FUZZY IMAGE

Fuzzy Image

By: Joseph A. Monachino

George’s grandfather’s house has comfortable surroundings. George has just moved in after his grandfather, Bill, passed away one month earlier. He feels that when he gets married and has kids, this is the perfect place to live and raise kids.

He goes to the bedroom to lie back on the bed to read a book. What is this he sees in the corner of the bedroom? It is a roll of undeveloped film. He wonders what could be on the 12 pictures of the roll of film. So, he brings it to the camera shop to have it developed.

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After he develops the pictures, he observes one closely. The image is fuzzy. Therefore, he has it enlarged. He sees, more clearly, that there is an object on the floor of the room. He knows it’s the recreation room because there is a hockey stick placed on the wall beside the object. Upon closer observation, he discovers that it is the finger of a hand.

George rushes down to the corner of the rec room to where the finger is laying. He gasps! He can’t just leave it lying there. So, he grabs a pair of tweezers and a sandwich bag. He carefully puts the finger in the sandwich bag without touching it. He walks over to the rec room closet. He grabs the shoe box, off the top shelf of the closet, which already has a couple of items, and places the bag inside it. The shoebox is put in the corner of the shelf of the closet out of view where nobody can see it.

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The next day, he is sitting back in his reclining chair reading the newspaper. The front-page news story points out that a recent murder victim was found; and that his index finger was missing from his hand. George panics because the finger he found in his rec room might be that of the murder victim.

George realizes something. If he leaves the finger in the shoe box in the closet of the rec room, investigators might search his house and find it there. Then, he would get arrested and sent to jail for murder. He engages in quick thinking. 

It is early in the day. Therefore, he has time to get the finger out of his house. So, he rushes to his closet, grabs the shoebox, and takes the plastic bag out of it. He meticulously puts it in the carrying case pouch. He then gets out of his house and gets into his car to drive to the forest located down the road from his house. 

When he arrives there, he finds a discreet area that he can dig up a little hole. He takes the finger out of the sandwich bag with tweezers, and places it in the hole and covers it up with sand. Afterwards, he gets into his car and drives home.

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The police authorities begin their search for an index finger belonging to the murder victim’s hand. They target the forest down the road from George’s house. 

It is one hour into the search when they find the missing finger. The police authorities meticulously place the finger into a sanitized container. They bring it to the police lab for DNA analysis.

When the lab technicians run tests to analyze the DNA from the finger, they compare it to the DNA of the murder victim. Low and behold, they discover it matches the DNA of the murder victim. The police authority investigators analyze all the evidence they gathered up to this point in their investigation. They conclude that the murder victim was not killed in the forest. The evidence indicates that it was a home on the same street as the forest. Further analysis reveals that the home of the crime scene is George’s.

George has the T.V. tuned on the news channel, All That Matters. The first news story is about the murder victim who is missing a finger. George panics. He worries that the murder will be traced back to his grandfather’s house, where he now lives. And that is exactly what happens.

The murder took place 1 month prior to when George moved into his grandfather’s house. George is shocked to know his grandfather may have murdered the victim of the finger he found. The newscaster further says that police authorities are on their way to the home where murder took place to arrest the homeowner who most likely committed the murder.

George has sweat running down his neck and face. Since his grandfather is no longer alive, he assumes he will be arrested because he is the prime murder suspect. Now, George must think quickly. He is in a race with time. He figures he has to fly out of the country, so he won’t be arrested. He packs his most valuable possessions. He jumps into his car and drives swiftly to the airport. Earlier, his google search indicated that Aruba is a destination country where he can’t be extradited.

When the police authorities arrive to his home to arrest him, he is nowhere to be found. They suspect that he is gone to the airport because they see that his passport storage tray, on his desk, does not have his passport. They get into their cars and head to the airport.

At the airport, George has gone through the custom check point and boarded the plane to Aruba. It is now in flight and headed there. George is delighted. He can live on the beautiful island of Aruba for the rest of his life. That is because he can’t be arrested and extradited to Canada because there is no extradition treaty between the 2 countries.

George must be sure of something. He opened his laptop. He went to the list that he made prior to leaving his house. He made sure he took with him the most essential items he needed to successfully live in Aruba. He looked at all the items. He realized he took all that was essential. So, he had no worries. Mission accomplished! Now, all he has to hope for was that the plane lands at the Aruba airport without incident.

He is safe and secure in knowing that authorities won't be able to arrest him because Aruba has no extradition treaty with Canada. He can sleep peadcefully tonight.