On the day when I heard the news of the crime scene, it was turning to the cold winter, being fall, and I was sitting in a
chair. It was profoundly soft and exquisitely comfortable, not only that, but it leaked pulchritude, I know, I know, how can a
chair be beautiful, it just was nice with the smooth leather. When the phone rang, I was perturbed because the chair was
comfortable and I didn’t want to get up. Little did I know how important the call was going to be. I groaned loudly, stood up,
belched, and stumbled over to the phone.
“Hello?” I grunted as I clumsily pressed the phone against my face.
“Higgs, this is Perry! I just received a terrible call from the police! I recorded what they said. Here, listen. ‘Hello, Mr. Perry.
This is the police. A terrible crime has been committed at the Insurance Company Building (IC Building). We request your
presence as soon as possible.’ Did you hear that, Higgs? Come to my place now!”
“Very well.”
I stood up, got changed, and hurried over to Perry’s place, called the Perry Place. I knocked on the hard, wooden front door
of the Perry Place. When he didn’t answer, I busted the door, and knocked it down. On the other side, there stood a
surprised servant.
“Hello, Higgs. Is something wrong?”
“Not at all, Servant Number Five. I was summoned here by Perry.”
Inside the house, I heard a shrill, high-pitched scream, ”Don’t slam the door!”
“Sorry Mrs. Perry!” I yelled back. Mrs. Perry is Sam Perry’s mother.
Perry arrived at the door. “It feels like there is something miniscule crawling up my nose.” He jammed his finger in his
nose. “En garde, stupid thing!” He screamed.
“Come on, let’s go,” I sighed.
While we walked to the IC Building, Perry explained the situation to me. “A worker at the IC Building was called down the
his boss’ office one day. When he arrived, he knocked for a while, but no one answered. Then, he heard some muffled
shouting and arguing on the other side of the door when he put his ear to the door, so he decided to leave for the moment
and planned to come back later since he thought the boss was busy at the time.
“Later on same that day, a different worker was found outside the building with a bloody knife in his hand and a bloody spot
on his chest where it looked like a knife had stabbed him. He was dead. He was identified as Brett Wurst, an man in his
50’s. The place where he was found was right below the window of the boss’ office, so it looked like he had jumped out of
the window. The police think that he might have been one of the people who were arguing in the boss’ office earlier in the
day, and then he became so angry that he stabbed the person that was found with the knife in his hand and the bloody spot
on his chest and tried to escape through the window. However, the bloody spot on his chest was still a mystery. So, the next
day, the worker who had been summoned to the boss’ office the day before tried knocking on the door to the boss’ office
again, but there was still no answer. However, this time he did not hear any noises coming from the inside. Eventually, he
decided to call the police, and they knocked down the door. The office was completely empty except for a desk and a trash
can, and there were no signs of distress. However, one unusual thing about the office was the fact that it was clean. This
was an unusual sight because it was usually messy, which several workers confirmed. Also, the window was wide open,
which further confirmed the theory that the worker who was found dead outside the building had jumped out of it. However,
there was no dead or injured body in the room, so the bloody knife in his hand still remains a mystery. There were still no
signs of the boss, and they are still looking for him.”
“Wow.”
When we finally arrived at the IC Building, we were greeted by police, who welcomed us in.
Inside the building, it was large and spacious. It was the kind of place where one could easily get lost.
“Who informed you of this crime?” Perry questioned the officer who was with us.
“The worker who was called down to the boss’ office on the first day of the crime was the person who explained all of this
to me.”
“Is he currently in the building?”
“Yes sir, he is.”
“May I see him?”
“Right this way, sir!”
I followed the officer through a twisting path of halls, and we stopped at a small, low quality office. The door was wide
open, so we stepped right in.
“Hello Mr. Cole Slaw, these two gentlemen I have with me are Sam Perry and John Higgs. They are here to discuss the
crime with you.”
“Nice to meet you two ,” Mr. Slaw said slowly.
The four of us went to the boss’ office. The room was clean, furnished well, and had everything in place.
“So, Mr. Slaw,” Perry said. “Are there any workers whom you suspect committed the crime?”
“No, not really, sir.” he replied.
“Is the boss’ office normally this clean?”
“Um, no, not really.”
I walked around the office looking for some kind of clue with no luck. As I examined the window, I decided that it was in
fact big enough for an average sized man to jump through. As I ran my finger across the sill, something I saw stupefied me.
“Perry, take a look at this!”
Perry hurried over to me, and I showed him what I found.
“Wow, it’s a fingerprint!” Perry frantically took out one of those pieces of sticky clear paper used to copy fingerprints. I
call them sticky papers for short. Then, he taped it over the fingerprint, took it back off, and placed in a container.
“We can test that fingerprint back at the lab,” I said.
Perry and I continued to look around the office.
“Don’t the people who work here set up security cameras?” I asked the officer.
“Yes, they do, that is a brilliant idea! I will show you what the cameras caught on the day of the crime.” the officer said.
