The Writers' Block Anthology

Halloween Mad Lib - The Case

Detectives Krieger and Shepherd sat hunched over what the department deemed as 'The Halloween Massacre' case. The moon was high in the sky and several empty espresso cups dotted the already crowded desk.

"Oh my God," Krieger groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I can't look at this case again. It reads just like a mad lib."

"I hate to break it to you, Duke, but--," Shepherd muttered, trying to take a swig of espresso before realizing the cup was empty. "Damn it, out of caffeine again."

"But what?" Krieger leaned back in his chair with a sigh, tearing his eyes from the gory images and to the ceiling.

"This is our job. We get the case, we solve the case."

"But why do we get these cases?" Krieger gestured to the case file scattered on the desk.

Shepherd chuckled, "You mean homicides?"

"No, I'd kill for a simple homicide right now."

"Nice choice of words."

"Oh, whatever, look at this case! Have you ever seen anything so bizarre?"

Shepherd shrugged, "It's just another case. Another one we need to solve and bring peace back to the families of the victims as well as the community." He picked up a picture of a guy in a vampire costume so bathed in blood he appeared as a crimson smudge in a graveyard backdrop. The only thing that stood out from the darkness and red was the half-moon of pearly white teeth smiling at the camera. "This boy slaughtered the majority of his high school class and claims to not remember a thing. We have to bring justice for that. It's not bizarre, just another psycho we need to put behind bars."

"But that's just it," Krieger said, leaning forward in his chair and pointing to the vampire boy, "he's not another psycho. He doesn't even fit the profile of someone who would actually do something like this. The psych evaluation proved that. And the amnesia seems to be legit."

"People can fake amnesia, you know."

"He, as well as his two surviving victims, show classic signs of PTSD."

"Duke," Shepherd sighed, "the suspect can show signs of PTSD and still be the perpetrator. We found him covered in the blood of every victim we identified at the graveyard. His fingerprints were all over the murder weapon and one of his surviving victims put him at the scene of the crime."

Krieger shuffled through the papers laid out before him until he uncovered the profiles of the two surviving victims. The first was a girl named Jade. She had been a long-time friend of the suspect. The second was her younger brother, Jesse, who hasn't spoken since the incident. "I get it, but can you tell me why the younger brother is scared of his sister? He won't even be in the same room as her. Whatabout why their dad has been charged with assault and battery on the same night they became victims? Their dad also claims to remember nothing. Just like our main suspect." Krieger grabbed the picture of the suspect grinning at the camera and pointed at the trees. "Those are intestines hanging like garlands. How did they get up there? Even slinging them couldn't get them that high. Besides, how did he have the energy to kill that many people? It's hard to kill that many people, let alone with this amount of overkill."

Shepherd opened his mouth as though he was about to respond before Krieger grabbed Jade's medical documents. He placed them on the table in front of Shepherd. "And what about the inconclusive DNA they found at the crime scene and now is in Jade? Her bloodwork was wack and some of her cells don't have her original DNA. How did that happen and how is she still alive, hm?"

"I--"

"Or," Krieger pushed himself to his feet and walked over to a stack of case files they had yet to touch that came in on Halloween. He placed his hand on top of the stack. "Can you explain these? All of these happened on the same night. Most of the perpetrators or suspects of these crimes claim to not remember anything either. That is if we can find evidence of a crime. Some of these seem like prank calls but there are too many for all of them to be prank calls."

"We aren't working those cases," Shepherd replied. "We focus on the massacre case."

"We can't rule out that these aren't all connected."

"It was Halloween. Someone calling in because they saw a grim reaper 'floating' outside their door is not that strange."

"It's strange when Jade claims that she ran into her father earlier in the night and said he was part skeleton and dressed as a grim reaper."

"Special effects can do crazy things."

"He tried to attack her."

"He's a horrible parent."

"But--"

Shepherd held up his hand, "Krieger, there is a logical explanation for all of this. There always are on these types of cases. Just because there isn't a clear answer now doesn't mean it's not right in front of us. We just have to keep focus and keep working the case."

"I know there's a logical explana--"

"You were but a few sentences away from claiming that monsters were real," Shepherd cut in with a smirk. "I think the caffeine and late nights are getting to you."

Krieger scoffed. "I can handle it."

"Alright, but if you start seeing things, I'm having you reassigned."

The two sat for a moment before Shepherd gave a snicker as he picked up a piece of paper he had been scrawling on for the past week or so since the case. "Wanna see what I have so far?"

"Have for what so far?" 

With a dramatic clearing of his throat Shepherd began his mad lib. "A [vampire] jock threw a party at a [graveyard] to impress his [girlfriend] whose father was a [grim reaper]. His girlfriend the [vampire] couldn't make it to the party so the jock [murdered] out of sadness."

Krieger leaned back in a hearty laugh. "I can't wait to see the rest of that mad lib."