Okay, let's brainstorm. Here's the setup:
"Cold case"
Det. Sattler sat with the file spread before her.
Her single desk lamp was the only bright spot in her darkened
house. Her coffee had long gone cold and
her back ached from sitting so long.
This case was going to be the death of her. Cold cases were tough by their very nature,
but this one was off the charts.
Tom, a homeless town man with a talent for finding
secrets in the trash cans in a swanky neighborhood had been found dead ten
months ago next to his favorite Dumpster,
shot with a small caliber firearm. It
was suggested by the news media that there were more than a few good citizens
who wondered if their secrets died with him.
Det. Sattler’s gut had her wondering if one of those secrets may have
gotten him killed, but it was difficult to know where to focus the
investigation because the man had so much bad karma it was a wonder he hadn't been
killed sooner. She had dozens of citizen
statements from people who had known him and not one had a good word for Tom.
Who had the most to gain
by his death? Det. Sattler began sorting
through the information and making piles. His two ex-wives hated him. Everyone at his old job hated him. His
brother hated him. He was suing his manager who had fired him. And all the
tenants in his old cop-op signed a petition and got him evicted. How he really ended up on the streets wasn't clear, but if you had the nerve to ask him he'd tell you he liked living like a bum, that he finally had peace, and all the SOBs could take a hike.
Besides the assorted
collection of junk that he had picked up the day he died from the streets and out of the
rubbish, Tom had had a receipt in his pants pocket for a luxury suite at the
most expensive hotel in town. An odd
thing to have when one is homeless. The
name was difficult to read as it had gotten wet in the garbage. Someone had paid a lot of cash for one night.
The receipt had been tagged
into evidence and mostly forgotten but Det. Sattler
had a hunch it was
connected to Tom’s death. We have a lot to work with here. Who do you think killed Tom? And why?
35 comments:
The Mayor did it. He is running for the Senate in place of the long time senator who is retiring at the end of term. The expensive hotel ticket fits the profile. No one said he was smart enough to get it out of the guy's pocket.
@ Mary Jo. I'm intrigued. Why was the mayor at the hotel? How did he know Tom had the hotel receipt? Did Tom have any other ties to the mayor?
Small gun makes me think a woman. It's nearly 10 a.m. and that's all I've got. Will go brew some more coffee and think. This is fun, Jody, thanks for a neat puzzle on a gray cold day.
Apparently the person who murdered Tom did not know he had the receipt in his pocket, or the person would have taken it. Seems like although there wasn't a visible name on the receipt, there may have been other info such as a date that might have turned up some info. It shouldn't be impossible to find out who paid cash for the night at the hotel. I would think it may be the manager who is being sued by Tom. Maybe the manager knows Tom has something on him that would get him into trouble.That's all I've got for now.
@ Julie Small caliber doesn't necessarily mean small gun, but I can see where you would make that leap. If we want the killer to be a woman, and have the gun be a clue that it's a woman, maybe we should have the police find the gun, serial numbers filed off, fingerprints wiped, next to the body and have it be a purse size weapon.
@ Joyce. Okay, so we go to the hotel and talk to the desk clerk. Good. We find out that three guests paid cash that night. Tom's old office had their holiday party at that hotel that weekend, and some of the employees spent the night. Most of them were in less expensive rooms, but one person's room matches the price on the receipt. The manager. However, the Mayor also stayed in a similar priced room that night.
We're getting somewhere now.
Take it away... anybody...
Okay, so since staying in a hotel, even in the swankiest room, isn't going to get anyone blackmailed, I'm guessing Tom either found something else in the Dumpster to give him the ammunition to put pressure on someone, or he was passing by the hotel and saw them leaving, maybe with someone - or some THING - they shouldn't? Maybe the person threw the receipt away because they didn't want a partner finding it and, thinking it might be useful, Tom retrieved it. In that case, my money is on his ex-boss, as Tom would see this as a good way of getting him to pay up over the unfair dismissal claim.
