Just hanging in there

Hanging. Not the best way to go. Suffering from strangulation. Your loss of all feeling. The pain of the last breath. Timothy Bleakley, known as Dusty. Dusty for his overpriced, watered down, drugs he sells at Blackstorm Correctional Facility. Found dead by strangulation. A rope tied over his neck, strangulation caused by him hanging in the middle of his jail cell. Good thing this is just a story or that would suck. I’m Brad. Brad Miller. A new detective for the Los Angeles Police Department. Ever since I first started in the LAPD no one has given two shits about anyone who commits crimes or reports them. But when Mr. Galileo walks in and reports his dog missing everyone starts working on his case. That’s why I’m the only other cop at this crime scene, except my partner, Detective Tano. Sure Tito’s a dirty cop but at least he came to the actual crime scene. Now back to the story before we run out of time.

“He was found with the rope tied around his neck on the floor. Some of the rope was found on a bar above his cell.” Said Jessica the CSI.

“Meaning the rope broke before he was dead?” I responded

“Not necessarily.” She said while pointing at the neck of the corpse with a pencil. “If you can see right here you can see strangulation from big hands around the neck.”

“So he was dead before he was hanged?” She nodded her head. “Can you find out if there were any fingerprints on his neck?” She shook her head.

“I checked and there was no fingerprints on his neck meaning the killer skin the pads on their finger and they don’t have any fingerprints.” I walked away to see Tito smoking outside the crime scene.

“Did you find anything interesting?” he said while taking a puff. 

“Now we know that this wasn’t a suicide.”

“What do you mean?” He passed me a cigarette.

“Dusty was strangled to death before he was hanged and we wouldn’t have noticed it was murder if it wasn’t for the rope snapping.” I said while lighting the cigarette.

“Let’s head back to the station. We aren’t even gonna solve this case.” He tossed his cigarette on the floor and rubbed it onto the floor.

“What do you mean? We aren’t going to solve it?” I said while taking another puff.

“There isn’t enough evidence to find this person so we should just give up.” He went into his car and left. I couldn’t believe I finally became a detective and I wasn’t going to be able to be a good one with a partner as bad as him. OH SHIT! He was my ride. Now I gotta call an uber. Life sucks.

Just spinning. Spinning in this fucking chair waiting for 3:00pm to come. Cause that’s all we do in this stupid precinct. I stared at the time and it finally turned 3:00pm I packed my things and walked my way out of the precinct when I saw Mr. Galileo entered with his cane. 

“Kid have you seen Tito?” Mr. Galileo asked

“He probably went to the bar nearby. Jerry’s.”

“Thanks son.” 

“No problem.” Mr. Galileo walked out the precinct. What business would he have with Tito. He isn’t even a good cop. I decided to go over to Jerry’s and see for myself.

Tito was drinking as always. Piling up pacificos one after the other. Mr. Galileo walked over to him. And started to talk to him. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about and I couldn’t get closer. After a few minutes of them going back and forth Mr. Galileo slid something to him under his hand. Once he lifted his hand you could see it was an envelope. Tito took it and left. I followed Tito to his car and he tripped over and fell.

“Hey buddy, you ok?”

“Heeeeeeyyy mannn *hicup* what are yoouu doing herererr?”

“Helping you apparently.” I helped him get on his feet and saw the envelope on the ground. I don’t know why but instinctively I steeped and hid the envelope under my foot. I put him in an uber and sent him home. Once the uber was in a far away distance I bent down and looked at the envelope and decided to open it and there were thousands of dollars. What was Tito doing for him to be paid this much. 

The next morning I went to work and no one was there except Jessica. “Where is everyone?” She looked at me with eyes of pity and stared me in the eyes.

“You didn’t hear Tito was found dead in his house. Decapitated. He was murdered last night.” I started to tear up. I barely even knew the guy but he was my first partner. I mean sure he deserved to die with all the bad things he’s done but he didn’t deserve to die like this. I should’ve made sure he got home ok. If I had he wouldn’t be dead. I promise I will find the person who did this.

I sat at my desk and started to get to work. I made a list of everyone who he had pissed off, all the deals he’s made, and other possibilities. Which was a lot. But the person on the top of my list every time was Mr. Galileo. Could it be possible that last night Mr. Galileo had to get rid of him. What did he do? I started to think more and more and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I started to get distracted by the suicide that had happened to Dusty. Tito had wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I do remember that Tito went to the prison a day before could it be? It couldn’t possibly be. Titio he couldn’t have. Or did he? Did he kill Dusty because Mr. Galileo paid him to? No. No, not possible. No. no. no. He couldn’t have.

“He did?” I felt something around my throat.

“You should’ve minded your own business Miller.” I turned around and it was Tito. I saw him and then everything was over. I was dead.