Welcome to the New Year and hope less of me putting off writing and actually writing interesting content. Enjoy


The Federal Agent approached the small, quaint home of the now deceased Mr Flatley. There, sat on the steps of the front porch was Blane, hunched over, his head bowed with smoke periodically rising out of sight. As Oscar got closer Blane raised his head, a cigarette perched between his lips. In a moment of silence Oscar could see it in his eyes, bad news awaited inside.

"You got some gloves in that case of yours?" Blane asked, Oscar nodded in response, "Good, we're gonna need it." Blane stood, walked to the end of the pavement and flicked his smoke. Opening the case Oscar took out two pairs of blue rubber gloves for himself and Blane. Once on they ventured inside.

The place was a wreck, completely tossed over, like there was a stampede of buffalo or maybe someone had broken in and searched desperately looking for anything of value, or more likely someone looking for something in particular. question was, What? They explored slowly, stepping carefully over the debris across the floor. In the living room, the couch had been torn into, its soft insides spread around the room. On the desk were various cables, clearly there had been a computer and possibly a hard drive that had been ripped out. The kitchen was in a similar state. The bedroom had numerous holes in the walls, most small swift strikes but there was one large gaping hole, something had hidden in the wall and whoever was here wanted it badly. Finally was the study, with more tossed object and stray wires. Papers had been flung around the room and covered the desk. Blane began to go through the papers, scanning for anything useful or prominent to the case but everything was jumbled, making it near impossible to make sense of it all. Finally after minutes of investigating Blane found a lone sticky note with only two pieces of writing 'Critchley's, 2.00 pm, 03/09/2015.' Bingo.

"Hey Cole, I've found something." Blane called out to Oscar, he returned to find Blane holding the note with with pleased grin. Blane handed it over. "We've got an appointment he had, and it was a week before he wound up dead."

"Now we just need to figure out who or what is Critchley. Any idea?" Oscar enquired

"Oh I know exactly who Critchley is." Blane explained bluntly. "When is your CSI buddy getting here?"

"If traffic isn't too bad, probably 3 hours." Oscar answered checking his watch.

"Get her to come straight here, There's probably a lot more to uncover here. I'll have Dan lock this place down."

With the plan now in agreement the two stepped side to use their phones, Oscar texting Rose the new destination, Blane ordering Dan to get down there and to bring the tape and reiterating not to touch anything. They both finished up and turned back.

"Right, let's go check out this lead." Blane stated, Oscar glanced at his watch again.

"It's getting pretty late in the day, are you sure?"

"Trust me, he's a late worker." And with that they carefully left.

Now back in the centre of town the Sheriff and the Agent reached the small law office of one Stewart Critchley, Attorney-At-Law. They stood at the door but suddenly stopped there.

"You better head in first." Blane explained.

"Why?" Oscar was puzzled. Blane quickly rifled through his pockets, pulling an excuse in the form of a pack of cigarettes, shaking it as answer before lighting one up. Oscar simply shrugged it off and entered alone. The office had an inviting decor, mostly made of rich wood. The place was near empty, only one man sat at one of the back desks with his back to the front. Oscar approached and knocked on the hardwood table. The man jerked and span in his chair, shocked up to see this intimidating black suited man standing before him. "Agent Cole, FBI." He pulled out his badge to the man, "I'm looking for Stewart Critchley."

"That's me," he answered, Critchley was a slim fellow with a non threatening look about him, clearly not strong enough to have carried a body like Flatley's. His hair was blond and at least attempted to brushed neat. In a cloud grey suit and black tie he seemed like a respectable attorney, not the sleazy kind Cole has encountered in the past. "FBI? Is this about the sightings?" Stewart asked in a hushed tone. This grabbed Oscar's attention, what did he see? This could crack the case wide open. "So are you like Mulder or something? Scully?" Oscar was lost now. "You know, investigating the X-Files." Oscar's face scrunched up, who was this clown?

"This is serious. Mr Critchley, I'm here in regards to the death of one Mr Kenneth Flatley."

"I am so sorry." Stewart apologised, realising how odd he must have sounded. "You just looked like someone who wanted to believe." Oscar's face scrunched again. "I hadn't realised the severity of the situation." Stewart began to get up to shake his hand, Oscar extended his hand but only noticed Critchley's clear impairment, a missing arm, his right arm. "Oh yeah, I forget it can freak some out." He laughed gesturing to the empty sleeve. "So you're here on the case. Are you working with Blane?"

"Yes the Sheriff is assisting in the investigation." They both glanced back at the window to see Blane puffing away, "Now I'm here about..." Oscar stopped himself, "How do you two know each other?"

"We go way back." Stewart's eyes lit up with a nostalgic grin. "We were best friends at high school. Sure he was the popular wide receiver and I was just the nerd but he always stuck by me. We even served together for a while."

"Served? You were in the army as well?" Oscar would not have guessed that.

"Yeah," Stewart replied, not overly enthusiastic about the entire experience. "He served a lot longer than I did. I got discharged after I...well." He gestured to the sleeve again. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just trying to get a feel for the guy, get to know him."

"Good luck," Stewart laughed, "He's been pretty shut off as of late."

"How long?"

"Probably going on 6 years now." Stewart chuckled again. And with that they heard the door creaked open. Blane entered and slowly walked to the others. He was quiet, near silent. "Hey Blane." Stewart cheerfully said hugging his best friend tight. Blane hugged back lightly, cracking a gentle smile.

"Hi Stewart." He replied softly, feeling, feeling something he hadn't in awhile, a warm embrace. The hug seemed to last a lifetime but eventually they parted leaving a brief silence among the Sheriff, the Agent and the Attorney. "So Stew, we're here about Mr Flatley." Blane broke the silence, "Obviously you already know about his passing. We're just trying to piece together the events leading up. We found some documentation stating he had an appointment with you."

"Really?" Stewart paused to think of the appointment, "Do you know what date it was?"

"The 3rd of March, about a week before his death." Oscar replied. Stewart pondered some more.

"Oh yes," he had a light bulb moment, "He came in for some consultation on his Health insurance. Wanted me to look over it and any issues, liabilities or coverage."

"Was there anything out of the ordinary with it."

"No it seemed pretty much all in order," Stewart began to look embarrassed, "But I gotta be honest, I've been swamped with property acquisitions I've barely had time to look at it depth."

"Do you have a copy of it?"

"Somewhere in the back, let me check." Stewart began to disappear out the back but not before spinning around for one last line. "But I might need a hand." He began to laugh, Blane joined in but Oscar couldn't bring himself to laugh, seemed too sensitive a topic. A few moments later he returned with a stack of papers. "Like I said, nothing seemed out of order but feel free to go through it." Oscar then proceeded to place the documents in his briefcase. As they began to leave Stewart reached out to Blane. "It's really good to see you again." Blane didn't respond in words, just smiled.

They stepped outside, the sky turning orange with the sun starting to set. Blane began to stretch and yawn.

"Cole you said your friend would be here soon. If you wanna go meet with her, I'm gonna turn in for the night."

The Fed didn't dispute it and he and the Sheriff parted ways.


Hope you enjoyed. As you can probably see I'm introducing various different popular characters. I already have an idea of what each character would do in this fictional universe but is there anyone you'd like to see make an apperance? and I'll see what I can do. Don't forget to Review