“Pray, follow me.”
He led us through yet another set of twisting paths, and this time we ended up in a different office. This office had
television screens covering the walls. He stuck out his stubby pointer finger and pressed a button on one of the screens
and it turned on. The footage from the day of the crime instantly began playing.
The camera was in the hallway right in front of the door to the boss’ office. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then,
Mr. Slaw walked up to the door and knocked. When no one answered, he knocked again. Still, no one answered. When he
was about to try opening the door, a look of surprise fell over his face. The cause of his surprise was probably the sound of
arguing and shouting behind the door. As he pressed his ear against the door, his eyes widened in fright. We could only
hear a tiny muffled sound from behind the door, but the sound was clearly more audible to Mr. Slaw.
After Mr. Slaw listened for a bit longer, he straightened up, shrugged a little to himself, and promptly left the view of the
camera.
As the officer turned the screen off, Perry, sounding quite disappointed, murmured, “Still no sign of any clues.”
“Well, that’s about enough investigating for today,” I said.
After Perry agreed, we thanked the officer and Mr. Slaw, then left the building. On our way back, we stopped by the lab
and scanned the sticky paper. The name of the person who had the matching fingerprint came up as Parker Robinson.
“Hmm...I have never heard of this man,” Perry muttered. “Have you?”
“Nope,” I replied abjectly.
“Why don’t we ask about this man when we go back to the IC Building tomorrow?”
“Okay,” I agreed.
The next day, we went back the the IC Building. The officer once again greeted us at the door.
“Hello, officer. We have something to request of you today. We would like to view some more of the footage that was
caught on camera on the day of the crime. Would that be fine?”
“Certainly, Mr. Perry! Right this way!”
The officer led us back to the same office in which we had seen part of the footage on the previous day. He turned on a
television screen and in a few moments we were watching the footage of the day of the crime right where we had left off
before. The hallway was empty and nothing was happening, since Mr. Slaw had just walked out of the view of the camera.
We stood for several minutes, and by then we had seen several people walk in and out of the view of the camera, but
nothing seemed to stand out.
“Umm...excuse me, but could you fast forward a bit, officer?”
“Certainly.” The officer pressed and held a button on the screen, and a few seconds later he released the button.
For a few moments, still nothing happened and we were about to fast forward a bit more when a man walked out of the
office with a knife and a small box that had a handle attached to it. All of a sudden, he quickly jumped away from the
camera.
“Whoa!” Perry exclaimed. “Officer, would you happen to know the name of this gentleman?”
“Yes sir, I do. His name is Parker Robinson. He is a high rank worker who works in this building. What he is doing in the
boss’ office, I do not know.”
“Higgs, isn’t Parker Robinson the name that came up when we scanned the fingerprint?”
“Yes, I think it is.”
After puzzling for a while, Perry screamed, “Look at this! It’s Mr. Slaw again.”
My eyes widened as Mr. Slaw walked onto the screen. There was a large black glove on his right hand. He furtively
scrutinized the area around him, then quickly went into the office. After a few moments, he walked back out of the office. He
walked out of the view of the camera and we were once again staring at the tedious, blank hallway.
“Well, I guess that’s enough investigating for another day.” Perry said.
We thanked the officer and walked out of the building. On the way back to the Perry Place, we discussed the crime.
“I think that Mr. Robinson committed the crime. The knife in his hand is a major giveaway,” Perry suggested.
“What do you think the box in his other hand was for?”
“Higgs, did you not recognize that box as a lunch box?! It was probably just part of his disguise.”
“Hmm...” I murmured pensively. “Did you notice that Mr. Slaw had a glove on one of his hands?”
“Yes, I did. I don’t know why he would be wearing that.”
“Well, it is getting cold, isn’t it? In fact, it’s almost winter!”
“Yes, but why would he only be wearing it inside? You remember how warm it was inside the building, don’t you? Also,
why would he wear it on only one hand?”
“Hmm...I never thought of that. You are certainly correct, Perry. He had no reason to wear that glove. Unless...”
“What? Unless what, Higgs?”
I gulped and choked out my words, “Unless he is the culprit.”
“What? How could that be true? He seems like a perfectly sane man! And that doesn’t explain that glove on his hand!”
“Pray calm down, Perry. Allow me to explain my thoughts. I think I know what might have happened.
“Okay, go on!” Perry said with alacrity.
“So, I think that he wanted to open the window without leaving a fingerprint, so he put the glove on one of his hands and
used that hand to open the window. Then, he ran down to his office, picked up a knife, and came near the boss’s office.
The person who was murdered, Brett Wurst, was strolling around the building. Then, Mr. Slaw suddenly jumped out of an
air vent, collapsing Brett Wurst so he couldn’t yell out. Then, he stabbed him in the chest while strangling him. Then, he
dragged the body back upstairs to the office and dropped him from a window to make it look he tried to jump out himself.
That explains the spot on his chest and his partly beat up legs.
