#alex fields

Karl found Charlie near the front of the bullpen, Alex trailing a bit behind. He wasn't going to break Karl's vibe when he approaches a suspect, even if he if he was a cop.

Karl patted Charlie's back to get his attention, "Hey rookie, its Charlie right?"

Charlie turned and looked at Karl wide eyed, it was as if he was a fan boy all over again. "U-um, Detective, y-ya, its Charlie. What could I do for you?"

Karl walked beside him and escorted him through the station, Alex could tell he was being taken to one of the interrogation rooms. Alex walked ahead so he could get into one of the viewing rooms first.

Karl walked into the interrogation room that Alex was viewing. He pulled the microphone cable out and blocked the camera's. Charlie looked worried "W-was there something you needed me to do?"

Karl pulled a chair back and sat down, Charlie for some reason followed suit, he would adjust his tie clip. "Just want to have a friendly chat without prying eyes. I think you can understand that."

"oh... I can guess so. About what?"

"Why don't we start with this." Karl pulled out the letter. Alex on the other side of the mirror patted his pockets, wondering when Karl got it. Charlie's expression changed to confusion, Alex tried to figure out if it there was any fear in it.

"What is that?"

"This is a copy of a letter from a grieving wife. I think you met her, you were at the front desk."

"I've met a lot of women at the front desk. I can't remember all of them."

"So you just throw away letters people give to the police in an investigation." Karl stood up, looming over Charlie. Karl could be intimidating if he wanted to be.

Charlie whispered under his breath "oh shit."

"So you do know what I'm talking about."

"look Karl, I do know, but I-I can't explain."

"Most criminals usually say that they can explain. You're not making it easier for yourself."

"no I can't. I swear, I'd tell you if I could, but I swore no one else would know."

"Alright Charlie here's the skinny; there is a tape of you getting a letter from Ms Bourne, the same Ms Bourne who filed a missing persons, you tampered with an investigation by keeping that letter from being part of it."

"I swear I can't tell you! I got told a woman would be heading to file a missing persons. I was meant to keep the letter for myself."

"Who told you all this? How did they tell you this? You wouldn't do this as some crazy favor for a homeless man. Who?"

"I don't know! It was an envelope on my desk, unmarked and with my name on it. All I know was that they could get into my apartment without me knowing."

"And how do you know that?"

"They had my mothers ring in the envelope along with the note. No one knows I kept it, not even my landlady. It was kept under lock and key. They were in my home! if they were in my apartment without me knowing, whats stopping them from killing me?"

"And you think that warrants tampering with an investigation?!" Karl slammed the table, Charlie yelped in a high pitch tone. raising his hands to his face as if to block a punch.

"It was just a letter! I thought it wouldn't make much a difference!"

Alex heard enough. He got out of the observation room and into knocked the door into the interrogation room. Karl opened the door ajar. "What?"

"I've heard enough. He's not going to tell us anymore. Yo-"

Karl got out of the room and closed the door behind him. "I won't get anything else out of him. He was a rookie, a scared rookie too. I wasn't going to get anything new. But do you really think you can investigate further? its looking to be a cold case, Charlie cant have any worthwhile security to figure out who broke into his apartment."

"I have a feeling I'll catch something. The hotel they found him, it was near downtown wasn't it?"

"Ya, you got the address. What you think we missed something when we swept the room?"

"I doubt you swept it if suicide was the prime motive. besides, someone else could of been there."

"there was no one else."

Alex was walking around the police station, several officers would give him odd stares, while Karl was following closely behind Alex. “I’m telling you Alex, there was no letter. I should know, I was given every piece from the Missing Persons Unit, and they didn’t have a letter.”

Alex didn’t stop walking, he continued to walk, trying to find the surveillance room. “There was, she had it, and she said she gave them a copy.”

Alex opened a door, the room was dark, a dozen monitors were on and someone was look at them. Alex walked over and pushed the desk chair away. Before the man could argue, Karl shoved him out of the room. “Okay, let’s say for a minute there was a letter. What did it say?”

“She was cheated on, he was sorry. Mumbo Jumbo. The important part was that every first letter on a line capitalized, it said I AM BEING WATCHED.” Alex opened several folders “what day was the Missing Persons filed?”

Karl opened the case file again “two weeks, four days ago, and if you want to know, it was 10am.”

Alex found the file he was looking for, a new video started to play on one of the monitors, there was no sound. But Alex wasn’t focusing on that, he was looking for Ms. Bourne. Karl piped up again, “Let’s say there is a letter, but come on. I’ve seen you get paranoid, you see something meaningless and get tied up on it. The Laundra-mat you thought laundered money. The three nuns, the sewers, Hell even the fucking homeless people.”

“Well then you have nothing to worry about if I come up with nothing aren’t you. There” Alex pointed on the monitor, it was Ms. Bourne, she wore something close to exercise gear in the video, her make up ruined. She held a folded letter and was giving it to an officer who wore a PD jacket. Karl took a closer look

“Whoever she gave it to, it wasn’t an Missing Person’s Unit, or mine.”

