing
Palace' waiting in line to sign up. At last, she signed up and was told that she
would start her lessons the next day. Meanwhile, she walked around and began talking
to people.
"Um, hello?" Amanda tried to get the attention of a lady sitting next her on a bench.
The lady looked young, about 25 or so, she had dark brown eyes and brown shoulder
length hair.
"Yeah? What do you want?" The lady finally said.
"Did you, by any chance, know a young lady by the name of Katie Harper?"
"No, why would I know of anyone by that name?"
"Well, I don't know. I just thought I'd ask."
"Why do you want to know anyway?"
"Well, you see, she was mudered last night, and I'm kind of doing some private investigation."
The lady nodded her head, but didn't seem to be interested in what she was saying.
"Well, take my advice lady, leave what is the polices job to the police." And then,
without pausing for a response, the lady stood up and quickly walked off. Amanda then
continued talking to people, but, surprisingly, no one seemed to have heard of Katie.
Pausing for a breath of air away from all the people, Amanda leaned against a wall in
the hallway.
"May I help you?"
Amanda swung around, standing next to her was a man. She hadn't heard him come up.
"No, no I'm just fine."
"I heard that you are looking for someone who knew Katie Harper, and a friend pointed
you out to me. Are you looking for someone like that?"
"Yes I am, did you know her?"
"Yes, and I'm sorry to say that I also know of her death. It was quite a shock. But
now, what would you like to know from me?"
"What was she to you? Just a friend?"
"Well, actually, we were thinking of marriage at one time. But we were always so busy,
her dancing and her job, my work, with everything we had going we really never had a
chance to pursue a relationship.
And...now this. I'm going to figure out who the murderer is, if it's the last thing I
do!" He finished, loudly.
Amanda felt sorry for him, "I'm really sorry, but we are doing everything possible to
find out who killed her, and I can promise you we won't quit until we know who did it."
"We? Are you a cop?" He asked.
"No, I work at the Community General Hospital, but I guess you could say I'm a...private
investigator." She finished, slightly grinning. "I guess you knew Katie pretty well then,
could you tell me, did she have any enemies or anyone that would possibly want to hurt her?"
"Not that I ever heard of, although for a little while, she did seem....different. Not
that I saw her much, but I talked to her on the phone a lot, and she seemed different
for some time. Like she didn't want to talk to me."
"And she never gave any hint as to why she acted like she did?"
"No...except, well there was something she once said, about...oh, I can't remember.
Something about her sister wanting money or something. I don't really remember. So much
has happened since then, and she didn't really say much of anything about it."
"So, her murder could have had to do with money?"
"I don't know, I mean, there's just no telling."
"Do you know where her sister lives, or how I could get a hold of her?"
"All I know is that she works at the 'Chicken Favorites' restaurant. And I think her
name was...Sarah."
"That will really help me, thank you."
"Anytime. Well, it was really nice meeting you, and if you need anything else, just
let me know, Ok?"
"Sure. It was nice talking with you Mr.....?"
"The name's Pete Prager."
"Mine's Amanda Bentley."
"Here, you can have my number so that if you need anything, just give me a call.
Ok? And be sure to let me know when you find anything out."
"Of course we will. Thanks for your time!" Amanda put the paper with the mans number
on it in her pocket, and then left to update Mark and Jesse on what she had found out.
**********
"It's not much to go on, but it's a good place to start." Mark said, after they had
heard Amanda's story.
"Hey, you said that the place that Katie's sister works at is the 'Chicken Favorites'
restaurant?"
"Yes, that's where you two had dinner wasn't it?"
"Yes." Jesse said, thinking. "Which means that her sister could have poisoned that food...?"
"We don't know anything yet though, so lets do some investigating before we jump to
conclusions." Mark said.
"Why don't you two sit back and relax, while I go and do a little investigating around
the restaurant." Jesse said, grinning.
"Oh no you don't, you think I could sit around here while waiting to find out who
murdered Katie Harper?" Amanda said, already pulling on her jacket.
Jesse grinned, "Just make sure you don't practice your dancing while we're there, ok?"
Amanda rolled her eyes sarcastically and followed Jesse out the door.
Arriving at the restaurant, Jesse and Amanda walked around the building. Jesse noticed
a back door, and tried the door knob. It was unlocked, so he entered, and Amanda followed
him.
"Jess, where are you going?" Amanda asked, as Jesse led the way through a dark hallway.
"I don't know, the other night I saw a waitress go through this door, so it must go
somewhere."