After thinking for a few moments, Perry said, “Well, I must admit, you have a believable theory. However, that doesn’t
explain Mr. Robinson’s fingerprint on the window sill. It also doesn’t explain Mr. Robinson coming out of the office with a
knife in one hand and a lunch box in the other.”
“Well, it is just a thought. It’s probably not true, but there’s always a possibility.”
We arrived at the Perry Place. The two of us said bye to each other and Perry disappeared behind the new door that
Mrs. Perry had to buy because I broke their old one. After that, I headed back to my apartment. Once I got to my apartment,
I eagerly hopped onto my comfortable chair and fell asleep.
The next day, I was woken up extra early in the morning by a phone call. I groaned loudly and stood up. As I was on my
way to the phone, I stumbled and fell a few times. When I finally got to it, I lazily moaned, “What do you want?”
“Higgs, this is Perry! The boss of the IC Building has been found!”
“WHAT??!!!” I screamed. Uh oh. I screamed a little too loudly.
“I said, they found the boss!” Perry said even louder.
“Oh my goodness, I will go to your place right now!!” This time I screamed so loudly that my phone broke. I didn’t care,
though. At least not at the moment.
Without getting changed, I ran over to the Perry Place so fast that right before I arrived at the door I tried to slow down,
but I had gained so much momentum that I ran right into the door and slammed a wide, gaping hole in the Perry Place’s
brand new door.
“How many times to I have to tell you not to slam the door?!” Mrs. Perry screamed.
I ignored her. “Perry, get out here, let’s go!”
Perry ran to me in a few moments and we both hurried to the IC Building.
“How was he found?!” I shrieked in Perry’s face.
Perry was about to answer when we arrived at the building and he ran right into the officer.
“AAH! Oh, my apologies, officer. I should have looked where I was going.”
“Oh, it’s fine.”
Next to the officer stood a man.
“So, are you the boss of this building?” Perry asked the man.
“Yes, I am. My name is Teebone Stake.” he extended his hand.
“My name is Sam Perry. This is my sidekick, John Higgs,” Perry said as he shook his hand.
I nodded to Mr. Stake, and he nodded back.
The officer cleared his throat and said,” Well, I have to go run several errands today, so I won’t be able to be with you
guys today.“ He turned to Mr. Stake. “Would you mind guiding these two gentlemen around the building for today?”
“That’ll be fine, sir.” Mr. Stake said.
“See you later, officer.” I said.
The officer nodded and left us with Mr. Stake.
We went inside, and Mr. Stake led us up to his office.
“So, Mr. Stake, could you explain why you were missing?”
“Absolutely. So, I was called to an emergency vacation in Florida. Since it was an emergency, I called one of my high rank
workers before I left and asked him to substitute for me while I was gone. You may know him; his name is Parker Robinson.
Anyway, I was told by Mr. Robinson this morning that he couldn’t contact all of the workers because he couldn’t figure out
how to use the speaker that I told him to use to announce to everyone that he would be substituting for me. So, I just came
back from my emergency vacation today. I was just informed of the news, and I am quite shocked.”
“Hmm..well we appreciate your participation in this dilemma. For now, if it’s okay with you, we would like to interview a
few people, one by one. First, could you lead us to Mr. Slaw’s office?”
“Of course,” he replied.
When we arrived at Mr. Slaw’s office, we asked Mr. Stake to wait outside the door for us.
When we entered, we forgot to knock, and we after we entered we saw Mr. Slaw looking at pictures of brand new knives
on the Internet.
He muttered something that sounded like, “...need...knife...brand new...”
“Umm...Mr. Slaw?”
“AHH!” he screamed so loudly that Perry screamed back.
We quickly shut the door and left. Perry took a few deep breaths.
“Maybe we should come back to Mr. Slaw later.”
Mr. Stake said, “What happened in there?”
“Nothing,” Perry said frantically. “Come on, let’s go to Mr. Robinson’s office.
Mr. Stake led us to the office and we saw Mr. Robinson sitting in Mr. Stake’s chair behind the desk.
“Hello, Mr. Robinson.” Perry extended his hand. “I am Sam Perry. This is my sidekick, John Higgs.”
“Nice to meet you two,” he said.
“So, Mr. Robinson, have you touched that window over there at all?”
“Yes, I open it whenever I have a desire for fresh air.”
“Hmm...okay. Yesterday, we saw you coming out of your office with a lunch box and a knife. Could you explain that?”
“Oh, yes. I was on my way to lunch, and I had a knife because I had packed a steak. When I saw the camera, I ran away
from it quickly because I didn’t want to look suspicious in front of it.”
After thinking for a while, Perry said, “Thank you, you may leave now.”
We left the room and I asked Mr. Stake, “Do you have any footage from other parts of the building on the day of the
crime?”
“Well, I think we do here, follow me.”
He led us to the office with the television screens, but this time he pressed a different button. The camera was set in the
hallway right in front of the cafeteria. We saw Mr. Robinson run into the cafeteria with his knife and his lunch box. After he
went in, we couldn’t see him inside.
