Case Files of Detective Kenneth Cohl

Case File Nine: Deadly Toys

After awhile of having to take it easy, Kenneth was finally able to get back on his own two feet, able to move around freely without pain. He was also back on his normal routines, working at the college as well as a small toy store on Saturday nights. It was a slow day at work, close to four in the afternoon when the manager named Joe, a big man with a bigger smile called Kenneth into his office.

"Kenneth, I know you just got back on your feet but I have someone I want you to meet, this is..." Joe said as he was cut off.

"Alice Miller!" Kenneth stated.

"Kenneth Cohl!" Alice said.

"Oh, you two know each other?" Joe asked.

"Yea he accused me of murder."

"Hey, I also proved you innocent, thank you."

"Well this is perfect, Kenneth, take Alice here and show her the ropes."

Alice worked alongside Kenneth for the day; they became pretty quick friends, having video games and comic books in common. As the day went on, it got close to eight in the evening and the store began to close. Kenneth and Alice circled the store and only found three people still there as guests. The other people in the store were the manager, and three other employees. Kenneth and Alice heard a loud banging sound come from the sports area of the store, and began to walk quickly in that direction and found a hand laying on the floor out the aisle. They ran to investigate what happened and saw their coworker Tyler who was a typical jock built male knocked to the ground, a giant dent in the back of his head and nearby in a pool of blood was a metal bat. Kenneth got on his knees to check on Tyler, but could not find a pulse. He got on the walkie-talkie and told the manager there was a murder and to lock the doors, he left Alice at the scene and ran up to the front. As he was leaving, he noticed a strange mark in the blood. He found the manager at the doors; they were both locked and he was watching for anyone to come up. He asked the service desk employee named Rebecca if anyone walked out in the last five minutes. She let him know that no one had left the store in the last ten minutes.

Kenneth paged everyone to the front of the store, once there; he left to check to see if anyone was hiding in the restrooms or anywhere else in the building. As he was checking, Rebecca had put a call in to have the police get to the store. Kenneth made it back to the front and began evaluating the situation. There was he and Alice, they were together the whole time, so she was in the clear. Rebecca and Joe were together the whole time at the service area. So that left the culprit as one male guest named Scott Palmer he was in his sixties and the other was a twenty two year old coworker named Curtis Soto. As Kenneth began to talk, the sounds of sirens entered the building; he went to open the door as Inspector Salvo and Officer Johnson were walking up.

"Damn it Kenneth, while you were in the hospital, it was actually pretty damn quiet around here you know." Salvo said.

"Well it's nice to see you to inspector, I do have some good news; I already have it solved for you."

"Well that doesn't surprise me; lets' go inside and see what you have."

"I have narrowed it down to two people, one is a guest to the store named Scott Palmer, and the other is an employee named Curtis Soto."

"What about the others?"

"They all have alibis to show they were not near the scene."

"I see, excuse me miss, you look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?" The inspector asked looking over in Alice's direction.

"Yea, my name is Alice Miller; you met me during the case at the college, the one solved by this knucklehead."

"Anyway, that's why it's only one of these two, now Scott says he has no connection to the victim and considering he is a sixty year old grandfather I think he's telling the truth, so unless this was a random murder of a senile old man, that only leaves one person." Kenneth said, getting the inspector back on track.

"What a second, you aren't trying to say I killed him, are you" Curtis said with fear in his voice.

"Yes Curtis, you're the murderer!"

"Well then prove it smart guy, show me some evidence." Curtis put on a confident face, but sweat began pouring down his face.

"Ok, I will, I noticed it at the scene, in the blood, there is a small mark in it."

"What does that prove?"

"It proves you were there, you have been showing me the truth with every step you take. There is blood on the bottom of your shoe. Now if you weren't there, how did you get wet blood on the bottom of your shoe?"

Curtis looked in shock as he removed his shoe and saw at the bottom that there was a mark of blood. He then fell to his knees dropping the shoe.

"Well young man, can you tell us why you did this?" Salvo asked.

"I did it for Alice's sake."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Alice questioned.

"I did it for you."

"I don't even know you, how could you say you did something for me."

"When you walked in today in your uniform, Tyler and I saw you, we talked about how awesome it was to have a new female coworker and how cute you were. He then started to say what he was going to do to you when he got his hands on you; he said he was going to do to you what he did to Lauren Smith."

At the mention of the name, Kenneth's face fell, His fists began shaking as he was closing his hands tightly, so tight it started causing blood to drip from his hands and hit the floor.

"Who is Lauran Smith?" Salvo asked.

"She's a girl that used to be here, she was so sweet and kind to everyone, than one day she just disappeared, Tyler said it was his doing; that he messed with her so much, she just couldn't take it anymore and then she just vanished, I couldn't let him do it to another girl." Curtis responded.

"Ok, I didn't ask for nor do I need your protection, I could have handled myself, thank you." Alice said.

"Also, Lauren didn't leave because of Tyler, she left because of me, she and I were the close ones but then some issues came up between her and I. Next thing I knew she just decided to up and leave, she didn't even tell me where she went to, she quit both her jobs with a phone call and just disappeared you idiot." Kenneth said from the back.

"But Tyler said..."

"Tyler lied; you should have known that, he just wanted to sound like a badass." Kenneth said as small tears began to form.

"Then I...I..."

"You killed a man for no reason" Salvo said as Johnson put the cuffs on Curtis.

Curtis was put into the back of the police car and Tyler's body was taken off to the city morgue. After everyone else left, Alice stayed behind to help Kenneth take care of cleaning the blood spots in the store, as well has help him with his hands and wrap them up.

"You gonna be ok?"

"Yea, just a little annoyed from hearing the name used in that context."

"She must have been someone special."

"She was, we were really close, then there was a small argument, and next thing I knew she was gone."

"Well that really sucks."

"Tell me about it."

"Well on a lighter note, it was kinda cool seeing you solve the case."

"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you."

"Don't get me wrong, the only reason it was cool was because you couldn't name me as a suspect this time."

They laughed and then went separate ways. When Kenneth made it home, he checked his mail, mixed in with all the bills and junk there was a small box. When he got inside he put everything on the table and began to open the box and found a DVD inside, he held the box upside down and an index card fell out onto the floor. He picked it up to find written on the card was "From Lauren Smith."