Click for Part 1 & 2

Part 3: Bad Company

Detective Shane excused himself and was promised a more detailed autopsy report the next day. Shane understood that in order to solve this case, he would need to learn about the victim, to find out what he was like, what his habits were, who he hung out with, and what life choices put him at risk. He was headed to the van to get some answers, and let out a huge yawn on his way.

“Tired boss?” Wilson was at his heels.

“I want to talk to the witnesses. Send out the first one will ya?” Shane spoke with authority, obviously embarrassed by being caught with his guard down.

“Sure thing boss.” Wilson acted with pure obedience. He respected Shane and thought someday he would like to make Detective too.

The first person to approach Shane was Paula, one of Thompson’s co-workers. She had arrived at the party straight from work and certainly did not plan on staying so late that night.

“Can you tell me about Jake?” Shane began.

“What’s there to tell?” Paula retorted. “He was a jerk in the true sense of the word. He’s never contributed a single positive iota to his work or to anything he’s ever been involved in. All he does all day is sit in his cubicle, staring at box scores and stats, ogling the women in the office, makes a mess of the break room, and talks loudly on the phone. It would be one thing if he just kept to himself, but he disrupts everyone else, and it’s a wonder how anything ever gets done with him around. The worst part about it is that he’s untouchable – the boss thinks he’s a prodigy. And that’s only because he takes all the credit for everyone’s hard work!” Paula obviously had some issues about Jake that she needed to vent.

“Did Mr. Thompson come into work today?” Shane quickly switched the topic.

“Only for a few minutes, until he got a hold of the paper. See, the ironic part is that every week I collect a few dollars from all the employees to contribute to the lottery fund, and we draw numbers for the same ticket. I’d ask Jake every week to join in, but he’d always refuse my offer with some insult or discouraging remark about the odds of winning. So, today when his numbers were called, I think the whole office lost their cool, including myself. I couldn’t believe that selfish meathead bought a ticket on his own, and I’m sure it was just to spite us all. I found out he’s been doing it every week, just for the off chance that he could shove it in our faces if he won. I guess he got what he hoped for.”

“If you didn’t like the guy so much, why did you come to his party?” Shane tried to reason in his head.

“Well Jake did have a decent side – sometimes. I’d hear how people would talk about him at the office behind his back, the rumors they would spread about him, and to be honest, I think people were generally unfair with him. His behavior definitely wasn’t helped by the way people alienated him, but it surely didn’t excuse it either. Plus, once in a while, when we were alone, he’d open up to me, but I think he was just trying to get me on a date. But in true Jake fashion, just when you think there might be some light in him, he pulls an antic like the one today and it was the last straw that broke me! Maybe it was just the thought of never having to see him ever again that brought me here tonight, or maybe it’s because I have a tendency to attach myself to self-destructive people.”

“Did you guys speak tonight? Or see anything suspicious?” Shane didn’t like the tone in Paula’s voice, she was getting heated.

“I couldn’t even bring myself to look Jake in the eyes. He was more irritating than ever, and so smug! I hate smugness, acting like he was better than everyone just because of his new found wealth. I was on my phone practically all night with my boyfriend trying to get him to pick me up, when finally I just decided to call a cab. So I got my coat and headed outside, and that’s when the police showed up. I didn’t see anything happen all night, and I regret ever having come in the first place.” Paula said despairingly.

“Thanks for your time. Take my card, and if you remember anything give me a call.” Jake dismissed Paula and waited for his next suspect.
Wilson was keeping a close eye on the conversation, and with machine-like precision he sent the next party-goer to speak with Detective Shane.

 This time it was Stacey, Jake’s now ex-girlfriend.

“Hello Stacey, for how long were you and Jake dating?” Shane began his line of questioning.

“You never really know with Jake, but it’s been about 4 months off-and-on. Sometimes he’s such a pig, though. He’s always staring at other girls and never wants to go out of the house. One time I even caught him with another girl and I didn’t speak to him for 2 weeks. I don’t know why I kept taking him back, but he has some charm. He’d talk about taking me on a cruise for a week, or going to the theatre and dinner at a romantic restaurant, and I guess I always kept those illusions about him. I thought he could change.” Stacey blushed.

“So when he won the lottery did you think that everything would change?” Shane prodded.

“Yeah, I thought he’d finally make true on some of those promises, but when I saw him tonight he totally ignored me, and was back to his usual bachelor-like behavior. He was texting all his girl “friends” and he was acting like he didn’t need anyone anymore. He was getting pretty tipsy so I thought maybe he’d come out of it once he passed out.”

“Did you see anything suspicious happen tonight?”

“Well, Jake did leave the house once or twice during the night, which I thought was weird, and I did hear him shouting on his cell phone at one point.” Stacey remarked. “Oh, what’s going to happen to Jake’s cat? If there was one great thing about the guy, it was his cat. Would I be able to take him with me, you know, as a reminder of Jake?”

“I think you’ll have to clear that with animal control. Thanks for your time and call me if you remember anything else.” Jake handed Stacey his card and thought about what she had told him about Jake’s phone call. Who was he arguing on the phone with, and what could have caused him to leave his place?

Detective Shane looked up and he jumped five feet back! Jake Thompson was staring him right in his face. Shane asked himself if he was that tired that he was hallucinating dead people. It was 4 am already.

“J-J-Jake? Is th-that you?” Shane stumbled on his words.

“No I’m Kevin Thompson, Jake’s twin brother.” Kevin explained. Shane hadn’t seen him saunter over and was startled by him standing right there.

“Oh Kevin, I’m very sorry for your loss. Were you very close with your brother?” Shane began slowly.

