The Hit And Run Mystery (Day 2-Investigation)

November 11th, 2018...

You were back in Detective W's office, looking through the internet with his 32 inch computer monitor. According to Detective W, he had to pull a lot of behind the scenes connections just to get permission to do a thorough background check on the first one on the crime scene- Mr. Harry Bolls.

Detective W chugged down another cup of black tea. You stared at him in shock. "This is your 24th cup of tea today. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Obviously no. I only had four hours of sleep last night. No worries, though. I've been through worse." Despite what he said, Detective W had no external signs of sleep deprivation. He had no panda eyes. Detective W poured another cup of tea, and went through several documents.

"Apparently, this Harry Bolls has a rather clean record. No dirt on him... hmm..."

"Looking through his social media now..." you stated in monotone. "Wow... he has an active social and Internet life. Very active..."

Detective W instantly got up from his wooden chair. "Any clues?" he said as he rushed to his desk, standing right behind you. He stared at the screen intensely, and scanned it up and down. "Hmm... indeed... he... is sure an online blabbermouth."

You shrugged. "Now that makes our jobs a lot easier... Not gonna complain about that."

"Let's check the posts out. Recent ones should do..."

You gulped in anticipation, and scrolled down. The first one was a picture taken on the highway. The sun was setting in that photo. The caption wrote, "On the way home! My car broke down!" Behind the passenger window was Ahmad, his eyes closed in deep slumber while in sitting in the car. The car was dark-green, and it was quite beaten.

"Where and when was this taken?" Detective W asked.

"November 9th... around 6PM... Exit 9, Crownville.... hey, that's the place and time of the murder!"

"Save that photo! That will be crucial!"

"Yes, sir!"

Afterwards, the most recent posts were a mix of the political and the alcoholic flavor. A few were about knives and vacations. A green-handled hunting knife with a serrated edge could be seen on the screen. The caption wrote, "My most favorite knife! Been with me for 5 years!"

"A knife fanatic?" you joked, scrolling down to see some more. Your face quickly fell as you went through the posts.

A lot of these posts had a warzone-like comment section. Your face scrunched up in disgust and resigned disappointment as you see those posts.

"Don't look at me like that," Detective W sighed as he finished his 26th cup of tea. "Those kinds of posts are indeed like that. Politics is really effective at creating discord between people."

You cringed further as you read the comments. "Oh god... now they've gone to name-calling. What kind of adults are they?"

"Certainly not fun ones..." Detective W joked. "Wait a sec... go back up there... up to that comment, ' That's why your family left you. ' "

That got a hearty laugh out of you. "Sure, boss, sure." Your eyes did a double take as you saw who commented it. "Hey, it's the victim! Ahmad Rahal! He said that!"

Detective W nodded. "Let me take a good look at the reply section." His face visibly contorted as he read the replies. "Huh... could this be it? Or is it something long-standing?"

"What are you talking about, boss?"

"Don't mind me," Detective W tersely replied. "But, wow... a fight over who will be the next president? What kind of society do we live in?"

You kept scrolling down, looking for more information. Detective W just stared at the post like an intent jaguar, ready to catch any post that can reveal the truth. All the recent posts Harry had put online were about his political views. In fact, Harry was severely made fun of in the comment sections. The most intense posts always had Ahmad Rahal in them.

You almost choked on your soda as you tapped on Detective W's shoulder. "Hey, hey, boss! Look what I've found here!" On the screen wrote, "Ahmad, you know what, I will murder you. Better watch out!"

Detective W slammed his desk. "When was this?!"

"October 24th, 2018... about two weeks ago!"

"This could be considered enough... for a motive," Detective W thought out loud.

"But, how do we know he had murdered him? This guy seems obstinately slippery..."

"More like stubbornly stupid. No worries, however. We will visit this guy and get the truth from him!" Detective W confidently concluded. "Get ready to leave, my friend. His house is about 30 minutes away from here."

You had concerns about asking the man that bluntly, but Detective W didn't care. Detective W relentlessly pressed the gas pedal, and you two got there in twenty minutes. Even in the city, it was quite a harrowing ride. Compared to his usual rides, Detective W stomped on the gas pedal when it was yellow light, and swerved sharply to beat the oncoming cars when he turned left on a two-way, four lane road.

"We. Are. Here!" Detective W exclaimed as you got off. Detective W was lucky that he could find a parking spot right across Harry Boll's house. You got off, trying to shake off the dizziness. In front of you was an unassuming rowhouse, with reddish-brown bricks and green awnings on the outside. A simple, four step stairs led to the entrance.

