the dead are living.

“His death wasn’t an accident, he was murdered, and his wife Jolie was the only person besides his daughter to see him before his death.” The Sheriff spoke loud and clear, he was practically hissing. I sat behind my desk, tapping my pen on the metal surface; I was listening to the older gentlemen talking about the infamous Mitch Lucker and his recent passing. I shuddered at the thought of the man being dead, when I would see him at Starbucks; he seemed immortal, almost godlike.
“Franceschi, you and Sykes will be working together on this case.” My head snapped up and I looked at the Sheriff, he wanted me to work this case? Well then. I watched as a tall, lanky man walked over to me and sat in a chair near my desk, this must be Detective Sykes, he seemed nice, I guess. I sunk down in my seat and nodded.

“We’ll be doing an autopsy on Mr. Lucker tomorrow.” The sheriff said, he looked at everyone and then walked out of the room. I sighed and faced my computer, I started typing away. I heard someone clear their throat, Detective Sykes was now standing, and he was ridiculously tall. I raised my eyebrow, he started talking.

“Listen mate, I don’t like working with other people, so if you could let me do all the work and you do nothing, I’ve seen your work, and you’ve failed this force many times, you failed to do well.” Sykes said, he crossed his arms, I shrugged, his accent was thicker than mine, he was from Yorkshire, England and I hailed from Weybridge, Surrey.

“Well then, I guess you could do this all on your own” I shuddered, he smirked and nodded, he chuckled as he slowly walked away. I sighed, and saved the documents that I was working on, I logged off my computer and grabbed my bag, and I left my desk and started to head home. We have to find out if Mitch Lucker’s wife is indeed guilty for his murder, or if it was just some freak show accident.

All that I know at the moment is that he had alcohol in his system when he died. I muttered to myself as I walked in the rain, my flat was just around the corner from where I worked and I was thankful for that. I walked up the front stairs of my flat and opened my door. I walked into the small living room and sat on my couch, I grabbed my laptop placing it on my lap. I opened it and then opened up the internet. I began typing things into Google: Mitch Lucker, I frowned when seeing the pictures of his daughter during his vigil. It ached me to see such a young girl looking so lost. I began digging deeper into his life, I turned on my iPhone and checked out his Instagram,I searched to see if he had any medical records, he had an alcohol poisoning a couple of years ago. I jotted down some quick notes about him, and closed my laptop before falling asleep.

I woke up the next day and lazily changed into fresh clothes, I sighed as I sat down to have my daily cup of coffee. I put the cup to my lips, as soon as I took my first swallow of the hot liquid; there was a knock on my flat door. I mumbled to myself and told whoever was behind the door that I was coming. I looked through the peep hole and saw a petite blonde woman holding hands with a little girl. I cocked my eyebrow; I opened the door and looked at them.

“Detective Franceschi, I’m sorry to bother you this early in the morning. I’m Jolie Lucker, the widow of Mitch Lucker. I was wondering if you could help me?” I couldn’t believe what she had just said. I stared blankly at Jolie; she looked at me with hopeful eyes. I shrugged, I moved out of the way so they could come in, Mitch’s daughter hid behind her mother. Jolie ran her through the little girl’s hair; the daughter was a spitting image of Mitch. I sat across from Jolie and Kenadee, as they sat down on the couch opposite from me.

“What can I help you with Jolie?” I asked, still trying to wake up, Jolie took a second to talk
“Could you help me prove my innocence? I had no motive or no reason to kill Mitch, and I don’t like how I’m being blamed for his death. It’s bugging Kenadee, she’s freaked out by it, she barely wants to be with me. It took me a lot to get her to come with me today.” Jolie spoke swiftly; she looked at me again, this time with fear in her eyes. Kenadee looked at her Mom, the little girl then looked at me in the eyes, her eyes filled with confusion and darkness.

“Ms. Lucker, I’d love to help you prove your innocence, however, if you don’t mind me asking could I question you about the night that your husband died.” I asked her, she nodded, I got up and grabbed my laptop that was on the table.

“Of course” She spoke softly, Kenadee scooted away from her a bit, and Jolie looked at her daughter with saddened eyes.
“Where were you at the time of Mitch’s death?” I asked her, quietly, she bit her lip and began thinking.

