Deception

-8-

     "Who did this?! Certainly wasn't me! No, no. Somebody- NOT ME, must've moved it between the time I was the last person alone with the body in the room and then stepped out for a few minutes to take care of some personal business that you don't need to know about!" Abe shouts while JC and Y/N look at the empty spot on the floor. He adjusts his coat. 

     "Could've been anybody... except me," he scoffs as Benjamin walks in. 

     "What the hell happened here?"

     "The body's been moved," Abe states, the frustration clear. 

     "On its own?!" he asks in disbelief. 

     "No, of course not," JC states. 

     "Unless it did. In which case, we've got way bigger problems than a simple murder," Abe puts in, thunder crashing at the word as a sharp pain shot through the redhead's shoulder, causing her to wince. Chef storms in. 

     "What the hell happened?" he asks. 

     "The body's moved," the butler answers. 

     "On its own?" Chef asks. 

     "We haven't quite ruled that out yet, but let's not forget, we've got a murderer," Abe states, thunder sounding again, causing JC to flinch as the pain happened again. Colonel appeared next to her. 

     "Bully!" he shouts as Y/N jumps. 

     "Quite a storm out there, eh, chaps?" he asks as he gets in the telepaths face. 

     "What are you doing huddled in here in fear?" he questions as shoves her out of the way to get under the police tape, but Abe grabs her before she falls. She nods a thank you and grips her shoulder, the detective seeing her in pain as he hugs her close. 

     "We have a zombie problem!" Chef states. 

    "Ah, Homo necrosis! The most dangerous game. Well, if someone needs to put the old lad down again, I'm well up for the privilege," he replies.

     "What do you mean by 'again', and what do you mean by 'privilege'?" Abe questions as he holds the redhead. 

     "Well- I'm just saying, I've got plenty of..." he starts as he looks down at the empty spot on the ground. "E-Experience on the matter." 

     "So do I," Chef adds in a matter-of-fact tone. 

     "That just raises more questions," JC states, raising an eyebrow. 

     "Well, I'm off to the grounds to see if I can catch a whiff of the old bag of bones, eh?" Colonel says as he walks out of the room, laughing loudly as he walks. 

     "Weren't you and Mark the same age?" the butler asks, the redhead nodding at his answer as Colonel coughs. 

     "Alright, I don't trust him," Abe starts then shrugs. "Then again, I don't trust anyone. No one except Jay."

     JC blushes while Chef and Benjamin shrug sheepishly.

     "Alright, lock this place down. Secure the front gate. I don't want anyone in or out of this place until we get to the bottom of this," the detective states but the telepath and Benjamin look at each other, raising an eyebrow.

     "Abe. Locks won't keep people from getting out," the redhead states as Benjamin nods.

     "Indeed, sir," he says.

     "Locks won't, but Chef will," Chef states as he adjusts him uniform and walks off. Abe looks at both JC and Benjamin.

     "You two are real smart sons-of-bitches. Handsome, too," he says as he looks at the butler then he looks at the redhead in his arms. "Beautiful, even."

     As he says this, he brushes Benjamin's cheek and takes JC's hand. The butler flinches back, uncomfortable, while the telepath playfully rolls her eyes.

     "BUT, we don't have time for this. I think we forgot the most important question of all during our arousing game of whodunit," he says then he looks at Y/N. 

     "Why?" his gaze shifts to Benjamin. "Why?"

     Both the butler and redhead look at each other, a perplexed look on each of their faces. Abe looks at JC then at Y/N.

     "Come, walk with me," he replies as he starts to walk off, the telepath squeezing his hand and lets go while the district attorney followed behind them.

     In a split second, there were in a different part of the house, the redhead raising an eyebrow at this but her thoughts are interrupted by the detective.

     "Why did he invite us here? Why tonight? He said we were celebrating something, but he never specified what. It's almost as if this whole shindig of a hootenanny was just a ruse," Abe starts. 

     "Mark was my friend, had been for years, but then he went quiet. I knew something was wrong, I just never figured out what... Now I guess I never will," he frowns as JC places a hand on his shoulder. He stops and turns to Y/N and the redhead.

     "Look, I'm gonna level with you; you're my new partner and you're my world. I've been working with him for years," he starts again and starts to walk, the others following. 

     "Now, I've been doing this for a long time, and I know something is wrong. There is a murderer-" he is interrupted by thunder sounding, JC wincing as she grabs her shoulder. 

     Abe frowns as he continues. "-here amongst us, and we need to find him. Now you look like a trustworthy... somebody. I know we just met, but I am an excellent judge of character," he stops and turns to Y/N. 

     "Excellent like a fox," he winks. 

     Y/N looks at the redhead, who is grinning. They all continue walking, yet instead of Abe continuing the conversation with the telepath and the district attorney, he starts to monologue to himself, not realizing everyone can hear him. 

     "I smiled and fed the D.A. a line of bullshit. The truth was, I couldn't trust them any more than the other skuzz around here. The only one I trust is Jay throughout all this. But, like my late partner once said right before he died, 'Best to keep your enemies close. Wink wink,'" he says then pauses, turning around to look at the district attorney. 

     "You don't look like you have a reason to kill him. And if you do..." he laughs. 

     "Best to keep your enemies close, eh? Wink wink," he finishes as he tries to wink, yet it looks like he was blinking awkwardly, JC chuckling at this. They both continue to follow him.

     "So, the real question we should be asking is who stood to gain the most from Mark's death? Now, in my thorough analysis of the corpse's anal cavity-" Abe starts but the telepath cuts him off.

     "Or  by looking inside the corpse's mind," she starts, a slight grin across her face as she eyes Abe, who scratches his neck. "Even though I couldn't see how it happened, I saw what happened to his body. I discovered that, in addition to being stabbed thirty seven times, he was also poisoned, beaten, strangled, drowned, and shot, in that same order."

     "Now if you ask me, that's a lot of trouble to go through to knock off one guy, and it sure as shit is no accident. No. No, my friend. There's gonna be no simple candlestick-in-the-library solution to this whole... puzzle. So, we're gonna have to do the detective-ly thing and go through the victim's most private and personal possessions," Abe states, ending when they arrive at Mark's bedroom door.

     Abe walks towards JC and places an arm around her. "Hey, are you alright?"

     The redhead nods then points to her shoulder. "Every time that word is said, it hurts like hell. I don't know what's happening," she replies, him nodding in return, yet a frown is present.

     Abe looks up at Y/N and nods his head towards the door. "Well, after you."

     Y/N steps towards the door and opens it, the telepath, detective, and district attorney ready to see what lies beyond the door.