The Thief

John Maloney is the owner and president of the Internationally acclaimed Maloney Detective Agency headquartered in Manhattan, New York, NY. His company is often called by the police in the US, and even England's Scotland Yard to help solve murders and other crimes. Nothing extra ordinary has happened for a couple of months now. Except the strange case of the CEO of a major Wall Street executive who killed his wife and tossed her body into the ocean from his helicopter. The PI found evidence on the plane, just outside the door, where the woman had been tossed from. Maloney proved that the trajectory of the line of blood, which he proved was the wife's blood, could only have happened when the body was pushed out. With the blazoned proof shown, the husband admitted that he had, indeed, killed his wife, and subsequently took the investigators to the spot where she lay, at the bottom of the ocean.

It was the week-end, and Maloney had just settled into his favorite chair at his week-end home in South Hampton, when his cell phone rang.

"John, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need your help."

"Hi, Vinny! I haven't heard from you in a long time!" John said sarcastically. "So, what's the trouble now?"

"Very funny!" Inspector Vinny Barducci of the New York police department replied. "Thanks for helping with the paranormal killings and the husband murderer. He's where he belongs." He paused, then continued. "We have been getting calls from all over New York--Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx, about people disappearing. You'd solved the problem of the 'mysterious deaths' in the city, and this sounds like a similar situation. Yesterday, we had a doozy. We got a call from a woman who actually witnessed a killing in Central Park. She ran off and called 911. There were cops all around nearby, it took them seconds to arrive at the spot. They were expecting to find a body, and the killer. The woman who called saw the killer. He ran out towards her with the gun. She was sure that he could not have done away with the body. The body was of a man, a heavy man. But both the killer and the victim have disappeared!"

"Did they look in the tree top, or under dead leaves? It's impossible for a large body to disappear. I don't know Vinnie. I would have to speak to this woman in person. Perhaps she'd been drinking?"

Maloney asked.

"We took her to the station and checked her out. She was not drunk or high. In fact, she's a prominent psychiatrist and teaches at Columbia University." Vinnie said, sounding a bit frustrated with Maloney's obvious questions, he's a seasoned cop, after all.

"Where does she live?" Maloney reluctantly asked, hoping for a reason to postpone the meeting.

"In fact, she is at her week-end home in South Hampton, very close to your home there."

"Oh?" Maloney said. "I am home now on the Island. I could meet her if you arrange it."

"Oh! Great! How about breakfast at the diner near your place at 10 o'clock tomorrow?" Vinnie asked.

"OK, but shouldn't you check with her first?"

"I already did!" Vinnie laughed. "I knew you'd come through. Plus it's convenient for you and her. She must work early Monday morning." Before Maloney could say anything, Vinnie said, "Thanks Pall!" And hung up.

After talking to Maureen Getstatder over breakfast for two hours, Maloney felt sure that she was not insane. She was really baffled that the big man whom she'd had seen being strangled, then shot by the killer could not have disappeared right before her eyes. She knew what she saw.

Maloney decided to go to the spot where the incident took place. Maureen said she'd come along to point out the spot where she saw the killing take place, "But I must return by 4 o'clock to prepare for a dinner party."

The spot was clear, so Maureen could in fact have had a clear view of what was going on.

She described the killer as a very 'normal' looking man, He was was dressed well, in a white shirt and tie, but no jacket.

"I thought they must have driven there."

"Do you mean they arrived together?" Maloney asked.

"Yes, they were talking heatedly. I did not pay much attention. I thought they could be businessmen discussing some deal. In New York, you mind your own business. I looked at them when I heard a squeaky sound. That's when I saw the killer squeezing the man's neck. I watched until the man's body went limp. After he fell, the killer took out a small pistol and shot him in the head. That's when I took my eyes off them to call 911."

The police drove Maureen and Maloney back to South Hampton, Maloney promising to 'work on it over the week-end.'