A few moments later, we saw a worker slowly walk past the screen. He looked angry, like he had been arguing.
“That is Mr. Wurst” Mr. Stake explained. “He probably looks angry because he was just arguing with Mr. Robinson.”
After the worker walked out of the view, nothing happened for a few moments. Suddenly, somebody ran lightning fast out of the cafeteria and across the screen. He went too fast to be seen clearly.
“Whoa!” Perry shouted. “Is there a way to pause it on that moment?”
“I’ll try,” Mr. Stake said doubtfully. It was quite difficult for the officer to pause it on that moment since the person went so
fast. When he finally managed to pause it, the man just looked like a blur.
We all sighed.
“You know, I think that the culprit is most likely Mr. Robinson.” Perry said. “Think about it. Claiming that you were carrying
a knife around the building because you were going to eat steak for lunch is such a strange excuse. Also, we saw someone
run out of the cafeteria a few minutes after he went in. It is very believable that it was him.”
“Hmm...well you do have a good point,” Mr. Stake said.
I thought that Mr. Robinson just seemed too kind to commit that kind of a crime. If I were to accuse one person of
committing the crime, I would accuse Mr. Stake. He was exceptionally tall and muscular. And, in my opinion, claiming that
you were called to an emergency vacation seems like a more suspicious excuse than claiming that you were going to eat
steak for lunch.
“Hey, how about we all go try to interview Mr. Slaw again?” Perry suggested.
Mr. Stake and I agreed, and we left the room.
After we arrived at Mr. Slaw’s office, Perry knocked on the door. After about 20 minutes, Mr. Slaw opened the door very
slowly. When we saw him, his face was pale and nervous-looking. He smiled when he saw us.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hi, Mr. Slaw, “ Mr. Stake said.
“So, Mr. Slaw, we watched you on the camera on the day of the crime. We saw you furtively walk into the Mr. Stake’s
office. Could you explain your intention for doing so?”
“Well...umm...I had to deliver a message to...uh...Mr. Stake.”
“Oh, you did?” Mr. Stake said. “Well, since I’m back, you can tell me the message now!”
“Uhh...well, you see...”
There was a long pause.
“Yes?”
“I just...forgot.” He was getting shaky.
“Oh, okay. Well, we also saw somebody quickly running out of the cafeteria door. Do you know anything about that?”
He shook his head.
The four of us sat in awkward silence for several minutes. The whole time, Perry was in deep thought. Suddenly, he
shouted, “Mr. Slaw, I hereby accuse you of committing the crime.”
“AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Mr. Slaw screamed. He screamed so loudly that I started screaming. The combined
volume of our screaming was so loud that Mr. Stake started screaming, and soon after, Perry inexorably began to scream
as well.
After screaming for about three more minutes, we were calmed down by Perry, who was the first one to recover from his
screaming.
“How dare you accuse me!” Mr. Slaw’s face turned so red that for a second I literally thought that he was going to blow
up.
“It is perfectly explainable. Mr. Stake, did the police happen to give you the knife that was used to murder the worker? If
so, could you go get it?”
“Right away, sir!” Mr. Stake left the room.
Perry turned back to Mr. Slaw, who was starting to turn purple. “See, here’s is how you did it: You wanted to open the
window in the boss’ office without leaving a fingerprint, so you put the glove on one of your hands and used that hand to
open the window. Then, you ran down to the cafeteria, got a knife, and took off. The who was murdered was currently
outside taking a walk or doing something else. So, you went out side, hid in the shadows, and when your target got close,
you jumped out of the shadows and stabbed him with the knife. Then, you dragged him to a location that was right
underneath the open window of the boss’ office and left the knife beside his hand. You wanted to make it seem like the
dead worker had jumped out of the window, but he actually did not.”
Then, Perry turned to me. “The reason why we did not see him going into the cafeteria is because the time when he
came in was before the time when the part of the footage that we saw took place.”
Mr. Stake came back with the knife.
Perry turned to him. “Look at the knife. Do you have knives like that in your cafeteria?”
“Yes...we do!” Mr. Stake said.
“See? The reason why you went into the cafeteria was so that you could get that knife to use for killing Mr. Wurst.”
“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, YOU WIN! YOU WIN, OKAY?!” Mr. Slaw screamed. “I committed the crime. I only did it because I
had a sort of rivalry with Mr. Wurst. We used to be friends, you see. He was a man of transient kindness. He began putting
whoopee cushions on my seat, stealing items like my stapler from me, loosening my chair so that it would collapse, and
making all kinds of immature noises around me. Not only that, he also stapled my butt to my chair.“ He broke down crying,
he continued crying for about 10 minutes or so, then he said through tears,”On the day of the murder, his legs were
unstable, the perfect excuse for killing him. So, I found the perfect chance to take him out of my life, and I couldn’t resist it.”