"But Jesse, it probably just goes into the kitchen."
Jesse shook his head, "No, the kitchen is at the other side of the building, this
is where the tables should be. Only there's no way to get to the tables except
through the front door. This must lead to some secret room somewhere." At this point,
they were stopped by a door. Jesse cautiously pushed it open, and all they could
make out in the darkness was another hallway. They walked down it, just walking and
walking, until at last they came to a second door. Jesse pushed it open, and he and
Amanda saw what was obviously the kitchen in front of them. Amanda looked at Jesse a
little mockingly. "No, it doesn't lead to the kitchen, does it?" Jesse didn't have a
chance to say anything before a waiter walked up to them.
"Hey! You're the new waitor I presume? You're late. You were about to be fired before
you even began your job. Well, you had better get busy and try to make up for lost time."
Jesse started to tell him that he worked at the Community General Hospital and that he
was not working at that restaurant, but Amanda stopped him before he had a chance to
say anything. The waitor started talking again. "You can start working right away,
I must get back to my work." At that, he left them. Jesse turned to Amanda.
"Well, thanks for getting me an extra job. I was a little behind in cash you know."
Amanda laughed at him. "Don't you get it Jesse? If you take this extra job, then you'd
have a better chance of finding out about Sarah. And no one will suspect you of anything."
"Yeah, but what if the guy that I'm supposed to be shows up? Or did you forget about
that little detail?"
"When the guy shows up you can just.....skip out on the job."
"Right. I'll remember that." Jesse said, sarcastically.
"Well, you heard what the man said, go get busy on your new 'job'." Amanda said, grinning.
Jesse shook his head and went to start working. Throughout the afternoon, he watched
and listened, but except for him dropping a platter of tea, accidentally putting cinnamon
on a lady's peice of chicken, and a number of other small mis haps, nothing unusual
things happened. Although by the end of the day, his boss was about ready to fire him.
Finally, he got a break and was sitting at a table sipping a Dr. Pepper when he addressed
the waitress beside him.
"Hi." Jesse said, trying to think of an ice breaker. The waitress nodded her head at
him but otherwise remained listless.
"Worked here long?" Jesse persisted.
"No. I just started working here day before yesterday."
Jesse nodded his head, and then, glancing behind the waitress, he saw a waitor take
off his apron and then silently go through the door that he and Amanda had entered.
"I've got to go, it was..nice talking to you." Jesse said, before grabbing up his
jacket and walking after the man. Jesse opened the door and once again entered the
almost black hallway. He followed if for a moment, and then ran into a door. Cautiously
opening it, he peered through it. Not seeing anyone, he continued walking. Suddenly,
a hand gripped his mouth keeping him from making any noise, while another pair of hands
grabbed a rope and began to tie up Jesse's hands. Jesse couldn't see anything, it was
still quite dark. Jesse managed up all his weight and broke free of them, but only to
run intoa pile of boxes on the opposite side of the room. At this point, his attackers
pulled out guns and advanced slowly towards Jesse.
"Ho..hold it. If you fire those things in here the whole restaurant will come running."
Jesse desperately tried.
The two men looked at each other and nodded. Then they reached into their pockets and
took out two knives. One of them said, "You're right, kid, we'll use the silent weapons
instead." Then they began walking towards him again.
Sorry it took me so long to get more up you guys, I couldn't type thanks to a broken
arm. Enjoy!
**********
"Hold it right there guys." A voice from behind the men spoke suddenly and meanfully.
The two men paused and turned around, their knives glittering in the dim light coming
throught the open door. Jesse looked past the men, thankfully realizing he had a
chance to get out of the prediciment he was in. The man in the doorway stepped into
the room and flipped on a light. He was holding a small handgun, and slowly walked
towards the men. After telling them to drop their knives, he pulled out a rope and
began twisting it around the first guys wrists, keeping the gun steadily pointed at
them. Jesse relaxed a little more, but he did so to quickly. One of the men quick as
a flash shot up his right food and hit the man sqaurely in the stomach. The rescuer
guy quickly regained his ground and gave the two men in turn some karate kicks and
punches, warding off blows that were thrown to him. Jesse, figuring he'd just be
in the way if he tried to help, stayed put, greatly impressed with the mans karate
skills. The two attackers were no match for the other guy and they were quickly
brought to the ground groaning holding their stomachs. The karate guy quickly tied
their hands behind their backs, and then walked up to Jesse.
"Well, they won't be doing much more fighting. You are right?"
"Yeah, thanks to you,"
"What were they after anyway?"