“I was at Kenadee’s school, for a Halloween party, I saw Mitch leaving the house when I came home, he was stumbling and got on his motorcycle, and Oliver Sykes came out too, I knew they were college roommates previously, but Oliver hated Mitch after what happened.” Jolie answered me, she answered in small detail, and her voice was hushed, I want to ask her what happened but I know that she wouldn’t tell me, I need to dig deeper into why Detective Sykes hated Mitch. I felt bad for her, she now had to raise a six year old girl all by herself, the woman sighed and looked at me. I asked her many more questions. Jolie and Kenadee left, I had half an hour to get to work. I grabbed my bag, turned off my laptop and started heading towards the grey building. I nodded at a few people as I walked down the hallways. I made my way into the office section; I sat down at my desk. I watched as Sykes dropped something on my desk, I glanced up at him and he grinned.
“Lucker’s autopsy results, you might wanna check ‘em out, mate.” Sykes said deviously as he walked away from my desk. I shrugged and opened the manila folder, I looked at the images of the grey man, and his tattoos lost all their vibrant color. I shuddered.

“Josh. Josh Franceschi.” I looked up from the manila folder and saw my friend, Max standing there. I smiled softly, he was the Forensic pathologist. Max sat down and looked at me. “So, we found out that his drink was drugged the night of his death, and Jolie and Kenadee weren’t the last people to see him before he died. Sykes was, too. Why? I don’t bloody know, but we need to figure out what Sykes was doing at the Lucker residence.” I began writing down everything as Max told me, Max got up and walked away. I saw him talk to the Colonel of the Police force;Max Helyer made his way back to the lab. I sighed and started typing away, I put all the information that I learned from Jolie into one giant word document.

My heart started racing as I saw Detective Sykes talking to Jolie, wait, why was Jolie here? Jolie looked scared. Jolie watched me as she was clearly tuning Sykes out. Sykes glared at me, he pointed to me, and Jolie thanked him and walked towards him. Jolie shuddered.
“You alright, little bird?” I asked, she shook her head and a few tears rolled down her cheek.
“I used to be married to Oliver, you know Detective Sykes, and he’s Kenadee’s real father.” she looked up at me, I looked at her with shock. This was new information, and I think we found our killer.

“You used to be married to Oliver? Tell me more.” I saidas she placed her hands in her pockets; a confused look grew upon her face.

“Oliver and I used to be married; Oliver is Kenadee’s real father. Oliver kicked me out when I told him that I was pregnant with Kenadee; he never wanted kids or was one for kids. Oliver got so mad at me when I filed for a divorce, of course I don’t know why he’d be mad at me, he was the one who kicked me out of his life. Shortly after the divorce was finalized, I met Mitch and Mitch took me in, Mitch cared for me, he helped me prepare for Kenadee, he had respect for me. Mitch began acting like Kenadee’s father, he’d tell all his friends how excited he was for her to be here, and then finally three years after Kenadee was born, he proposed and we got married. Oliver found out through a mutual friend and threatened to kill Mitch…” Jolie took a deep breath after telling me all this information. I scribbled down all this information, Jolie started sobbing. I grinned and looked over at Sykes who seemed to be sending out a mass email. I stood up and walked the Chief’s office; I knocked on the door and walked in.

“Chief, I found new information about Lucker’s death.” I said, he looked up from his work.
“Oh? What did you find out.” He asked he stood up; I crossed my arms and grinned.
“Sykes is responsible for Lucker’s death, he used to be Mrs. Lucker’s husband, and he resented Lucker.” I smirked as I spoke, he raised his eyebrow. “Jolie just told me all this information, she told me how Mitch isn’t Kenadee’s real father, but Oliver is.”

The next day I found myself in court, Sykes was sitting with his lawyer, and he had a scowl on his face. I sat with Jolie, Jolie looked at Oliver and frowned, did she regret something? Oliver looked at her with an angered and confused look. Jolie looked away; she took a deep breath as she held back tears.

“Mr. Sykes, you’ve been convicted of first degree murder. You’ve been accused for the murder of Mitch Lucker and based on the evidence that we have received, we have proven you to be guilty of his murder, and you have been dismissed from the police force. You’ll be serving a life sentence.”
Jolie watched as Oliver was led out of the room, Sykes was finally caught for the murder of Mitch Lucker, and to think that I was working with a murderer. As Mitch would say, the dead are living, and they live forever.