“Ya we were best friends. Actually I think I may have been his only friend. Jake didn’t have it easy growing up, and people just didn’t understand him. I think he turned into a bit of a brute as a defense mechanism, and I was the only one he had.” Kevin lamented over his brothers unfortunate circumstances.

“Can you tell me a bit about his leisure activities, the kinds of people he associated with?” Shane was trying to complete the picture he had of Jake.

“He hung around some pretty shady characters. His bookie was his number one contact and I think he ran up a large debt. Every month, on the first of the month, I knew to expect Jake at my door mooching money. I must have forked over close to $50,000 last year on Jake’s gambling habits. I couldn’t take it anymore, and it placed a huge financial burden on me. I begged Jake to give up gambling, and I even offered to settle his debt for him, but he didn’t listen. I think Stacey felt the heat too, she was no angel either. Jake had spoken to me about ending it with her and he said he’d told her not to come around anymore, so I was surprised to see her tonight at the party.” Shane was taken aback by the interesting revelation.

“Thanks for your time and if there’s anything else you remember about tonight that might help the case please let me know” Shane ended the conversation.

Thinking back, Detective Shane had the disgruntled co-worker who played the lottery herself, the ex-girlfriend who was about to get dumped after putting up with Jake for 4 months, and the sibling who bailed out Jake to the tune of $50,000 over the last year. They all seemed like plausible suspects; they all had motive and opportunity.

Follow the case and try to figure out who did it. At the conclusion of the mystery, submit your guess, and if you’re right, you’ll be entered into a draw for great prizes!

Click here for Part 1

Part 2: The Scene

With the privacy wall from the media in place, rookie Detective Robert Shane was now able to gather his thoughts. He looked around to document the condition of the scene in front of him. Standing in front of Shane was a run-down, lop-sided, unkempt, single-level bungalow. The gutters were hanging off the peeled aluminum siding walls, the roof shingles were grimy and curling up at the edges, metal bars covered the dirty windows, and the lawn, if you would even call it that, was littered with garbage and knee-high weeds. At any moment the place looked like it might topple over. Detective Shane couldn’t believe the mess that Jake Thompson had lived in; he clearly hadn’t done a day’s work on the place. The most striking part was that right next door to Thompson was a beautiful, multi-level, clean, well-kept single family home, with a mini-van in the driveway and two tricycles neatly arranged by the side of the house. A white picket fence separated the two properties, obviously put up by the neighbors to keep the filthy trash on Thompson’s yard from spilling over onto theirs.

Shane tried to remember back to his training, and he figured he should find the first responder to hear his account of the events. Looking around he could see the CSI’s already snapping photos, diagramming the scene, and searching for evidence. Finally he found the first cop on the scene; a grizzly veteran, notorious for his indifference and unwillingness to cooperate. Shane knew it would be like pulling teeth to get anything out of him, but he had to ask anyway.

“Officer Carter, what do we have here?” Shane inquired.

“Well, it’s strange, actually. This is my second time out here tonight. At around 11:00 pm I was called out to handle a noise disturbance about the guy’s party. It was getting pretty out of control. Thompson, I think his name was, was belligerent, rowdy, insulting and being inappropriate with his guests, and being just an overall nuisance. Then at 12:30 am I get another call to his place because someone murdered him. Paramedics pronounced him DOA, dead on arrival.”

“Really? Who called in the murder?” Asked Detective Shane.

“Ummm, not sure… Do you know how long this will take? My shift was over a while ago.” Carter shot back.

“As soon as we’re done here you can take off. When you arrived here the second time, was everyone from the party still around?” Shane pried.

“Well kind of. See after my first trip out here, most of the guests were starting to file out because of the way Thompson was behaving, but a few of the people who knew him best must have stayed ’cause they were still here the second time I came around. They’re being held in the van, so that you can have at it with them. They didn’t have much to say about the whole thing; no one seems to have seen or heard anything.”

“Last question: Where’s the body?”

“Out back near the rear exit. Now can I go?”

“Sure, take a hike.”

Shane made his way to the back of the house, negotiating around empty beer bottles through the darkness of the night. At one point Shane slipped on a pack of cigarettes and nearly fell flat on his face. As he turned the corner to the back of the house, Shane found Wilson hunched over Mr. Thompson, as the pathologist pointed to wounds on Thompson’s torso and neck.

“Mickey! So glad to see you tonight.” Shane greeted the coroner. Shane knew Mickey Henderson well from his days on the beat. He had spent countless hours in Henderson’s morgue sitting in on autopsies.

“They finally made you Detective, huh? They must have ran out of talent on the force.” Mickey quipped. “I was just showing Wilson the body, come on over.”

Shane got his first view of Jake Thompson, and it was not pretty. He was lying on his back in a pool of blood, his clothing torn at the seams, and he looked as if he was staring straight up to the sky, like he was gazing at the stars. Thompson was your average build, around 5′11″ and 190 lbs., he had dark hair, brown eyes, and a serious five o’clock shadow growing in. The back of the house was just as messy as the front part, and the only lighting it received was from a dull yellow bulb sticking out of the wall. Three feet from Thompson on his left were a couple of beat up garbage cans filled to the brim, and on his right there was a cell phone on the ground, which seemed out of place.

“On first glance,” continued Henderson, “he appeares to have multiple stab wounds on the back of his torso, some defensive wounds on his hands and forearms, and a single slash wound across his neck. I’ll know more when I get him back to the morgue, but it looks like there was a struggle. Also, you’ll see that rigor has set in. The lividity is consistent with the position he was found in, so there doesn’t look like he’s been moved or staged to appear this way.”

“That’s all you got for me?” Prodded Shane.

“Well one thing’s for sure… Whoever did this to him REALLY wanted him dead!”

Follow the case and try to figure out who did it. At the conclusion of the mystery, submit your guess, and if you’re right, you’ll be entered into a draw for great prizes!