Yesterday we announced the winners of the 2012 Crime & Intrigue Short Story Writing Competition.
As we mentioned then, VB will be running all three winning stories, the first up is winning entry for Under 12s, ‘A Murder with a Knot’ by Clare Duddigan.
“Action!” called the director.
Jenny Smith, a famous actress, was performing the biggest stunt of her life. She was abseiling down the Gherkin in London. It’s the second tallest building in the city and a hundred and eighty metres tall.
“Act more worried!” shouted the director straining his voice into a microphone.
Suddenly there was a scream. It was the last and final scream that Jenny Smith would ever make. Only moments later she was lying on the concrete floor in her red, velvety blood.
Minutes later there came the sirens of police and ambulance cars speeding through the traffic. The surrounding public were crowding the pale corpse and the police had to prevent them from going near the poor, unfortunate women. The police lifted the body off the cold, dirty ground and wrapped her in a white bag. She was taken away in one of the ambulances with its blue and red lights disappearing off into the distance.
Later on a black Porsche parked next to the crime scene and a tall man stepped out, followed by a shorter man who seemed shy and huddled up to the taller man. He wore a gold badge which read: DC Winston Jones
Both men walked through the glass doors of the Gherkin and pressed the ‘up’ button on the lift. Not long later they were on the top floor of the building. Whilst assistant Potts went to interview the director DC Jones went to the room where the ropes were operated.
As he entered the room he stepped on something. It was a small pocket knife. On the blade were small strands of blue thread. He looked over at the rope. It was blue as well. He put the evidence into a bag and sent it off to the DNA room at the police station.
Soon after he discovered that it did cut the rope but no fingerprints could be found. However dust and a bit of rust was found on the handle. DC Jones thought. Who could have had dust and rust on their hands and fingers?
At first he thought that the window cleaner could have had lots of dirt on his hands after washing all the windows. But he soon discovered that the window cleaner had been off sick for days. He thought again.
Suddenly he spotted a crane and walked up to it. He ran his hand over the metal bars and looked at his fingers. They were covered in rust and lots of dust. He said to himself Who ever works with this everyday would be covered in dust.
When Mr Potts returned DC Jones said,
“Can you arrange a meeting with the crane controller please?”
That night John Peepes, the crane controller, came in and was interviewed by DC Jones and Mr Potts. Eventually after hours of talking to John he confessed and admitted that he murdered Jenny Smith. DC Jones asked why. He said nothing for a while but in the end he explained why he did such an awful thing as murder a woman. He explained,
“A couple of years back I decided to choose a career as an actor. I worked all day and night for months. I spent a fortune paying for acting classes. Not long after I had become a brilliant actor I got an audition for a main role in a Stephen Spielberg film. I practiced for hours on end until I could say my lines backwards!
Anyway, when I got to the audition I saw a pretty young girl. Her name was Jenny. I walked up to her to introduce myself and you know what she said! ‘Who are you auditioning for? A rat?’ I was so upset that I went off crying and missed my audition.
After a few weeks I got the guts to try out for another audition. When I got there she was there. I thought that it was the end of the world. But I kept my nerve and ignored her. She knew that I was there because she looked at my every now and then.
When I stepped on the stage about to perform my audition Stephen Spielberg said ‘I’m not having a cry baby in my movie! Get off the stage!’ I was humiliated. I ran off the stage. My face was as red as a traffic light. I ran towards the doors but before I could get there Jenny caught me and said ‘Ahh! Poor Johnny!
Please don’t cry! I wonder what awful person could have told them that you’re such a cry-baby! Wait a second it was me! Whoopsie!’ That’s the day that I gave up becoming an actor and got the job of a crane controller!”
“Then when you found out that Jenny was doing a film near you, you decided to get revenge and kill her.” concluded DC Jones. At court John was sentenced to sixteen years in prison. DC Jones was awarded a medal for solving Jenny Smith’s murder. And he commented in the paper ‘This murder was really a knot!’
THE END
Image: Alastair Rae under CC BY 2.0
