Young Writers Society

It was a bright summer day in Providence, Rhode Island and the body of Antonio Jackson laid lifelessly in the sidewalk. His eyes were wide open, gun on in his mouth, on his back in a puddle if his own blood. Around him were yellow tapes that read CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS. There were 5 officers on the site; two of them holding back the screaming mother and her other son.

“No, not my baby!” she sobbed uncontrollably. “Please god! Why did you take him?” She fell to her knees.

The man next to her screamed, “I swear if I find out who did this to my brother!” he had hatred on his face and revenge in his eyes. The man points to an officer “you find out who did this! My brother did nothing to deserve this!”

“Look sir we will do the best we can.” the officer replied. “You mentioned you were his brother?”

“I’m Nate Jackson, his younger brother. I want- we want more than that! He has a daughter! How do you explain this to her! She’s only six years old and her mom’s a fucking junkie!” Nathan began to weep. “I’m gonna to find out for myself.” He couldn’t bear the site any longer he ran across the street to his car and took off, nearly hitting several other cars on the street.

Shortly after, Detective John Cobbs arrives on the scene. Cobbs steps out of his car and scratches the side of his beard. He pulls a bag of jelly beans out of his jeans. Chewing on jellybeans he walks through the riled up crowd, breaks the caution sign and walks over towards the body. This act enraged the crowd.

“Are you stupid? I’ll kill you!” one man said.

“Get away from him!” a woman shouted

“You’re dead!” A man shouted from the crowd. He pushed the two officers who tried to seal the opening Cobbs created. The man stood over six and a half feet. He his single arm pushed aside both officers and made his way toward Cobbs.

Cobbs drops his jellybeans pulled a gun out from under his shirt and yelled, “Hello good sir, my name is John and this is my buddy nine!”

The man slowed down but kept forward. “You won’t shoot me with police around.”

“Says who? You want to play victim big boy? I’ll show you victim!”

Pow!

The gun fired into the air. Almost instantly crowd diminished as half people ran off while the other half fell to the floor. The officers laughed as the once enraged man fell to the floor.

“What! What!” Cobbs yelled. “I am the police. You was gonna attack a police officer dumbass!” He pulled his badge out from under his shirt. The badge was strung around his neck.

“I’m gonna have your job!” The man whimpered.

Cobbs put his face on his palm. “Officers please arrest him for public intoxication. Now.” He said looking at the crowd. He puts his gun away and picks up what’s left of the bag of jellybeans “I apologize for what just happened. Please, get up. Now I know you people loved this man death is painful. However, we are humans too. We need time to figure out who did this and I need your cooperation. Witnesses go to the left and family to the right… family witnesses in the middle.” Cobbs walks over to a nearby officer. “Give me what you got sir.

The officer pulls out his notebook. “Detective, phone call took place approximately 2:35pm by April Jackson, the victim’s mother. We didn’t interview anyone like you said”

“Ok good, now it’s my turn.” Cobbs glances at the scene. “First he was shot in his head. Then he was shot in his knees. The gun in his mouth was used to kill him” Cobbs throws a jellybean in his mouth then makes his way to the victim’s mother.

“Sir, how do you know?” the officer was in awe with the quick analysis made be the detective

“Lucky guess.” Cobbs shot back. “Now miss Jackson. Tell me what you remember”

“well…” she said with a sniffle. “This man, he would come every Saturday at 12pm like today. He was tall thin, white, blue eyes, and middle aged. Him and Tony would talk for like fifteen minutes then leave. This went on for a month. He told me the man was his mentor. But I knew something was wrong they were gone for too long. Then 2 hours later I hear gunshots something told me to go see what it was.”

Cobbs’s eyes lit up. “How was he your son behaving before ma’am?”

“He was excited to meet the man today. He said he is gonna hero. But now he’s dead.” Her eyes began to water. Cobbs embraced her.

“I promise I will catch this man for you. Don’t you worry about a thing. Give me a minute I have to make a phone call.

Cobbs goes into his car. He pulls out his pone. “4-0-1-2-4-3-5-4-6-7

The phone rings twice. On the third ring a man picks up the phone. His voice was timid and paranoid.

“Johnny it wasn’t my fault!” The man on the phone pleaded. “He said two million or he’s going to the chief! I’m sorry! I did it for the group!”

“Relax.” Cobbs replied. “Just meet me at the spot tonight we’ll get past this. Don’t be late, I gotta go I got more phone calls to make.”