Phantom Keys: by Vernon Scott (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📕

…

I heard foot steps coming from the stairs. It was one of the police officers sent by Commander Smith, holding a boy in his arms that looked no older than seventeen. “State your name officer,” I said.
“My name is officer Mauntrice,” said the officer. “I noticed a shadow in a bed room upstairs. When the power went out I heard a crash and enter the window and found this boy tied up in ropes. I believe that this is the child that was kidnapped.”
“What is your name,” I asked the child while dismissing the officer.
“My name is Kevin Smith.,” answered the boy. “Well my last name was Henderson but it was changed once my uncle adopted me. Where is my uncle,” he asked with fear in his voice. He looked toward the dining room, where there was a lot of mumbling. The boy ran into the room and fell out crying.
I looked around and found the officer who brought the boy, “Officer Mauntrice, get that boy out of here. Take him to the precinct. And on your way there, get a forensics team out here stat!”
“Okay,” replied Mauntrice. There was something about that guy that seemed familiar. He had a look that seemed close to someone that I knew. It is as if this was not our first time meeting.
I turned my focus back to the crime scene, “People, you must not panic. You are not to leave this mansion because this is a crime scene and you are all suspects.”
“What do you mean dude,” said a young looking man. “We aint did nothing wrong!”
“I’m sorry,” I continued, “but as far as I know any one of you could have pulled this stunt. You will all be interrogated through out the night.”
I had then looked over and found another police officer, “Can you call officer Mauntrice and tell him that he should bring the boy back here immediately. Tell him that I was not thinking straight and that I was being a little too emotional.”
The officer nodded his head and did as I instructed. A few minutes later Mauntrice arrived with the boy at his side. The forensics team arrived shortly afterward.
I gave them their time to examine the body and once they’d finished I took my chance at examining it. All of the party goers were being interrogated one by one in the room next door. So far all of them had the same alibi. Somehow they were invited to the house for a get together and were asked to bring someone along with them. The only thing that the suspects had in common was the fact that each person was a member of a rival company. It seems that Mr. Smith bought off many of the party goers companies and they lost their jobs. That was a clear motive for murder but no one admitted that they had a grudge against him.
After examining the body I say that there was a deep penetration in Mr. Smiths’s body. The thing that yanked him across the room had to be near. With clearance from the forensics team, I moved the body to search behind it. His body didn’t move much. It was as if he was still being pulled by something.
I thought about what I saw when the light was off. That glistening light could have been the object that yanked Mr. Smith back. It had to have been something metallic and sharp. Seeing that completely moving the body was pointless I found another way to find out how this could have happened.
I put my ear to the wall and heard the sound of an engine. I punched the wall and revealed some type of pulley system. I whistled for back up. Two techs and Mauntrice came running to see what I had discovered. The pulley system was jammed somehow. It seems as though it was strong enough to pull Mr. Smith backwards yet it was not strong enough to yank him into the wall or at least yak his spin out of his body.
With great skill, one of the techs was able to stop the pulley from spinning. The cord that held Mr. Smith body was soon loose. And Mr. Smith’s body fell.
I maneuvered the projectile from around his spin and found a chip connected to it. Next to the chip was a button that was at one time attached to Mr. Smith’s shirt.
Letting the techs examine the button, I ran to speak with the doorman. Apparently the doorman was already interrogated. He said that he didn’t know the person who had hired him. He just showed up and followed their request. He was told to get the brief case from Mr. Smith once he had arrived and place it in the back room. He was also told to place the brief case in a certain spot so the owner could find it easily and the spot was going to be outlined with the letter ‘X’.
I then ran towards the room where the brief case was held. To my dismay it wasn’t there. I walked forward to see if I could find the letter ‘X’ but did not see it. I took another step and the floor made a sound. I brought myself eye level with the floor and saw that there was a crease in it. I slid one of my keys between the creases and was able to remove the board and there it was…the brief case.
