The Proof Found in the Feather
Detective Constance Levine always closed her cases with class. No matter what Levine's gut told her, although her gut was usually right, she always needed at least three pieces of solid evidences to, in her opinion, fully close a case. Though an average police department only requires one piece of concrete evidence, Levine found that one piece of evidence could be extremely miss guiding. While having tea with her dear friend Amelia Fitz, this exact topic arouse.
"Why three pieces of evidence?" Amelia asked. "Isn't one concrete piece of evidence enough to catch the murder and throw him behind bars before he can do anymore damage?" Constance smiled at her friend's naïve take of this topic.
"Amelia, before I begin to ramble, may I remind you that I have worked on a number of murder cases where the murderer happened to be a women? Despite men having a physical advantage when it comes to murders, most women murderers are quite cunning when they plot out their kill,"
Mrs. Fitz blushed and smiled sheepishly before saying "I didn't mean to make such a statement when I spoke assuming that murderers were always masculine, I guess I was just more focused on my question than the context of it,"
"Very well, back to your original question. Of course I would need three pieces of concrete evidence before declaring the murderer. You see, very few murders are simple. Very few suspects have air tight alibis. Many of the suspects are shady characters all alike, each having their own motive thus making each person more capable of killing than previously conceived. So, having one piece of evidence pointing towards one suspect could mean that the suspect was either just in the house the day of the murder however, felt it necessary to conceal their being at the house to the police or they are were there a number of days ago, making them being there irrelevant, or ,"
"Or they were the murderer," Amelia said, cutting Levine off. "One piece of evidence should be enough and," Now it was Levine who cut Amelia off.
"What if the murder was committed by more than one murderer? What if a single piece of evidence only has the DNA to one of those murderers? What if you investigated further and found both murderers? What if you had not had those extra pieces of evidence? There would have been one murderer behind bars and yet, another one out in the open,"
Mrs. Fitz laughed and said " I find it highly rare that only one piece of evidence would have the DNA of only one murderer,"
" It is much more probable than you would think. I can count on both my hands and feet how many times it has happened while I was investigating a murder," Levine finished.
Amelia looked at her friend, smiled quite sadly and asked "If I ever get murdered, promise me that you will be the detective in my investigation?"
"Of course, Amelia because you know as well as I do that most detectives are as competent as monkeys. You also know that I am simply the best,"
"Well, if you weren't the best Constance, I would not be asking you such a favor. I am sorry to say that I feel I have a very short time to live,"
"Nonsense, you do not seem ill and if you were you would not need me to hold an investigation, you will simply have died of natural causes. I mean for God sakes Amelia, don't you ever joke like that again,"
"Dear Constance, you know my sense of humor is nothing of the sort however, I am in grave danger. Do not ask me if I know for sure, I do not. There is now concrete evidence of the sort however; I found something on my door step today that alarmed me thus the main reason for me calling this meeting,"
Constance sat for a second and felt shocked. "One of my dearest friends has gone completely insane," she thought. "No, no, Amelia seems very sane right now, all of her actions prove it," She double checks her friends actions and realizes that her friend seems quite calm, just a little anxious. Amelia is not jittery at all; her foot is just simply tapping nervously. Levine is not alarmed by the foot tapping for Amelia only taps her foot when she feels vulnerable. "Oh no," she thought "Amelia must really be or believe she is in danger,"
Mrs. Fitz continues her speech. "I have taken Polaroids of what was written on my doorstep this morning," She takes the pictures out of her bag. The pictures show the words "Be Put to Rest At" followed by a line that connects with "12:00 AM" written in black ink. "As you could assume, I am quite shaken by this whole thing. My husband thinks nothing of it and refuses to leave the house feeling quite certain that whoever did this will return to the house and then, he will give the "punk" a warning to never come around our neck of the woods again," Levine nods and takes a closer look at the Polaroids.
"Are you quite sure that "Be Put to Rest" necessarily means murder? It could be something completely different?"
"Oh yes, even so, I would like to find out what the meaning behind it is and why someone would write that," Mrs. Fitz stated.
"Well, in that case we must go back to your house," Constance concluded.
"Why," Amelia asked.
"Well, see that little feather over in the right hand corner of this picture?" Levine said.
"Yes, I never really thought much of it," said Mrs. Fitz.
"Oh, how silly of you, dear. You see, there could be proof in the feather," and without saying another word Amelia Fitz and Detective Constance Levine hurriedly made their way to Amelia's London townhouse.