Chapter 15

It took about five minutes for the police to arrive and search the house. Once they knocked the third shelf of books down to the floor, they found a .22 caliber pistol with a silencer beside it, resting on top of the pile of books that had started to build up on the floor.

"Stupid place to hide a gun," said Francis, as he picked it up and opened the barrel. There was one bullet missing. Francis smiled and closed the gun. He turned to Mark,

"He's our guy," said Francis, meaning Davis. "Who hides a gun behind a bunch of books?"

"Someone who has a messy house that looks like this," said Mark, opening his arms wide.

As soon as Mark had seen the cigarette in Davis's mouth, he looked sternly at Francis who silently noticed it as well. As a distraction, Francis had pointed out how it was very unsanitary to leave dirty dishes around the kitchen counter and had asked if the rest would help him. As soon as the men's backs were turned as they headed into the kitchen, Mark dashed out the back door and ran towards the police car that was still parked outside the Rhinert's cottage and told Fred what he had found out.

Fred had then quickly dialled for the police and four police cars showed up in front of Davis's house and the policeman rushed in searching for the pistol. They had rushed in, just as Francis, Larry, Lucifer, and Davis were drying the dishes.

"Mr. Rhinert," said Fred, as he handcuffed Davis's hands to his back. "You are under arrest for the murder of Sandra Rhinert."

Davis stared at Mark with total surprise pasted on his face.

"Before you take him away, Fred," said Mark, staring at Davis, "I'd like to ask him a few questions."

"Suit yourself Mark," said Fred as he propped Davis down in a chair and sat beside him, so he could stop him if he tried to escape.

The rest of the police officers went outside and stood around the house as a precaution.

"How did you guys know?" cried Davis, as he squirmed in his seat because the metal on the handcuffs was digging into this flesh as he sat in the metal chair.

"The cigarette in your lips," replied Mark. "It seemed that so far everyone we had seen were non-smokers, but than you revealed yourself by not putting out that cigarette outside."

Davis stared at the floor.

"S**t," he muttered

"I should have know it was you!" cried his brother. "You lit that damn cigarette just as we started talking."

"What were you two talking about?" asked Francis, curious

"How I was going to help him buy a new house in Orillia because as you can see this one's s**t."

"F*****g Sandra, if it wasn't for her, Luce would still help me buy that house instead of watching me rot in jail."

"You deserve it Davis, you cheated on my wife," said Lucifer, accusingly.

"You never loved that b***h anyway!" cried Davis, as he kept squirming in his chair.

That's when Lucifer punched his nose and blood began spurting out all over his white shirt. Larry glared at his client, but Lucifer didn't care.

"You f*****g a*****e," said Lucifer. "And I supposed you loved her because you were f*****g her?"

Davis didn't say anything as he held up his bleeding nose to stop the blood from rushing out.

"Mr. Rhinert please don't attack your brother again," said Fred, sternly. "He's police property now."

"I'm sorry officer," apologised Lucifer, "but he deserved it."

"And Davis, only speak when you are spoken to, or I'll haul you away right now in the squad car."

"Shut up fat man!" cried Davis.

Fred slapped him hard in the face and began to stand up when Mark put his hand up and said,

"Fred, let him stay a bit longer," as if Davis was a small rebellious child.

"Alright Mark," said Fred, "you better know what you're doing."

"Detective Mark, when I was outside you thought I was discussing with Davis about how I murdered my wife because you suspected I had used my brother has a double alibi, is that right?"  asked Lucifer changing the subject.

"Very good, Lucifer," congratulated Mark.

"Detective, I'm not a lawyer for nothing. What do you think is the story behind the murders?"

"Sit down and we'll find out," said Mark, as the four men sat down. "Davis, if you would be so co-operative and tell us how Tuesday evening occurred."

Davis sighed.

"F**k it, I'm already going to jail. Well you must all know by now that, that tape recorder the bearded detective found was mine�""

"It's Francis," corrected Francis.

Davis ignored the interruption and went on,

"…And so was that tape. If you check under my bed, you'll find the box where the tape came in. I had picked that tape because I had never really enjoyed reading and I've always wanted to read Frankenstein since I've seen all the adapted films, so decided to buy a tape of it. If you look closely you would see that, that's the first cassette of Mary Shelley's novel, the others are in the box. Anyway, the night began after Sandra showed up at my house after ten-thirty. Since Lucifer had left, I had been seeing a lot of her but some days she would leave and never come back until the next morning and that night I hardly saw her."

"She probably was soon in your room reading A Tale of Two Cities?" asked Mark.

"How'd you know about that book?"

"I went into your room where I found out about that book and the red roses."

"Yeah, she always loved those damn roses and that stupid book. Hardly saw her, when she was in my house because she was reading that book."

