Chapter 1
(Destiny Wayfinder)
I follow the chief director to a desk with a man sitting at it. He wore a khaki trench coat and had a Band-Aid on his face. It looked as if he hadn't shaved in a couple days.
"Detective Gumshoe, this will be your new partner, Miss Destiny Wayfinder." The chief director introduces me, brandishing his arm in my direction. "I know it's been a while since you've had one, given your position, but with as much field work as you do, I thought you'd like to have one."
"Uh…yeah," Gumshoe stands, "Nice to meet you Miss…uh…Wayview." He smiles, offering me his hand.
"Wayfinder," I correct, "but you can call me Destiny if you'd like." I take his hand and we shake.
"Density, got it."
"Destiny" I sigh. Is he really the head of the department of homicides?
"Oh…" he smiles apologetically.
"Well, you two have fun now," The chief director smiles as he leaves. Traitor! How could you leave me with a guy like Gumshoe? And what kind of name is Gumshoe anyway?
Gumshoe sits down and I stay standing, looking around the room. Mundane, boring, and packed. "Aren't you going to sit down?"
I look at him. "I don't have a desk yet."
He looks around and pulls out a stool. He pats it and turns back to the computer screen. I sit and look at the screen. There must be something on it that must be interesting he keeps looking at it. Nope…he has minesweeper pulled up. I give him a look.
"What? There's nothing to do when there's no case." He defends himself. I doubt it though.
"I think pin ball is more your level." I've seen Gumshoe lose five games of minesweeper in less than ninety seconds.
He opens his mouth to defend himself again, but gets distracted by a flash on the screen. He opens a tab to read the new email and quickly skims over it. "Alright, a case! Come on Density!" he says excitedly as he stands.
"Destiny," I correct flatly.
"Sorry…Destiny."
Half an hour later, we arrive at a camping ground outside the city. Gumshoe and I had to walk another twenty minutes to reach the scene of the crime. We were the first cops there considering the distance it was from the station, yet two park rangers were waiting for us when we got there.
"Hey pals," Gumshoe greets as we flash our badges at them. "I'm detective Gumshoe and this is my partner, Destiny. Since it's her first case, I'm gonna let her lead it." He smiles broadly at me.
"Are you sure? It is my first case."
"Yeah, but I don't think the chief director would give me a newbie if she didn't have promise."
I purse my lips. He had a point. "Alright then…may you lead us victim?"
The two rangers point to a large tent that was deeper inside the camp site. Gumshoe and I walk closer with the rangers nervously following a step behind us. Gumshoe stops when he sees the body. "I'll never get used to this part…" he mutters under his breathe.
Ignoring the scent of stale blood and decay, I kneel in front of the open tent flap to see inside better. The male body inside was mutilated. "I'd say it's a crime of passion. It looks like he tried to write something, but it was smeared making the letters illegible… Are you writing this down Gumshoe? The more we have now the less time we'll waste making a report."
"Oh, right!" he fumbles in his pockets and eventually produces a pocket notebook, but couldn't find a pen. I offer him one of mine and he takes it, blushing in embarrassment.
I continue. "Obviously the murder took place inside the tent, however there is no blood trail leading from the tent so the murderer must done something about her-or his-shoes. Maybe they were waiting here, outside of the tent…" I stand and turn to the rangers. "I just have one question." They look at me and I point to a nearby tree. "What's her story?"
The rangers pale. The male finally speaks up, "We didn't notice her before, Miss."
I hear a slight rustling in nearby and can barely see a boy peering at us. I look back at the rangers, "I assume you didn't notice him either?" Confused looks met me and I turn to the bushes. "It's okay, you can come out now. We're police."
A boy crawls out from under the bushes and slowly makes his way towards me, holding his arm nervously as his large, moist eyes flit between me and the others. I kneel down before him to be closer to his height as he stops before me. He couldn't have been more than six or seven. As soon as I reach out and touch his hair to brush leaves out of it, he bursts out crying, catching everyone off guard. I hug him, soothing his hair, trying to calm him down. Though I remain calm, Gumshoe ends up yelling at rangers. Thankfully the rest of the cops arrive on the scene in top to save them.
