Short Story: The Homeless

“Disable the alarm!” Annebeth shouted to Jhonne as Aron busted through the bank’s windows. “I’m on it,” Jhonne complained as he hurriedly disabled the alarm. Annebeth dared to breathe as soon as the alarms stopped their wailing chorus. “Look there” Aron said, pointing into darkness. There was a silhouette of a man slouched upon a desk, sleeping. Who is that?” Jhonne asked quizzically. Shining her light on him, Annebeth saw he had a name tag that read “Rikishi-Bankkeeper”. “Lucky us!” Jhonne exclaimed. “Keep your voice down,” Annebeth hissed. As they looked around, the only sound was the clinking of keys a they were pulled from Rikishi’s chain. With a twitch of a hand, Annebeth dismissed them to go loot.
Palming his knife, Jhonne stabbed Rikishi.

“What have you done now?” Aron asked, puzzled by the sight of a body. “No witnesses,” Jhonne said simply. “Better hurry and stuff your bags,” Annebeth called to them. Within a matter of minutes most of the costly pieces were tucked away in their bags. “Let’s go,” Aron urged, “and leave the body in here”. “The police are coming!” Annebeth shouted as police sirens sounded. “Well, we can either get caught or go there,” Jhonne said and bent down to a sewer lid. “I can’t believe this,” Aron mumbled as he lifted the lid and went in.
“Ugh,” Rowan groaned as his phone rang. “Argentum!” Rowan called. “Sir why are you up so early making all this noise?” Argentum muttered while he stumbled into Rowan’s room. “We have a new case!” Rowan declared excitedly. “Well then, we should go to the crime scene,” Argentum said sarcastically. To Rowan it seemed to take an eternity to arrive where the crime took place. As soon as they arrived, they were greeted by a woman in uniform. “Greeting gentlemen. I am Officer Kyung-Soon, we are infinitely lucky to have such esteemed detectives working with us,” Kyung said cheerfully. “Could you please fill us in on the details?” Rowan asked hopefully while pulling out a notepad. Rowan listened with great interest whilst scribbling down some notes.
As Officer Kyung led Rowan and Argentum down to the crime scene, Rowan caught a whiff of some foul smell.

“What in blazes is that smell coming from?” Rowan asked when he doubled over, gagging. “That my friend is a homeless person,” Argentum stated matter-of-factly. “A homeless person by this bank?” Rowan blurted. “Yeah, what about it?” Officer Kyung wondered aloud. “He may have been a witness to this break in” Rowan replied. “We may as well go interview him just in case.” It turned out that the person’s name was Arthur and he in fact had seen the robbery. “How many people were they? Could you see their gender? How old did they…..” Argentum asked before Rowan interrupted, “Please pardon my companion, we are detectives and would appreciate if you could tell us what you saw last night.” “There were three of them, one girl and two boys. They looked about 25 or so,” Arthur croaked. “Tall, and knew how to hide.” Producing small bag and dumping it out, a deep green emerald set in platinum with diamond inlay. “Check the sewers,” Kyung ordered. “We found bags!,” someone yelled

up.
Kyung dismissed the policemen.

“Alright then, let’s go inside the bank take a look at what is in the bags,” Argentum said. “No Argentum, let’s just leave the bags unopened,” Rowan replied sarcastically. “Officer Kyung,” a bank teller greeted warmly. “Argentum and Rowan, meet Roy Richardson,” Kyung said while introducing the detectives to the man. “We found some bags and are hoping that you can help us identify what is inside them,” Rowan said. Opening the bags and tipping them upside down on a table, hundreds of glittering gems and jewelry fell out. “My my, I will look at the bank records and return these to their owners,” Roy said.
“Kyung, please gather the bank staff and review the security footage. Argentum, what is that?” Rowan asked when he saw a red smear. “That my dear friend is called blood,” Argentum rolled his eyes. “Roy, are the vaults still unlocked?” “Yes detective.” As they rounded the corner into a vault, a body came into view, sloppily hid behind a shelf. “Look, it’s a body,” Argentum stated matter-of-factly. “Yes, and it has fingerprints,” Rowan replied as he fished out a magnifying glass from his pocket. “They are smeared, but there are three different ones,” Rowan

concluded.
“All of the suspects are gathered, and the security footage isn’t intact,” Kyung reported. “Yeah, there is a dead body,” Argentum replied, ever the bringer of bad news. “Well that’s great, I will have it checked,” Kyung promised. “Oh, by the way, all but four suspects have alibi’s.” Moments later Kyung returned with some officers in tow. “Meet Gertrude Fisher and James Harrison.” “The man murdered was named Rikishi, a bank keeper,” Gertrude said. “The suspects remaining are Annebeth Dennison, Jacqueline Smith, Jhonne Dutcher, and A. Aron. They are all minor bank staff,” James stated. “We found this while searching Jhonne’s car,” James said and handed Argentum a note. Argentum read, “My drug problem is escalating and I am not sure how to quit. My money goes to my obsession. I hope to stop before it is too late.” “Well then,” Argentum said. “Time for interrogations.”
“Detective,” Annebeth whispered. “Yes? Everyone has left already.” Rowan answered. “Aron, Jhonne, and I robbed the bank. Aron was the one who killed Rikishi,” Annebeth confessed. “Yes I knew it was them,” Rowan replied. “How?” Annebeth asked in awe. “By my recollection, there were two boys and one girl, the hard part was finding which girl,” Rowan continued before she could ask more. The culprits went into the police car without a struggle. “Jhonne is seizing!” Annebeth roared. “I am sorry, but he is dead,” Officer Kyung said.