"Me I take it."
The guy laughed. "My name's Pete Prager."
"I'm Jesse Travis, and I guess the least I can do is thank you."
Well, I'm glad I got here in time. Guess I better get these guys off to jail. Say,
in case I decide to accidently run into you one of these days for a chat, where are
you located at?"
"I work at the Community General Hospital, and don't hesitate to stop in any time
for any reason." Jesse said, offering his hand. Pete shook it, and the replied jokingly.
"Hope I don't stop by for two many reasons, one of them might turn out to be for
an operation!" The guy then left the room with the two men, and Jesse returned to the hospital.
**********
So, have we come any closer to solving the mystery?" Steve asked walking up to Amanda,
Mark and Jesse. Jesse shook his head.
"Nothing except for the fact that there might be more killers in this thing than we had
anticipated."
"Well, I've got some news, though I can't say how much they'll help. When the police
questioned the two men, they didn't say much of anything. But they did say that this
Pete Prager guy-the one that caught the guys-"
"Pete Prager? That's the guy I talked to at the dancing palace." Amanda said suddenly,
why didn't I realize that sooner?"
"I guess because when you came back from that place you didn't tell us the name of the
guy you talked to, and I didn' tell you the name of the guy I talked to." Jesse said,
after thinking a moment.
"That's odd." Steve said, thoughtfulness clouding his face. "What time were you at the
dancing palace earlier today Amanda?"
"About 9:00...9:00 or 9:30. Why?"
"That's approximately the time I had thought. But the news is, the two men obviously
don't care what happens to anyone but themselves, because they were talking a lot about
this Pete guy, trying to convince the police that he's a criminal. They said they heard
him talking with another guy about several million dollars the two of them were going to
get once the 'thing's done'. The two men said that they heard him at approximately 9:30
while they were at breakfast. No telling why they bothered to mention this, unless they
thought it would get the guy in trouble with the law, and thought they'd give it a try
because they were mad at him for catching them. But if they really saw the man there at
9:30, he couldn't have been talking with you at a different place same time, so that puts
a different light on things."
"And it also clears this guy of being a possible suspect, right?" Jesse said, looking
relieved.
"Yes, I guess it does, and I guess it means the two men were lying." Mark said.
"Ok you guys, let's figure out what we've got. Those two men that attacked Jessie
possibly had something to do with this whole thing, and were trying to get rid of
people who were poking around. There's Sarah Harper that might have had something
to do with it. Oh, another thing, did you ever find out who Sarah was at the resaurant,
Jess?"
"No, I was about to ask a lady about her when I got up to follow that man."
"Hey you guys, I just thought of something." Steve said. "How did Pete happen to
be in back of the restaurant?" Everyone looked at the other wondering what the answer
was to the obvious question.
"No telling, I'm just glad he was there." Jesse said.
"If he was just there to eat, he wouldn't be in the back of the room. He could have
worked there, but a restaurant sounds like an odd place for an obvious Karate champion
to be working at." Amanda said.
"Wait a minute. Where is it...here. The card that Pete gave me with his number on it.
It has his number, and the place that he works. The card says: 'Call 354-8229 - For
Pete Prager at Karate Champions Learning Center.' Amanda read out loud. "So he obviously
doesn't work at any restaurant."
"And there's no way that Karate would have anything to do with restaurants-" Steve
began.
"So maybe Pete has something to do with this murder after all." Mark finished for
him.
"Aren't you DOCTORS supposed to be working?" Norman interrupted them, scowling.
"Well actually Norman we're in the process of solving a-"
"Don't say it. You're working on another murder mystery. Well let me tell you something
Dr. Sloan. We have patients here that are dying every day and did you ever think that if
you spent less time as a cop you might save more lives here as a doctor?"
Mark scratched his head. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess it sounds pretty
logical." Mark said, turning to leave.
"I've put on my thinking cap for a while, so why don't you three go take a rest for
a while and I'll let you know what I come up with, ok?" Mark said, grinning at them.
"And in the meantime I'll see what I can do to keep Norman happy. Norman gave Mark
his 'impatient' look and then he walked off.
**********
The hospital doors burst open and several nurses ran in pushing a stretcher. Jesse
ran over to it and quickly looked the man on the stretcher over. He had a bullet in
his chest and it looked as if he had been worked over pretty good with a beating
before he had been shot.
"He's unconsious doctor." One of the nurses told Jesse as they quickly pushed the
man into the emergency room.