"Well, here goes nothing," Detective W boldly told you as he rang the doorbell. "Anyone here?!"

A tall, lanky white man with a long nose opened the green door. He squinted at Detective W and you. "Hello... who are you? I thought my delivery arrived."

Detective W grinned, and put on his black gloves. He promptly shook Harry's hands. "My name is W, and behind me is my friend. We're here to find out about Ahmad. You see, we're his friends, and we're wondering where he went recently... you were his closest friend, right?"

You thought, Damn, what a blatant lie! And Boss thinks he can fool him like this?!

Surprisingly enough, Harry Bolls took the bait. "Oh... uh... sure. You can come inside, and we can talk about this. The one behind you can come inside, too."

Detective W and you hurried in. The house was kept clean. A flat screen TV sat on the desk. The hardwood floor felt slippery. You could smell garlic emanating from the kitchen. You guys sat on the sofa and Harry Bolls sat across you. "So, what do you want to know about Ahmad? He was my closest friend."

Detective W smiled gently. "Harry, I've been talking to Ahmad for the past few days, and he always brought you up. Why is there... suddenly discord in your relationship?"

"Oh boy... now he's telling other people about me now...? Okay, this will take quite a while. Let me get some drinks for you guys." He quickly went to the kitchen, grabbed some cans of beer from his kitchen, and put it on the small table in front of the sofa. "My treat, guys!"

Detective W silently told you to pretend to drink the beer. Harry just chugged one down, and exhaled contently, "Ahh. American beer, the best beer. About Ahmad, we were having some disagreements."

"Disagreements? He never told me about those... all he told me is that he felt you're getting unbearable." Detective W replied, pretending to sip from the beer can and sighed.

"Nothing much, to be honest..." Harry said as he drank his 3rd can of beer. "Ahh... it was just about the president. Don't you think our president has done a great job?"

Detective W forced a grin, and coughed. "Yes, yes, he's done well. Very well. Why did Ahmad take a different stance?"

"Who knows? And I thought we're best friends, too. In fact, we argued way too many times..." Another can of beer was drunk. Harry's face was a bit flushed, and he began to slur his words. Detective W saw this opportunity, and began to ask more questions.

You dug around the sofa, a bit bored by this. You stuck your arm in sofa, and rummaged there a bit. You felt something hard and circular and immediately pulled it out. It was a knife. The exact same knife you saw on the post.

'Isn't this his favorite knife? Why is it stuck on the unassuming part of the sofa?' you thought. Without thinking, you quickly hid it in your sweater pocket.

"Oh, I see..." Detective W continued. "My condolences... do you know where is he at now? I need to contact Ahmad by at least Saturday..."

"I don't know where he's at," Harry garbled. "I did ask him to go a trip with me to Crownville, but he never showed up." The fifth can was completely empty.

Detective W forced a grin again, and finally asked, "So, Harry, about Ahmad, does he have any trouble sleeping?"

"No, don't believe so... I don't think so... Ahmad never shown me that he takes sleeping aids or anything like that..." And the rest of his words were gibberish.

"I see, thank you, Harry. I appreciate your time," Detective W said. Just as you walked out of the house, Harry stammered, "Is. Is. That my knife there? Give it back!" He suddenly roared and got up from the ground. His drunken stupor made him stagger as he ran towards you.

You looked at your pocket. 'Damn! I forgot about the handle!' you panicked. You quickly ran out of the door and ran to the Detective W's black Toyota. Detective W instantly slammed the front door on him. Harry ran into the door, and instantly crumpled to the ground.

"Harry? Harry?" Detective W shouted. "Oh boy, is he knocked out. I hope he doesn't remember anything..." Detective W quickly locked the door, and got back to the car. He quickly drove back to his office.

Detective W panted, "Two things, my friend. Good thing: You've gathered a rather crucial evidence. Bad thing: Please hide it somewhere more inconspicuous! Look, we almost got in trouble there! I hate being chewed out by Victoria!"

"But, what are we going to do about Harry Bolls? And this knife?"

As Detective W parked in front of his office, he said, "That's easy. However, I will give you the honor of guessing. In fact, there was two things that you should have noticed in our conversation. There is one really obvious lie, and one not-so-obvious lie. Actually, more of my speculation, in fact. But, all that will be proven tomorrow. There's still a lot that we need to do, my friend!"

What are the lies that Detective W mentioned? And what should they do about the knife?

Day 2, OVER

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------