The Case of The Colourful Murders

Hints at the Crime Scenes

                                            Hints at the Crime Scenes

As they were sitting in a cab, going to a murder scene, Jonathan asked Stiles: "Are we going to Perry McCallion's scene first?"

"Yes."

"Alright."

There ensued a silence. Then, Stiles spoke up.

"I hope this isn't detrimental."

"To what?"

"To your job, of course. It's 11:30 a.m. already. You've been out one and half hours."

"No", said Jonathan, "the afternoon shift begins at 12:00, to which half an hour is left. I'm pretty sure Clara and the others will wait till any one of the noon shift is there. We are basically family, when one is not present, the others cover for them. And the owner doesn't even get to know about it. He never visits the shop. He just cares about the money we made, at the end of the day, and he takes it from my hands. So, so long as I make it there before the owner arrives at 10:00 p.m., I will be fine. And I'll resign today, from the afternoon and night shifts."

Stiles smiled at him. "Glad to know you took my suggestion into consideration."

"On second thought," began Jonathan, "I might work the night shift. I'll resign from the afternoon shift. The night shift begins at 7:30 p.m. and ends at 10:00 p.m. What do you say?"

"It's just as good. Will you be moving in today?"

"I think so. I had packed my essential things yesterday itself. I'll just have to hand Mr. Wood the keys, and then I'll be good to go. Mr. Wood's..."

"Your landlord", Stiles finished his sentence.

"Hmm."

They soon arrived at the first crime scene, and as they stepped out of the cab and paid the cabbie, an officer came up to them.

"Are you Mr. Henderson?" asked the officer, looking at Jonathan.

"Uh... no, he is", Jonathan said, pointing at Stiles. Stiles raised his eyebrows at the officer.

"Detective Inspector Larson told us to allow Mr. Henderson and his companion to come and have a look at the scene."

Jonathan looked at the officer. He looked awfully dull and not fit for the job. He couldn't keep his finger on why that officer wasn't fit for the job, but something about what he said off.

"That was terribly reckless, careless, thoughtless, incautious, heedless, and every other synonym there is for the word 'careless'", Stiles said. Now Jonathan would know what was amiss about the officer's words. "What you said just now, you asked him if he was Mr. Henderson, and he said that I am, and you believed it. Now, for all you know, the two of us could be the murderers or one of us could be just here to accompany the murderer, and we might have heard that two persons were coming here, and we could have pretended to be those persons. You should have asked us who we are, instead of if we are those who were to come here. Anyone could say 'yes' and you would just let them in." He looked sharply again at the officer. The officer looked guilty.

"Look, we're letting this slide this time, remember not to repeat this mistake in the future", Stiles told him. Just as we were about to move inside, the officer spoke up: "Sir, how do I know you're Mr. Henderson? Do you have proof?"

Stiles smirked, and came back to the officer, followed by Jonathan.

"Maybe a phone call with Larson would do?"

"Sure. But not a phone call, do a video call."

Stiles grinned at the officer correcting his mistake.