"The IC Building Killing" by Kyle and Edward:
The IC Building Killing
On the day when I heard the news of the crime scene, it was turning to the cold winter, being fall, and I was sitting in a
chair. It was profoundly soft and exquisitely comfortable, not only that, but it leaked pulchritude, I know, I know, how can a
chair be beautiful, it just was nice with the smooth leather. When the phone rang, I was perturbed because the chair was
comfortable and I didn’t want to get up. Little did I know how important the call was going to be. I groaned loudly, stood up,
belched, and stumbled over to the phone.
“Hello?” I grunted as I clumsily pressed the phone against my face.
“Higgs, this is Perry! I just received a terrible call from the police! I recorded what they said. Here, listen. ‘Hello, Mr. Perry.
This is the police. A terrible crime has been committed at the Insurance Company Building (IC Building). We request your
presence as soon as possible.’ Did you hear that, Higgs? Come to my place now!”
“Very well.”
I stood up, got changed, and hurried over to Perry’s place, called the Perry Place. I knocked on the hard, wooden front door
of the Perry Place. When he didn’t answer, I busted the door, and knocked it down. On the other side, there stood a
surprised servant.
“Hello, Higgs. Is something wrong?”
“Not at all, Servant Number Five. I was summoned here by Perry.”
Inside the house, I heard a shrill, high-pitched scream, ”Don’t slam the door!”
“Sorry Mrs. Perry!” I yelled back. Mrs. Perry is Sam Perry’s mother.
Perry arrived at the door. “It feels like there is something miniscule crawling up my nose.” He jammed his finger in his
nose. “En garde, stupid thing!” He screamed.
“Come on, let’s go,” I sighed.
While we walked to the IC Building, Perry explained the situation to me. “A worker at the IC Building was called down the
his boss’ office one day. When he arrived, he knocked for a while, but no one answered. Then, he heard some muffled
shouting and arguing on the other side of the door when he put his ear to the door, so he decided to leave for the moment
and planned to come back later since he thought the boss was busy at the time.
“Later on same that day, a different worker was found outside the building with a bloody knife in his hand and a bloody spot
on his chest where it looked like a knife had stabbed him. He was dead. He was identified as Brett Wurst, an man in his
50’s. The place where he was found was right below the window of the boss’ office, so it looked like he had jumped out of
the window. The police think that he might have been one of the people who were arguing in the boss’ office earlier in the
day, and then he became so angry that he stabbed the person that was found with the knife in his hand and the bloody spot
on his chest and tried to escape through the window. However, the bloody spot on his chest was still a mystery. So, the next
day, the worker who had been summoned to the boss’ office the day before tried knocking on the door to the boss’ office
again, but there was still no answer. However, this time he did not hear any noises coming from the inside. Eventually, he
decided to call the police, and they knocked down the door. The office was completely empty except for a desk and a trash
can, and there were no signs of distress. However, one unusual thing about the office was the fact that it was clean. This
was an unusual sight because it was usually messy, which several workers confirmed. Also, the window was wide open,
which further confirmed the theory that the worker who was found dead outside the building had jumped out of it. However,
there was no dead or injured body in the room, so the bloody knife in his hand still remains a mystery. There were still no
signs of the boss, and they are still looking for him.”
“Wow.”
When we finally arrived at the IC Building, we were greeted by police, who welcomed us in.
Inside the building, it was large and spacious. It was the kind of place where one could easily get lost.
“Who informed you of this crime?” Perry questioned the officer who was with us.
“The worker who was called down to the boss’ office on the first day of the crime was the person who explained all of this
to me.”
“Is he currently in the building?”
“Yes sir, he is.”
“May I see him?”
“Right this way, sir!”
I followed the officer through a twisting path of halls, and we stopped at a small, low quality office. The door was wide
open, so we stepped right in.
“Hello Mr. Cole Slaw, these two gentlemen I have with me are Sam Perry and John Higgs. They are here to discuss the
crime with you.”
“Nice to meet you two ,” Mr. Slaw said slowly.
The four of us went to the boss’ office. The room was clean, furnished well, and had everything in place.
“So, Mr. Slaw,” Perry said. “Are there any workers whom you suspect committed the crime?”
“No, not really, sir.” he replied.
“Is the boss’ office normally this clean?”
“Um, no, not really.”
I walked around the office looking for some kind of clue with no luck. As I examined the window, I decided that it was in
fact big enough for an average sized man to jump through. As I ran my finger across the sill, something I saw stupefied me.
“Perry, take a look at this!”
Perry hurried over to me, and I showed him what I found.
“Wow, it’s a fingerprint!” Perry frantically took out one of those pieces of sticky clear paper used to copy fingerprints. I
call them sticky papers for short. Then, he taped it over the fingerprint, took it back off, and placed in a container.
“We can test that fingerprint back at the lab,” I said.
Perry and I continued to look around the office.
“Don’t the people who work here set up security cameras?” I asked the officer.
