Sun, Sand, Suicide

Just a few miles away from a near by gas station a car was pulled to a holt with three teenagers fleeing from the car in terror, for a young high school senior had just been killed.
“So tell me kids, what happened here.” The seniors just looked at each other. All too traumatized to answer. They were all lined up with Jacob Renolds, on the left, Rachel Shortt, in the middle, and Shelby Nelson on the right. All close friends with the victim Michael Winston. Or so it seemed that way.
Michael was a popular sports jock at school. There could have been millions of people at school who would love to see him died, but this murder had been committed inside a moving vehicle. The only question puzzling Officer Henson was how this murder could have been committed.
According to the witnesses testimonies’ the victim was sitting in the passengers set next to the driver. He was merely talking with them when suddenly he went into a type of trans and passed out. The driver, Jacob immediately stopped to see what was wrong with his friend. When Michael didn’t wake up he screamed out that he was dead. That’s what caused the girls to flee the scene and when Jacob quickly called the police on his cell phone.
When the police arrived the cell phone was confiscated and all the suspects were questioned. Jacob was found to be a very good chemist. It would have been easy for him to poison Michael and the fact that he was sitting so close to the victim at the time of death was even more convincing to Officers Henson’s theory. There was also the fact that even though they were close friends Michael would still tease him.
A man can only take so much humility, especially from a friend. Although, there was the cheerleader, Rachel. They were secretly dating, but it seems everyone knew about their little affair anyway. Officer Henson thought there might have been a fight or a type of love triangle involved to make Rachel go bad with jealousy. Then last was Shelby. Shelby was on the year book committee at school and was good friends with Michael. They met at a game when she couldn’t stop taking pictures of him making multiple touchdowns. There didn’t seem to be anything that could really point to her being the killer.
After the questioning was over Officer Henson was pretty much convinced that the prim suspect was Jacob. As he turned to walk over to his car to radio in for an ambulance to take the body away from the scene. Then out of the blue a red sports car came zooming down the rode with multiple police cars chasing behind. Officer Henson flinched as the sports car came to a screeching holt side-ways, with the door facing him. He stayed perfectly still as armed officers pointed towards the car. The officers’ yelled out, “Get out of the car! With your hands in the air!” The window rolled down slowly and out popped a head. A very familiar head. It was Detective Kiel!
“Kiel what are you doing here?” Officer Henson was surprised to see Kiel going to the beach. “Oh! Henson is that you? What are you doing here?” Kiel slipped out of his car, still with multiple guns aiming at his body as he moved about. “There has been a murder here, and I was just about to call someone about it.” Kiel had walked off to the crime scene, ignoring everything the officer had just told him. “Kiel what are you doing here anyway?” Officer Henson ran to Kiel’s side to see what he was up to. The other officers had lowered their guns after realizing he was a friend of Officer Henson.
“I was on my face book this morning and I saw I had gotten a new comment. So I read it, just to see what some random person had to say. I found out it was about my new profile photo I had posted. The person said I was too pale and should get some sun. Then from that I packed my things and decided to go to the beach.”
Officer Henson just stared for awhile at Kiel. He couldn’t believe Kiel had a face book. “I didn’t know you had a face book?”
“Everyone has a face book now-a-days.” Kiel said as he moved on to the other side of the car. “There seems to be no tampering with the car itself or the inside. This sure was a pretty clean murder.” Kiel was starting to feel very uneasy about this so called murder. “Yes, my men and I noticed that before. So we concluded that one of the killers had to be one of the three friends the victim was traveling with.
Kiel started to think of a few possibilities‘, then noticed that next to the body was a drinking cup. “Henson! Was there any trace of poison on or in that cup there?” Kiel pointed to the cup lying next to the victim. “Um, yes there were traced of poison found on the cup. That’s how he concluded this has a homicide.” Kiel was silent for a moment and then gave a small smile. “Officer Henson? Could you tell me the stories these three kids told you in questioning?”
“Sure Kiel, lets see, the cheerleader Rachel was dating Michael, Jacob, the chemist, was being bullied by Michael and was the closest person to the victim before he died, and last was Shelby, she’s on the year book committee and seems to have nothing pointing to her being the culprit.”
“I see. Then could you do me a favor and bring those three to me so I may question them as well?”
“What for Kiel? Don’t you trust my own judgment?”
“It’s not that Henson, but you’re not getting the whole picture.”
“How’s that?”
“To hang a picture you need a frame.”
“What does that mean?” Kiel smiled. “You’ll know soon enough.
