The 'Postcard' Murders

27/07/24

Dear Michael,

I must say thank you for handling the murder. It was rather a difficult situation, with the information that Tina had on me. I’m sending this postcard to you to double check that you have done everything strictly to the instructions that I gave you.

1. Have you made sure that the bullet has been cleaned of fingerprints? The casing as well?

2. Have you made sure that the suicide note is written by the typewriter in Tina’s office? If this has not been done yet, please ensure to call ahead to warn of a bomb threat to the local ferry building. Do not contact me.

If I do not hear from you in the next 24 hours, I will call the police and report that I have not heard from Tina, even though we are currently working on a new screenplay.

3. Can you please ensure that the doorknob for the back door has been polished, and the front door only has the fingerprints that I mailed you earlier this month?

I understand that you had some questions about the specifics of the murder. I will explain more later on.

If you have any other communication that you need to make with me, please make sure that you send a postcard through this system. While it may seem counter intuitive, the man who works the ferry delivery system is half blind and doesn’t read anything that goes his way. He just delivers what is given to him. We must act naturally. The last thing we need is suspicious behavior. The police know that I have motive, but no means and opportunity. They may find that you have means and opportunity, but no motive, and until they can link the two of us, that is how it will stay.

Once again, thank you for all that you have done.

*

31/07/24

Alistair.

The police have discovered Tina’s body. They have started checking any stores in Desterton that sell guns. They haven’t discovered the poison yet, but I’m assuming it will happen soon. I did all of the things that you specified.

You hired me for a reason. I still do not understand the exact idea behind the poison and bullet combination. I would like to know everything that I can about the job that I have done. I do not appreciate people leaving me in the dark.

I will not send anymore postcards to you until there is a further development in the case.

Thanks.

05/08/24

Dear Michael,

I predicted that you would have some questions to that manner. Please, understand, I have been writing murder mysteries with Tina for years, I understand how these things work arguably on a much bigger playing field than you could possibly fathom. Murders work on two lines, there is what is actually happening, and then there is what the murderer wants you to think is happening. Once the police discover the poison in the body, they will believe that someone is trying to hide it with the faked suicide. It will lead them to search for the person who bought that poison, and do not worry, that has been handled.

Alistair. 

*

10/08/24

Alistair.

Poison has been discovered. The police are currently attempting to trace it back to its manufacturer. I believe that it will take them a day or two to connect it to Farlan’s Chemist. 

*

20/08/24

Dear Michael,

I am assuming that, by now, the police have pulled you into the station due to your fingerprints being on the door. I lifted them from the postcard that I sent you, and I mailed them back to you. You will be angry, but the truth is that this gives you the greatest alibi of all.

The murder that you have committed has been shown to be meticulously planned, with fingerprints cleaned. The fact that your fingerprints are so clearly displayed on something where they could have easily been planted and/or cleaned points to someone trying to frame you, which immediately absolves you of any wrongdoing.

You will probably be angry at me, and I think that rather foolish. Anger is a poor man’s game, and for once, I believe that you need to act like someone that actually has money. I think that you know that if you sell me out, you sell yourself out.

Now, I will be paying you, don’t you worry about that. I do ask that you don’t do something foolish like phone me.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Alistair.

*

23/08/24

If you think that you can manipulate me like this, I have bad news. I’ve been to prison before, I can survive. You can’t. I imagine that you are the type of person that enjoys brunch by the beach, who’s biggest decisions are whether or not to try going vegan for a week. At the end of the day, you have far more to lose than I do.

I want my money.

*

26/08/24

Dear Michael,

I understand the frustration, and your payment will be on its way soon. Now, you understand that I cannot just transfer you money or send you a check, and so in my next letter there will be an address for you to attend, where there will be a garage sale. In this garage sale, there will be a painting that you will buy for twenty dollars. This painting will look like its not worth much, but will in fact, coincidentally, of course, be worth one hundred thousand dollars.

Once that is done, our little transaction will be complete.

Sincerely,

Alistair.

