Chapter 1
1.
8:30pm
I hadn’t played a gig in years due to life, family, kids and divorce. This, this felt like I was supposed to be here. Arriving at the local bar early I had done sound check, made sure all my settings were right where they were. Finally before leaving the stage I tuned my guitar.
The gig was incredible. Just a small venue but damn did we blow the roof off of it. All of it with only a minor problem. I stepped on my cable once, almost made it through a song before I realized it. We played for almost three hours. We played, the audience danced. The joy and energy was intoxicating, so much so that there was nearly no need to drink. After the last chord rung out and we did a bow, tear down started.
I had taken the last few things out to my car, made sure it was all secure and waved at the few people that were still hanging around. I was driving home still flying high on the left over adrenaline. There was some minor road construction happening in our town so there was a detour right in the heart of it. The turn the detour sent me on was another main road in town but if you followed the directions all the way to the next sign, which I had to do, I would drive down one of the two dark alleys. I rarely drove this way until the detour. I took the turn and flicked on my brights.
The lights covered the alley in bright white. As I slowly drove down the road I saw a shadow off to the side about fifteen feet from the turn. I approached slowly in case something came out and I had to brake quickly. I was almost to where it was I started to speed up a bit as it didn’t look like anything was moving. As I passed it I looked in my mirror and by dim light of my rear lights I saw a man’s bleeding face!
2.
I’m pretty sure you could hear my brakes screech for miles. I threw the old car in park and jumped out, turned on my phone’s flashlight and ran back towards the face. I almost tripped over him I was in such a haze of confusion. I knelt down next to him and asked if he was alright. There was no response. I checked for signs of life only to met with what probably was the last weak beats of his heart. The rain had started as I took out my phone and dialed 911, 1:57am. They told me to ten minutes or less. I was at a loss of what to do at this point but to wait for the ambulance. I decided to attempt to see what took his life. I walked around his lifeless body slowly shining my flashlight on it, and even though it was bright I could only see small part of the scene clearly. When my light reached his hand I saw it catch something shiny. It was raining and dirty behind the building in this alley that was mostly sand and gravel, what was clean and shining!
When the ambulance arrived I had only taken what was in his hand and put it in my pocket. I still had no idea what it was. The paramedics confirmed he had died, packed his body in the ambulance, thanked me for calling and left for the hospital. The police had arrived shortly after the ambulance so I had to give a statement before I could leave. When the police were finally done it was going on 3 am. I was tired both emotionally and mentally, and I wanted to look at the thing that felt like a thousand pounds in my pocket.
I got in my car and sent a quick text to my girlfriend to let her know I was alright.”hey I’m alright, long story, talk in the morning. Love you” I didn’t expect a response, I just felt better knowing she knew. I turned the key and headed home, I had almost forgotten about the object I was carrying and fell in to bed.
3.
9:30am
When woke the next morning I checked my phone. There was a message from my girlfriend “I am glad you are alright. Call me when you can.” I went to the bathroom and then quickly dialed her number. We spoke for about fifteen minutes as I recounted the previous nights events. The call ended with “I love you, see you in a few hours.” No sooner had the call ended when the screen lit up with Private Number in my hand “Hello?” I said cautiously.
“Hello this is Detective Pullman, it is my understanding that you had quite an evening last night. Can you tell me about it?”
“Yes, I will. I went to play guitar at a show I had booked for a small band I had put together. It was great.”
“What time was that?”
“We took the stage around 9pm, and played for nearly three hours.”
“What happened after the show?” Detective Pullman quickly responded
I recounted for the detective what had happened after I left the venue the night before. How I had found the man in the alley and only put my ear to his chest to see if he was still living.
“Did you move him or touch him in anyway?” Pullman asked after I had told my story.
“No, not at all, I did look around a little to see if I could see what had killed him.” I said as evenly as possible because at this moment I remember that that shiny object was silently in my pocket.
“Ok, Thank you, we will be in touch. Please call if you have anymore information.”
“ Wait, I do have a question… well two. Do you have any information on who the man was, or what killed him? I replied quickly
There was a long pause “Yes, no name yet, he seems to have died from a violently inflicted stab wound to the neck. You probably couldn’t see the wound in the dark. There was something strange about him though…”
Chapter 2
1.
10:40am
After the conversation ended I quickly got up and went to my room. When I got to where thrown my pants from the night before I stopped. Why did I take this object? What was I possibly getting myself into? I picked up the pants and reached in the front right pocket. The metal was cold in my palm as I took the round piece out. I went to my desk and set it under the magnifier I use for making wiring repairs on my instruments. With the lamp on I started to look for anything to indicate what it was. The same piece of metal was thicker than a coin but it clean and the light from the lamp was shining off of it. Peering through my magnifier I started to examine it. There were markings on it but they seemed to be worn down enough that I couldn’t make out what they were. One of the sides looked like it had a face of something on it but the refining or cleaning process obscured the full image. When I turned it over there were words on the back, more like letters, “T_F K_LL” underneath that was a clear “MI”. I figured this meant Michigan. Aside from this I had no idea what I was looking at. I wondered why anyone would give their life for this.
As if being jerked out of a dream, “Daddy” I heard a small voice say. It was my weekend.
2.
11:10
My ex-wife, had dropped off our daughter a little early but I wouldn’t ever think of it as a burden. I love my daughter and spending time with her was one of my favorite things to do. She was 12 and already smarter than me at 35 it seemed. She had a great memory, razor sharp intuition, and a hunger for knowledge. I was sure I was doing one thing right. After we ate some lunch, canned ravioli, we packed up our library books. My daughter had read all her books so she was excited to get more. My books were always far less exciting by her standards, long sad stories. The books she was referring to were the crime books I was always reading, the last being a book about criminal psychology.
12:00
After we got all the books packed up it was off to the library. The weather was sunny but not hot on this Saturday afternoon in early June. When we got to the library I asked her what she wanted to look for, her immediate answer was “I would like to read about bees” We found a few and headed to a table to decide which ones we should borrow. This was never easy and she liked to take her time so that I had to wait to look for “the sad books” as she had started calling them. We headed upstairs to the adult section after almost a half hour of deliberation and a dog puppet that we were able to borrow. As we made it to the top of the stairs I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. I want to know what the thing on my desk meant and why that man would have had it.
13:00
I stood in front of the computer library catalogue trying to keep my daughter near while trying to figure out what to look for. I shrugged and turned to my daughter, holding the metal talisman out “What do you think this is?” She cautiously looked in my hand, tilted her head and said “Money?”
“No, it is too thick to be money” I had hardly answered when she took it. The clean metal gleamed in the fluorescent light of the library as she held it in her hands.
“There is letters on it, it looks like T,E,K,L,L. That’s not a word that I know.” Her answer was almost sad.
“It is definitely not a word I know either”
“Where did you get it? Maybe that person would know.” With that she turned it over and her eyes widened “MI! Thats Michigan”
“You are correct. As for where I got it, I don’t think I can ask that person anymore.” I answered slowly.