“Yes, they do, that is a brilliant idea! I will show you what the cameras caught on the day of the crime.” the officer said.
“Pray, follow me.”
He led us through yet another set of twisting paths, and this time we ended up in a different office. This office had
television screens covering the walls. He stuck out his stubby pointer finger and pressed a button on one of the screens
and it turned on. The footage from the day of the crime instantly began playing.
The camera was in the hallway right in front of the door to the boss’ office. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then,
Mr. Slaw walked up to the door and knocked. When no one answered, he knocked again. Still, no one answered. When he
was about to try opening the door, a look of surprise fell over his face. The cause of his surprise was probably the sound of
arguing and shouting behind the door. As he pressed his ear against the door, his eyes widened in fright. We could only
hear a tiny muffled sound from behind the door, but the sound was clearly more audible to Mr. Slaw.
After Mr. Slaw listened for a bit longer, he straightened up, shrugged a little to himself, and promptly left the view of the
camera.
As the officer turned the screen off, Perry, sounding quite disappointed, murmured, “Still no sign of any clues.”
“Well, that’s about enough investigating for today,” I said.
After Perry agreed, we thanked the officer and Mr. Slaw, then left the building. On our way back, we stopped by the lab
and scanned the sticky paper. The name of the person who had the matching fingerprint came up as Parker Robinson.
“Hmm...I have never heard of this man,” Perry muttered. “Have you?”
“Nope,” I replied abjectly.
“Why don’t we ask about this man when we go back to the IC Building tomorrow?”
“Okay,” I agreed.
The next day, we went back the the IC Building. The officer once again greeted us at the door.
“Hello, officer. We have something to request of you today. We would like to view some more of the footage that was
caught on camera on the day of the crime. Would that be fine?”
“Certainly, Mr. Perry! Right this way!”
The officer led us back to the same office in which we had seen part of the footage on the previous day. He turned on a
television screen and in a few moments we were watching the footage of the day of the crime right where we had left off
before. The hallway was empty and nothing was happening, since Mr. Slaw had just walked out of the view of the camera.
We stood for several minutes, and by then we had seen several people walk in and out of the view of the camera, but
nothing seemed to stand out.
“Umm...excuse me, but could you fast forward a bit, officer?”
“Certainly.” The officer pressed and held a button on the screen, and a few seconds later he released the button.
For a few moments, still nothing happened and we were about to fast forward a bit more when a man walked out of the
office with a knife and a small box that had a handle attached to it. All of a sudden, he quickly jumped away from the
camera.
“Whoa!” Perry exclaimed. “Officer, would you happen to know the name of this gentleman?”
“Yes sir, I do. His name is Parker Robinson. He is a high rank worker who works in this building. What he is doing in the
boss’ office, I do not know.”
“Higgs, isn’t Parker Robinson the name that came up when we scanned the fingerprint?”
“Yes, I think it is.”
After puzzling for a while, Perry screamed, “Look at this! It’s Mr. Slaw again.”
My eyes widened as Mr. Slaw walked onto the screen. There was a large black glove on his right hand. He furtively
scrutinized the area around him, then quickly went into the office. After a few moments, he walked back out of the office. He
walked out of the view of the camera and we were once again staring at the tedious, blank hallway.
“Well, I guess that’s enough investigating for another day.” Perry said.
We thanked the officer and walked out of the building. On the way back to the Perry Place, we discussed the crime.
“I think that Mr. Robinson committed the crime. The knife in his hand is a major giveaway,” Perry suggested.
“What do you think the box in his other hand was for?”
“Higgs, did you not recognize that box as a lunch box?! It was probably just part of his disguise.”
“Hmm...” I murmured pensively. “Did you notice that Mr. Slaw had a glove on one of his hands?”
“Yes, I did. I don’t know why he would be wearing that.”
“Well, it is getting cold, isn’t it? In fact, it’s almost winter!”
“Yes, but why would he only be wearing it inside? You remember how warm it was inside the building, don’t you? Also,
why would he wear it on only one hand?”
“Hmm...I never thought of that. You are certainly correct, Perry. He had no reason to wear that glove. Unless...”
“What? Unless what, Higgs?”
I gulped and choked out my words, “Unless he is the culprit.”
“What? How could that be true? He seems like a perfectly sane man! And that doesn’t explain that glove on his hand!”
“Pray calm down, Perry. Allow me to explain my thoughts. I think I know what might have happened.
“Okay, go on!” Perry said with alacrity.
“So, I think that he wanted to open the window without leaving a fingerprint, so he put the glove on one of his hands and
used that hand to open the window. Then, he ran down to his office, picked up a knife, and came near the boss’s office.
The person who was murdered, Brett Wurst, was strolling around the building. Then, Mr. Slaw suddenly jumped out of an
air vent, collapsing Brett Wurst so he couldn’t yell out. Then, he stabbed him in the chest while strangling him. Then, he
dragged the body back upstairs to the office and dropped him from a window to make it look he tried to jump out himself.
