George was far from unfamiliar with crimes of this ilk. He had worked his way up the Police Department ladder, and just about a year ago, took an early retirement from the force while serving as a homicide detective in the 30th precinct on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He had decided to try his hand at writing, thinking he had tons of material to work with based on his years on the job.
But the past months were filled with starts and stops. What he had just begun to digest was the fact that although he had stories galore to tell, there was always pieces of the puzzle still missing. As a Police Detective in such a busy Precinct, the cases just came at him machine gun style, and there was constant pressure from his superiors to wrap up his present case and move on to the next. So when the girl to his side informed him that she might have intimate knowledge of this crime, he set aside his skepticism for a moment.
“You were there when the crime took place?”, George asked the girl as he took a sip of coffee.
“No. I didn’t see it happen. But I lived in the apartment with the three of them. They were into some weird stuff. There’s no way Julie, that’s the girl the newspaper’s saying shot the other two and took her own life, there’s no way she did this. In fact, I’m sure someone murdered all three of them and framed Julie”.
George’s curiosity was piqued. “You said they were into some weird stuff. What do you mean?”
“They were involved in the occult, devil worship and crazy things like that. They recently joined this group, and I met a couple of the members. Scary people, I can tell you that. I tried to warn them that they were getting themselves into something way over their heads. But…”, and she shrugged her shoulders.
“So if you’re not into that stuff, what were you doing living with them?”
She smiled like a little girl, and said “we all have to live somewhere. I knew Julie from way back, and the price was right”.
She began to seem more sane in George’s eyes. He realized that, if it turned out that she was telling the truth, this had the makings of a great story. He wouldn’t be pressured to wrap it up before all the facts came to the fore, which was the case when he was on the City’s payroll. And he could unveil the truth in a case the Department considered open and shut. Not to mention maybe getting to know this beautiful, mysterious girl sitting next to him at the diner’s counter.