The Selfie That Will Not Die!

The Selfie That Will Not Die!

He propped the old man’s corpse into an upright position on the couch. The hole in his forehead lined up nicely with the large splotch of blood and brains on the wall behind him. The man’s wife insisted on proof of his demise and a photo should serve nicely. But on a whim, he sat beside the body and threw his right arm around the man’s shoulder and propped the head upward so the lifeless eyes stared into the  camera on his phone. He laughed as he snapped a string of selfies. He grinned as he reviewed the pictures and deleted all but the best one. “We look good together!” he said to the corpse. 

He pulled out the man’s wallet and extracted nearly $600 in cash. He looked longingly at the credit cards but decided to leave them. No sense in tempting fate. 

He pulled a heavy gold ring from the man’s finger. It was a very ornate  one-of-a-kind ring, but he would melt it down into a big nugget and erase any way of identifying the ownership. And he also removed a long heavy gold chain from the man’s neck. Since there was nothing distinguishable about the chain, he claimed it as a trophy and slipped it over his head. 

These would nicely augment the $25,000 the new widow was paying him. He saw lots of valuables around the house, mainly expensive electronics and artwork, but he turned his back on them. 

He slipped out the back door and fled down a long dark alley. Then he sprinted a quarter mile down a shadowed sidewalk, cranked up a stolen Harley and roared away. 

 He rode the motorcycle two miles, then  parked the bike behind a dumpster and wiped it down carefully. He walked a block, got into his car and drove two blocks with the headlights off. He turned them on, then slowly and carefully drove away. “You can’t be too careful!” he thought to himself. 

He drove across town to a Motel 6 and parked  far from the building. He strolled slowly to room 142. He made sure nobody was watching and then knocked twice on the door. Twenty seconds later he knocked twice again.  The door opened three inches, a chain stretched across the opening. “It’s you!” a female voice whispered.  She closed the door to remove the chain then  opened the door wide enough for him to slip in. The woman quickly closed the door and locked it and returned the chain into its holder. 

He looked at the older woman standing there. She was once a great beauty and still looked at least twenty years younger than her sixty-eight years. She smiled at him and opened her arms wide. “Hi, Aunt Susan!” he said and entered her warm embrace. They hugged briefly, then he picked up a small duffle bag he had left with her, excused himself and headed for the bathroom.  

She heard the sound of the shower and when he returned he was wearing different clothes and he had cut his hair shorter and shaved the mustache and beard he had before. He told her he was glad to finally be rid of the facial hair and she laughed and told him she had actually liked the look on him. He went to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. He asked if she wanted one and she declined. He consumed half of the beer in one long swallow, then finished it with another. He grabbed a second and opened it and slowly drank it. 

“Killing is thirsty work!” he proclaimed. 

“How did it go?” she asked. 

“Uncle Tommy is no longer a problem for you! Or anybody else!” he said with a wolfish grin. He pulled out his phone and showed her the selfie of her late husband and himself.

She smiled broadly at the grisly picture, but then expressed concern that her favorite nephew had inserted himself into the scene. 

He laughed and asked, “Have you seen enough?” She nodded her head and with a flourish he deleted the picture. Then he placed the phone on the floor and ground his boot heel onto it and demolished it into a dozen pieces. He carefully picked up all of the debris and placed it in a paper bag and assured her it would soon be in the deep waters of the Saint Johns River. “I’ll get a new phone. One of the new iPhones. After all, I can afford one now!” And with that he held his open hand towards her. “Cough up the cash! Time to pay up!”

She smiled and reached into her purse. She pulled out a fat envelope and handed it to him. “$25,000, as promised.” Then she reached back into her purse and pulled out a second envelope. “And as a bonus, here’s an extra $5,000 for a job well done!” He let out a whoop, and planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

“So tell me, Aunt Susan, what are you going to do now?” he asked as he counted his money. 

“In about 10 minutes, I’m going to get in my car and go meet a couple of friends and we’re going to have a long dinner at a nice restaurant. Then I will go home and discover my deceased husband and call the police. Years ago, I did a little bit of theater and I think my acting skills will allow me to play the shocked and grieving widow well enough to fool the cops. 

Then I will call you, my beloved nephew, to come and comfort me. Be sure to be close enough to beat the police’s arrival. That way if you accidentally left any fingerprints, your presence will divert any suspicions away from you. 

