When the shoe fits...

When the Shoe Fits

“Come off it, Charlie. It’ll go a lot easier on you if you just tell us how it happened.” “I don’t know how it happened. I was asleep and when I woke up she was there; in the alley. Dead. I don’t know how she got there. I didn’t kill her. I don’t even know her.” 

The exasperated detective slammed his fist down hard on the table. “O.K. let’s go over it again from the beginning.”

“I told you a bunch of times. How many more times do I have to tell you?” 

“Until you get your story straight. O.K.?”

“I’m homeless. Got that? I sleep in a refrigerator carton in the alley. Is that a crime? I was tired so I went to sleep a little after nine. I know that because when I went past Andy’s bar and grill his clock in the window said 9 O’Clock.” 

He paused a took a long sip of the hot coffee they just brought him.

“I woke up some time later. I don’t know how long I slept. I don’t own a watch.”

Another pause. A deep breath. Another sip of coffee. He continued without making eye contact with the interviewer. 

“ I crawled out of the box and there she was. I went over to see if she was breathing. I bent over her to see if she was O.K. That’s how I got the blood on my hands and shirt. Then you guys; cops showed up.”

“you were within ten feet of where a woman was murdered; you never heard a scream or any sound of a struggle. You slept through the whole thing.” Detective Mulberry threw up his hands in unbelief. 

“Do you see our dilemma here, Charlie? Your story doesn’t make sense. Why it doesn’t make sense is that she was killed right next to what you call your habitat; your refrigerator box; you were there; and you’re trying to tell me you never saw or heard a thing.”

“Look! I didn’t do anything. I’m not sayin’ another word until I have a lawyer.”

“Fine. We’ll get you a Public Defender. Meanwhile you’ll be our guest at the County jail.” 

They didn’t have enough evidence to hold him so he was out of jail the next day. Mulberry was sharing his frustration with Detective Davis. “Look. We know he’s guilty but we have no motive, no murder weapon. We can place him at the scene of the crime but that in itself isn’t enough. If we show the prosecutor just we have now, he’ll laugh us out of his office.”

“All a lawyer would have to point out is that some people can sleep through a hurricane. Maybe Charlie’s one of those guys,” Davis replied.

“I still think they guy’s guilty and I’m going to prove it,” Mulberry added.

Another visit to the crime scene proved fruitless. 

Mulberry thumbed through the photos of the crime scene, then suddenly stopped and laid aside one photograph. “How did we miss this?” “Miss what?” Davis asked without looking up. “Take a look at this picture and tell me what you see.” 

Davis pondered the photo for a long moment then handed it back. “She’s missing a shoe.” 

“Did anybody look for it?” Mulberry asked. 

“Not that I am aware of,” Davis replied.

“Another question nobody’s asking is where is her purse?” Mulberry added.

“Charlie took the money and credit cards and canned the purse in a dumpster somewhere.” 

“When he was searched he had .53 cents on him.”

“So he stashed the money somewhere.”

“Not likely. That homeless region he lives in is like a den of thieves. He wouldn’t take a chance of it being out of his sight.” 

Davis sat back; took out a pocket-knife and began cleaning his fingernails. Then he added, “Besides, how do we know she even had a purse?” 

“What woman do you know doesn’t have a purse?”

Without looking up Davis replied, “So now we’re looking for a shoe and a purse.” The police searched every dumpster within a 10 block area and found three purses and 8 women’s shoes. None of the purses had the victims I.D. or fingerprints. None of the shoes matched the one she was wearing. 

“So for now are you sticking with your number one suspect?”

“If you mean Charlie, yeh. I think he’s guilty as sin.” 

“Doesn’t the missing shoe and purse give you something to think about?”

“Of course. But when we find them there will be a logical explanation.”

Meanwhile, a tail was put on Charlie and he was shadowed everywhere he went. If he knew it, he didn’t let on. It was a boring job for the next two weeks Charlie traveled no more than five blocks from his “refrigerator box” home. If he had any extra money he wasn’t flaunting it. He still stopped strangers and panhandled cash for food. 

The search for the shoe and purse was going nowhere.  That is until two boys decided to play ball in a local park. 

“Mulberry. Davis. Chief wants to see you right away.” 

“You guys can check Charlie off your list of suspects.”

“Why?” Asked Mulberry.

“First, she wasn’t murdered in the alley.”

A quizzical look changed the faces of both Davis and Mulberry. 

“She was killed elsewhere and moved there. That explains why Charlie never heard anything the night she was murdered.”

“What gives, Chief?” asked Davis.

“The missing shoe and purse were found in Gulliver Park by two boys playing ball. Their ball went into some bushes and when the went to retrieve it they found a bloody purse. They also found the shoe wedged between two trees. It also had blood on it. Forensic is working on the blood stains, but the contents of the purse confirm it belongs to the victim. Detectives found blood on the ground near where the shoe and the purse were discovered, and they believe that to be the scene of the crime. “

“Any lead on a suspect?” 

“Yeh. He left a ton of evidence at the crime scene. We’ve impounded his car. Forensics is already working it over. Looks like we can build a solid case.”

The Chief leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. “Lucky Charlie.”

“Why’s that Chief?” 

“If the murderer had just picked up the purse and the shoe and thrown them in the alley along with the body, we’d still be looking at Charlie as our number one person of interest.”

Then the Chief gave a slight chuckle. Both Davis and Mulberry raised their eyebrows. 

The Chief laughed again. A little harder this time. “Some people just don’t know how to commit a crime.”