The other cops took pictures and looked for evidence. I tried to hand the boy over to them once he calmed down, but he refused to let go of my Pea coat, so I'm stuck babysitting him. I guess that's fine since Gumshoe ended up taking over the investigation. I lead the boy away so we could talk some. However, the child grips my hand and stays quiet.
"My name's Destiny." I say after a couple minutes.
"…Andy." He says quietly."
"It's nice to meet you Andy. Could you tell me what happened last night, please?" he stays quiet and kicks at the leaves on the ground. "Then could you tell me their names?"
He nods. "My dad and sister… my Dad's name is Clayton Anders and my sister's is Rose Parkers."
"She has a different last name?"
"She's my half-sister."
"I see…I'm sorry about them." He nods and continues to kick at the leave. I look up and notice a nearby tree looked off. Upon closer examination, I realized it was dried blood.
"Is that my dad's? Or my sister's?"
I look at Andy. "I don't know. It's pretty far away, but I'm fixing to find out." I pull out my gun. "Cover your ears." He does. I point the gun in the air and pull the trigger. "Now we wait." Andy and I look around for more blood traces while we waited, but didn't find any by the time Gumshoe ran up to us.
"We found blood traces and I believe it could possibly be one of the victims."
"So you shot your gun to get attention?" I nod. "Is that logical?"
"Probably not, but I don't have your phone number if you have a cell phone, nor did I want to leave this spot and it would be cruel of me to leave Andy here by himself or send him back to the scene of the crime. Therefore, the logical thing to do is shoot my gun." My point made, I did a little curtsy.
"Alright… I'll go get someone to collect samples 'n stuff. Wait here."
"Before you go," he stops and looks at me, "The notebook and my pen please." I hold out my hand. He gives them to me and leaves.
Andy and I sit against a nearby tree. I write down about what I have discovered and what Andy has told me and he watches me write. "Are you going to catch the person that killed my dad and sister?"
"I'm going to do my best, I promise. I just wish I had more information at the moment…"
"…I'll tell you what happened if it helps." He offers.
"It will, but you don't have to if you don't want to." Children shouldn't have to deal with stuff like this.
"I want to." He promises.
"Alright, what happened last night Andy?"
"I don't really know exactly… I was collecting firewood and when I got back, my sister told me to hide. I was very confused and she looked scared and confused too. I crawled into the bushes and stayed there. I couldn't see the front of the tent from where I was, but I saw Rose go around the tent to the front, holding the stick we used to stoke the fire. There was yelling and screaming then it got quiet. A couple minutes later, I see my sister being dragged outside. The lady that pulled her out threw a rope up into the branches and pulled her up into the branches. Then the lady left. Later that night, the rope broke. I know 'cause I heard Rose fall into that tangle of branches."
"So it was a woman that killed them?"
He nods. "It was dark so I couldn't see what she looked like…sorry."
I ruffle his hair. "It's not your fault." He smiles at me and I smile back, before reading back over his statement that I had written down while he was talking. I almost didn't realize Gumshoe had returned with a small group of investigators. He lets them do their stuff, and looks over at me constantly.
This murder didn't make much sense as of now, but I think I was starting to put pieces together. Though it's my job to figure out what happened, it's not my job to prove guilt; that's what court is for. I'd definitely have to speak with the lawyers.
Andy fell asleep against me. Poor thing probably didn't much sleep last night. Gumshoe comes to me. "Did he say anything?" I hand him the notebook.
"I think we need to investigate the mothers."
"But the girl, Rose, was killed, so his mother has to be guilty, right? Or maybe he had a jealous lover…"
"We'll find out when we talk with the mothers." I look at Andy. "He'd be a good witness, but he isn't conclusive."
Gumshoe nods. "Let's get back to the station. We'll try to get info on Rose's mom and ask Andy about his when he wakes up." I nod and he carries Andy as we walk back to the car.
The murderer is still unclear. It had to be one of the mothers, right? Or is there really a jealous mistress? Only time will tell.