The doctors on a count of three moved the patient from the stretcher to the hospital
bed, and then Jesse began to take over. He checked the man's pulse, and then drew
back in surprisement.
"This man's not unconsious, he's dead."
One of the nurses shook her head,
"When we put him in an ambulance he was unconsious, but other than that he was in
fairly good condition considering what he had gone through."
Jesse shook his head. This didn't make sense, he could have died on the way there,
but it wouldn't have been likely, and if his condition had been stable as the nurses
said, then he shouldn't have died at all.
"Alright, where did you find this man?" Jesse asked.
"A lady called us up, she said she found him in an alley."
"Did she see anyone?"
"No, she said she was walking her dog when she came across him lying on the ground."
"And you're sure he was still alive when you put him in the amblance?"
"Definantly, I checked him myself, the bullet in his chest didn't look to bad, and
it looked as though he would recover fine."
"You two stay here and I'll go get someone else in here." Jesse told two of the
nurses, and then went to talk to Mark. He told him what had happened and then led
him back to the room. Mark walked in first and looked around.
"Where is he?"
"He's..." Jesse looked at the bed where the man had been, it was now empty. The
two nurses were gone as well.
"They were right here!"
"'They'?"
"Yeah, I left two nurses here while I left to get you. And now they're gone. Wait
a minute, I'll go ask the around the hospital, someone must have seen something."
Jesse left the room and began asking people if they had seen anyone leaving the
room. Mark followed behind him.
"Yes." One of the nurses said when Jesse asked. "I've seen two people come out of there."
"Who was it?"
"You two."
Everyone Jesse asked had a similiar answer like that.
"Jesse, are you certain you were with a man in that room?" Mark asked him after
they had asked about fifteen different people. Jesse nodded his head angrily.
"Of course I was, the man was on the bed, dead, and the two nurses said they would
stay with the man while I got you. Oh, here. I'll prove it to you that this man
came in here." Jesse said, sighing with relief as he recognised one of the nurses
that had wheeled the stretcher into the hospital.
"Nurse, didn't you bring a stretcher into this hospital with a beaten, shot unconsious
man on it?"
The nurse looked at him, confused.
"No doctor, I've been working at the check in desk all morning until now."
Jesse closed his eyes with desperation. "Alright, wasn't a man with that description
checked into this hospital?"
"Sorry, no one like that entered here today." And then the nurse left them.
**********
"This doesn't make any SENSE!" Jesse exclaimed angrily. "I saw the man with my own
eyes...and that nurse did too!"
"Alright Jesse, let's look up the other nurses that were supposedly with this man
when he was brought in, and see what they have to say." Mark said logically.
Jesse and Mark talked to everyone that had been present while the man had been at
the hospital, and everyone of them denied having seen anyone to that description.
At last Jesse collapsed in a chair.
"Alright. You probably think I've lost my mind so you can go back to what you were
doing. Apparently I haven't been getting enough sleep lately."
"Why's that?" Amanda walked up to the two of them wearing a wide grin.
"Jesse says that some nurses brought a man here who was dead, yet had supposedly
been alive a few minutes earlier, but now everyone denies as to seeing this man,
even the nurses who Jesse said helped bring the man here." Mark informed her.
"Now that's interesting." Amanda said, looking mysterious. Jesse straightened up
and looked hopefully at her.
"You have news that might have something to do with this?"
"Well, actually I was thinking of how you seemed to be working extra hard lately,
and when you didn't want to go surfing a couple of nights ago I figured something
really must be wrong with you. I guess it all makes sense now, you're suffering a
kind of sickness that makes you unlike yourself, and it all leads up to seeing things."
Amanda finished jokingly.
Jesse lay back in his chair frowning at her.
"And for a moment there I thought you had some news."
"Well, actually I do. I looked up Pete Prager a while ago at his work, and guess
what, he wasn't there."
"And that's...big news?" Jesse asked.
"Yes. You see, I got there in the middle of a huge class that they've been planning
for months, you know, special karate classes, and Pete was supposed to be there and
teaching the biggest class. As it is the head men are so mad they're about to fire
him for not being there. And it seems that he wasn't there the last week at the same
time that he was gone today, and the week before that. It was only now that it was
real noticible and disastrous for everyone else."
"So what does this mean?"
"It means that Pete has something better to do than teaching the class of his life
and probably getting tons of money for it. And what I wonder is what that could possibly
be."
"You say he leaves at the same time every week?" Mark asked her.
"That's what the lady I talked with told me, and she herself sounded mad at him,
she said he cost them several thousand dollars.