*

01/09/24

The painting has been bought. I ended up paying way more for it than you said. When I got there, there was this…kid. He must’ve been around nineteen or twenty. He was wandering through the garage sale, talking to the guy running it about some poet or something. I come along, look for the painting, find it and say I want to pay twenty for it. This kid turns to me and says that he wants to pay thirty dollars for it. I say forty, he says fifty. He starts talking about how the brush strokes remind him of some obscure painter from France or Italy or something.

I say sixty, and he says two hundred. I ended up paying two thousand dollars for the damn thing!

If this was your idea of a joke to piss me off, you better watch yourself.

*

05/09/24

Dear Michael,

I assure you that I did not send anyone to make you spend more money. I understand where the distrust is coming from, but my previous…trickery was done to strengthen your and my alibi. I understand that maybe you do not see it this way, but at least see that I had some purpose. Frustrating you further would serve none.

Alistair.

*

06/09/24

The kid showed up again. Said that he was sorry about the painting bidding war. He said that it reminded him of something that his grandfather used to hang up on the wall. I said it was fine, because I wanted him gone. He asked if he could see where I had decided to hang it up, and I said I didn’t know, and then he gave me a strange look, shrugged and said that he found something odd. But then he left.

*

10/09/24

Michael,

I see that the case has drawn to a dead end at this point. I understand that the newspaper may just be sensationalizing things, however, I believe that this is a good sign.

I would not worry about this young man, he appears odd, but that would be it. Just an odd young man.

Alistair.

*

13/09/24

The kid keeps hanging out around the local art appraiser. Every time I go near the place, I see that he’s in there, playing card games with the guy and sharing a coffee. Also, he asked me if I had heard anything about the girl that had committed suicide two months ago. He knows something, I know he does. I had to drive halfway across town to find another one, I don’t know. I just feel like the kid is watching me, for some reason. I’ve been getting the feeling for a while now, that someone is watching me.

The kid, whenever he sees me, he asks me about garage sales, and how many I go to, and how I know where to go.

Yesterday, he asked me if I knew anything about Microsoft word.

I don’t know. He just feels…strange.

*

14/09/24

Someone is watching me.

When I try to sleep, I can see the glimmer of a pair of binoculars, flashing in the streetlight from outside. Last night, there were police sirens, red and blue lights, flashing outside my window, but no sound. Nothing.

Also, we need a new way of communicating. I’ve seen cops wandering around the ferry. I don’t know what they’re looking for, but I don’t trust my letters to be sent without someone looking.

FIND US A NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE.

*

21/09/24

Hi Alistair, I just felt like I should send this as a courtesy.

It was the typewriter that sold you out. Tina doesn’t use the typewriter unless she’s writing her screenplays, so the only person who would think they had to use it for her ‘suicide note’ would be a person that only saw her write her screenplays. Since you’re the person that she sends her screenplays to, I assumed it had to be you. But I knew that you hadn’t been to Desterton for a while because the press would lose their mind.

Then, when I heard from a friend in the police that Michael’s fingerprints had been found, an idea formed in my head. Tina developed this thing called the Two-Layer Mystery, and I felt like this was what this all was, a game being played with the viewer. I was being led in one direction, when really, I should have been looking in another. I knew it from the moment that there was poison found in her system. Meaning, I was being led away from Michael, when I should have been looking right at him.

I paid attention to him and his patterns, and when he went off to go to some garage sale, I figured why not follow him. Once he became enamored with what looked like an ordinary painting, I felt like something was wrong, so I started a bidding war to see how far he would go.

That look in his eyes…there was paranoia there, almost as though he was expecting something. So I just started doing more.

I followed him around with no purpose. I would pretend to be a building inspector for the apartment building across the road and stand in the window and move a compact mirror around a bit so that it would catch the light, little things like that. Also I bought a flashlight and some red and blue plastic and got some friends of mine to shine the light through them every now and then.

Finally, I noticed that he would deliver postcards to the ferry, so I made an anonymous call to the ferry terminal saying that there was a bomb threat. They swarmed the place.

That was when Michael made his mistake, and he called you.

The police had means and opportunity for Michael, but no motive. The moment they got that, it was all over.

Actually, if I’m being honest, I didn’t send this to you as a courtesy. I sent it so that you could know that one of Tina’s friends beat you.

She was a good person. You are not. There’s some…rightness to you going to jail.

Sincerely,

Ezekiel Knox.