• It was late on a Sunday afternoon when the Jason Daniels Private Investigation Agency opened for business. On the third floor of an old, run down building built in the 1980’s, sat a small office with a glass door, a seating area, and a meeting room. In this office stood two men, one stood tall and lanky, with 6 foot 2 inches of small but powerful muscles, all topped off with a head of unruly blond hair. This man was Luke Johnson, best friend and now collogues with the leader of the new P.I agency Mr. Jason Daniels. Jason stood next to Luke, showing the differences between the friends’ personalities. Jason wore his usual 3-piece suit, long black coat, and short, professional cut hair. His shoes were shined, and added an inch to his 5 foot 6 inch height, with very little fat but not much muscle.
    “Finally! We made it!” Luke clapped loudly, and the clap echoed through the old office, “We got ourselves a P.I business buddy. We can kick back and relax. We’ve gotten this far, all we can do is wait for crime to come our way. Which won’t take very long, did you hear that our crime rate went up six percent over the past year? We’ll have business in no time at all!”
    “We’ll while you sit around doing nothing, I’m going to make sure that we get work soon,” Jason picked up a large stack of paper. Handing half of it to Luke he said, “And if you want your pay check you are going to help me advertise.”
    Luke sighed but took the papers, “Ok, you take Uptown, I’ll take Downtown. Meet back here in two hours for some grub, ok?” Daniels agreed, and they went their separate ways.

    It was a week before the duo set out to advertise their services before the Jason Daniels Private Investigation Agency had their first customer stand outside of their door.
    Jason had arrived at the office that day to set up an organizational system for his files, create an evidence locker, and to change the combination on the safe. It was around noun when he heard the knock on his door. Through the foggy glass, Jason could make out the image of a man hunched over, doing what seemed to be leaning on the door frame.
    Daniels walked towards the door, keeping an eye on the man, who seemed to look more and more ill as Daniels approached the entrance. Upon opening the door the mysterious man fell on the floor. Jason could see he was gravely injured, so he turned the body over.
    For a second, Jason half thought that the man was wearing a dark red shirt, but when he placed his hand on the fabric, he found that his hand was covered in blood, “I’ll call an ambulance. Don’t worry. You’ll be safe. Now tell me, do you know who did this to you? A name? A description? Anything. I’ll catch the guy, I promise you”
    The man twisted on his side, “It happened at work. I was…”
    “Yes, yes! What happened? I called the paramedics. They are on their way. Tell me, who did it. “
    “I…..I don’t know. I can’t remember. I think it was….it was….” the man died, after his last breath left his body the paramedics burst into the room.
    Slouched in the corner, Jason mumbled, “It’s too late. He…he died. There was nothing I could do.” He stayed in a sort of shocked trance until the Police arrived.
    “Mr. Daniels? Mr. Daniels? Hello?”the Police Sergeant Jonathan Murphy shook Jason back into his senses, “Mr. Daniels, if you’d like, I could have one of the Officers take you home.”
    “No. No,” Daniels shook his head, “but…I would…I would like to help you with the investigation.”
    “Mr. Daniels, I thank you for the offer, but…”
    “No! No, I want to help. Before he…before he died I promised him I’d find out who did this. Please, please, let me help you.”
    “Alright Mr. Daniels, but right now I want you to be escorted home. Take some rest. I’ll be at your apartment in the morning to tell you about the case. Detective Cornell will take you home ok?”
    Jason reluctantly got up and followed Cornell out to the police cruiser in front of the office building. They got in and Jason slept the entire way to his apartment complex. He woke up to Officer Cornell shaking him slightly.
    “Mr. Daniels? Mr. Daniels we are here. Come on; let’s get up to your room.”
    Jason shuffled into the elevator, and when they reached his room on the fifth floor, Detective Cornell helped the Private Eye into his bed.
    “Ok, Sergeant Murphy will be here tomorrow. Good night.” Cornell turned out the light as he locked the door behind him on the way out.

