"Talking"
'Dash thinking'
Chapter Four
Dash sat in his car at the red light waiting for it to turn green. He was almost at the scene of the murder, and he was thinking about the past cases of Phantom. He didn't know why the other officers didn't know for certain that it was another Phantom murder, but he did know that something was different about this one that made them doubt it, so either it was an attempted copycat.
'Or Phantom finally screwed up.' Dash thought, smirking. The thought made him want to celebrate. This could be it. The day that he gets evidence pointing to someone, and when he finally catches Phantom, he would be seen as a hero in the city.
'Heh. I guess some things from high school haven't changed at all; I still love the spotlight.' He thought, laughing to himself. Dash checked to make sure the light was still red before staring out his window.
'Although, I am a lot more humble than back…' Dash was broken from his thoughts as he spotted a man walking out of an alley and down the sidewalk. The man had dark hair, and ice-blue eyes. He looked so familiar, but it couldn't be who he thinks it is.
'Fenton?' Dash continued staring at the man as he passed his car. He stopped, and seeming to sense that Dash was staring at him, and turned to look at Dash. Dash was too shocked to realize that the light had turned green, until the car behind him beeped the horn and Dash started, jumping and hitting his head on the roof of the car.
The man laughed, and turned to continue walking down the street. Dash drove forward, watching the man in his side mirror until he was out of view. Dash continued driving towards the murder scene, with his mind still racing, but not about Phantom.
'Could that have really been Fenton?' Dash wondered. At the end of his high school career, he had started being friendlier to Fenton. At first he didn't know why he wanted to do that, just assuming he had grown up. But he got a little excited whenever he was near Fenton, the same excitement he got when he touched the boy to push him or shove him into a locker. It wasn't until some of his friends from the football team were joking, saying that Dash had a crush on Fenton, and he was courting him.
At first Dash had been completely appalled at first, but later that night, he was thinking about it, and then eventually the idea of him and Fenton dating, and then how nice it would be to date Fenton. When he realized what he was thinking, he didn't flip out. And he wasn't disgusted by the idea. No, his reaction was a simple, "Oh, shit."
Dash accepted his crush, and if he held Danny's book bag every once in a while, or saved him a seat next to him at the lunch table every couple of days after that, no one said anything. Then graduation came, and Dash had offered to take Danny to the party at Kwan's house. He had noticed Danny had been different lately; quieter, and he seemed to get angrier easier. Danny had declined his offer, saying he might come later. Dash accepted it, and went to the party, waiting for Danny to show up the entire time. He never did. And the next day, the geeks that followed him around were freaking out about how Danny packed an entire bag and just left. They searched for him for about two months before they gave up.
'Okay, there's no need to make yourself all depressed now.' Dash thought, pulling himself out of his thoughts as he arrived at the alley where the body was. He pulled over, and got out of his car, waving over one of the officers on the side that was controlling the crowd trying to see what was going on. The officer walked over, leaving the crowd in the hands of the other five officers.
"What happened?" Dash questioned immediately, wanting to get to the point as quickly as possible.
"Two officers were sitting in their car in the alleyway doing a routine patrol, you know, for traffic. And suddenly they heard a bang behind them, so they get out to check what it was. And when they get out, they see the guy's body on the ground, on top of a trash can lid that was on the ground."
Dash nodded and thanked the officer, before running down the alley to the body.
"So what's the cause of death?" Dash asked.
"Well he died from hitting the ground, so they weren't disposing the body out the window." said the officer that was examining the body.
"Were there any signs of struggle?"
"Uh, yeah. There were bruises on his face and stomach."
Dash froze, realizing why the officers weren't sure if it was Phantom or not. "And Phantom has never left signs of an altercation before."
"Yep. That's why we weren't sure if it was Phantom." the officer said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Were there any witnesses?"
"Um, not eyewitnesses. But the lady at the front desk did report seeing a suspicious character walk in a few minutes before the murder."
"Did she give a description?"
"Yeah. She said he was wearing a red hoodie and black ripped skinny jeans. And he had dark hair and ice blue eyes."
Dash froze, realizing who the lady had described.