Soon the kids were all lined up for Kiel’s questioning. “I thought we had already been questioned. What more do you guess want?” Shouted Rachel. She was truly upset about this whole thing. “It won’t take long. I promise. First lets start with the gas station only a few miles from here. Did you guys stop there to get gas or something?”
“Yes. I needed to get some more gas for the car. So I was outside the care.” Said Jacob. “What did the rest of you do?”
“I went to the restroom. My make-up was starting to run due to the heat.” Rachel said as she opened her purse to prove that her make-up really was running. Inside was a few things of blush and lipstick. Also some wipes were in view. She must have used those to clean herself, though Kiel.
“Then what about you Shelby?”
“I decided to get everyone something to drink, my treat of course.”
“Then you’re the killer! You’re the one who poisoned Michaels cup!” Shouted Officer Henson. “I’m sorry Henson, but that’s not absolutely true.”
“What?”
“Let me continue with my questioning and you’ll find out my friend.” Kiel continued on. “Then can one of you tell me what Michael was doing at the time. I’m sure he just didn’t stay in the car and wait, now did he?”
“No, he said he was going to help Shelby with the drinks.” Said Jacob. “That seems a little strange?”
“How’s that? We are friends after all, it’s not that weird to help out a friend.” Said Shelby. “I guess so, but why not go see what was taking his girlfriend so long in the bathroom. I’m pretty sure she only said she had to go, and not that she was going to redo her make-up. Most girls think greatly of their appearances and wouldn’t show a messy face to their boyfriends.” Shelby was starting to feel a little uneasy. Her face got red and hot. “Then does that mean Shelby did it?” Jacob asked. “No, to tell you the truth the real picture here is frame.”
“Frame?”
“Yes, frame Officer. This was no murder, but a framed suicide!”
“Suicide! How did you come to that conclusion? And who was framed and by who?”
“The one framed was Shelby, and the one who framed her was the victim himself!”
“You must be crazy Kiel. There’s no way such a thing can be possible!”
“I might be, or you might have over looked a few things yourself my friend. For in Shelby’s pocket is the murder weapon!”
Shelby couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but then slide her hand slowly into her pocket. Inside she felt something and was struck with fear. She grabbed it quickly and opened her hand to find a small packaged. The package looked like a sugar package you put in coffee or tea. Then Shelby realized what had happened. Kiel gave a small grin “That’s the package containing the poison found in Michael’s cup! That is how he poisoned himself. Because he bought his own drink, which I’m guessing was ice tea, he poured this into it. Making Shelby think it was sugar. Then after leaving the gas station together Michael probably pretended to trip and snuck the rapper into Shelby’s pocket without her knowing. How does that logic sound?”
Shelby pulled her hands back from the package and let it fall. Luckily Kiel grabbed it with a pair of gloves and handed it to one of Henson’s men. He told the man to look for any figure prints that might be visible. “That was how Shelby was framed for this fake murder.”
“I don’t get it Kiel. Why frame Shelby?”
“I’ll explain further then, when Michael was with Shelby he decided to pay for his own drink. To trigger such an event Shelby had to have said something to greatly upset him. Something that also triggered the suicide. I’m not sure what it was, but due to the fact you are on the year book committee and take pictures of the most popular people in school. I could guess that maybe you had a little something on Michael and decided to blackmail him. For what reason I don’t know. So it would be so nice of you Shelby if you could clear this little matter up for us. I do have other things I wish to do today.”
“Fine! You got me okay? I was blackmailing him. I blackmailed him because I wanted him to go out with me and dump Rachel.”
“So you were jealous?”
“Yes, but I had no idea he was planning to kill himself over a silly picture. He came to me asking if I would reconsider blackmailing him. I laughed at him. I said he was stupid and blind. I was so sure all he saw in Rachel was her beauty and body, but I was wrong. From all this happening I’ve realized that he really did love Rachel and didn’t want to hurt her feeling with this picture of mine.” Shelby pulled out a small photo from her purse. “I always kept it with me, just in case he decided to date me. Then I could just take out the picture and tare it into a million pieces in front of him.”
“What a silly fantasy.”
“It wasn’t a fantasy! It was a goal.” Shelby started to cry. She knew it was all her fault and there was nothing she could do. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry Michael. I only wanted you to love me.” Shelby let the picture float out of her hand. On it was Michael kissing another girl at his championship game out of state. Kiel picked up the photo and looked at it with disgust. “How stupid! For a man to die over a small thing as this. Some men are too weak.”
Later fingerprints were found. They belonged to Shelby from when she found the rapper in her pocket and Michael’s when he poisoned himself. This is what proved Shelby’s innocents, but it didn’t mean much. Then Kiel slide back into his car and drove into the sunset. To end a most dreadful day.