• Chapter 1: The Phone Brings Grim News

    The sky exploded with color. Much needed rain came as the sun set causing colors to fly everywhere. Jason Daniels, a private investigator with a keen eye for detail, stepped into his newly rented office in Downtown L.A, California. He smiled at his name in silver letters on the door, and put away the umbrella that he never opened. The Southern California Fire Season had just ended and it felt good to feel rain and water instead of smoke and ash.
    Behind Jason came his basset hound, Keith, shaking the water off his body onto the fresh, clean carpet.
    "Aww , Keith, did u have to get the office wet!" came another voice walking into the P.I. Agency.
    "Luke, glad you could make it!" Jason burst with happiness at seeing his old friend and current partner, Luke Johnson, walk into the office.
    "Daniels Investigations? Couldn't have possibly put my name in there could you?" Luke said with a sly smile as he eyed the lettering on the office door.
    "We've talked about this, remember, just in case you decided to switch careers, I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to make a new sign, you know that takes forever!" Daniel's chuckled, ignoring Luke still eyeing the door.
    "You know I won't do that, we've been detectives at heart ever since we were kids, we've been solving mysteries."
    "Yeah, remember that time that we found my mom's wallet and she gave us fifteen dollars for it!" Jason and Luke started laughing out loud.
    "Little did she know we we're the ones that took it!" Luke laughed again as Jason got back to work.
    "Well, we've done enough reminiscing, time for us to start advertisement!" Jason pushed a stack of posters in front of Luke, "You put these ads on the street, and I'll get the L.A Times on the line, I just know we'll get clients soon!"
    Luke stepped out of the office with the stack of papers and Daniels got the newspaper on the phone. Within five minutes, he had an agreement to have his ad in the paper everyday for one hundred dollars a week. As he hung up the phone, Luke walked back in the office.
    "That was quick," Jason mentioned, "how did you pass them out so fast?"
    "Oh, I hired a little girl to pass them out. Agreed to do them for only twenty bucks, can you believe it!" Luke exclaimed.
    "Well, those adds had better work, its gonna be one hundred dollars a week to pay for the newspaper ads." Jason said as he laid out his desk.
    "If we don't make that type of money, we could just tap into your inheritance" Luke bit into an apple he took from his desk. Jason blushed, he hated remembering about his family's wealth. His two year deceased parents had both been fabulously rich and had given everything to him. He had a mansion, a one of a kind car, a vacation home in London, and about 12.5 million dollars in savings.
    " I swore to myself I wouldn't use that money unless I absolutely had to," Jason mumbled.
    "And because of that we got an office five years later than we could have!" Luke snorted.
    " Just forget about it, let's get to work getting everything ready for our first case, I bet we'll get it soon.


    Five days passed, and no such case came their way. "You would think in a city with such a high crime rate would give us some job, especially this close to Christmas" Luke said as he eyed the calendar, it was December 6th, "Hey Jason, maybe my dad will get me something better than socks this year!"
    Luke failed to notice Jason's expression. Single and with very few friends, Christmas was not his favorite time of year.
    "Your right though," Jason replied, "we should be getting some sort of case this close to the holiday season."
    That when the phone rang. Jason jumped at it and put it to his ear, "Daniels Investigations, this is Jason Daniels, how may I help you?"
    "This is Lieutenant Smith of the Las Angeles Police Department, are we to understand that there is a Mr. Luke Johnson working at your firm" the voice said.
    "Yes Mr. Johnson does work here, is something wrong?" Jason whispered.
    "I was just calling to inform him that his father, Troy Johnson, was found dead at his house." Smith replied. Jason almost fainted.
    "As you may know, we are a Private Investigations Agency, do you think that we can come over to see the scene and Luke's father?"
    "Sure, come by the crime scene in twenty, make sure to bring your credentials and Mr. Johnson." Jason hung up.
    "What's wrong, who was on the phone?" Luke started screaming.
    "It was the L.A.P.D. I'm sorry to say this Luke, but you father is dead." Luke stared at Jason and as his jaw opened, bits of apple fell out.