“Could it be anyone?”

“nah, we don’t sell merchandise.” Alex continued to run the video, hoping to get a better look of the officer who was given the letter. “Don’t you think its odd, that a guy with that jacket isn’t in the bull pen or reception yet so happens to get the letter, and you don’t have it?” Alex stopped the video just when they got a proper look. The officer looked no older then Alex, his face was quite clean and looked nothing out of the ordinary save for having a small nose

“wait I know that kid, its Charlie.”

“Who?”

“Charlie. He’s a new rookie, started work three weeks ago.”

“Sounds like a good time frame to get involved with keeping Ms. Bourne from getting the suicide attempt scratched off.” Alex got up and turned to face Karl. “Where will I -”

“Fuck. No. you are not going to bull rush a cop.”

“That rookie kept evidence out of your investigation. Even if I’m wrong are you saying you don’t care?” Alex got Karl on that. He knew Karl had a moral code, and was willing to eat his word to keep to it.

“… Fine! But I’ll do the talking, you have no reason to question him about his involvement about the suicide”

“murder”

Alex sat down in the police stations coffee room. There were only a few cops making coffee in the room, a few would look at Alex before returning to their job. Alex had on his lap the case file Karl gave him, it wasn’t very thick and was clean; no coffee stains or bent papers. He opened the file, the first page was an assessment of the first police on the scene, they got a call from the hotel manager, he was distraught when he opened the door to the penthouse, inside was Mr. Bourne.

Alex flipped to another paper, it was a report Karl wrote. The report explained how Mr. Bourne was found in his penthouse. Dressed in his business suit, red tie and combat boots, tied to a second floor railing with blue & yellow rope. The investigation was moved to his bedroom, a hardware store shopping bag was found but no receipt. A personal fountain pen was left on the hotels stationary, no note. Two wine glasses were found in the sink; neither had fingerprints, but there was prints of lips on the outside rim of the glass.

Alex flipped another page, it was a coroner’s report. The deceased Jerry Bourne was killed by affixation at the throat, in line with how he was found hanging from a rope. Toxin screen showed that there were no toxins or poisons in his system, traces of an adhesive were found on his right index finger; similar to the adhesive found in letter envelopes.

Alex continued flipping through the pages of the report, it was short so it didn’t take long for him to finish. He threw the folder onto the table in front of him and looked up, Karl was at the foot of the door, a coffee mug in his hand “What did I tell you, suicide clean and simple.”

“It looks like it.” Alex leaned back, the facts of the report going through his head again.

“oh please Alex not this. You read the report, suicide. There’s no toxins, no other guy in the apartment. So let it drop.”

“you dismiss it so soon.”

“Dismiss it?! I’m not trying to file my reports in hastily, I’m doing my best.”

“Well someone’s doing better than your best”

Karl’s nostrils flared “You really think that? You think there is someone out there who made a suicide, never seen, nothing to indicate it was orchestrated, and- oh wait for it… hasn’t shown any motive”

“The letter, that should have been enough”

“What letter?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. Karl wouldn’t of missed a piece of evidence like a letter. “The letter that went along with the missing persons report for Mr. Bourne”

Karl looked off to the side“… Alex. We never got a letter, just the missing persons report.”

Alex walked over to his couch and back down, turning the TV on to watch cartoons as he intended to at the start. Though his mind was still on the Lady in Black; Alice Bourne. Her case was a strange one, and it was distracting him from his cartoons. Giving up on his bowl of soggy cereal, he went over to the kitchen cleaning up his bowl and setting it to the side to dry.

He got out of his apartment, donning a trench coat and fedora, he was a fan of the classical attire of a private detective. He locked the door behind him and pocketed his keys. He pulled out his smart phone and started flicking through his contacts list, stopping at “KARL NYPD” Alex pressed the contact, calling Karl. He walked out onto the street as he waited for the call. Finally, after walking for half a minute Karl picked up. “speak.”

“Hey Karl, you like widows?”

“Alex? Aren’t you on vacation for the week.”

“it got delayed because of a case i-” Alex walked into a coffee shop and started waiting in the long line.

“No, no, no. I am not having you access sensitive information for some scorned wife to search for a prostitute.”

“correction, she’s a grieving wife with a husband she thinks got caught up in a conspiracy.”

“are you talking about the Bourne suicide?”

Alex stopped walking out of shock. “I don’t remember the case being high profile.”

“gee Alex, can I only know about high profile cases(!) It was my case, and it was a suicide.”

“Karl, I know your workload can be difficult on you, but I be-”

“your saying I do a half assed job?”

“No, I wasn’t saying that, I was saying there are other cases you could work on, and I’ll just take another look, tell you if I find anything before anyone else. You wouldn’t want some aspiring desk jock try and one up you.” Alex was referring to Andrew, a recent addition to Karl’s department, he was aspiring to be like Karl, which displeased Karl to no end. The line was silent for a while. Alex reached the front of the counter and made his order and nearly hung up if it wasn’t for Karl’s huff on the other end.