Where did the Mayor spring from in all this? Can we all just introduce new characters? In which case, I'm putting Mickey Mouse in the the frame after he found out Tom had been getting a little too close to Minnie in that rat infested alleyway. ;¬}
Next clue please...
@ Chris. Seeing as how Tom was Dumpster diving around the swanky part of town, and seeing as how the media speculated on how many secrets of the rich may have died with him, Mary Jo suggested the mayor did it.
So, yes, throw in anybody you want. But I'm gonna have to veto Micky Mouse. You know, Disney lawsuits and all. :)
Perhaps the good mayor was seen by Tom with a girlfriend coming out of the hotel? He's thinking of running for the Senate, so he wouldn't want bad publicity. So, let's see -- the mayor tosses the hotel bill in the trash as he's making his way to his car and Tom goes and grabs it. Blackmail? Revenge because the mayor didn't help him keep his job when he could have? (We haven't yet established what kind of office Tom got booted out of.)
I'm thinking maybe... the mayor's wife found out about the girlfriend, and although she's furious with her husband, she's even more interested in rising in the political arena, and her husband's indiscretion could hold her back.
We need a third suspect. We have two. Who else can the hotel receipt tie into this messy situation?
Jump in -- anyone.
So Mickey's a non-starter - fair enough. Next question is WHY did everyone hate this man so much? Two ex-wives, every single person at his old office including his manager, even his own brother. Clearly he wasn't a nice man by this stage of his life, but he must have had something going for him at some point - he married twice. We need to hear from his ex-boss what his job entailed and the reason for his dismissal. The fact that he spent his days going though other people's rubbish meant he was a curious man, so my guess is he was a reporter who got the sack for overstepping the mark in some way. Your third suspect could then be the person who was coming under his scrutiny at the time... that Mayor of Mary Jo's perhaps?
As hated as Tom was there was one person in his life who adored him unconditionally. Emily, his little sister. She never saw his faults. Never believed the ex-wives' stories. In the wake of his downfall she would take him food, frequently finding him in the alleys of the city. Her husband, who detested Tom but would never prevent her from helping her brother, purchased a Smith and Wesson "Lady Smith" .38 for her protection several weeks before the murder. The firearm fit the profile of the murder weapon used, but Emily's husband had supported her alibi of being at home the night Tom was murdered. The DA, who is close friends with Emily and her husband, declined to approach the judge for a warrant for Emily's handgun. Alternate images of a grieving sister and a Lady Smith nagged Det. Sattler as she sifted through the file, but what could possibly be a motive?
@ Chris. I like the reporter angle. He dug dirt when he was working, and his inquisitive nature had him digging dirt when he got killed.
The first suspect is his old manger. The second suspect is the mayor. And the third?
The hotel ties them all in somehow.
@ Susan. Loving it. Tom has to have at least one person on the face of the earth who didn't hate him.
Det. Sattler seizes the gun, runs ballistics, and ....
The rifling of the bullet recovered from the body and the test fire bullet matched. Det. Sattler brought Emily in for questioning. While her attorney advised her not to answer any questions and allow him to speak for her, she tearfully blurted out that she had not been at home. She would not say where she was that evening, but swore she left the handgun in her glovebox. She admitted that she had never actually carried the gun while visiting Tom because she was afraid of guns. Det. Sattler realized that not only did Emily not have an alibi, neither did her husband. A man who obviously knew his wife was not at home...
@ Susan. A man wouldn't kill his brother-in-law just because he didn't like him...good lord, if that were true there'd be half the men dead in the world... :) ... so what is the secret that this husband has? What is he trying to bury along with the body? Or does he know that Tom really has bunches and bunches of money and that his will has him leaving everything to his sister. Dear little Emily. Whom the husband has come to despise and as soon as he gets his hands on the money...he's out of there. Perhaps the hotel bill was a dead end. Perhaps it was coincidental that the party happened that night and the mayor was there with his girlfriend. Perhaps the husband went to find Tom that night, knowing how to locate him by following his sister and her basket of goodies, and her little red riding hood... oh, wait...that's another story.
