Asher looked at her, dumbfounded. "The Monopoly killer?" he jeered. "That's your big conclusion?"
Claire's knuckles turned white from clutching the game box too tight. She persuaded the brothers with two games of their choice to give her the board for her case. "Think about it!" She insisted. "Your officers found a top hat and the card. Mr. Kelley is the top hat token in Monopoly."
Asher shook his bald head. "I should have never let you do this case. You've gone mad!"
Claire's pointed nail slammed onto the worn game cover. "I'm not mad, it's the truth!" She tugged off the ragged cover. The silver top hat token lands on GO. Claire peered at the officer who've helped her so far. "Do you have the reports on the other murders?"
He bobbed his head as he dug around for the reports. Asher's fist landed on the table with a bang. "There is no link between the murders. You're wasting your time."
Claire's eyes bore into his small eyes menacingly. "There is a link." The officer gave her the reports. Claire thanked him and said, "Find a map of the city with Mr. Kelley's business in the lower right hand corner." She dug through the reports to find where the other murders happened. The dog token was placed not far away from the top hat. The race car was placed in Free Parking. She carefully placed the victim's autopsy report underneath the tokens. The officer found the map and brought the laptop to me. She doubled checked what she had before presenting her evidence.
"No more of this. I shutting this case down." Asher asserted.
His fat hand reached out to touch the top of the laptop. Claire bent one of his fat fingers back. "You're not shutting this case down. If this isn't right, then you can. Right now, just listen to me." She let go of his finger and waited for Asher's reply. He gave his finger a good rub, but dared not to try again. Claire began to say what's on her mind. "Think of the map as the board. Let''s say that Mr. Kelley's company building is GO. The race track is Free Parking where the race car driver died. The brown space is where the dog fights took place. Look!" Her finger traced the board and the map. "They died on the spaces on the board and the tokens correspond to how they died."
Asher was now intrigued. "How does the-"
"Top hat fit in? I think that the Monopoly guy wore a top hat and was rich. Mr. Kelley was also rich so he corresponds with the top hat," she bet.
"They are connected," Asher breathed. "Who's next, then?"
A click of metal sounded behind my head. The cold metal pressed against the curve of my head. The officer whipped out his gun and pointed it to the caper behind me. Asher stood there in shock of the surprise. Claire sat up as stiff as a board. She never had a gun pressed against her head. This was a new experience.
"I wonder who's next," the caper chimed in. His forceful hand landed on her shoulder. His hot breath curled around her outer ear as he leaned in. "Can you guess, Claire?"
Claire forced down her held breath, past her beating heart that jumped to her throat. Her nails dug into the skin and muscle on her tremulous knees. The man that she knew for so long. The man she dragged across the city and formed a bond with. The killer.
She swallowed her spit even though her throat was tightening. "W-Why?" she choked out. "Why would you do it?"
"People in this town deserve the justice they need," he clarified. Is he Batman now, she thought. "Many people get arrested over petty things while others do major things but the police turned the other way for them."
"Why me, then? I didn't do anything wrong."
The gun was pressed harder against her head. "You're sticking your nose into where you don't belong. Do you know the psychological term called the Foot-in-the-door phenomenon?" Claire didn't say a word. She never kept up with her psychology terms. He continued, "It's where you ask for a small favor and then ask for more and more. The day you figured out your first case was when you got your foot stuck in the door. You kept asking and asking for cases. We've had enough."
"There's more of you?" she interjected.
Asher lept and attacked the officer. They struggled to take the gun from each other. With Asher's larger body structure, he was overtaking the officer. Claire lifted herself off the stool to help, but the gun to her head told her otherwise. She took the seat back and watched the officer look at her with anguish. A gun went off. Claire pressed her eyes close in hope that it wasn't her. A forceful thumb worked its way into her shoulder. "So sorry that you had to see that. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that."
Claire held her breath again as she slowed down her rapidly beating heart. She had to be calm in the situation if she wanted to solve this case. The metallic red liquid slowly rolled on the gray floor. Asher lifted himself up from the dead body, the gun in his meaty hands. He was shaken to the core.
Claire listened to the killer laugh behind her. "That one less person we'll have to deal with!" he exclaimed. He spun Claire to face him. He kept his head down to hide his identity even though Claire knew who he was. The gun moved down to Claire's stomach. The man leaned in closer to her. "Now, here's my plan," he began. "I'm going to shoot you in the stomach. I'm going to watch you suffer for as long as I can before shooting you in the head. Then, I'm going to take your evidence and burn so there's nothing left. I'll take my leave and continue doing what I'm doing since you're out of the picture and I've got my friend, Asher, to claim these murders as nothing."
"You're not getting out of here alive," Claire threatened, her hand slamming into the table. He raised his head to her. His chin still held on to that short black stubble. His harsh arctic blue eyes made tears well up in Claire's eyes. "I knew it," she cried.
"I'm sorry, Claire," Charlie whispered, no remorse in his voice. The gun was forced deeper into her lower abdomen, making sure it wouldn't miss its target.
Charlie jerked back as a golden bullet made a hole into his shoulder. Claire grabbed the the gray barrel of Charlie's gun. The bullet wound in his shoulder wasn't phasing him. His itchy trigger finger pulled the fated choice for her. The burning barrel was pushed out of Charlie's hand. Claire kicked away the gun before kicking out the murderer's knee. Pain swelled in Claire's stomach. The bullet was sitting inside her colon and was not sitting well.
Claire glared at Asher who was still spooked from killing a man. "Give me those damned handcuffs," she hissed. Asher bent down and gave the handcuffs to her. Claire clasped the metal claws around Charlie's wrists. She slumped against the floor as she held her bleeding stomach. She heard the piercing sirens of an ambulance and the footsteps of running cops to her side. She didn't care how the cops in the building didn't hear the gunshots or who called the hospital. She only cared that the killer was going behind bars and the case being solved.
