Once upon a shine

Whereas the sunshine which entered through a window, a murk atmosphere revealed a puddle on the floor. Most intense red that I had never seen. Cuts became a killed men.
That's what detective DiMartinos told me.
I'm an apprentice of detective and this was my first case. A man was killed with a sharp knife. All happened last night. The neighbors confirmed that an estrange man wearing a raincoat left his house at ten.
I didn't have any more clues. Something I overlooked. I was walking around the skyscraper. A bad presence looked at me, shadow following. A lot of people went through close to me. I pannicked. Two strong men pursued me to a dark alley. Suddenly, a car's horn woke me up out of my illusion. No conspirations. No mafia. What was really going on?
There was much in juice. Hence I went to see a lawyer. They heard that a butcher went to claim vengeance. Was he the men with the raincoat? Maybe, just maybe and this would fit many things.
I caught a taxi. The clerk at the taxi's company had told me that last night a man answered about a good cookware's shop. Was she amazed. Suddenly, two streets before they arrived the men jumped out of the car. She remembered the man to look like a chef or something like that.
I picked up all my clues and met with DeMartinos at the police station. We deduced the man who killed Gary, my best friend, was the butcher/chef. And in a blink of an eye, we knew who he was, caught him, was tried and sent to prison.
When I come back home a man was laying on the couch, sipping my best whiskey, shadowed in a cloud of smoke, seeing sights, waiting for me, patiently. Why! He was Gary, He was alive!
An innocent was tried and sent to prison by mistake, told me later DeMartinos. Harry, the chef, jumped from the taxi just because her mother had an accident at the kitchen and had messaged his son. He happened to be in the same skyscraper as Gary.
So, who were the cuts become as a killed man? To our shame and dismay, we later found he was the taxi driver. He had followed Harry to his house only to find there his own death.
All was a trick. For what, I still don't know. But If I ever come to know why, I even can figure the lawyer wandering the streets still looking for his next victim.

Jordi Vega

Institut de L'Ebre, Tortosa

  

*Conte premiat en la categoria Batx i CF en el IV Concurs de microrelats de terror 2013, organitzat per la biblioteca amb el suport dels departaments de Català, Castellà i Llengües estrangeres de l'Institut Cristòfol Despuig.