It was 7:30 A.M. Evan was upstairs in the kitchen drinking a cup of cold water. He was in shorts and a long sleeve shirt that had some braggadocious quote that was only made fashionable by the fact that it had a Nike “Check” on it.
There was snow all over the ground outside, but the truth was that the temperature was somewhat warm. The skiing trip was only made possible because a snowstorm had swept into Colorado unexpectedly at the beginning of March and it brought this new comforter of snow with it.
Evan took another swig of water. He was preparing to go for a run. There was a small TV on one of the counters that he wasn’t paying attention to. It was something about a missing person, but he didn’t care. “Probably some bear got her while she was skiing late.” He chuckled for a second and then stopped, internally scolding himself for laughing at something that morbid.
Then he had the horrifying thought, “Oh shit, what if there are bears here?” Evan quickly whipped out his smartphone and went to Google. He was relieved to find out there were no reports of bear activity. As he closed the Internet browser on his phone he noticed that he had no signal. It was frustrating, but at least the Wi-Fi enabled him to use his social media apps. He put his phone back in his pocket and gave out a small yawn. He shook his head around in a futile attempt to further wake himself and slowly dragged his feet outside.
The light penetrated his eyes like two knives digging into his corneas. He rubbed his eyes to try to ease them into this brightness. After blinking a few times he raised his head back up high, smiled, and took in a big breath of air. He took a large stride to signal the beginning of his run, but when he reached the edge of the roof that covered a few yards in front of the house, a large slew of snow dropped onto his head. He stopped, slightly irritated, and then began to chuckle at the situation. He took a handful of snow that was still on his head and looked at it. His eyebrows lowered as he analyzed this snow. It was almost all red. He dropped it in disgust and gagged at the half-water-half-blood mixture that now covered his palm. He looked up at the roof and saw a hand dangling over the edge.
There were now multiple police cars in front of Evan’s parents’ vacation home. Men on ladders were on the roof gathering and inspecting the evidence. Evan was being questioned by a detective who went by the name of Detective Davie as his four friends watched. Davie asked, “So you come out a little after 7:30 and the arm is just dangling off the roof?”
“Uh, well, it was really just the hand. Like most of the back of the hand was exposed.”
“Right, right. We’ll probably have to ask your friends some questions, make sure you’re not shacking up with any murderers.”
Evan chuckled at this, “Oh you can have my word, they’re the nicest people you could meet.”
Detective Davie’s face was stern, “Is that funny? I’m sure if we based all of our arrests and convictions based on how swell people are, we’d catch ‘em all.”
“Oh, not that was just me talking them up. I mean they’re my friends.”
“Talking up? Why do they need talking up?”
“No, not at all I was just… being a friend, you know? I’m a Sociology and Criminology major. I totally knew that you couldn’t just take my word for that.”
“You may need to rethink that major, son.”
“Ok, ok, sorry about the jokes. I have to ask, and this may come off kind of callous, but do we have to find a different place to stay cause of this? I realize that there are bigger problems at hand…”
“At hand? You trying to be funny again?”
“Oh, no not at all sir.”
“Hmm, too bad. That’s a hell of a pun.”
Evan raised his eyebrow, “Riiiiight. So what’s the living situation like for my friends and I?”
“Well if you or one of your friends did it, hell if you all did it, it’ll be a jail cell for you guys and my house for me.”
“So…. that means we’re homeless?”
“Calm down, this is a crime scene, but there won’t be much to do here. The arm was the only thing on that roof. We’ll be here for a while, but if you and your friends check out, we’ll be gone by tonight. Seeing as this is an investigation for homicide, we’ll need access to your home to make sure there aren’t any other things we need to look out for. Go skiing till they close at 4. Go eat. Go explore. Or come back and watch us, do whatever you want. You’ll have your home back by tonight, though.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Thank you sir.”
“But, I want to talk to all of you again today at 5. If even one of you isn’t here at that time, that person becomes suspect number one. You kids don’t look like killers, but not everyone has to fit the bill. So 5 P.M. If you’re late or if you’re a no-show, your ass is gonna have a statewide search going on for you.” The detective went off to speak to the other four when a woman came through the ranks of policemen, bawling her eyes out.
“WHERE’S MY SISTER!?” Davie turned around and sighed.
“Who the hell let her through? Ma’am you need to stay outside of the tape and answer the questions from one of the officers. We’re doing all we can.”