Love the little sister angle. How about her husband - Martin, shall we say? - being the night manager at the hotel? He comes on duty on the night of Tom's killing to find him going through the bins. Fearing for his wife's safety if she keeps trying to help him, Martin tells Tom it would be best for everyone if he left town. Tom refuses. Martin admits telling him not to return to the hotel again, 'or else', but denies murder.
@ Chris. If the hotel bill was from the hotel that Emily's husband worked at, the police would probably have investigated that link a little further in the beginning. But perhaps not gaining anything substantial, they left it in the evidence locker and moved on to other leads. Now Det. Sattler is doing another round of questioning. Martin, as the manager, would be the person Det. Sattler goes to talk to. He begins to sweat while she's questioning him.
Hmmm... Det. Sattler thinks she's got the case somewhat sorted out. Emily's whereabouts on the night in question are still unknown, but Martin was clearly at the hotel. She notices him shifting nervously in his seat while she questions him. His fingerprints are on the pistol grip. He was seen arguing with Tom. His wife is the sole heir of Tom's million dollar life insurance policy. But the receipt still waves around in her mind like a flag whipping in the wind demanding attention. And something the mayor's wife said pops into her head rather abruptly. "Who would ever think such a doting sister would do such a thing?" Not "who would've thought she would've done such a thing," but more future tense. Maybe a slip of the tongue, or maybe the mayor's wife and Martin share a secret...
or
I may be going off the rails. :)
There is no off the rails for this. Anything goes.
Perhaps Martin is going to run off with the mayor's wife once he gets his hands on his wife's money? His fingerprints are explained away by him saying he cleaned the gun for his wife on a regular basis. She doesn't like to handle it and a piece of weaponry, no matter how small, needs to be kept oiled.
As the night manager at the hotel, Martin has learned to be discreet, but the mayor's wife, Helen, is one formidable lady. Suspecting that her husband has been using escorts, she demands that Martin tell her what happened at the party that night. He finds himself reluctantly revealing who he suspects the mayor might have smuggled into his room.
Emily's been meeting some 'colourful' characters since she started scouring the streets for Tom at night, being exposed to the seedier side of life. Her whereabouts for the night Tom died are still unknown. Maybe her alibi is almost as bad as being suspected of her brother's murder? Did Tom take that hotel receipt, not to use against someone, but actually to protect his little sister?
@ Chris. Very interesting twist on the sister. Very interesting indeed.
Martin, who wasn't supposed to be at work, discovered that it was Emily who was in the mayor's room. He reluctantly tells Helen, hoping she will sympathize with him. She instead storms off in a rage. She sees Emily's car parked in the alley and drags her keys down the passenger side of the car. As her hand runs past the door handle she tries it, finding it unlocked. She moves to slash the leather seat with a key, but the shiny Audi emblem on the glovebox catches her eye. She opens the glovebox and sees the gun.
Tom has seen someone damage his sister's car and creeps up to confront the vandal. He startles Helen, who grabs the gun and points wildly at him. Tom backs away, deeper into the alley. Helen is fully enraged at Tom for attempting to sabotage her husband's bid at a senate seat and for being the brother of her husband's mistress. She follows him, flinging all the hate she has for him in a tirade of curse words, punctuating each word with a jab of the gun. The gun discharges killing Tom instantly...
ahhh... the plot thickens. Martin is planning on leaving his wife anyway. He just wants her money first. So he doesn't care who she's sleeping with. In fact, he was thinking of trying to blackmail the mayor himself. I don't think he would tell Helen. Helen has to find out some other way.
I'm liking the part about keying the car and finding the gun.
ahhh... the plot thickens. Martin is planning on leaving his wife anyway. He just wants her money first. So he doesn't care who she's sleeping with. In fact, he was thinking of trying to blackmail the mayor himself. I don't think he would tell Helen. Helen has to find out some other way.
I'm liking the part about keying the car and finding the gun.