I’ll play my role for a few weeks and then take a cruise to escape my well-wishing friends and co-workers. Upon my return the house will go on the market and I will soon be living in Costa Rica. Hopefully on the beach.” 

He nodded his head in agreement. He admired her planning and preparation. And her generosity. “Am I invited to visit you?” 

She smiled broadly, “But of course!”

He slipped out the door after assuring her he would be waiting for her call. 

 He drove to a nearby bridge and waited for a long lull in the traffic before driving across it. In the middle, he quickly put his car in park and sprinted to the rails and heaved the bag containing the destroyed cell phone, and the pistol as  far as possible and ran back to his car and took off before any following vehicles came close. 

He headed to an AT&T store and paid cash for a new iPhone. The store was nearly closed but the sales rep was willing to stay in order to get the phone properly set up. A $50 tip brought a big smile to the employee’s face. 

Next he went to the drive-through at McDonalds and wolfed down two Big Macs and a large order of fries as he drove. “Killing sure builds an appetite!” he thought. 

He drove to his parents’ house. They were out of town on a business trip so he was alone. He went to his father’s workshop and used a blowtorch to melt his uncle’s ring into a shapeless blob of gold. The ornate custom design that was his uncle’s ancestral family crest, melted and was gone forever. 

Once the nugget cooled enough to be handled, he carried it to his mother’s studio. She had studied lapidary and jewelry making. He found a roll of gold wire and cut off 8 inches of it and proceeded to carefully wrap the remains of the gold ring and formed a triple loop protruding from the melted mass. Then using her torch, he melted the wire so it became part of the former ring, leaving the loops intact. He admired his handiwork. While not professional, it would serve his needs. He removed the chain from his neck and threaded the gold nugget onto it and returned the chain around his neck. He looked in a mirror and admired how his late uncle’s jewelry looked on himself. “Thanks, Uncle Tommy!”, he thought.

He went to  his bedroom and put the bulk of his cash into the small safe hidden in his closet. He put a thousand dollars into his wallet for “walking around cash”. He took the clothes he had worn during the murder and washed them twice, using plenty of bleach. Then he buried them in an empty lot several blocks away. 

He returned home and showered again. Then he stretched out on his bed and took a nap while waiting for his aunt to call.  

Sleep came easy and he did not dream.

Three hours later the anticipated call from his aunt came and he rushed to her side. Two minutes after he arrived, the police roared up. He let them in the door and introduced himself as the nephew of the victim and his widow. He explained that he lives nearby and spends a lot of time with them and that his aunt had called him upon discovering her husband’s body. 

He admired his aunt’s acting skills and wondered why she hadn’t become a professional actress. Her tears were quite convincing. It appeared the detective accepted her theatrics because they seemed to spend little time interviewing her. Nor did they appear to see him as a suspect either. He explained he had spent the day fishing in a secluded area of the river and the fishing gear in the backseat of his car bolstered his story. He said he fished until well after sunset, got something to eat and went home. He laundered his fishing clothes, showered and went to bed. The McDonalds bag and cup in his car, the signs of recent laundry and his disturbed bed would add credence to his alibi. Plus his expressed love of his uncle and aunt helped divert their attention from him.   

A team of investigators arrived and began searching for fingerprints. They found the victim’s prints, his aunt’s and his own. But since he was a frequent visitor, that was expected. No other prints suggested the killer wore gloves. The removal of the cash, necklace and ring suggested a robbery. He showed the police the necklace he was wearing. “My uncle bought us identical chains,” he explained. “The killer will have one like it!”  A photo of the missing ring was given to the police. 

To keep the charade going, he stayed with his aunt in order to “comfort” her. They played a lot of Rummy and watched movies to kill the time. She ordered a new couch and had it delivered and he repainted the wall behind it. Three days later he needed a break from the role of grieving and comforting nephew and he called Angelique, a stripper he occasionally dated. He informed her he had money and asked if she wanted to help him spend it? She invited him over to her apartment. 

On the drive to Angelique’s apartment he reflected on his uncle. He wasn’t a bad guy and he occasionally took his nephew to the movies, fishing or camping. And he had welcomed him into the house enthusiastically. He offered him a beer but was surprised when the gun came out. 

He liked his uncle but he adored his aunt and what she wanted, plus the money, trumped affection. He had no problem pulling the trigger. 

After $300  worth of enthusiastic sex, he went to take a shower. He told her to order some food and she picked up his new iPhone. He was getting in the shower when he heard her scream. It was loud and shrill and he stumbled out of the tub, spraining his ankle. 

