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Latest Stories

March 19, 2024
Fantasy Stories Wondering Monk

Just My Imagination

The alarm clock went off and started playing an awful tune. Tom opened his eyes and closed them back, squinting. He reopened one eye and stood up to stop the torture. The phone was on the desk, in the furthest spot from the bed. Although he changed his way of…
March 19, 2024
Science Fiction Stories Ocelotlzin

Earth Is Dead

Recording… It doesn't matter who I was; I probably lived a long time ago, and I am now just a voice someone added to the audio-visual records. What is essential is the recollection of events that lead to the current state. So, a little history needs to be…
March 08, 2024
Flash Fiction Benoit

Some Enchanted Evening

It was a rugby tackle with tears: Chrissy burst in, sobbing and babbling, hugging James. Her face was all wet, eyes wild. What…? My parents split up, Dad has moved in with his boyfriend and I cannot join them. I am shut out. I have lost my dad. Torrent of…
March 08, 2024
Horror Stories Marvel Chukwudi Pephel

In The Hands Of My Legs

The car pulled up in front of the large salon. The neon sign, that sexy broad thing, on the salon'sroof read "Mr. Gil's All-night Salon". The exhaust pipe of the car was pumping solid smoke, theswirls moving from the car and towards the salon.…
March 07, 2024
Mystery Stories Vanessa Leigh Giles

Casualty of Love in the Time of Coronavirus

Chapter 1 Until Death do us Part ‘Ring, ring!’. I answered the telephone and asked, “Hello, good evening. Who’s this? “Hello.” This is Dr. Smith from Red Cross hospital. “Is this Mr. Locke, John?”, he asked, hesitantly scratching his bald head. “Yes, doctor.…
March 07, 2024
Crime Stories Robert Pook

Bar Room Trigger

Another return journey on footpaths so familiar. He strides across each crack in each paving stone. Regular loose drain covers sidestepped. Mapping long ago mapped in Richard’s desolate mind. His pace hastened by the sight of the oncoming storm. Quickening…
March 04, 2024
Horror Stories Ano Chinemerem

Sanctity

Where should I begin? I could begin by telling you about this comely boy, whom every notable person around the streets agrees his smile could charm the bills off one. Between one smile, there was his goodness, his dreams and humanity—a little far ahead?— but…
March 04, 2024
Flash Fiction Emanuel Diaz

Et Mortui Partium

As Rafael stepped out into the rain, it wasn't the ordinary drops that fell from the sky. Instead, it was a storm of souls, each one taking the form of shimmering jewelry as it cascaded toward the ground. Rubies, diamonds, and sapphires twinkled amidst the…
February 29, 2024
Poetry Jing Li Ava

London

‘Am I in London?’ "I am." Where is Elizabeth? Happy living story All of your chapter Bounlance joy Please my heart Power hand Wise mind Our baby Vow vow Love all love Miss I miss Endless wonder Bring us together Love all love Miss I miss For everything My…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Rob Pook

Life Sentence of The Smith

Born nine months after his country won the World Cup.A child prodigy.Cast off at age twenty-four.Husband, father, emigree, away on the other side of the world.The blue-collar life.The dreams of success.The search for fulfillment.The long years of empty…
February 29, 2024
Mystery Stories Joshua Lowther

The Operator

Jason looked over to his right, his eyes barely able to focus themselves on the subject of his attention. His neck ached terribly from the strenuous movement. He was tired. The captain’s gaze came to rest on the rookie sonar operator sitting tense at his…
February 29, 2024
Flash Fiction Salvatore Difalco

The Chute

At dusk, we left our unit with a soft pink bundle. I carried it through the wet streets and into the black woods. I said I’d take it all the way, the bundle, but that we had to drop it in together. My wife’s green eyes flashed. “Don’t make me do that.” I…

The detective proceeded cautiously. It wasn't comfortable driving on a dark country road at night.

The long narrow stretch of highway faded in the distance. The barren land looked like one of those places that had been declared dead but refused to die. There was nothing for miles except hundreds of acres of open fields waiting to be plowed. The absence of street lights made the road darker and more perilous. Deer grazing along the side of the road, oblivious to the occasional traffic, would often be hit by a passing car. Striking a three-hundred-pound buck on a dark country road was maddening. No matter how hard the impact, the animal would always escape unharmed. Yet the damage to the car would be extensive. He hated deer. They were only suitable as dinner for wolves. The perils to a country cop were not always the criminals with guns. Sometimes they had horns.

  As he drove up to the crime scene, he could see the lights from the squad cars.

  Another homicide. Twenty years on the force, and dozens of murders, after a while they all looked alike.

 An anxious young rookie was standing near the taped off area. He was shaking like a juggler with St. Vitus Dance. The cop lifted the yellow crime tape and approached the area.

 He watched the men in uniform as they crept around the crime scene. Police officers doing their jobs with as much enthusiasm as men who are worked too hard and paid too little can muster.

  The detective saw the coroner's car parked in the distance.

 He thought corners were inept. They weren't specialists. They weren't doctors. Coroners didn't even work full time. All they did was sign death certificates. However, he figured, in this case, the town got a bonus. The coroner was the local undertaker as well. At least the guy was used to looking at dead bodies.

 The detective walked over to the coroner to get an update.

 The coroner looked up and began to frown. His brow had more wrinkles than a Shar Pei in a dog pound. As the coroner related the grim news, it set his teeth on edge like chalk being dragged across a chalkboard. The story was horrific. You couldn't work amid all this without it getting to you.

 The coroner told him that when police responded to a tip from a neighbor of suspicious activity at a nearby farm, they found a grisly site.

 The authorities discovered the body of a tattooed heavy-set man, stuffed in a freezer. After a further search, they found another corpse, that of a female, in an adjacent pond.

 The police immediately suspected the couple's nineteen-year-old son had committed a double homicide.

 The informant was the brother of one of the victims and lived on a neighboring farm. He said he called in the tip because he heard his brother and sister-in-law fighting with their son. He added that he saw his nephew shoot the parents several times with a small handgun then dispose of the bodies.

 The police immediately brought the son and uncle into custody for questioning. During a thorough interrogation, the police tried to determine a motive. However, many inconsistencies arose between the son's and uncle's testimonies. Every time more facts were added, the possibilities grew more numerous. There didn't seem to be a clear direction to take.

 Nevertheless, after the chief detective reviewed the information from both suspects questions arose in his mind. The investigator began to wonder. How could a thin boy, (he weighed 130 lbs.), lift his 250-pound father into a freezer? How could the young man drag the corpse of his mother into a pond? Why weren't there any shell casings at the scene of the crime? Also, the trajectory of the bullets found in the bodies suggested that the gun was held in the right hand. The boy was left handed.

 Further investigation revealed that the victims were heavily in debt. The brother lent his dead sibling money to help clean up unpaid obligations. The collateral was the farm and a life insurance policy in which the victim's brother was named the beneficiary.

 The detective assigned to the case knew that one of the most common motives for murder is money.

 The brother seemed to have a good alibi. Nonetheless, the detective called the man back for questioning. The investigator requested that the brother take a lie detector test. Instead, the brother confessed.

 The boy was released.

 The detective was satisfied. He knew you get justice in the next world. In this world, you have the law.

*

David De Santo

 

 

 

 

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