Holden the Determined

Holden the Determined 

The small, dimly lit office smelled like a combination of stale coffee and donuts; stress food. The past few days have been nothing but fast food and late nights as this missing person case has recently become a murder. An unfortunate ending to a one year mystery, the entire town had suffered a great loss as the mayor mourns her deceased daughter. 

Within the past seventy two hours, the entire police department have been searching for answers. Who in the right mind would kill a thirteen year old girl, never mind the mayor’s daughter; which everyone loved. Such a young bright girl with a much brighter future, is now vanished from the world by an unknown individual with high stakes as the family wants answers immediately. They want revenge, they want nothing more but for this person to suffer as much as they have. 

“You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?” His voice shakes as the nerves travel through his body and down his spine. 

“Come on in detective.” He says with stress under his breath as he waves his hand to enter the office.

With staggering steps he enters his boss’s office, unconsciously he holds his breath as he takes a seat, facing the tired looking Lieutenant. The bags under his look as if he hasn’t slept in the past few days. 

“I’m going to be honest with you, this case is dead as a door nail. Whoever did it has covered their tracks very well.” Nothing but confidence has left his voice. 

Detective Holden couldn’t believe his ears, he’s been working with him for the past few months and had never seen him give up on a case so quickly.

“Were not giving up though, are we?”

Silence is the only answer he was given.

“Sir, it has only been three days. This is the mayor’s daughter!” Disbelief had fuelled his anger as he has been working non stop since her body had been found, the end is not coming anytime soon. “This family needs answers” he pleads desperately.

“Which is why your going to give it to them.” He finally responds.

“But sir….we don’t have any news yet. We still don’t know what weapon was used.” He complains, feeling tired.

“That’s why I’m putting you in charge of finishing this case as the rest of us will start a new one.” 

“What? Is he serious? That’s crazy, the whole police department can’t move on to a new case leaving one person in charge of a complex one, just because they have all given up.” He thought.

“Sir, I’m still new to being an detective, you know that better than anyone else.” He pleads as he knows that he cannot do this alone.

“We have plenty of cases to deal with, the world moved on….. Here, I thought that you’d be pleased that I trust you enough to handle this.” Anger fills his voice, its clear that he finds it insulting that his detective isn’t appreciating the offer.

“You said it yourself that this is a lost cause!” He nearly shouts as he’s beyond frustrated.

“Calm yourself or your back to parking tickets Mr. Holden.” 

“Sorry sir” he mumbles as he looks face down to the desk, almost like a child getting scolded.

“This case is at what we call a dead end, but since you seem like your eager to continue, I’m going to let you fool yourself for awhile until you finally figure out that this case is impossible like the rest of us have. My satisfaction will be you coming in here with your head down, telling me that you’ve given up.” 

“Is that a?......it is…why is he smiling?.... this is no time to smile. An innocent child goes missing then found dead a year later and after three days the entire police department gives up and he actually has the nerve to smile.” He thought with disgust.

“When I solve the case, I’ll be the one laughing” he mumbles as he leaves the office. Rage, disgust and disbelief fuel his energy as he puts on his ball cap, storming out of the police department. 

Twinkling stars shine through the darkness, leading the raged filled detective to his parked vehicle in the driveway. Thousands of thoughts burst through his mind, how can the entire department just give up, this isn’t their typical work ethic, especially with the victim being the mayor’s own flesh and blood? Could there be more to the story that their hiding from the rest of the world?” He questions himself as he drives to the hospital to hunt down the autopsy results. 

“This is a weird one…..” she pauses to scratch her head, “but, it looks as if someone has tampered the results. If you look closely enough, you’ll see that they haven’t been touched but it’s certainly unusual.” She says as she pulls the body out so he could have a look.

“Unusual?” He repeats as he doesn’t understand.

“Theres something weird with her blood. I’ve tested everything I could, but it’s no scientific found chemicals.”

“What’s different about it Miss?” He says as he’s very eager to prove everyone wrong.

“There seems to be fractions of properties that don’t add up, like I said; no non chemicals.”

“Is there evidence showing how it had gotten into her blood stream?” 

“Not digestion, or injection. It doesn’t make any sense.” She scratches her head, something she only does when she’s stunned for answers.

“Is there any detail of how she had died?” He slightly changes the subject as it’s late.

“Honestly detective Holden, this case just makes no sense to me.”

“Still no idea?” How can nobody not figure this out? How can he solve a murder, if they can’t find out how the victim had died?

“I’ve being trying sir, but nothing is popping up. It’s almost like magic” she jokes at the last part.

“This just keeps becoming more impossible that’s for sure.” He says dryly as he leaves the morgue. 

The smell of cleaning supplies fumes his nose as he sits in his office going over the victim’s family file. Something is certainly off with this case, there seems to be no record of this child’s murder weapon as if it doesn’t exist. There’s strange unexplainable properties mixed inside her blood, that most likely been there since she was born. This just doesn’t add up. 