A few years ago, Maloney had helped the New York Police solve the problem of the Obeah-Voodoo killings in New York. He had been helped by his 'Mystic" friends he had met through an English Lord he had worked with at Scotland Yard. This knight had belonged to a secret lodge, which had connections to the astral zone. They could easily go into their 'inner selves' and leave their bodies, visiting other realms of space and time. Impressed by their abilities, he decided to join the society, and learn their ways. He was a perfect student and within months, with the lord's help, he became an adept. Over the weekend, he went to work. He did not need his English friends' assistance at this point. In fact he had studied the scientific side of the phenomenon. Using Nicola Tesla's experiments and inventions, with modern Quantum physics, he had devised instruments that absorb the particles that make the human body and soul. One machine could be used on the disappearance of the material part of the human body, the other could suck into a cage, the etheric body (invisible energy). Thus, one could eliminate a human or any living thing, making them disappear. But he was the only person who knew about this. He had not yet even built these machines, except the proton cage, which he and his mystic companions use to cage evil spirits that attack humans psychically .

Maloney surmised that there were only two conditions under which someone could have gotten his inventions, 1) The factory owner Mark Dundgeon, whom he had had make the proton cage, and 2) someone broke into his office safe where he kept the inventions' instructions.

Maloney decided to go into his inner self later, but now he must have a great dinner with his neighbors. Tonight he will work in his sacred space, and meditate his way to the answer.

He had a lively, interesting chat with his neighbors over well-prepared T-boned steaks, fresh garden salad, fresh strawberries he had picked from the farms, lovely cheeses and great wines. They walked on the beach to 'work off' some of the food they'd eaten. It was a lovely evening.

Maloney 'secured' his sanctuary from evil demons, lit appropriate candles and went into a meditative spell. He saw the man come into his office, took a key from his pocket, and opened the drawer to his desk. He realized that he had taken the drawings out of the secure safe in order to take them to the factory to be built. He had decided not to take both inventions to the same factory. He left the particle disappearing invention for later, and took the proton cage instructions to the factory owner.

He knows that the factory owner stole the invention, but was he the killer, if so why did he kill him and who is the man that was killed. Is the factory owner going to kill again?

Maloney decided to follow the Mark Dundgeon in his etheric self.

Maloney took a photograph of Dundgeon and took it to police inspector Vinny Barducci. He told him that he thought this was the killer, and suggested that he show it to Dr Maureen Getstatder for identification check.

He continued following Dundgeon for seven nights and some days, when he could. He noticed that Dundgeon always carried a backpack. On the seventh night, he went to a private club. He spoke to some beautiful women, one of whom he seemed particularly interested in, but she kept brushing him off.

Maloney noticed the anger in Mark Dundgeon's eyes. Something was going to give, he could feel it. Mark Dundgeon left the girls and joined some men at the counter, who were watching a game. But he would constantly look in the girls' direction. He put his backpack on the stool next to him. It was a Tuesday night. Not a busy night.

The girls began to leave. Dundgeon asked the bartender about the girl he seemed so interested in. "Does she come here often? Does she live nearby?"

She went to the bathroom. Dundgeon immediately got up and went by the Men's room, taking his backpack. Maloney was right beside him. Dundgeon used the toilet. Then he stood by the door, waiting for an opportunity-- but for what? He seemed to be listening intently.

The ladies room door opened. He could hear it, next to the men's room. Dundgeon sprang into action. Grabbing the girl, one hand over her mouth, he said, "I'm not going to hurt you baby. you will love it!" He locked the door the men's room, dropped his backpack and in the swiftest movement, had her held against the wall and her skirt torn off. She was fighting hard. Before he could penetrate her, Maloney sprang into action. He opened the backpack to find his inventions inside. This is the man who had been making people disappear using his inventions. Maloney realized that this was in fact an evil alien, who himself needed to be exterminated.

Maloney tied him up and called Inspector Vinnie Barducci so he could pick him up. The poor girl could not understand what had happened. So Maloney told Barducci to get her psychiatric help. He whispered to her that he was her "angel."

Dr Maureen Getstatder identified the Dundgeon as the man she had seen in the park killing the other man.

Maloney dug a little to find the answer to the killing in the Park. The man was Dundgeon's partner. He had supplied the funds to start the business. Dundgeon wanted to keep it all and Maloney's inventions gave him the way to perform the perfect crime. As to the other 'Mysterious disappearance those were just tests to see if he could get away with it.

As Vinnie Barducci says, "With Maloney around, there's no such thing as 'the perfect crime."