    Jason woke 16 hours later to loud thudding on the door.
    “Mr. Daniels? Are you ok? It’s Sergeant Murphy. Let me in ok?”
    Jason pulled a robe on as he stepped toward the door. As he put his eye to the peep-hole the door got slammed back.
    “Oh. Mr. Daniels. I’m so sorry. I was afraid that you were hurt or into shock or something. I’m sorry. I’ll pay for any door bills or injuries…”
    “It’s alright. I’m fine. Don’t worry. Now let’s sit down. What have you found out on the murder?”
    “Well let’s go into the kitchen. I brought some breakfast if you don’t mind,” he jiggled a box of doughnuts; “I got some chocolate and glazed if you want anything. You want me to send for coffee?”
    “No, that’s fine. Now, can I see the crime scene pictures? Tell me what has happened.”
    “Ok, let me get the pictures out of my car. Have some doughnuts.” The sergeant got up and left the room.
    Jason opened the box and was about to take a doughnut when he noticed that Murphy had left his briefcase on the floor.
    “Why would he need to go to the car if he has his case with him,” Jason mumbled to himself. He walked to Murphy’s seat and opened the briefcase. Inside were the case files, pictures, and evidence.
    “This doesn’t make sense,” Jason started flipping through the files.
    “The bullet was the same caliber as that used by the Police force. The murder victim was a bookie. He was found with his customer roster,” Daniels started reading the notes out loud, “ Kristen Flynn, Calvin Cohn…no…no…”
    Jason read the last name and started scrambling the notes and evidence back into the briefcase. He ran to the phone and started dialing Luke.
    Jason felt the phone shatter out of his hand before he heard the gun shot, “Now now Jason, no need to go callin’ in the troops,” Murphy sneered as he re-cocked his gun, “we don’t want your Calvary running in and spilin’ the moment!”
    “Why Murphy? Why’d you kill him? So you owed the bookie some money. So what? You didn’t have to murder the guy.”
    “You still don’t get it do you. I didn’t owe the bookie some money. I owed him a lot of money. $250,000. Do you know how long it would take me to pay off on an officer’s salary? Years! I couldn’t have a bookie on my back for that long. So I had to take care of him. And now that you know everything you’ll be the next to go.”
    “But someone else will figure it out. You were on the bookies list, and it was the same caliber gun as your semi. I’m not going to be the only person who will find out you committed the murder. And you can’t keep killing everyone who comes close to figuring out what you did.”
    “I won’t have to. See, that briefcase you were snooping in has every copy of every file and every picture. All the evidence. Everything. And I’m on my way to burn it all. No one will know, and the truth will die with you,” Murphy pointed the barrel of his gun at Jason, “Say goodbye Mr. Daniels.”
    Jason heard the gun fire, but he didn’t feel anything. When he finally opened his eyes he saw the Police Sergeant staggering to the floor.
    “Jason! Are you all right!” Luke came running in, his gun thrown to the floor, “I went to the office today and I saw all the Police tape, Detective Cornell told me he had dropped you off at your house. I came to see how you were. I never…well I never imagined I’d stop you from being murdered by Sergeant Murphy. What happened?”
    “It was him Luke. He killed the man who died in our office. And he was afraid that I’d figure it out, so he was trying to kill me as well. If you hadn’t gotten here…well who knows what would have happened.”
    “Well do we have the proof to show that it was self defense? ‘Cause I really don’t want to go to jail for killing Murphy.”
    “Ya, I got his confession on tape,” Jason pulled a recorded out of his pocket, “After he shot my phone I grabbed it and started recording. Everything is on here. And all the evidence is in his briefcase. Please call the police. I need to sit down.”

    Two days passed after Sergeant Murphy had been killed by Luke. Positive that Luke fired in self-defense, no jury convicted him of murder. But the news of the rotten cop and the men who caught him circulated fast. For weeks after the murder in the office, the Jason Daniels Private Investigation Agency’s phones rang like crazy. Over the course of a week, Daniels had made $10,000 just off of investigations on cheating spouses. Over lunch a month after the events in the office and in Jason’s apartment, Luke and Jason sat eating lunch.
    “So….our business is booming. To think all we needed to get out of the doldrums was for a murder to happen on our carpets,” Jason sipped his Earl Grey Tea.
    “I think it also helped that you didn’t get killed by that crazy cop,” Luke poked, trying to see if Jason was still sensitive over the events that happened.
    “Yeah, well we made it Luke. We can now relax. Have a vacation. You saved my life, it’s the least you could get.”
    “Well I don’t mind if I do,” Luke stretched out his legs, “See ya in a few weeks boss.”
    Luke got up and walked away, and Jason muttered to himself, “And so it begins. More importantly, it begins with murder.”