“Everyone,” I yelled, “Step away from the body! Move towards the side of the room! I need someone to shine a flashlight onto the body and another flash light on the hook! I’m about to test a theory! Turn on your flash lights now and what ever you do, do not take your eyes or the flashlight off the body and hook!”
I waited for a few seconds, I lifted the brief case and the floor began to rise revealing the ‘X’. “Mauntrice,” I started, “hold on to the boy, I don’t want him to get hurt!” I placed the brief case back over the ‘X ’. The brief case slowly sank down into the floor and then the lights went off. I heard a boom from the next room and stood erect, and at that moment the light came back on.
“What happened,” I asked the officers. They were all gaping at the body. I looked at it and saw that it was once again sitting in the same position as before, back against the wall and not falling. As I had expected, the pulley system was once again turned on.
“Sir,” said one of the techs, “somehow the machine turned back on. It moved as if it was alive…as if it were a snake. It shot out from the wall and went directly into the victim’s body and yanked him back. It was a breath taking sight.”
“Thanks for the update,” I replied. “I’m suppose that you all are wondering why I asked you to do this but it is quite easy to explain. Someone please turn off the machine and remove the hook.” I paused in my speech while they performed the task. “What is different about the hook now?” They all gave me quizzical look. “If you pay close attention to the hook you’ll see a chip. And next to the chip you’ll find a button.”
“But there are two on here sir,” said a confused forensics worker.
“My point exactly. When I examined the hook the first time there was only one button but somehow there are two now. We all know that Mr. Smith was a technical genius, but not so many people know of his next invention. Most of his inventions were made to help the world, yet some person found a way to make one of them harmful.”
“So are you saying that this is one of his inventions,” asked Mauntrice.
“Exactly. His new invention was going to revolutionized police work, well on some cases. He made a device that will seek out a missing child. It was a double invention; it was both a locator and a finder. It was based upon a hide-and-go-seek method if you will. He would place the finder chip into a saucer and it’ll seek out the locator chip. But the finder chip and locator chip had a set polarity to them to aid in searching. For instance, if a child was kidnapped and had a locator chip embedded in them, the finder chip will seek it out. The finder chip would give you the coordinance to the location of the child, but the finder never came in contact with the locator. It’s kind of complicated.”
“So what does the invention have to do with this,” asked a tech.
“I’m glad you asked. See, someone in this room new of this invention. He tampered with the invention and reversed the polarization of the finder chip and locator chip. After reversing the polarization, the culprit had then placed a locator chip in all of the buttons on Mr. Smith’s jacket and placed a finder chip on the end of this hook. Knowing that the finder chip on the hook would go to the end of the earth to find the locator, the culprit attached the hook to this machine. The hook was suppose to yank out of the victim and retreat into the wall where it would have been hidden. Unknowingly, Mr. Smith’s paranoia took complete control, and he tried to flee once the lights went out, but the hook caught him before he was able to go anywhere.
“With that being said, I must say that this crime would have been almost perfect if your uncle wouldn’t have tried to flee, am I right Kevin?” Everyone turned there heads in the direction of Kevin. “You are the murderer are you not? You would have been long gone by now if I would have let Mauntrice take you to the precinct. But Kevin there is one thing I have to know, why did you do it?”
Kevin gave off a devilish smirk, “I had to get rid of him before got rid of me.”
“What do you mean by that,” I asked.
“A few days ago I overheard my uncle talking on the phone. I heard him say these words exactly, ‘I’m tired of all this foolishness. I have to let him go. He is too lazy and does nothing productive. I took him in as a favor from you but I can’t deal with this nonsense any longer. Either you do something about it or I will!’ I heard every word. He was planning to get rid of me. He—”
At that moment a woman came up and slapped him directly across his face. Her name was Martha Dixon. “Is that the reason you killed the only person who truly cared for you,” she yelled. “He was not going to get rid of you!