The Pyle Inside

Allen wrenches the door open and yells in a shaky voice, “Wake up, Dominic, you gotta see this!” Dominic wakes up by the slam of the door, then he looks around and finally sees a dark figure in front of the door blocking the hallway’s warm glowing light.

“Allen, is that you there by the door,” Dominic questions. 

Allen replies, “Yeah, get out of bed!”

“It is 4:30 in the morning,” Dominic looked at his bedside clock.

“Sorry, I know,” Allen apologizes, “hurry up! I will explain everything to you on the way there.” Dominic immediately jumps out of bed and puts on some jeans and tosses a black hoodie. Seconds later, both of them are running down the hallway. 

“Okay Allen, tell me what was so important that you had to wake me up at 4:30 in the morning,” Dominic asks, annoyed. 

Allen looks at Dominic and Sharpley answers, “There is a dead person in front of cabin 230.” 

“Do you know who it is?” Dominic asks with wide-open eyes, “I think it’s Edward Smith the Third, the wealthiest person on the boat.”

 Allen responded immediately! Both of them were now sprinting to the crime scene. 

Once they got there, four other people were surrounding the dead body. The group included the captain of the ship Martin, one crew member Chris, the wife of Edward Smith, and her daughter Jackie. When they came closer the wife was crying her heart out, while the son was talking to the captain demanding an explanation of what had happened. Captain Martin and Chris both looked confused and tried to tell her that they didn’t know what had happened. As soon as the captain saw the boys approaching, he turned his attention to them. The Captain told the crew member to go back to his cabin. 

The captain said, “l see that Allen got you here. Dominic, sorry for bothering you this early in the morning but we need your help. Allen said that you were the best detective we have.” 

“Why are you asking two sixteen-year-old boys with absolutely no experience to solve my father’s death? They can’t do anything.” barked Jackie at Captain Martin. 

“We are fifteen years old and we have 5 years of experience in solving murder mysteries,” Dominic corrects. 

“Captain Martin, no worries, l am will help you solve this murder,” Dominic asks as he kneels to examine the dead body. 

Dominic lifts the corpse’s arm, “He is stone-cold dead and he has been dead for about 2 hours, so this happened around 2:30 today,” he stands up.

Then Allen kneels and lifts the arm higher up, He looks up toward Dominic, “It’s a murder for sure.” “How do you know?”

Jackie says. “There is a puddle of blood under his back and there is a bullet scar on his left shoulder” The wife started to cry even louder but then she went back to her cabin. There was silence for a couple of minutes.

Chris’s fast feet pounding on the floor broke the silence. “Sir, I think you see this. There is a trail of blood starting from the front of the boat and it ends here,” Chris trying to catch his breath.

“Show us, Chris,” Martin says.

Chris and Martin started to run. Dominic, who was observing the crime scene and the surroundings. Allen, Dominic, Jackie ran after Chris and Martin. While they were running, Dominic asked what Allen was doing at 2:30 in the morning and the reason was that he was hungry and wanted to get an early breakfast before the concert on the ship started. 

Then he asked Jackie the same question and her response was, “I was sleeping and l heard knocking on a door so I got up and went to go check it out. So I went to check it out and when I opened the door the other man looked at me then he ran away, leaving my dad’s body on the ground.” 

“I was sleeping and I was woken up by Allen,” Dominic replied quietly. They caught up to Chris and Martin. The morning air was chilly and still dark but the deck was well lit. Dominic walked along the trail of blood looking for patterns. He got to the end of the trail and examined the puddle of blood. 

“He was shot in the back because the blood is in the shape of a firework, that means while he was down here someone shot him up there,” Dominic said sharply, pointing to the upper deck of the boat. He looked at Jackie and asked her who the person was next to her dad.

“Larry Smith–,” she replied. “He was in a meeting around 11:30 last night, he was talking to a couple of his workers and telling them not to do something. His room number is 368,” Martin interrupts.      

A couple of minutes later they knocked on door 368.  Larry opened the door and was sort of surprised to see Jackie and everyone else. He invited all of them inside his cabin. Everyone knew the reason why he invited them in without even talking to them. Larry started to tell them what had happened last night.

Larry says, “I was in a meeting last night exactly around 11:20.  My workers were complaining that they weren’t getting paid enough. So they told me that if I didn’t pay them by the time we arrived at the dock, they would kill my brother Edward Smith and take all his money. I told them that they shouldn’t do that and I would give them all the money I would have. They said that wouldn’t kill Edward. But I knew that they were lying. Everybody went back to their cabin, but I couldn’t sleep. So I decided to go on a walk. I left my room around 2 this morning. And that’s when I saw one of my workers. He had a gun pointed at someone below the deck. Then the gun went off, then came the scream of my brother. Edward turned around to see what happened. My worker was going for another shot but I tackled him from behind but the bullet had put a scar on his left shoulder. I took the gun from his hand and told him to leave or I would shoot him. He did leave and I threw his gun overboard. Later, I walked him back to his room. I told what happened at the meeting. He told me that family is worth a lot more than money. I knocked on room 230 to get his wife but just collapsed on the floor. That’s when Jackie’s door opened and she saw me next to a dead body. I didn’t want Jackie thinking that I was the person who killed her father.” Larry finished his story and he looked at everyone.

“Now, things are starting to make a scene now, but do you know what your worker’s name is,” Allen asks. 

“Joe Flinch,” Larry answered. 

“Next stop is room 421,” Martin said tiredly looking at the time, “it is 5:45 right now the passengers start to wake up around 6:30.” 

Chris says, “I will clean up the mess.” 

“Great, there should be no evidence that this has happened,” Martian orders, “you are in charge for now. Get on with it.” Allen, Dominic, and Jackie all watched intensely as Martin opened his phone and selected a number. 

“This is Captain Martin, send up a security team to room number 421 and wait for my instructions,” he hangs up the phone. He looks at the group and says,” I think that something is wrong so be careful.”

They got to room 421, the team of officers was all wearing helmets lined up in front of the door. Martin knocked on the door and waited 15 seconds then he tried again. Then he called out his name. There was no response so one of the officers opened the door. The door thwacked the soft carpet in Joe’s room. All the officers went in and scouted the entire place. 

One officer came out of the room and told them what they found, “We looked at the whole place. The room is so clean that we think that he didn’t even use his own room.” Martin punched the officer in the face so that the helmet’s visors shattered and the officer fell backward. 

“Wow, that was a right-hand cross,” Allen says excitedly! 

“Why did you punch your own officer,” Jackie asks, amazed by the punch.

“Because that was Joe Flinch dressed up as an officer,” Dominic claims.

“That is correct, Dominic! When I was on the phone with the security team, the receiver on the other side had a deeper voice, but my receiver usually answers the phone with a high-pitched voice.  

“Take him away,” Martin commanded the other officers.

“Where are you taking him,” Allen says, yawning.

“We are putting him in a cell in the cargo storage area. The most protected area on the sucre area on the ship. I think you guys should get some rest,” Captain says with confidence.