READER,

This is under the 'Alice in Wonderland' section because of the names and causes of death. The names are mearly nicknames to the characters or in some cases titles. Such as 'White Rabbit', 'Mad Hatter' and 'Alice'. This is a murder mystery centered around a detective calling himself the White Rabbit in 1985, New York City. Not wonderland. I'm sorry.

,AUTHOR

A sickening THUNK filled the humid air on a warm summer night, causing a sudden, earily silent peace to fall over the old, sparcely furnished apartment building. A beautiful contrast, in his opinion, to the screaming chaos that beat against his eardrums only moments before. There wasn't much blood to show for his work either, which was a good thing in it's own way. He prefered a quiet, clean death. Unfortunatly, this woman hadn't stayed quiet.

Infact, her frantic reaction to the sight of a strange man in her apartment building, holding a knife had caused her death without him having to lift a finger. She had screamed, backed up a step too far, and fell over the stair railing. She fell three floors, screaming all the way and landed perfectly on her head with a THUNK. He had to restrain himself from bursting out laughing as he calmly decended the stairs to the woman's body. He didn't mind the screaming so much, given the circumstances. He had found that this weekend, as saturday as it were, that the only other tenant in the building had left with his family to go west to Arizona.

He didn't mind her falling on her own either. It left almost no evidence that he had been there at all and it was less trouble than pushing her over himself. As he reached the body, He withdrew his knife from his pocket. He sat, grinning wildly, beside the dead woman and took her hand, carving a single word into the flesh of her palm.

A word.

A lable.

A title.

'Alice'.

~~~~~X(~~~~~~

Officer Wallis Carton had seen a lot in his day but he always wished he didn't have to see this. It was sick what just one human being could do to another. He inspected the carving on the woman's hand and frowned and knitted his eye brows together, causing lines to crease his forehead.

The woman was identified as Franchesca Adell by the only other person who shared the building. They had thought of him as a suspect but he had a solid alabi for last night and the night before. An alabi that no one could argue with. He had taken his wife and younger son to visit their older son in Arizona. Appearantly they had all flown back last night, arriving at about 4 in the morning to find Miss Adell stone cold.

Sighing, Officer Carton turned to his partner, James Porter and bit his lip.

"I think it's time we go see what the White Rabbit is up to."

~~~~~(X~~~~~~

The two officers got out of their patrol car and went inside a hotel. This 'White Rabbit' was definatly illusive to say the least. The only person who knew where he was staying at the moment was also the only man who knew his real name. The chief of police. He had told them room 106 in the Dylan Hotel in Midtown Manhatten. the two men entered the elevator and hit the '16' button. The elevator started up and up and up. There was a 'ding' noise and the elevator door opened.

The two waisted no time in going straight to the door marked '106'. Carton knocked once before the door opened slowly. The room was surprisingly dark for what time of day it was. This was due to the fact that all the curtains had been drawn over each window as much as possible in order to drown any offending rays of sunlight. The looked around and found nothing. Not even a suitcase. Then Porter looked down at the nightstand.

On it lay a neatly printed message, written on a yellow sticky note. It read;

'check the door'

They spin around and see a young man, even younger than Officer Porter, standing in front of them, grey-blue eyes twinkling mischievously behind oval shaped glasses. His black hair fell into his face as his eyes narrowed and he smirked.

In each hand, the young man held a pistol. And each pistol was pointed right at each officer's head.

"Good Day, Gentlemen."

AN: Chapter 1 of rather short chapters but rather good chapters hopefully.