The cemeteries keeper.

There once was a man and he used to be known as the cemetery's keeper. He would wash the stones and make the graves intact with new paint jobs and flowers.

 He would be seen sitting down talking to the stones. While he ate his lunch it was a different stone each day. Everybody thought he was creepy. He wore black every day like he was about to attend a funeral. A full suit and tie. Even in the summer.

He would watch everyone from a far that went passed. Especially those who came in. He would hide near the trees and light up a cigarette. You could hear him choke from a mile away. That's how everyone knew he was there. The coughing. 

He helped the community by doing his job and keeping it clean but he would never get recognised for it. It was a hard job. Nobody knew his family.

They knew he was watching them. He hung around the grave yard at night to stop the youngsters from vandalizing the stones but he had to be careful as they were loud and in groups and could possibly be holding a weapon.

He would just scrub it off when they left. Until one day some youngish kids came by and smashed up all the gravestones and tried to dig to find the coffins and the bodies inside.

"The next day he was found dead lying among the gravestones. With his head in a bucket of water. What he was cleaning with. Whoever it was drowned him and they had a purpose. There was a rumour going around saying that he hurt some children but that was a lie! I'm detective Susan Baker and I took over this case. Two things were obvious one being the fact that this was foul play. The other I think I know who did it and I needed him to confess. This fella I speak of has just gotten out of prison. For murdering someone five years ago. He only got five bloody years. Pathetic from the justice systems side. But nobody showed up at court for him. His record was clean he had never done a bad thing in his entire life. He had strangle marks around his neck when I found him he was cold. He had been beaten before he drowned."

The coroner said he was definitely strangled to death. He had knife marks on his rib cages and a big one marked on his throat. Who ever killed him really wanted him to die. They collected the DNA and matched it with the strangle marks whoever it may have been left dirty scratch marks. With the gunk left under their nails we found a match. 

Just who I thought it was. The man has just gotten out of gaol and he got bail to his mother's house. He had no where else to go. He had a big group of friends that committed crime all over the area.

 The crime rate was bad without them. Hopefully my partner Sir John and I could take down who did it today. It was going to be a long one. Which meant that we wouldn't be with our families today which was Christmas eve. I wasn't expecting that. The boss said we could go but once again we had to protect the city. 

I put up so many Christians lights this year. Hoping to not have them vandalized to. During the festive holidays the people in my area too, would go absolutely nuts. Screaming fighting punching on doing drugs, hard drugs might I add. 

Drug dealers on each corner. The lowest act was burning someones house down on Christmas Eve leaving them with nothing. In this area this has unfortunately happened on a regular basis. Due to mainly domestic violence or vandalism the occasional brake in. I've gotten a few bravery awards due to taking down a man with a gun and saving someone from committing suicide. 

My partner is my mentor he is a good bloke. Tough. Well built. 

It was time to search for more clues. Maybe we will find foot prints or something leading to the murder area. As we arrived in the darkness we heard more youngsters roaming about and obviously destroying the head stones. We turned our flash lights on and pulled out our badges. They were horrified. Stopped in their tracks. 

"We need the names of all of you. Now!" My partner said with a scary tone.

About an hour later we had all their names. They were finally going to be charged with vandalism, each kid had to pay for the damage that they did. With their protective parents. Each of them got a fine of one thousand dollars. Each made payment plans. I wondered who would take over the grave yard now or would they just let it over grow.

The grave yard over grown it had been about a month since he passed away. The stones were dirty. Vines growing in every direction. We interrogated the fella that I thought it was but he would not confess even though we found his DNA on the man's neck.

He said the old man kissed me and I put my hands on his throat but he didn't die. Last time I saw him he was alive I didn't kill him."

I knew that was a lie. Because the old man didn't go near anybody because they could be armed with a weapon. We found a couple of foot prints we matched it with the same shoes but he still would not confess. Even after a violent interrogation. We showed him pictures of the old man's crime scene. He looked away. 

We made sure that we got a warrant out for his arrest we found the murder weapon after a big search in the creek he had dumped it in there. He had no remorse. He had his poker face on. He was put in a cell for attempted murder up until his court hearing