Murder in Manhattan

This is a short story that I wrote for a course that I am taking. Enjoy!

Chapter 1:

Candace Jacobs’ thumbs flew across the keyboard of her cell phone as she walked down the grand staircase into her living room. She hit “send”, grabbed her army green backpack off of the long table at the bottom of the stairs, dropped her phone in the bag and flung it over her right shoulder. As she reached for the shiny silver doorknob on her front door, a thin hand slapped it away. Candace looked up and saw the face of her wicked step-mother, Daphne.

“Where do you think you’re going?” snarled Daphne.

“To the skate park. I texted Jaime and he’s meeting me there,” Candace replied.

“You’re not going anywhere, young lady!”

“Oh, yeah?” asked Candace. “Watch me.”

Candace opened the front door and walked out, not bothering to close it behind her. She continued down the hallway to the elevator, and soon heard the sound of Daphne’s high heels on the marble floors and her yelling, “Candace? Candace, honey? Wait up!”

Only Candace didn’t wait up, she quickened her pace. Instead of waiting for the elevator and risking Daphne catching up to her, she went down the stairs. Even though she was on the eleventh floor, it seemed worth it. Plus, she would get the pleasure of knowing that Daphne struggled down eleven flights of stairs in her three inch heels.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and saw Jaime next to the exit door, which lead outside, as he always was when they were going to go to the skate park together. He was leaning against the wall and nonchalantly said, “Hey, C.”

Candace’s heart fluttered. She had had a crush on him every since they met, but she wasn’t sure that he felt the same way. They had remained friends since, but Candace had always dreamed that they would become more than that, and fast.

“Candace? Hold on! I’m coming!” a voice said from the staircase. It took Candace less than a second to realize that it was none other than the Wicked Witch of the West herself; Daphne.

Candace grabbed Jaime’s wrist and opened the door. “Come on!” she said as she pulled him out the door, making sure to close it behind her.

“What’s up?” Jaime asked.

“I want to race. Last one to the skate park has to clean the winner’s board for a week!” Candace let go of Jaime’s wrist and took off down the street. She looked back and saw him running after her. In the distance, she could see a pair of blue shoes which meant one thing; Daphne had made it outside.

Candace started running faster, which proved to be difficult with her backpack hitting her back with every stride she took.

The skate park was in view once she turned the corner and she reached it a few minutes after. Candace stopped at the entrance to wait for Jaime, who was not far behind and got to the entrance a few seconds after she did.

“Which board do you want to clean, loser?” Candace asked.

Jaime playfully shoved Candace and replied, “Shut up.”

The two of them walked into the locker room where they kept their boards. Candace opened her locker and grabbed her favorite green skateboard and helmet and put her backpack in the now empty space and closed the door.

“Let’s go,” Candace said as she buckled her helmet and put her skateboard on the ground. She put her right foot on the middle of the board and pushed off the ground with her left. As she skated over to the half-pipe, she quickly looked over her shoulder and saw Daphne walking along the outside of the fence, heading towards the entrance, a look of disgust spread across her face.

Daphne looked down on the ground, careful not to step in the litter and wads of gum that were sporadically placed all over the ground.

It didn’t take long for her to find Candace; her neon skateboarding sneakers gave her away almost instantly. Daphne walked over to the half-pipe, but it proved to be difficult. She had to try not to fall over as she walked on the uneven ground in her heals and try to not get run over by the skateboarders barely paying attention as they hurried out of the locker room and over the ramps.

When she finally made it, Candace saw her right away.

“Well, well, well,” said Daphne. “Look what we’ve got here.”

“Oh, hey, Daphne!” exclaimed Candace, trying to make it seem like the two of them where friends; she didn’t want Jaime to know about their strained relationship.

“Don’t give me that crap. I told you not to leave the apartment.”

“What makes you think that I’m going to listen?”

“I’m your mother and you better listen.”

Candace took off her helmet and threw it on the ground. “You’re not my mother! You’re a freeloading idiot who takes advantage of my dad and his money!”

