Sunday, February 01, 2009

Secret Identity #1.6

Andy held Mariah in his arms as he flew high over the countryside. A part of her was nervous but the other part was thrilled that this was happening to her. The smile never left her face and she marveled at how gentle Andy was to her as they circled over the many cities below them.

"I can't believe this," she said in a hushed voice. "How come you have these powers?"

"I don't know. I discovered I had them shortly after I had an accident. I don't know how I got them or who gave them to me," Andy answered. "Maybe someday I'll learn why I have these powers."

"Does anyone else know you have them?"

"My friend Jess but that's it. Not even my parents know. I'm kind of worried what people will think of me if they knew I had these powers. All Jess can talk about is how I should use my powers for good and help the people of Earth," Andy said.

"What do you think you should use your powers for?" Mariah asked.

"Well," Andy smiled, bringing Mariah's face closer to his own, "let's run you back home and into some really nice clothes and I'll tell you when we arrive in Italy," and Andy swooped back down into Centropolis.




Jess' sister Kimberly was fifteen. She was pretty and popular and everyone liked her whether you wanted to admit it or not. She was also the sixth victim in a kidnapping-murder spree. The place where she was was dark and very moist. Kimberly's hands and feet were tied and her mouth was usually taped shut but was free at the moment. Her captor came into the room and bent down to her ear. "Hello, sweetie," he hissed.

"No! Please let me go," she began crying again. "I won't tell anyone. You can escape. I promise!"

"You've been missing for three days, people will ask. Besides, why break my streak now?" the man gently pushed Kimberly down onto her back. "This will be the last time, I promise. And that's a promise I will keep." The man kissed Kimberly on her forehead and she gasped as he entered her.




"Who Killed Rosalyn Carmen? Part Two"
Manhattan, Kansas was deemed The Little Apple and was home to North Central Kansas A&M. Barney traveled to Manhattan to speak with Professor Everett Murray, Rosalyn Carmen's ex-husband. Rosalyn's death was caused by multiple stab wounds to the abdomen. There was no alcohol or drugs in her system.

None of her neighbors heard anything and there were no suspects outside of a botched robbery or Murray. Barney was hesitant to accuse Murray because Barney thought that Murray was incapable of committing a crime on this scale. Murray was waiting in his office at the A&M and smiled widely when Barney came in.

"Detective Renauld?" Murray stood up and rushed to Barney, extending his hand.

"Yes. You can call me Barney. How are you today Mr. Murray?" Barney shook the man's hand and noted his demeanor.

"Professor and I am pretty good. Would you like anything to drink?" he asked.

"No thanks, I just want to get down to business. When was the last time you saw your ex-wife?" Barney asked.

Murray sat down and motioned for Barney to sit down. "It was probably a couple weeks ago when I dropped our daughter off at her house. I stayed for probably only half an hour before I left to come back to Manhattan. I will admit we had a little fight over the alimony and child support, mainly child support," Murray said.

"Really? What did the fight consist of?"

"I am--was--contesting the child support order because I give plenty of money for my daughter to live on and I don't need the state to tell me when, how or how much money my daughter should get," Murray explained.

"Why did you two get a divorce?"

"Rosalyn caught me sleeping with one of my students. I did everything I could to right the situation but she still filed for divorce. I thought she overreacted greatly.

"I bet. Did you ever yell at her, hit her, raise your voice to her, plot to run her down with your car?"

Murray chuckled. "Of course we raised our voices at each other. We were married. Married couples fight. As for hitting her or plotting vehicular homicide, never," he said. "But that would make a good story. Did you ever see the movie Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Barney eyed Murray suspiciously. "Yeah, I have. Good movie. Do you write a lot? Stories, I mean."

"Not really. I have a novel I'm working on and I have written a couple scripts for those procedural shows on television," Murray revealed.

"Mr. Murray," Barney began.

"Professor Murray," Murray corrected.

Barney looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "Mr. Murray, I am going to have to take your computers--both your personal and work computers. We need them for evidence."

"Well, you can certainly have my personal one but you'd have to clear it with the university to take the..."