He stretches as he stands from his chair, he needs to mentally prepare what he’s going to say if he’s going to drop this case so quickly. Just as he was about to knock on the Lieutenant’s office door, an idea popped into his head; it didn’t make any sense, but neither does this case. 

For hundreds of years there have been rumours about myths and legends of witches who had colonized here as a safe house. Nobody took those seriously, neither did detective Holden. This is the only thing that could actually make sense. Maybe, just maybe those witches stayed, had children and now live here in secrecy. “This town is very small, not too many move here from the city, its not on most maps, this would make a perfect hiding place if you’re a witch.” He thought with a hopeful smile as he quietly went back to his office without anybody noticing his epiphany. 

Night turned into day as detective Holden spent the past few hours creating a detailed map of possibly ways the child could have died, now that he added the impossible into the mix; possible solutions are starting to make sense.

“How much do we really know about the Gold family?” He mumbles to himself as he slurps the last bit of coffee from his styrofoam cup.

“Ay, still on it huh?” He laughs as he walks up to his desk, taking a good peek.

“I’m not a quitter, sir. I think I might be onto something.”

“Magic?” He laughs for a good few moments before he continues, “do you really think that the Gold’s are witches? Man this case really did a number on you huh. Maybe you should take a few days and relax and I’ll give you a new case, how does that sound?” Blue eyes stare at Holden as he awaits his answer.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the only thing that adds up. You’ve heard of the myths as well as I have sir.” He pleads desperately as he really wants to crack this case.

“Myths are just stories told by bored old people, they aren’t to be listened to.” He rudely scoffs as he leaves the office.

“Mayor Gold, I’m detective Holden. Would I be able to come in to ask some questions about your daughter, it’s important for my investigation?” He says nervously as he stands outside on her porch. The huge flower garden walk way was intimidating enough.

“Of course, come on in. When Lieutenant said that the case was closed, I was devastated. I’m glad that you haven’t given up.” Her eyes red and puffy, sign that she’s been crying.

They sit on the overly large leather sofas drinking tea as he interrogates the family. An hour or so has gone by and not one has admitted to being a witch, not that he expected them to come out and say it, although it would have been easier if they have.

Mr. Gold finishes giving his answers, then he leaves, he can’t bare to listen much more as he’s at his limit. It’s all becoming surreal that his daughter Pierce has been murdered. The three siblings follow suit as it’s only mayor Gold who remains. 

As she temporarily leaves the room to get some more tea, detective Holden knows he shouldn’t, but does it anyway. He gets up, walking down the hall to have a look at the family photos framed on the wall. He gently puts his hands on a frame to fix it as it was cricket, suddenly the wall shifts. A secret door opens, he quickly realizes that the framed photo was the key to get inside. Feeling curious, he enters the strange room. 

The windowless room is small with a single light bulb overhead. The shelves are stacked with old looking books, all titled in a foreign language. With wide eyes and pulsing fear, he realizes that he was correct, this family is indeed witches. A small table in the corner is filled with candles that had clearly been used many times as they have burned down quite a bit.

A crinkled sheet of paper laid on this table, the words were foreign to him, but he noticed writing on the tip of the sheet that translated the title, “instant death spell” His heart sank as this would make a lot of sense as there were no prove on how Pierce had died.

“What are you doing in here!” Angry words that cut deeper than a sword as he knew that he’d been caught.

“What… what happened to Pierce?” He screams as he’s afraid of what will happen to him.

“She didn’t want to continue the family tradition and manifest her fullest potential so she ran away!” Mayor Gold shouts, the light flickers on and off from her harsh emotion, casting shadows across her face. Her brown eyes looked like they were made of hatred. “You just couldn’t stay away like the rest of them could you!” Evil rolled through her voice as she steps closer towards the detective. 

“Who killed Pierce, Mayor Gold!” He shouts as he tries to hear over the sound of his heart beat, panic sweeps in as he tries to take a step back, hitting the shelves behind him.

“We can’t afford to have a child betray her powers, that’s against our rules!” 

“Who casted the spell!” 

“My daughters and I found her using a location spell. We then tracked her down and chanted that spell.” She says as she begins to weep. Her arm shakes as she points to the paper on the table with the candles.

A smile forms through the fear, he did the impossible; he solved the case.

“Did you really think that we’ll let you live after you found this room, why else would I have told you that information.” She laughs wickedly.

“Because I’m wearing a wire ma’am. My Lieutenant heard the whole confession, along with the photo I’ve sent of the spell.” He says happily.

Turns out, in order to solve a difficult case the key is to have an amateur on the job, as nobody would have most likely found the secret room or were smart enough to wear a ear piece to record everything. Unfortunately Detective Holden never got to witness the glorious smile on Lieutenant Conner’s face that day, but he’ll always remain a hero, who never gave up.