Daphne gasped. “No, I don’t!”

“Don’t act so sweet! I wasn’t born yesterday. I know what you’ve been up to these past few years.”

Jaime picked up his skateboard and began to slowly back away. “Uh, I got to go. I’ll see you later, C,” he said before he turned around and ran away.

Candace screamed, “Look what you’ve done! I hate you!” She picked up her helmet and board and ran to the locker room.

“Wait, sweetie!” yelled Daphne as she tried her best to run after her.

Once her locker was open, Candace took out her backpack and threw her board and helmet into it, quickly closing it before they had a chance to fall on the ground.

Candace began to run as she put on her backpack. She needed to talk to her dad, and fast. She had to do it before Daphne got home, before she could make him believe another one of her lies.

 

Chapter 2:

Candace took her key out of the front door and quickly closed it shut behind her. Her keys still in hand and her backpack still on her back, she ran into her dad, Greg’s, office, without even knocking.

“Listen, Loretta. I asked you to do one thing! I don’t think I ask to much of you, do…” Greg looked up and saw Candace standing in the doorway. “I got to go. I’ll call you back soon.” He hung up the phone.

“What is it, Candace? Can’t you see that I’m busy?” Greg said, annoyed.

“It’s Daphne,” replied Candace.

“What about her?”

“Cancel her credit cards, close her bank account, divorce her, do something!”

“Why would I do anything like that?”

“She’s taking advantage of you! She only wants your money. She doesn’t love you.”

“Stop telling lies, Candace! I’m not going to do anything. Daphne is fine. I have a client coming in ten minutes and I have to prepare for our meeting. Please close the door behind you on your way out.”

Candace, frustrated and hurt by her dad, said, “Fine, but if you won’t do anything about Daphne, then I will.”

“Now what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, I would tell you, but you have a client coming in soon that you have to prepare for.” Candace walked out of his office and loudly closed the door.

When Candace left Greg’s office, she saw Harper, her three year old half-sister, was sitting on the living room couch playing with her dolls. “Play with me, Candace?”

“Maybe later,” replied Candace as she walked over to the bottom of the stairs.

“No! Now!”

“Later, Harper, I promise.”

Harper began to cry. Candace sighed and went over to the couch and picked up her sister. She said, “Let’s go bring you to Jo.” Jo was the Jacobs’ nanny who took care of Harper and Candace’s one year old half-brother, Brady.

Jo was in the laundry room switching a load of towels from the washer into the dryer. Her back was to the door and when she turned around, she jumped when she saw Candace and Harper standing in the hallway outside the door,

“What’s the matter, Harper?” she asked when she saw the tears still streaming down her face.

“I can’t play dolls with her right now and she’s upset,” explained Candace.

“Are you sure you can’t find even just a few minutes? I think it would mean a lot to your sister.”

“I can’t. I, uh, have a project.” Candace didn’t want Jo to know that she was really planning on what to do to Daphne.

“Oh, well schoolwork does come first, I suppose. I can play with you, Harper. Just give me a moment.”

“Can you just make sure that no one comes into my room? I gotta focus, you know?”

Jo nodded and took Harper out of Candace’s arms. Just as Candace got into her room and closed the door, she heard the front door open and Daphne yell, “Candace get down here this instant!”

She didn’t know how to respond, or if she even should. After all, she was working on a project and couldn’t break her concentration. Luckily, she heard Jo walk down the stairs and say, “I regret to inform you that Candace is in her room working on a project and needs to concentrate. She is not accepting visitors at the moment.”

Candace walked away from her door and over to her desk. While she was sitting there, she could hear Daphne and Jo arguing, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Deciding to just try and forget about the whole issue for a little while, Candace opened her laptop and began her research.

She Googled “what do to if your step-mother is taking advantage of your father” and countless pages of results popped up. “I might as well start with number one,” thought Candace as she clicked on the first result; the website of the national news that Greg liked to watch every night.

