Shadows

a crime scene

The furniture was standing on its place. The couch was looking like somebody had been sitting on it. A number and tape marking the shape of a human being showed, that this was the place where he died. Schulze examined the floor as his friend started searching the couch for genetic material. The police found drugs in the drawers of the table. countless papers were on top of it. Over pictures hanged on the wall. Family members, friends and a girlfriend smiled from the pictures into their dead friends home.

"I want a name list of those people... We need to contact every available person... Jones, collect all those papers... Hallelujah is going to search them for fingerprints..." Schulze commanded as he went out from the office into the bathroom. "Here we have a towel. Hallelujah come and collect it!"

Hallelujah removed a hair from the couch and went into the bathroom. To reach the towel he closed the door behind himself. "If his murder dried his hands here, we'll know it fast... And here is a comb with hair.. From his girlfriend I suppose..."

Schulze stood in front of the window thinking. "The murder visited him last night... injected him the drug and went out... Then the door would lock automatically after him... The old women from next door said that his girlfriend was here last night..."

"Probably she was it... Or it could be that somebody else arrived later when our witness was already asleep... And it's also possible that..." Hallelujah slipped on the soap that was lying on the floor. Schulze caught his friend and laughed. "What the hell...?"

"Now you know what I felt like this morning when I stepped into this lake Paparazi made to clean our floor," he laughed, "Have you heard that noise the soap made when it hit the bath? It sounded empty."

Hallelujah kneeled down next to his friend carefully touching the place where the soap hit. As Schulze's hand walked down, one of the tiles went a little in. Carefully he put his fingers at the edges and pulled it out. The space behind it was filled with money.

Both looked breathless at the treasure. Then Schulze took a bundle of notes and was about to put it into his pockets. Hallelujah eyes opened widely.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Shshsh..." Schulze said and took another one. Hallelujah caught his hand and looked deeply into his eyes.

"Look this guy was a criminal... he got the money out of some kind of wicked stuff..."

"This gives you no right to steal."

"Steal from who? This is illegal money. Even if he has an heir he's never going to see it."

"The money belongs to the government."

"And what? The government has plenty. This is a tiny amount for the whole country. They can't even build a school from it. It's no deal to them if they have the money or not."

"If everybody does this they won't have anything."

"Of course you have to be a good example but who's ever going to hear of this."

Anger lit up in Hallelujahs eyes.

"My dear friend... the government doesn't need it but I do. You know that my drinking costs a lot... And now my car is banged into a tree so it needs a big repair... and my wife is angry with me because the money is missing and we are already saving everywhere! Come on I won't take it all just this one bundle..."

"It's wrong and illegal. You can take the bus until you saved the money."

"And my wife? Who's going to calm Emma down? I could do so much good. and if you want you can have something too. Didn't you say that a broken tub floated your basement so you need to see where to get the money for the plumbers out?"

Doubts appeared in Hallelujah's head. He knew well how his friend's marriage was getting worse... He knew how Emma was struggling with her husband's drinking... It seemed so right and he also could take something- Not much just enough to cover his debts... His hand was ready to take some money when it hit him as lighting.

"It's stealing and stealing is never good. There is no excuse."

"So are you going to call the others and tell them?"

He released his friend's hand. "Do whatever you like but remember that it's not good."

Schulze quickly put some money in his pockets.

"Come here we found some hidden money." Hallelujah called the team and a policemen entered the bathroom.

After some time the police left the house. "He was found with the syringe in his hand...", Hallelujah taught loudly as they were walking out, "If there are any fingerprints it will be interesting... His girlfriend used to live here but she moved out two months ago... Anyway she came back yesterday around 7pm and left at about 10..."

"Very suspicious... We'll make somebody find her. It shouldn't be too difficult, some of the papers on his table were hers'... Anything else?"

"As much as known she came on a motto and..." Hallelujah stopped all of a sudden and stared at the wet road.

"What is wrong?", Schulze asked.

"His neighbors are parking in their backyard... His car is here... The lady has no drivers license ..."

"And?" Schulze looked were his friend were looking. The rain in the night had made the whole street wet. Only in front of the victims door a place was dry. The square shape of a parking car.

"Why did the neighbors not report this one?", Schulze asked and his eyes became two dark lines looking with suspicion at the neighbors house.

"We'll see if anybody had a visitor last night."

"A very late one. It was raining from 10 to 12."

Schulze went over to the neighbors house and Hallelujah remained at the road thinking. When Schulze came back from their house the doctor was still standing at the same place, looking at the house. "The neighbor was watching football the whole night, but during the break he went to the bathroom and saw a car out of the window... He'll come today at 3pm..."

Hallelujah showed no reaction.

"Are we growing routes here?"

"I wonder..."

"What?"

"I wonder why the murderer left the stereo on... If it would be me, I would have switched it off before I go."

"Maybe he was nervous."

"Or he was disturbed."

"Let's see... The house door locks automatically after somebody entered. Our friend Krick lived at the first floor. The old women as well... The second floor is yet waiting for an inhabitant..."

"So nobody could enter... Also I don't think that our costumer was expecting any visitors.... Then it must have been the women banging at the door at two o clock!"

"Let's see if we have any footprints under his windows."

Carefully trying not to leave marks on the grass. Schulze approached the house. When he reached the wall he started moving slowly along it inspecting every centimeter. Under the living room window he suddenly stopped with a smile. "Schmidt," he called and a policeman looked out of the window, "Search the living room. The murderer escaped through this window."

Slowly he started following the murderer's footprints. "This jerk was running like a mad man. His feet barely touched the ground... I see only his toes... I think he was running towards that bush."

"In this case I feel sorry for him," Hallelujah responded, "This bush has more thorns than leaves."

He went to the bush and had a closer look. "Yes, the branches are pushed inside... Poor fellow. But when I get him, I will have to say thank you. He was kind enough to leave us some blood."

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