Case Files of Detective Kenneth Cohl

Case File Two: Theatrical Mistake

At a popular theater in town, they were preparing the stage and props for a murder mystery play. The stagehands worked together to always be sure they were safe, especially the ones that worked in the rafters. The actors and actresses were also in the building, some on stage, others were back in their dressing rooms working on their lines, when a man dressed in black smoking a cigarette appeared before one of them with a crooked smile handing over a letter. Elsewhere Kenneth was surprised by his girlfriend Carmen being at his house waiting for him, she was a little shorter than him, dark long hair, and had an average sized body.

"I got you a surprise today." She said with a smile.

"What's that?"

"Two tickets to go see the murder mystery play." as she pulled the tickets out from her purse and waved them in his face.

"Are you kidding!" he said grabbing the tickets from her hands and staring at them smiling.

"It's for tonight, so get cleaned up and changed so we can get going."

Kenneth ran to his bedroom, quickly showering and changing clothes, before long he and Carmen were in a car heading down to the theater. They went inside and the place was packed, they found a pair of seats in the middle, right before the lights went out. The play was brilliant, the actors were wonderful, and then it came to the final scene, where the detective was confronting the possible murderer.

"The murderer is you, all the evidence I have found points at no other direction but yours."

"Evidence, What type of evidence could you have found?"

"The pen with your initials that the victim had grabbed from your coat when you stabbed them, the smell of cranberries on the victim, the same smell that is only found on you, and lastly the bit of blood on your shoe you must have over looked."

"You son of..."

"Give up now, there's no other choice for you to make."

"There's always another choice." The murderer said as a pulled out a gun and fired

The detective fell to the ground dead, blood pouring out of the wound. The crowd was stunned and into the act, then the murderer's jaw dropped and a look of fear fell upon him, he ran over to the detective's body, and then screamed out, "He's dead!" The fans screamed in horror as they began running out of the doors. Eventually the only fans left in the building were Kenneth and Carmen, though Kenneth quickly left Carmen's side and ran to the stage. By this time, all the actors and stage crew members had gathered on the stage. Kenneth did his best to take over the situation.

"Nobody can touch the body; you all need to step away now."

"Who are you?" one of the actors asked.

"I'm a detective, this is a crime scene, and you all need to back away."

"Alright, if you say so." Another actor replied.

"Now someone needs to call the police and get them down here, someone else go get me some type of gloves."

One of the members of the stage crew ran off to go make the phone call while another member got Kenneth a pair of costume gloves which he used to check the wound on the body, and check the gun that was fired. There were no bullets located in the barrel; he realized there must have been just one bullet located in the nozzle of the gun. Kenneth placed the gun back on the ground and turned to face the crew that was on stage.

"Somebody obviously replaced the prop gun with a real one sometime before the show; I need to know who was by themselves at any point before the show."