“Arizona teen charged with murdering her step-mother after she claims she was taking advantage of her family,” it read.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in her head. “If Dad doesn’t want to divorce Daphne, he doesn’t have to. I’ll take care of her myself.”

For the next two hours, Candace researched ways to carry out her plan and watched scenes from crime shows, carefully studying how to recreate a scene that looked like a robbery gone bad.

Before she knew it, it was four o’clock. Candace closed her laptop and headed downstairs. Daphne was on the phone in the kitchen. Candace was going to interrupt her until she heard what she was talking about.

“The little twerp is on to me,” Daphne said. There was a pause, which meant that the person on the other end of the conversation was responding. “No, it isn’t just suspicion. She knows that I’m only here because of his money.” There was another pause. Daphne then continued. “Greg is on his way to the airport to fly to Atlanta. He said something is happening tonight with one of his clients and he had to leave last minute.” A long pause made Candace think that Daphne had gotten angry and hung up without saying goodbye, which she was famous for, but then she began to talk again. “Not that plan, stupid. My new plan. You know, the one where I take his money and run? Now’s the perfect time!”

Candace couldn’t bear to hear anymore of the conversation. Brady was asleep in his playpen so she walked over and woke him up. He started to cry.

“Ugh, Brady is crying again. I have to go, but I’ll meet you tonight at eight.” Daphne hung up the phone and walked into the living room where she saw Candace holding Brady, trying to comfort him.

Daphne grabbed him from her and looked disgusted. “How dare you touch him!”

“You know,” began Candace, “I feel bad about what happened this afternoon. How about later tonight when Harper and Brady are in bed, you, me, and my dad sit down and talk. I don’t want to keep fighting like this.” Candace already knew that her dad was on a business trip and Daphne was going out, but she couldn’t let Daphne know that she knew. Daphne would know that she was listening in on her phone call.

“Actually, your father had to leave last minute and fly to Atlanta for work and I am going out with Hillary tonight.”

“Really? Why, I had no idea! Why don’t you let Jo go out tonight, too. She deserves it and I could babysit.”

Daphne thought for a moment before she said, “Ok, but I swear, if I find anything wrong with the house or my beloved children then you will pay, big time.”

“Everything will be alright. I promise.”

Daphne put Brady back into his playpen once he had stopped crying and handed Candace a one-hundred dollar bill that she took out from her back pocket. She told her to give it to Jo to use tonight when she went out.

Candace, the money in hand, went upstairs and into the linen closet at the end of the hall where Jo was standing, stacking the towels on the shelves.

“Hey, Jo,” she greeted.

Jo jumped. “You have got to stop doing that!” she said.

“Sorry, but I just wanted to give you this.” Candace held out the money and Jo gasped.

“Is this for me?” she asked.

“Yup. Daphne and I think that you deserve a night to yourself. You know, to go out and just relax and enjoy yourself.”

 “Really? Thank you so much!”

“Anytime. Why don’t you go get ready? I can finish putting away the towels.”

Jo smiled and opened a door next to linen closet which revealed a narrow staircase. Jo’s bedroom and bathroom was at the bottom of the staircase. When the coast was clear and Jo was in her bedroom getting ready to go out, Candace emptied out the closet. Candace didn’t offer to put away the rest of the towels to be nice, she offered so she could get to the safe in the back of the closet where her dad kept his valuables. Candace entered the code, which she had learned when she overheard Greg telling Daphne the code, just in case anything happened to him.

Inside, she saw just what she had hoped to. Near the back of the safe, she saw a bag marked “gun”.  Candace quickly took it out, closed the safe, and put the towels back into the closet. When she was sure no one was coming, especially Daphne, she ran into her room and closed the door.

 

Chapter 3:

A few hours later, after Jo left for her night out on the town, Candace went downstairs, the gun in her back pocket. It was dark out by then and everyone had already eaten dinner. Daphne was putting in her earrings and didn’t see Candace come down the stairs. Candace grabbed Daphne’s prize vase off of the coffee table and walked over to her.