That explains the spot on his chest and his partly beat up legs.
After thinking for a few moments, Perry said, “Well, I must admit, you have a believable theory. However, that doesn’t
explain Mr. Robinson’s fingerprint on the window sill. It also doesn’t explain Mr. Robinson coming out of the office with a
knife in one hand and a lunch box in the other.”
“Well, it is just a thought. It’s probably not true, but there’s always a possibility.”
We arrived at the Perry Place. The two of us said bye to each other and Perry disappeared behind the new door that
Mrs. Perry had to buy because I broke their old one. After that, I headed back to my apartment. Once I got to my apartment,
I eagerly hopped onto my comfortable chair and fell asleep.
The next day, I was woken up extra early in the morning by a phone call. I groaned loudly and stood up. As I was on my
way to the phone, I stumbled and fell a few times. When I finally got to it, I lazily moaned, “What do you want?”
“Higgs, this is Perry! The boss of the IC Building has been found!”
“WHAT??!!!” I screamed. Uh oh. I screamed a little too loudly.
“I said, they found the boss!” Perry said even louder.
“Oh my goodness, I will go to your place right now!!” This time I screamed so loudly that my phone broke. I didn’t care,
though. At least not at the moment.
Without getting changed, I ran over to the Perry Place so fast that right before I arrived at the door I tried to slow down,
but I had gained so much momentum that I ran right into the door and slammed a wide, gaping hole in the Perry Place’s
brand new door.
“How many times to I have to tell you not to slam the door?!” Mrs. Perry screamed.
I ignored her. “Perry, get out here, let’s go!”
Perry ran to me in a few moments and we both hurried to the IC Building.
“How was he found?!” I shrieked in Perry’s face.
Perry was about to answer when we arrived at the building and he ran right into the officer.
“AAH! Oh, my apologies, officer. I should have looked where I was going.”
“Oh, it’s fine.”
Next to the officer stood a man.
“So, are you the boss of this building?” Perry asked the man.
“Yes, I am. My name is Teebone Stake.” he extended his hand.
“My name is Sam Perry. This is my sidekick, John Higgs,” Perry said as he shook his hand.
I nodded to Mr. Stake, and he nodded back.
The officer cleared his throat and said,” Well, I have to go run several errands today, so I won’t be able to be with you
guys today.“ He turned to Mr. Stake. “Would you mind guiding these two gentlemen around the building for today?”
“That’ll be fine, sir.” Mr. Stake said.
“See you later, officer.” I said.
The officer nodded and left us with Mr. Stake.
We went inside, and Mr. Stake led us up to his office.
“So, Mr. Stake, could you explain why you were missing?”
“Absolutely. So, I was called to an emergency vacation in Florida. Since it was an emergency, I called one of my high rank
workers before I left and asked him to substitute for me while I was gone. You may know him; his name is Parker Robinson.
Anyway, I was told by Mr. Robinson this morning that he couldn’t contact all of the workers because he couldn’t figure out
how to use the speaker that I told him to use to announce to everyone that he would be substituting for me. So, I just came
back from my emergency vacation today. I was just informed of the news, and I am quite shocked.”
“Hmm..well we appreciate your participation in this dilemma. For now, if it’s okay with you, we would like to interview a
few people, one by one. First, could you lead us to Mr. Slaw’s office?”
“Of course,” he replied.
When we arrived at Mr. Slaw’s office, we asked Mr. Stake to wait outside the door for us.
When we entered, we forgot to knock, and we after we entered we saw Mr. Slaw looking at pictures of brand new knives
on the Internet.
He muttered something that sounded like, “...need...knife...brand new...”
“Umm...Mr. Slaw?”
“AHH!” he screamed so loudly that Perry screamed back.
We quickly shut the door and left. Perry took a few deep breaths.
“Maybe we should come back to Mr. Slaw later.”
Mr. Stake said, “What happened in there?”
“Nothing,” Perry said frantically. “Come on, let’s go to Mr. Robinson’s office.
Mr. Stake led us to the office and we saw Mr. Robinson sitting in Mr. Stake’s chair behind the desk.
“Hello, Mr. Robinson.” Perry extended his hand. “I am Sam Perry. This is my sidekick, John Higgs.”
“Nice to meet you two,” he said.
“So, Mr. Robinson, have you touched that window over there at all?”
“Yes, I open it whenever I have a desire for fresh air.”
“Hmm...okay. Yesterday, we saw you coming out of your office with a lunch box and a knife. Could you explain that?”
“Oh, yes. I was on my way to lunch, and I had a knife because I had packed a steak. When I saw the camera, I ran away
from it quickly because I didn’t want to look suspicious in front of it.”
After thinking for a while, Perry said, “Thank you, you may leave now.”
We left the room and I asked Mr. Stake, “Do you have any footage from other parts of the building on the day of the
crime?”
“Well, I think we do here, follow me.”