"And sometime while she was at your house she must have said she was going out because she quickly disappeared out the door."

"I was making dinner for us when she told me she needed to read and just as the man 'n' cheese was almost done, she dashed out the door, saying she had forgotten to lock her cottage."

"How long did the affair go on for?" asked Francis.

"It was about a month before I killed her."

Lucifer was fighting hard not to punch his brother again.

"But then about a week ago, she kept leaving my house for stupid reasons like her husband was home or something, so I hardly saw her. Tuesday evening, I was fed up with her constantly leaving and decided to follow her to see if she actually was going to her cottage this time. Keeping a fair distance, I saw her lock her cottage door but then head the opposite way, towards the Burke's house. I followed her until she knocked on the Burke's cottage door. I knew that Bill was home and that Josie had gone to a friend's house and had been there for a week.

"Soon the door opened and Bill was standing in the doorway hugging and kissing Sandra, as he closed the door. I was so angry that I ran back to my house and grabbed my gun. I was going to kill that b***h because she cheated on me. When I got back I hid behind the bushes and lit myself a cigarette because I was nervous about what I was about to do. I don't normally smoke, but do sometimes when I'm nervous or really craving one. That night, I needed one.

"It wasn't before long, I saw the door slam and Sandra walked down the steps. I didn't know until I found out today that Sandra had left because she had murdered Bill."

"We assume that Sandra found out that Bill was married and killed him and I assume that the reason she was constantly leaving your house was because of Bill," explained Mark.

"I already assumed that myself."

"We visited three bedrooms," said Francis. "We searched the one at your brother's cottage first and I was given a key from the Mabels so I could enter. We then searched the Burke's cottage and then your house, Mr. Rhinert. In those three rooms we saw air fresheners, red roses, and a Charles Dickens book lying facedown on the bed. Your brother told us that Mrs. Rhinert loved reading Dickens and something important had to interrupt her for her to put it down. We know from your brother, that she put down the first Dickens book to say goodbye to her husband on that Friday when he left. Then she must have headed to your house that night."

"Yes she did. That was one day where she actually stayed the night."

"Then on that Tuesday evening, she was reading probably to avoid you because by that time I assume she was really enjoying Mr. Burke's company and that's when she planned to see him, so she put the book down and left the house. It seems she was reading these books like she was using all of you. She read one book, from each place she stayed, I guess so she never had to worry about taking one with her.

"Once she was in the Burke's cottage, maybe she decided to pick up her book and read for a bit because she had missed her chance at your house. But then as she began reading, she saw a picture or something that told her that she was having an affair with a married man. She then grabbed the steak knife from the kitchen and stabbed Mr. Burke in the chest, maybe covering his mouth to mute the screams."

"Then she stormed out of the house and that's where I caught her and shot her in the chest with my gun using the silencer to mute out the gunshot and covering her mouth so she didn't scream. Not knowing what to do with her, I dumped her in the ditch close to the park and ran quickly but stealthily into the backyard of the Mabels and ripped off my bloodstained white shirt and shoved it under the dock," explained Davis.

"I then ran back to the house and grabbed my tape recorder and that Frankenstein tape and headed towards my brother's cottage. After I had killed Sandra, I didn't know how I was going to get away with it, so I decided to pin the whole thing on my brother. Luckily, I knew that tape began with a loud blood-curling scream as an introduction to the novel, so I planned to play just the scream before the narrator began speaking. This was to get anyone's attention so they would call the police and have people solving this case before my brother got home, so he looked very suspicious. I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for that stupid cigarette. F**k, I should have never have developed smoking."

"Let's go," said Fred once Davis was finished.

Fred took Davis out of the chair, walked him out the door, and into the back seat of the squad car that was parked outside.

Lucifer glared at his brother as Fred and the other police cars drove away down the dirt road.

"Well, I learned something from this case," said Francis, as he took out his box of cigarettes.

"And what would that be Francis?" asked Mark, wondering why Francis was holding his cigarette box in his hand.

"I'm never going to smoke again."

With that, Francis walked up to the trashcan in the kitchen and threw out his entire box of cigarettes.

Reviews

[Yue Zhang]

Your characters are well rounded, their personalities are amusing and real. The plot was interesting, however, it didn't have a big enough "OMG" trait. Most mystery novels have a twist (they are the reason I read mystery), and the details are very subtle, and can be misleading. The ending was a blur to me. The beginning was amazing, but then the ending went too fast, mostly because the killer wasn't one of your strong characters. He was more of a background character, and it's always weird when a minor character is the perpetrator. Overall I liked Mark's sarcasm, and their family discussions. I hope you keep writing mysteries :]

[Andy Ruffett]

Yes. I love crime mysteries. I'll post your feedback on my book and look again at the story when I have time.