Helen stands frozen, staring at the body lying in a pool of blood between two brimming kitchen dumpsters. She starts to heave but holds it in. She's seen enough episodes of CSI to know that would be a rich source of DNA and half-digested evidence. The gun slips from her trembling fingers but as her head clears she knows she has to wipe it clean. She drags a tissue from her pocket and retrieves it, erasing all prints before tossing it back over by the body. It skitters under the nearest dumpster.
Behind her, she hears a footfall. She spins round, sees Martin silhouetted against a flickering street-light. His gaze moves past her to the body. Instantly he runs in and grabs her arm, dragging her away back past the car. He points across the street, silently ordering her to go. As soon as she's out of sight, he goes back into the alley, scouring the muddy ground for footprints. Apart from the muddle of prints leading to and from the kitchens, he can make out four fresh sets; Tom's heavy boots, his own loafers, Helen's stilettos and Emily's wedges leading from the car. Picking up a windblown newspaper, he scours the ground, carefully obliterating three sets as he backs from the alley.
"It skitters under the nearest Dumpster." Great sentence. I could hear it.
Like the four sets of footprints, all so very distinctive.
So... Helen is our killer. Emily finds the body and picks up her own gun confused as to how it got there, realizes she now has fingerprints on it, wipes it clean and tosses the hated thing. Her husband thinks she is the shooter and covers for her.
Jody, that was fun. Chris, I liked the CSI comment and the skittering sound, too.
Thank you for that diversion from this cold, dreary week.
I agree, this was fun. Really got me thinking as the next section unfolded.
But, Jody, why would Martin think Emily was the killer? He'd arrived at the alley within moments of Helen pulling the trigger and yet allowed her to escape. He then erased three sets of footprints, leaving one set for the police to find. Whose did he leave and why?
@Chris oh, sorry, I got my names mixed up. I thought Martin came after his wife had found the body, picked up the gun then realized she shouldn't have done that, wiped it and threw it. Martin, thinking that his wife had somehow shot her own brother, tried to cover up for her not wanting any problems with the will. He told her to keep her mouth shut.
Emily could still find the body of her brother and see her gun. She picks it up, cleans the fingerprints off, and places back it in her glovebox out of fear she might be implicated. She goes home and the husband covers for her. Emily thinks it's out of love for her, but in reality it is because if he doesn't, he would have to reveal his whereabouts. Which of course may lead to the discovery of his plot to take the inheritance and the fact that he destroyed police evidence.
I think that's worthy of a Murder, She Wrote episode. What 80's actresses could play Emily and Helen? I still love watching those.
Very nicely done, ladies. Now, does anyone want to form this into 700 words as a WW you-solve-it?
We'll submit it and either share the rejection letter or share the $500 six ways.
Mary Jo, Julia, Joyce, Jody, Chris and Susan are the first-run authors. Who wants to get the byline? Whoever does, has license to pick and choose the details that appeal, and drop the ones that don't. A couple of you already have some very good paragraphs to work with, and you can use any part of the set up.
Any takers???
I have yet to get published, so I would feel more comfortable with one of you all compiling the story. I know this is a WW blog, but I'm wondering if it might fit better with the Alfred Hitchcock magazine. More words to work with, though less dollars. But however it is done would be cool. I sure did enjoy this.
@ Susan, I've yet to figure out how to end an AH mystery. I've read them and they often have a clever twist that gets revealed at the end. But I've never written one.
I submitted two old WW stories to EQ, which said magazine claims to buy who-dun-its, but I got a rejection on both. But I know EQ is more sophisticated than WW when it comes to their product.
I am really not a mystery writer and I find the WW mysteries very difficult to write. However, I still love the Waffle Club I created and am sending a story with those characters to WW. It will be a BIG SURPRISE if you ever see it in print.
It's a good idea, Jody, and I enjoyed writing my contributions but my success rate with WW (ie, zilch) means you'd be on a loser before I even submitted it. I apparently have too English a style, and even I noticed that as I saw Susan's far zippier sections. As this was your baby to begin with, I feel you'd be the best one to knock it into shape. Why not give it a go?
I agree with Chris, Jody. Give a go. Here's to seeing a Det. Sattler mystery. :)
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