He led us to the office with the television screens, but this time he pressed a different button. The camera was set in the
hallway right in front of the cafeteria. We saw Mr. Robinson run into the cafeteria with his knife and his lunch box. After he
went in, we couldn’t see him inside.
A few moments later, we saw a worker slowly walk past the screen. He looked angry, like he had been arguing.
“That is Mr. Wurst” Mr. Stake explained. “He probably looks angry because he was just arguing with Mr. Robinson.”
After the worker walked out of the view, nothing happened for a few moments. Suddenly, somebody ran lightning fast out of the cafeteria and across the screen. He went too fast to be seen clearly.
“Whoa!” Perry shouted. “Is there a way to pause it on that moment?”
“I’ll try,” Mr. Stake said doubtfully. It was quite difficult for the officer to pause it on that moment since the person went so
fast. When he finally managed to pause it, the man just looked like a blur.
We all sighed.
“You know, I think that the culprit is most likely Mr. Robinson.” Perry said. “Think about it. Claiming that you were carrying
a knife around the building because you were going to eat steak for lunch is such a strange excuse. Also, we saw someone
run out of the cafeteria a few minutes after he went in. It is very believable that it was him.”
“Hmm...well you do have a good point,” Mr. Stake said.
I thought that Mr. Robinson just seemed too kind to commit that kind of a crime. If I were to accuse one person of
committing the crime, I would accuse Mr. Stake. He was exceptionally tall and muscular. And, in my opinion, claiming that
you were called to an emergency vacation seems like a more suspicious excuse than claiming that you were going to eat
steak for lunch.
“Hey, how about we all go try to interview Mr. Slaw again?” Perry suggested.
Mr. Stake and I agreed, and we left the room.
After we arrived at Mr. Slaw’s office, Perry knocked on the door. After about 20 minutes, Mr. Slaw opened the door very
slowly. When we saw him, his face was pale and nervous-looking. He smiled when he saw us.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hi, Mr. Slaw, “ Mr. Stake said.
“So, Mr. Slaw, we watched you on the camera on the day of the crime. We saw you furtively walk into the Mr. Stake’s
office. Could you explain your intention for doing so?”
“Well...umm...I had to deliver a message to...uh...Mr. Stake.”
“Oh, you did?” Mr. Stake said. “Well, since I’m back, you can tell me the message now!”
“Uhh...well, you see...”
There was a long pause.
“Yes?”
“I just...forgot.” He was getting shaky.
“Oh, okay. Well, we also saw somebody quickly running out of the cafeteria door. Do you know anything about that?”
He shook his head.
The four of us sat in awkward silence for several minutes. The whole time, Perry was in deep thought. Suddenly, he
shouted, “Mr. Slaw, I hereby accuse you of committing the crime.”
“AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Mr. Slaw screamed. He screamed so loudly that I started screaming. The combined
volume of our screaming was so loud that Mr. Stake started screaming, and soon after, Perry inexorably began to scream
as well.
After screaming for about three more minutes, we were calmed down by Perry, who was the first one to recover from his
screaming.
“How dare you accuse me!” Mr. Slaw’s face turned so red that for a second I literally thought that he was going to blow
up.
“It is perfectly explainable. Mr. Stake, did the police happen to give you the knife that was used to murder the worker? If
so, could you go get it?”
“Right away, sir!” Mr. Stake left the room.
Perry turned back to Mr. Slaw, who was starting to turn purple. “See, here’s is how you did it: You wanted to open the
window in the boss’ office without leaving a fingerprint, so you put the glove on one of your hands and used that hand to
open the window. Then, you ran down to the cafeteria, got a knife, and took off. The who was murdered was currently
outside taking a walk or doing something else. So, you went out side, hid in the shadows, and when your target got close,
you jumped out of the shadows and stabbed him with the knife. Then, you dragged him to a location that was right
underneath the open window of the boss’ office and left the knife beside his hand. You wanted to make it seem like the
dead worker had jumped out of the window, but he actually did not.”
Then, Perry turned to me. “The reason why we did not see him going into the cafeteria is because the time when he
came in was before the time when the part of the footage that we saw took place.”
Mr. Stake came back with the knife.
Perry turned to him. “Look at the knife. Do you have knives like that in your cafeteria?”
“Yes...we do!” Mr. Stake said.
“See? The reason why you went into the cafeteria was so that you could get that knife to use for killing Mr. Wurst.”
“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, YOU WIN! YOU WIN, OKAY?!” Mr. Slaw screamed. “I committed the crime. I only did it because I
had a sort of rivalry with Mr. Wurst. We used to be friends, you see. He was a man of transient kindness. He began putting
whoopee cushions on my seat, stealing items like my stapler from me, loosening my chair so that it would collapse, and
making all kinds of immature noises around me. Not only that, he also stapled my butt to my chair.“ He broke down crying,
he continued crying for about 10 minutes or so, then he said through tears,”On the day of the murder, his legs were
unstable, the perfect excuse for killing him. So, I found the perfect chance to take him out of my life, and I couldn’t resist it.”