Naked, he limped to where she was cowering and whimpering. She pointed at his phone which she had thrown across the room.  “IT'S YOU!” she screamed. 

Puzzled, he picked up the phone and was shocked to see there was a screensaver in place. It was the selfie he had taken with his uncle! He was shocked! He had installed a few apps he liked and a couple dozen telephone numbers he used, but that was it. He hadn’t touched the camera function so no pictures should exist. 

But especially not this picture! Any possible trace of it should be drifting in the current or buried in the deep mud of the Saint Johns River. This was an impossibility!

Angelique made a dash to the bedroom and locked the door. He sighed deeply because he really liked the girl. He headed towards the bedroom and kicked the door in. Another scream was cut short and replaced with the sound of a struggle ending with the sound of something dropping heavily to the floor. 

Two minutes later he emerged fully dressed and stuffing his $300 in his pocket. Hurriedly he looked around to ensure he wasn’t leaving anything. He grabbed a dish towel from the kitchen and frantically began wiping down anything he may have touched.  He was on the verge of panicking because her neighbors may have heard her screams and might be calling the police. He wanted to flee but he also needed to clean up any evidence of having been in the apartment. But he realized that after several past visits to Angelique, he likely had fingerprints everywhere! And if his fingerprints are found twice at the scene of a murder, the police will notice!

Then he remembered the picture. He grabbed the phone and checked it. The damning picture was still 

there. Horrified he saw his grinning face next to his dead uncle. But oddly, his uncle’s eyes seemed to be staring into the camera and there was a trace of a smile. He didn’t remember it being like that before. Frantically he deleted it, grabbed his car keys  and bolted for the door. Outside, he realized there were at least three people who watched him exit the apartment and he limped to his car. He dropped his keys while trying to unlock his car and again while trying to put it in the ignition.  He looked in his rear view mirror and saw somebody taking a picture of his license tag. Then he sped away. 

In the distance, a police siren could be heard. 

He called his aunt to warn her that there is a possible problem. He turned on his phone and again the selfie popped up on the screen. He shrieked with horror because his uncle is definitely smiling!  

At a red light he again deleted the accusing picture and then dialed his aunt’s phone. She picked up on the first ring and cheerfully greeted him, saying “Good news! The body has been released to me and I’m having him cremated tomorrow afternoon.”

He began talking so fast that she interrupted him to say she couldn’t understand what he was saying.  He took a deep breath and slowly told his aunt what just happened. She gasped when he told her of killing the stripper but went silent when he told her about the returning photo. She told him to quickly return to her house. 

He burst into her house and she was sitting on the new couch. “Show me!” she commanded.

He turned his phone on and screamed, “Holy shit!” and dropped the phone. His uncle was now smiling broadly and also winking his right eye. The left eye that had been so lifeless in the original picture   now stared brightly at him. There was intelligence and awareness in the eye. 

His aunt was so shocked upon seeing the photo that she  grabbed her chest. She looked into her nephew’s face with disbelief and horror. She tried to say something but her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed onto the floor. 

“Aunt Susan?” he asked. He knelt beside her and saw she wasn’t breathing. He clumsily tried to do CPR, but she did not respond and he realized she was dead. He looked at the phone once more and now his uncle had raised his hand and was pointing his forefinger straight at him.  

He was sobbing as he smashed the phone with his fists, breaking it into dozens of pieces. Then he heard police sirens. Three police cars were pulling in front of the house, next to his car. 

Panicking, he ran up the stairs to the second floor. There was a balcony coming from the master bedroom. He carefully went over the ornate ironwork that topped the wall around the balcony. He stood on the protruding lip of the balcony facing outward and dropped towards the ground. 

But his uncle’s heavy gold chain caught on the ironwork. He was hanging in the air! He couldn’t get free and he couldn’t breathe. He tried to pull the chain from around his throat but his weight pulled him down and the chain began to cut into his flesh. 

He started kicking wildly and his feet drummed against the side of the house. His eyes bulged out of his head as his face turned red and then purple. He tried to scream for help but no sound came out. Spittle sprayed from his lips and ran down his chin. There were white fireworks exploding in his head and just before everything went black, there was an image of his uncle. His uncle was sitting on the couch and his aunt and he were sitting on either side of him. The uncle’s arms were around their necks and he was pulling them into a hug. And he was laughing!

The policemen found his body ten minutes later. At the morgue, his pockets were emptied and they found a very ornate gold ring.