King and Queen: A Short Story

King and Queen

3:27 A.M. glowed faintly in the darkness of the night. In exactly four hours and thirty-three minutes I will have to venture into my new life as a detective in the small slice of heaven of Big Horn County, Montana. I groaned thinking of waking up to a sunny April sky and to go to work and be a "detective." Everyone knew there was more theft than anything in the county, so I knew I wouldn't be spending my time solving demanding and tricky murders, but the pay was moderate and sufficient enough to send me on my way to excel at better things. This was a mere stop in the road to a bigger life for me.

As I lie in bed staring at the dull ceiling I wait for sleep to consume me and take me for a few more hours, but I couldn't fall asleep. I felt a weird sensation going through me, starting at my feet and going to my head. It made me edgy and jittery, as if I'd just drunk a whole pot of coffee. I leaned up and looked over at the clock, it read 6:04 A.M. It didn't seem like I'd been awake that long, but I suppressed the feeling and started to get ready.

Thirty minutes later I climbed into my brand new 1990 maroon Chevy Silverado and started the engine. The drive to work was short and sweet. I passed the local coffee shop and a few gas stations that looked dilapidated and abandoned. I went through one stoplight and made a right and I was there.

The building was brick and looked like it hadn't been repaired in twenty years. A few police cars were parked out front and an old couple were milling around across the street. I got out of the truck and nodded my head to them and tried to smile and look pleasant enough. The woman's face lit up and she waved franticly, while the man looked grim and gave his head a small nod. She started to walk across the street, surely to examine the newest face in town, so I turned away hastily into the building.

Inside of the building was much cleaner than the outside. There was one middle aged woman sitting at a desk to my right and beyond that was just a hall of doors. She didn't seem to know I was standing there because she just kept typing away on her bulky desktop computer. I cleared my throat and she looked up with lifeless brown eyes. "I'm looking for head detective Kendrick." I said. She blinked and I was starting to get agitated with her dreary attitude. "Three doors down on the left," she said as she motioned toward the only hall in the whole building. "Thanks for the remarkable service," I muttered trying not to get livid. It wasn't her fault she was stuck in this hick town with no life ahead of her.

I walked down the hall, my shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor. I knocked on the third door on the left and noticed a small amount of blood caked to my fingertip. Must've cut my thumb shaving I thought to myself. Before I could put much thought into the reason the door flew open revealing a somewhat tidy office and a stunted man. He had thin greasy, gray hair and huge spectacles resting just below the bridge of his crooked nose. He pushed them up farther on his face and shuffled over to his desk and motioned me to sit down. I took a seat in a leather chair facing his desk and a window behind it. "You must be the new detective," he paused, "Mr. Danny Wilde." "That's me." I said. He shuffled some papers around and then looked at me severely and then looked at his watch. "I know you're new and all, but we actually got a call about an hour ago of two teenagers found in the school gym. I heard it's pretty gruesome. I would ask you to go, but since it's your first day I'll allow you to stay here and file some paperwork." My heart raced as I heard there was two students found. He didn't say it out loud but I knew there must have been a murder. This wasn't the kind of thing I was expecting from this town, but I wasn't going to turn down a perfect opportunity. "Of course I will go. It's my job isn't it?" I asked. "I...I suppose so," he murmured.

We walked out to his vehicle and drove to the high school gym, which took a total of six minutes. I got out and surveyed the area. Two police cars were parked and there was police tape around the lawn in front of the gym doors. There was also a group of pathetic looking students and parents, all of them huddled and silently crying to themselves. I felt a sense of dread walking up to the doors. I wasn't prepared for what I was going to see.

Inside, decorations from their prom the night before were still up. Blue and white streamers and balloons scattered the floor. Then at the back of the gym were the two bodies. The only thing out of place about them was that they were crudely leaning against each other like puppets on a string. The stench of blood loomed around everyone and dampened the whole gym.

As I approached the victims several things looked wrong. Both of them were slumped up-right and were literally attached to strings strung up on the beams high above their heads. The girl's hair was still in an up-do from the night before, but now was tangled and had a dark red spot starting at her scalp and fading to the tips. The boy on the other hand was less grisly. One slit of his throat was all the damage I could see. On both of their foreheads were words written in their own blood. King and Queen was etched across their foreheads. The blood was dried and up close you could see the smears of the killers handiwork. It seemed fitting since their crowns were placed on their heads hastily.

I turned away from the deceased and walked back towards the doors to get fresh air. The other cops seemed to be dumbfounded by the murders, and I realized this town was going to be more interesting than I thought.