"Maybe we had better find out where this guy spends his time." Mark thoughtfully replied.
"Amanda, why don't you and I go check out that restaurant more throughly, and see if we
can find anything out about that passage you two found. And Jesse, why don't you go
look at the room that man was in, and see if you can find anything."
Jesse nodded and immediately headed back to the room. He opened the door and looked
right at the two nurses that he had left to guard the body-they were both dead.
**********
The police swarmed the hospital. The two bodies had been removed from the room and
now they were searching for any evidence as to who might have done it. Steve walked
over to Jesse.
"This guy is a genius at what he does. There aren't any finger prints, nothing that
would give us any clue as to who could have done the murder."
"Why would the nurses dissapear with the dead body earlier, and now reappear both
dead?" Jesse asked. "And then everyone that helped to bring the man in earlier all
deny as to bringing him here. Can't you investigate those nurses Steve?"
"What it all comes down to Jess is that it's your word against some five nurses'."
"I know what I saw Steve-"
"I know that Jessie, but the police have got to listen to both parties, and they
don't have any evidence that the nurses would be lying about what they're saying,
and to them it won't necassarily have anything to do with this murder at all."
"I'm pulling my men out of here." The police boss interrupted them. "We can't find
anything, and we've checked the room completely, there's not a single thing in there
that's out of the ordinary or anything that could point us to the murderer."
"Alright, I'll be with you in a minute."
"What do you mean you're quiting!" Jesse addressed the chief angrily. "There's got
to be something in there."
"Sorry kid, we turned that room inside out searching for clues, there's nothing in
there that will help us find the person."
The police men began to disperse from the room, and eventually the hospital room was
empty except for Jesse. Taking a last look around the room, he finally switched off
the light. But right as he turned out the light, he thought he saw out of the corner
of his eye a red light. Turning back, he scanned the room again. There it was, a dim
red light showing from beside and almost behind an electric socket. Jesse walked towards
it, and finally stood beside it. It was a couple feet off the floor, and through the
plastic a bright red light was showing. Jesse left the room, went to the workers room
in the hospital, grabbed a tool box and headed back.
"This is stupid." Jesse thought to himself. "Investigating an electric socket with red
light shining behind it." But he returned to the room, brought out a screw driver, and
set to work unscrewing the socket. At last he wrenched it off, and then began to pull
out the wiring box. The light was growing brighter. Finally he pushed away the insilation
and produced a small hole, of which bright red light shone through. Jesse put his face
to the hole and looked through. He saw a large room with red lights shining down from
the ceiling. There were several men sitting at a table talking quietly together. Sitting
to one side of the room was a lady, who Jesse immediately recognised as the lady he had
been talking with at the restaurant before he had followed that man into the dark passage
and had gotten jumped. Then, the man closest to Jesse, about fifty feet away, stood up
with his back towards the hole. He walked for the door on the opposite side of the room
and exited. Jesse suddenly realized that he had seen that man before. It was the same
one that had been Jessie's cause for leaving the restaurant that time, the one that
had entered that door. He hadn't seen his face, but Jessie knew it was him, it was
the way he walked, he had a slight limp. Jessie would've sworn it was the same guy he
had followed that day. Jesse quickly stuffed the insilation back into the hole and
started to get up. He was met with a gun in his face, held by one of the nurses who
had brought the dead man into the hospital earlier. The man held the gun steady and firm.
"Don't try anything kid, if you do the boss'll hear of it and it won't go well with
your friends."
Jesse stood still. "What friends?"
"The ones, um, Mark Sloan and Amanda Bentlet I believe are their names. They're being
brought here as well. You see, we were hoping they would do some more investigating,
so that they would walk into our little trap. And it seems they did it alright. The
other men have them right this second, and of course they won't try anything because
they know we have you. Satisfied with our little arangement?"
"Not yet." Jesse replied, suddenly grasping the screw driver he had been holding and
plunging it towards the man. The man with the gun skillfully dodged him and brought
his knee up into Jessie's stomach with a blow. Then he hit him on his neck with the
palm of his hand knocked him down to the floor. The man began laughing quietly.
"I see you like it the hard way, for you and your friends." The man then roughly pulled
Jesse to his feet and pushed him towards the closet in the back of the room. He had Jessie
pull himself up onto the shelf at the top of the closet, and then after the man opened a
sliding door at the back corner of the closet, he pushed him through and slid down after
him. The two of them were now standing in the room that Jessie had just been looking at
through the wall.
**********
Stay tuned for more! I'll get it up as soon as possible.