"This is for a murder investigation, Mr. Murray so I don't think they would mind," Barney stood up and began working on unhooking the computer. "I'm gonna take this now. If you have a problem with that, I can get a warrant in less than ten minutes."

Murray backed away. "No, no. Go right ahead."

"Mm-hmm, thought so."

Barney set up a makeshift office in the police station in Manhattan, in one of the interrogation rooms. Both computers were set up and Barney was spending time equally on both of them going through the files and looking through each document as closely as he could. His work computer was pretty bare, consisting of only school texts and assignments but his personal computer contained his novel and the television scripts he was working on. Barney read through one of the scripts and was startled at how close this script was to what really happened in Tecumseh.

"Coincidence?" Barney asked himself. Barney opened an Internet browser and began searching through his history. "A lot of Google searches, Professor," Barney said with disgust.

Barney opened several tabs on the browser and opened several of the sites listed in the history. Barney began looking through them. "How to create the perfect murder?" Barney read as he clicked between the pages. "This does not bode well, Mr. Murray," Barney said.

Barney rushed out of the interrogation room. "Hey! I need a warrant and a group of officers to search Professor Murray's house. There is some very incriminating evidence on his computer."

The warrant was filed within five minutes and Barney and a group of five policemen were on Everett Murray's porch within half an hour. "Detective? What are you doing here so...late?" Murray noticed all the policemen and a huge pile of papers in Barney's hand.

"I have a warrant to search your house and you may want to start coming clean about what happened between you and Ms. Carmen," Barney said.

"I've already told you everything."

"I don't believe that. There is some pretty bad stuff on your computer."

"Like what?"

"The scripts you claim you are writing for television shows and websites explaining how to create the perfect murder, MapQuests showing the back way into Tecumseh and the quickest out plus plans on side trips to Paxico to give yourself alibis and I am certain that when we search your kitchen, we will find the knife used in the murder of your ex-wife," Barney explained.

"I can explain all of that, Detective," Murray began. "First of all, those websites were used only for research and I wanted to know the quickest way to and from Tecumseh and I heard of this nice antique place in Paxico and I wanted to stop and look around," Murray tried to explain.

"You say that like it's the truth," Barney pushed past Professor Murray. "I call the kitchen," Barney called.

The police and Barney tore the house apart. Barney looked everywhere in the kitchen--every little crack and hole, Barney peered into. After over an hour, the police all joined together, each holding something they had found in one of the rooms. It was mainly papers filed by Rosalyn to contest the custody and child support.

"Hmm, what are all these?" Barney asked.

"Court papers. If you must know, Rosalyn was trying to keep me from seeing my daughter by saying I molested her. I never touched her but a judge would never believe me."

"I'd say that's motive enough for murder," Barney said and one of the officers approached Professor Murray.

"Motive maybe but you're new at this," Barney held up a knife.

Murray eyed it suspiciously. "Yeah? That's my knife."

"It's Rosalyn's knife. From a kitchen set she had at her house. I took a picture of all the knifes in that set and they match this one exactly. You were angry at Rosalyn for threatening to take away Emili so you went to Tecumseh to talk to her and things got out of hand. Officer, if you will," Barney invited the officer to begin arresting Professor Murray.




Jess fell to her knees after hearing the news over the phone. Kyle did the best he could to comfort her and help her get everything organized to go back to Mason City later in the day.

She cried the entire day. In the evening, just as she and Kyle were about to leave, Andy and Mariah walked in the door. "Hey, guys. Perfect timing. This is Mariah, I met her at work."

Andy noticed Jess was crying. "Where were you?" Kyle asked.

"I was with Mariah. Why? What's wrong?"

"Jess' sister, Kimberly, was murdered in Mason City," Kyle said.

"What? No!" Andy looked like his world came crashing down. "Jess, I am so sorry," Andy approached Jess to hug her but she dodged him.

"Let's go, Kyle. I need to get home," she sobbed.

Andy stood in the middle of the front room. Mariah came up and hugged him but Andy just stood there.

Secret Identity returns March 8th
Andy hunts for Kimberly's killer; aliens attack Centropolis; someone becomes a hero.