The Last Post

Julian handed him the phone, as he stood stocked from the device that was in front of him. He hadn’t looked at another one of those devices for 3 years, ever since the passing of his late wife. While watching the light illuminate the dark shadows of the small office, he thought he had been ready to face his fears, but he had been mistaken. The loss of his wife had taken a toll on his ability to trust any smartphone, especially a Twitter account. 

  Julian looked over at Joseph who was still frozen from the initial shock of seeing the phone. Julian placed it in front of him, careful not to disturb the sound of silence that was within the room. 

“Do you need anything else, Sir?” Julian asked. 

Joseph took a few moments to answer still amazed by the device placed in front of him, “No, Julian. That will be all.” 

Julian proceeded to leave the room. 

  Joseph sat there as the bluebird looked back at him, almost in a condescending tone. It almost looked to Joseph like the bird was criticizing, laughing, and putting him down. 

  Joseph, one of the top detectives in the LAPD precinct, and a very famous author of infamous cases that he would fictionalize for his audience. He hadn’t held a smartphone in 3 years, and only kept a flip phone in his pockets when he was out in the field. At the office, he only answered his landline phone that was on his desk. 

  Joseph had been on this specific case for the past 6 years, but the case had gone cold for a few years back. The killer's MO had always been the same: wire strangulation, arms folded over each other on the stomach, and roses scattered everyone at the scene. Three years ago, the killer had taken the final victim through exchanges on a Twitter account that lead her into a false sense of security, his wife. 

  Vivian had thought she was meeting an old friend that day. The killer had completely stolen her friend’s identity using pictures he had found online to construct a profile that looked convincing. The killer had completely fooled his wife, and it made it easy to get to her. Joseph had been on his trail and was close to figuring out who he was. Once Vivian was murdered at the hands of this mad man, the killer went underground and hadn’t been heard from since, until yesterday. 

  Joseph can still recall the day that he was called to the scene. As he pulled up on the front gate of his home, he opened the door to his undercover car. 

  “Joseph, you don’t want to see this,” one of his coworkers had said to him. 

“I have too.” 

  He proceeded down the walkway to the front of his home, and he opened the door. Inside in the living room, his wife lay lifeless on the carpet floor, with rose peddles all over her body. At that moment, Joseph knew who had killed his wife, and for the first time in his career, knew just how insane this psychopath was. He knew the killer would do anything to get to Joseph. To the criminal, this was just a game. To Joseph, it was the love of his life. 

Joseph was drawn back to the smartphone that lay in front of him. 

  The killer had killed once again and had posted it on Twitter. Twitter had flagged the post, taken it down, and sent it over to the police department for review. Joseph could see the same type of kill as before starring back at him through the lens of the device. He saw a woman who appeared to be in her thirties, brunette, and fit. Her hands had been folded at her stomach, and her background had roses. 

  The killer knew that the post would be taken down. Something so graphic wouldn’t be allowed to stay online, but his criminal knew it. He wanted Joseph to receive this picture and made it possible through social media. Joseph didn’t like the idea of using a smartphone, but somehow, he knew that it would be key to catching this criminal. 

   Suddenly, Julian opened the door of Joseph’s office once again. He opened it just wide enough to poke his head through and part of his shoulder. It seemed like he was eager to leave and didn’t want to take up time to come inside. 

  “There’s been another murder,” explained Julian. 

  Joseph heard the words but didn’t react other than by looking over Julian's way and nodding at his request. Julian didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. It was time to move. It was time to go nail this psychopath and put an end to his whole story. 

  He knew what he had to do. He looked up and saw the smartphone with the front page of Twitter open on the screen. Before reaching over to the smartphone, he felt his anxiety intensify, and his arm started shaking from the nerves. His palm was sweating, and his heart was racing. He thought this was going to be simple, but the loss of his wife had messed him up. 

He looked over at the picture of Vivian he had on his desk. They had taken that picture the summer before the incident. She was standing behind him with her arms around him. In the picture, she was kissing him on the cheeks. He reached over for the picture and a tear came down his cheek. 

I know you would want me to finish this.  

Joseph knew that his wife would want him to move on and live his life to the fullest. Something told him that she was with him in that room, holding him just like in the picture on the desk.  

He heard a ‘ding’ come from his computer. He placed the picture down and sat in his chair. He opened the email account from the LAPD department to find a notification from Julian. It seems that he had forwarded an email from Twitter. He put his mouse over the attachment and paused for a second before finally double-clicking it. He stared at the photo and knew in that instant that he had run out of time. The killer was increasing his job which meant that the time to get over his fears had finally come. 

  He looked over at the smartphone for the last time and clicked on the Twitter app to see what people were talking about. It seemed that the story of the new killing had already made its way to the social media site. Somewhere in all, that internet chatter was the answer he needed to finally catch this man. Somewhere in the depths of the web, the criminal lay ready for the final post. 

He grabbed the smartphone, grabbed his coat, and walked over to the door. Julian came in one more time looking to see if Joseph was ready to go.  

“Do you have everything?” Julian asked. 

Joseph looked down at the smartphone, “everything I’ll ever need.”

The two detectives walked out of the office.