Holding the vase above Daphne’s head, Candace took a deep breath. She slammed it down on her head. Daphne fell to the ground. She grabbed her head in pain and looked up at Candace as she pulled the gun out of her back pocket and aimed it at Daphne.

Daphne screamed. “Please, Candace! Don’t shoot me!”

“You’ve deserved this for a long time and I’m finally doing it. Bye, Daphne,” replied Candace. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. She opened her eyes and began to uncontrollably cry at what she had done.

She quickly dried her tears and began to destroy the living room, trying to make it look like someone had broken in and killed Daphne. She broke the furniture and decorations and ripped the front door off of its hinges.

Then, she ran upstairs and grabbed the phone and called 911. She made herself cry again just before the operator picked up.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.

“S-someone b-b-broke into m-my apartm-ment,” replied Candace between sobs. “They k-k-killed my s-step-mom.”

“Alright, sweetie. I’m going to stay on the phone with you until the police get there. Stay upstairs and do not go downstairs until I tell you that the police are there, alright?”

“O-o-okay.”

Candace stayed on the phone until there was a shout from downstairs and the operator told her that it was the police and she could go downstairs. She went down the staircase and saw two police officers standing n her living room

One of the officers pointed his gun at Candace and she threw her arms in the air and backed away.

“Who are you?” demanded one of the officers, his gun still aimed at Candace.

“I’m Candace Jacobs,” she said. The officer put his gun down and his face began to get softer and kinder.

“I’m sorry, Candace. I’m Phil and I’m here to see what happened to your step-mother and collect any evidence that the killer left here at the scene.”

Candace nodded and then remembered that she left the gun on the floor. She kicked it under a chair, hoping the officer didn’t see it. She bent down and pretended to tie her shoe, but she actually pushed a folded blanket in front of the gun, trying her best to hide it.

Phil put on clear latex gloves, similar to the ones that are used at doctor’s offices and hospitals. He walked around Daphne’s body while holding an evidence bag. For a few minutes, the bag remained empty. Then he found a hair and used tweezers to pick it up. With a permanent marker, he wrote “brown hair” on the front of the bag. Candace let out a sigh of relief; no one in her family had brown hair. Daphne originally did, but she dyed her hair frequently and hadn’t had it brown in years. As of right now, someone else who wasn’t even in the apartment at the time of the murder was a suspect, and more importantly, Candace wasn’t.

As much as Candace detested Daphne, seeing her lifeless body lying on the floor eventually got to her and she began to cry.

“Kevin?” Phil asked as he looked up from his evidence bag. “Can you take her down to the station ahead of me? I don’t think she can handle being around the body much longer.”

Kevin grabbed Candace’s arm and began to lead her towards the door frame.

“Where are you taking me?” Candace demanded.

“We were going to take you down to the station once we were done looking for evidence,” Kevin started, “but you obviously need to get away from the body, so I’m taking you now.”

“But my brother and sister are upstairs and I was supposed to babysit when Daphne went out tonight. I need to take them with me!”

“Ma’am, Phil will get one of your neighbors to watch your siblings when he is on his way out of the building. Just please come with me. I have a few questions I’d like to ask you at the station.”

Candace tried her best to pull away from Kevin to run upstairs and get Harper and Brady, but Kevin managed to hold her back and bring her down the hallway to the elevator at the same time.

Once they arrived at the elevator and were waiting for it to get to the floor at they were on, Candace asked, “Does it look like there is enough evidence left at the scene to find out who killed her?”

The elevator got to their floor and the doors opened. Kevin and Candace walked in as Kevin answered, “Can’t tell at the moment. But sometimes you only need a little bit of evidence to convict a killer.”

“’Sometimes you only need a little bit of evidence to convict a killer.’” Those words kept replaying in Candace’s head as she and Kevin got out of the elevator, got into the police car, and drove to the station.

Upon arrival, Candace saw a police officer standing outside of the side door of the station.

Kevin saw her looking at him and said, “That’s James and he will be helping me escort you into the questioning room.”