“Fine, I’ll get my copy of the report ready for you. But there’s no conspiracy, I don’t know why you think its worth pursuing.”

“trust me, if you saw the check I got in advance, you’d chase after the JFK assassination for this money.” He grabbed his coffee once he saw his order shouted out.

“you might, doesn’t mean I would.”

“I’ll see you at the prescient then Karl.”

“fetch me a coffee while you’re at it.” Alex hung up, rolling his eyes.

The lady in black walked in, looking around the apartment, taking a long look at the TV which still showed the women’s aerobics class. Alex rushed past and switched the TV off. “sorry ‘bout that, wasn’t intending to have visitors. Ms.?”

The lady in black merely raised an eyebrow at him before responding “Bourne, I- I thought you’d help.”

Ms. Bourne sat down on the couch, brushing off the seat as if there was a mess. She calmed down since she knew Alex was willing to help. He sat down on the table, “now then, why don’t you tell me a little about whatever it is you want me to do.”

Ms. Bourne took a deep breath, “my husband passed away, suicide the coroner said. But he wasn’t suicidal, my Jerry was a happy man. He was working for a security firm, we were going to counselling, there just isn- just is-” she began to cry again, Alex just sat there unsure what to do for the briefest moment.

Alex leaned forward, holding a box of tissues. Ms. Bourne took the tissue and blew, she sniffled as she whipped her nose, “it just isn’t him. I think someone set him up.”

“that’s quite the accusation, why would your husband be wanted dead?”

“who knows, he worked for a security firm, they always had him protecting  people in danger. Ma-maybe he heard something he wasn’t meant to”

Alex wanted to shake his head but refrained from doing so, “and the police don’t believe you why?”

Ms. Bourne pulled a small envelope from her purse and handed it to Alex. “The day he disappeared I was left this on my pillow.” Alex took it and opened the contents, it was a letter with messy writing.

Dearest Alice,

I can’t keep lying to you after all this time. There has been someone else, the late nights, the Meetings were all lies. I thought I could love the both of you But she doesn’t think so. She left me and I felt my heart torn to sunder, it was like Everything I knew was ripped away from me for the briefest moment,  It is far worse than that incident so many years ago. All those scars Never healed so you can’t imagine these new pains I feel every time we Gather, it just deepens the scars. Which is why I can’t stand going Alone like this being around you while my other half has gone forever. Time cannot heal the wounds that have been placed on me. Like the Changes in season, I feel that I too must pass on, I only wish that Every part of you learns to move on, for I took a vow that only Death do us part, and it is that time.

I regret all my choices but this one and never wished to harm you any more

Forgive me

Alex Fields woke up in a haze, the beers from last night causing his head to throb with pain. He should’ve known that he had too many three beers before he fell to sleep. Alex rubbed his eyes as he got up, looking around his room. The bedroom was alright, large enough that he could have a double bed and a wardrobe decently apart, there was an adjacent connected bathroom. Alex walked in, stripping off the clothes from last night, he looked at the mirror as he stepped into the shower. Alex was athletically built, only a hint of definition along his body, no tattoos, only scars; the first one was a surgical scar that ran down the center of his chest no longer than 4 inches. The second scar was faded on the right side of his abdomen, a third horizontal cut more recent under his right peck. Alex washed himself, pausing when his scrubbed the soap over each of his scars. Alex walked out, drying his short cropped black hair, he opened the wardrobe, searching for an appropriate outfit for the day, he decided on the formal slacks he wore last night and a black button up.

Alex walked out of his bedroom. Ready to spend his first self-appointed holiday. Alex Fields was a private investigator, his first job was finding a kidnapped child, the investigation turned into a discovery of a human trafficking operation which not even the police knew about till Alex called on them for help. After that he was asked for more jobs, but most were domestic problems.

Alex sat down on a couch, eating at a bowl of cereal, he turned on the television. The LCD TV was set to the news channel when turned on, some talk about two major companies merging before he changed the channel to watch cartoons however, it was earlier in the day than he had thought, women’s aerobics class was playing instead. Alex huffed out of annoyance but kept to the channel none the less. He continued eating the rest of his cereal until he heard a knock from his front door. He turned around wondering who had knocked, the knocking continued so he set his cereal bowl down and walked over to the door.

Alex opened the door to find a woman standing there, she wore a black dress and hid her face behind a vale. Alex  guessed she left a funeral since her makeup was ruined. she tried her best to talk to him "are..are y-you Alex Fields, the pr-private detective?"

Alex raised an eyebrow, he had an office for business "I am, but you could try again Monday when I'm in my office"

He closed the door, but the lady in black protested and stopped the door from closing. "Please! This i-is a serious manner."

"you say that, bu-"

"the city is in danger, and the police won't listen to me."