Who Assassinated Richard Beauford?

A Story by Luis Abellan

This was written for a Language Arts class homework, the story was open-themed and you were supposed to switch between formal and informal language, I kept it short for my teacher's sake.

Who assassinated Richard Beauford?

By Luis Enrique Abellán Morera

It was the spring of 1978 when in the news was heard that the millionaire and awfully eccentric Richard Beauford was murdered in his chateau located near the Italian city of Firenze. Beauford made most of his profit from being a weapons contractor for the American government, he supplied the military with weapons and recently opened his own aeronautics research facility so without a doubt, he got tangled with the Airforce and supplied the great America with aircraft.

Now that you have an idea of what kind of connections our murder victim has, you will understand why he is such a high target for most people, of course this case was not going to go by without being investigated, so they hired the best detective you could possibly find in America, me.

Having solved some cases in the past I have also gained some fame in the good old continent and have gotten many awards as a detective, making me the best detective you can find around the world, diplomacy wasn’t at its best back then so jurisdiction wasn’t a big problem and I was able to be appointed to this case right away.

The Italian government had already lined up some suspects for interrogation so I could ask questions and get the answers out of those maniacs, most of the suspects had already been interrogate but one of them was hard to crack, his name was Josh O’Malley, an American of age 41, born in Missouri. O’Malley had flown in to Italy the exact same day Beauford had so this made him most likely be our suspect, before I knew it I was facing the guy and proceeded to ask questions.

We decided to take it easy but he was hard to crack, I made it a little simpler for him and I inquired. " “What is the exact nature of your trip to Italy? We know you came to Firenze the same day Mr. Beauford did, I would like you to tell me why you don’t have any information to prevent us from charging with 1^st degree murder.” My detective instincts told me O’Malley was our guy, he opened his mouth, you could see his teeth, some were yellow some were white, clearly he didn’t care about his looks, and he proceeded to talk.

-“I came here to Italy on vacations and I had no intentions on killing that fella’ Beauford you’re babbling about, if anything the sun of a gun deserved what happened to him and if it was me that killed him, I ain’t ashamed of nothing.

I came here to Firenze, and maybe if this guy you talk about came here too, I ain’t not gonna be charged of killing someone because I didn’t, I saw the guy once or twice maybe, but I ain’t a killer, ask my woman, and my kiddo, they’ll tell you I’m right.”

I knew he was the killer and I had a file on him, which stated that he had worked for Beauford until he had to let go of at least 20 employees from his weapons company, so this was just a matter of getting a confession out of him, I couldn’t take his voice any longer, it was a horrible obnoxious screech and he had a precarious vocabulary, so I asked another question: -“I know you worked for Beauford until he had to let you go, your life is not in its apogee and you’re desperate for money and or revenge, please tell me why I should believe a jerk like you, who has nothing else in life?” I knew it was low of me, but if I got him angry, he was most certainly to fall victim to my trick and confess.

O’Malley replied: -“That was a low blow from you detective and I hit me where it hurts, maybe you have dough and know what it is to be rich and have all the beer and guns ya’ could ever wish for, but me and my lads are having a really though time and we ain’t able to afford anything not even food we can’t. We were all peaches and gravy until that jerk Beauford fired me, it made me mad, it made me angry like nothing else, so I had to get my revenge and kill the sun of a gun I had to. I planned, carried it on and did what I wanted, and now he’s dead and I’m happy with it.”

Joshua confessed the crime, I was ready to cuff him and take him to a cell when he stood up and sprinted all across the hallway to a window, before he could get a glance of what was outside I pulled out my gun, pulled the trigger and hit him in the back of his knee, there was blood and he fell, before we could all get to him, he stood up and jump out of a window. O’Malley had died and in a way justice was served by faith.

No one knew what was going to be of the O’Malley family, who were currently staying in a hotel in front of the Oficina de la Polizia Italiana, we were sure something could be done for them because they weren’t guilty but before we could think of anything the hotel exploded, no survivors.

Maybe it was a plan carried out by the O’Malley’s to kill themselves and not live in shame after what Joshua did, or maybe someone was targeting them, whatever the reason was, Italy was lucky to have the greatest detective in the whole world around, and I even had some spare time for another case.

We moved out of the building as fast as we could and crossed the street, there were a lot of bystanders, scared, crying, tears where everywhere and in every place was blood, you could see some bodies torn up in the debris, the Italian police made itself present as well as some members of the Interpol.

Apparently a British ambassador was staying at this hotel, Austin Smith was the name of the diplomat, this gave me reasons to believe that what we were facing was not an attempted suicide, but maybe some sort of attack to the government, not necessarily ours, but the British one, of course that someone with plans of a war could kill this ambassador in Italian land and cause an international uproar, sounds crazy, but it's still possible.

I was flown to England so I could meet with the Prime Minister, a very nice man he was, very polite and welcoming, he explained to me that the reason I was flown in was because this wasn't concerning Italy anymore, it was now British affairs, the best MI-6 agents had been sent to the field and the perimeter was under heavy watch as the evidence was gathered off of the crime scene.

Once I was in my room I started thinking of what could've possibly happened in that hotel, someone must have infiltrated as staff member and detonate a bomb, or maybe it was a car ...with a bomb attached, there were some cars in there so it could be possible, I couldn't really work with anything until I got the evidence sent to me.

I stayed up late waiting for something to arrive and finally at 1 am a knock on my door stopped me from dozing out, it was a police messenger with the evidence review, who would've know that the moment I opened that paper, everything I had worked with in this case, would've turn out to be twisted and incredibly ridiculous, that the way I looked at a case would never be the same anymore. When I opened that paper, I had the biggest shock of my life

TO BE CONTINUED...