Candace looked at him, wondering why two people were needed to escort her to the room. As if he had read her mind, Kevin said, “Don’t worry. You didn’t do anything wrong. We have to have two people escort someone from the police car and into the questioning room, no matter the circumstances. It’s a rule.”

James walked over to the car and opened Candace’s door. He grabbed her left arm as she got out of the car and Kevin grabbed her right arm as they walked into the police station.

There was a woman behind a desk when they first walked it. The name plate identified her as Ms. Renée L. Mansfield.

Before anyone said anything to her, Renée said, “Room three is not in use right now.”

Candace, Kevin, and James walked down a long, dark hallway and arrived at a door marked “3”. Kevin took a key ring out of his pocket and unlocked the door with the first key.

The room consisted of only a table with one chair on one side and two chairs on the other. Candace was brought over to the side of the table with one chair. She sat down and saw Kevin take out handcuffs. He put one handcuff on her wrist and put the other on the armrest of the chair. Candace looked up at him and he said, “It’s a rule.”

James and Kevin sat down in the two chairs across from her and James began asking questions. “So where were you in the house when the break-in occurred?”

Candace began to sweat. She hadn’t thought of an alibi yet; it was the one thing that she forgot to do. She had no choice but to say the first thing that came to mind. “I was in my little brother’s room changing his diaper.”

Kevin wrote her answer down on a notepad and James asked the next question. “And where was your little sister?”

Candace came across a new problem. Harper could talk and remember where she was. If she said one thing and Candace said another, there could be a serious problem. “I don’t know,” she finally. “Our nanny Jo had just left and I think that she was the last one that was with Harper. I was only with Brady.”

James and Kevin nodded and Kevin continued to write. “Now what happened and what did you do when this occurred?”

“Well, I only heard Daphne scream. I didn’t hear the door get busted down or anything. I started to head towards the stairs, but then I heard the gunshot and ran back to Brady’s room.”

The questioning went on for many more hours and Candace tried her best to make up answers as she went along.

Kevin and James kept giving each other looks throughout the questioning and finally James said, “Candace, it seems like there’s something that you know that you aren’t telling us. Is this true?”

Candace began to cry. “Yes,” she managed to say between sobs.

“Would you care to tell us what that thing is?”

For a while, Candace didn’t answer. She just sat there and stared at the two police officers who stared back at her. When she had stopped crying, she wiped the tears off of her cheeks and stated, “I know who killed Daphne.”

James and Kevin looked at each other. “And who would this be?” asked Kevin.

Candace tried to hold back her tears as best as she could, but that didn’t last long. Before she knew it, tears were streaming down her face again. “I did!” she screamed. Candace stood up. “I couldn’t take her anymore! She was being so unreasonable and she was taking advantage of my dad! She was going to take his money and leave him this week when he was away! He wasn’t going to do anything so I did! I had to!”

“Candace Jacobs,” began James, “I’m afraid we are going to have to arrest you. We will allow you to call your dad and let him know what has just happened and when your court date is. C’mon, let me show you to your cell.”

 

Epilogue:

One week later, Candace and her lawyer sat nervously in the courtroom as the jury deliberated in another room. She kept looking back and seeing only her dad in the benches. Daphne obvisouly couldn’t be there, Brady and Harper were too young to understand what was going on so they didn’t go, and the rest of her family had lost touch after they got angry when Greg married Daphne.

If Candace was found guilty, she would have to spend the rest of her life in prison with no possibility of parole.

A few moments later, the jury came back into the courtroom. One woman in the jury stood up and looked at the judge. “Your honor, we the jury find Candace Jacobs guilty of first degree murder.”

The whole room went silent except for Greg who was now crying uncontrollably.

James and Kevin escorted Candace to the door and handcuffed her hands behind her back.

She turned around and looked at her dad. He looked back at her and mouthed the words, “I love you.” Candace began to cry and mouthed back, “I love you, too.”

Author's Note

Please let me know what you think of this story and ways that I could improve my writing in the future! Thanks!