“BUT THAT IS MY SISTER! I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING!!!”
“Ma’am, please...”
Evan piped in, “What does she mean that’s her sister?”
Davie sighed, “Probably that that’s her damn sister, son. She was a missing person from last night. I’m sure you didn’t hear about it. Her body was slid onto a nearby lake. It’s a damn miracle the ice didn’t break even before we got there. Regardless, we were able to identify her and when we found her, she was missing an arm. And before you ask, no we do not know why. Unless Peyton Manning is coming around looking for severed arms to throw, we don’t know why it’s here or even why it’s on the roof. This calm and collected lady is simply putting two and two together.”
The sister yelled, “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! SHE’S MY SISTER!”
“Shit, I heard you. Now please talk to an officer who isn’t already interviewing someone. You will help a lot more by being compliant and helping us piece her day and night together than you’ll help by screaming in our damn ears.”
Evan asked, “Are you supposed to talk to people like that?”
“Aren’t you a suspect in a murder? Get your ass over to your friends so I can make sure all of your stories match up.”
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The group was seated inside the house on a couch in the living room. Detective Davie was pacing around, looking at them. “Alright, so Tyrone and Jennifer were asleep by ten. Evan, you were asleep by ten-thirty and Tony and Anne were passed out by eleven. Do I have this right?” They all nodded.
Davie cleared his throat, “Well that’s good but do any of you have an alibi that someone else could confirm? This woman was reportedly eating dinner at Tomboy Tavern with someone at ten last night. That’s a ten-minute walk from this house. The sister caught a glance of the man as he met with her sister before they headed off to eat. She said he was probably white, it was night and he was somewhat hidden in the dark, and probably around thirty to forty years old. We have officers questioning the restaurant owner to see if they have any video and employees if they can remember the man.”
Tony asked, “Sorry to ask, but why not ask any of the restaurant customers? Maybe they remember?”
“Well, uh, Tony, that’s a stellar question. Unfortunately, white people get scared too easily and the great ‘powers that be’ in Telluride would rather not worry the breathing moneybags about a possible killer. Granted, there is always a possibility that wildlife got her, but that’s an incredibly low chance. Unless a coyote got her and an eagle ripped off her arm and decided to drop it on this roof, a good few miles away from the body, homicide isn’t a far off thought. It’s a shitty thing to lie to these people, but they can do the lying. I’ll be honest with anyone who asks me. To be honest, there hasn’t been a homicide in so long that I almost feel like we’ve all forgotten how to handle it. So, alibis?”
Jennifer piped up, “Well, Tyrone and I were face-timing with my mom right before we fell asleep. I added a photo on Instagram right before sleeping and there was no other activity after ten on either of our phones.”
“Of course. Look, I don’t suspect you kids of doing anything, but as it stands you are all persons of interest without a proper alibi.”
Evan spoke up, “Well, there is one person here that I’ve had a weird vibe from.”
Tyrone turned to Evan with a raised eyebrow, “Come on man, you can’t be serious.”
Tony chimed in as well, “Yeah, bro, you can’t just throw a dude’s name out because he’s been weird to us.”
Davie hushed them, “Look, kid, if you’re ready to throw someone’s name into the mix as a murderer and you’re ok with that, that’s on you. If you genuinely think that it could help us find our man, though, then don’t withhold this information. “
Evan cleared his throat, “Well, it may be nothing. The guy next door is just a strange character and I know he wanted to go out last night and he had a date for lunch yesterday. Maybe he was romantic with someone and they decided to go out tonight as well since he didn’t have anyone else to go with. His name is Mel.”
Davie shook his head, “Well alright kid. Looks like I’ll have to go question him.”
“Could you maybe not tell him that I was the one who told you to question him?”
“Look son, we were going to have to ask the neighbors if they had seen some things anyway. Now we just so happen to have someone that might have a reason to throw an arm on your roof if you two don’t like each other. Ok, well, remember. I want to see each and every one of you here at five. You’re not here, you’re getting cuffed and dragged to the station for more questions.”
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The group was walking with their gear to one of the simpler slopes. Tyrone asked Evan, “Are you sure you feel good about throwing that dude’s name in the mix. Seems kind of fucked up to just say someone might be a killer because you don’t like them.”
Evan nodded, “Yeah I felt kind of bad after I said it, but I really just can’t shake this feeling.”
“Well let’s hope that man doesn’t find out you dropped his name cause he looks like the one to not mess with.”