A murder in the coffee shop

PS: first person narrative 

   I was busy reading a paper work in my tiny office around 1:30 pm when sergeant Ray informed me of a murder in our local coffee shop. The only coffee shop we have at Branton township was the famous ‘coffee house’ owned by a sweet old lady called Mrs Evie Stellings. Mrs Stellings and her now recently deceased husband came to Branton township a long time ago and built the famous coffee house here. The coffee and pastry they serve are next to nothing! But now, as sergeant Ray informed me about a murder in the coffee house; my heart sank. Who could have possibly been murdered? I thought to myself as me and my partner; detective Joe made our way to our police car. 

   As we arrived at the doomed coffee shop; it was already covered with yellow tapes and police flashlights were flashing like Wild fires. Sergeant Ray was at the side, barricading people from crossing the yellow tape. We entered inside. It looked normal. Nothing turned over, nothing in disarray; but as I entered into her small office opposite the kitchen entrance, that was when all hell went loose! Mrs Evie Stellings was lying face down near her table. As I examined the crime scene, It seemed like she was going through the shop’s financial records when the fatal blow landed on he ba k of her head. The crime scene was bizarre on its own because none of the workers saw anyone enter or exit. Even if the killer did come in, they had to pass through the counter; then through the kitchen and then into Evie’s office. I and detective Joe narrowed the suspects to only the workers in the shop which are Jacob & Stella who are the bakers, Karl the barista, Meg the cleaner and Martin the maintenance man. Jacob, Stella, Karl & Meg were adamant that they were in the kitchen when the murder took place. The only person that had a rocky alibi was Martin; he kept changing his story times without number and that made us really suspicious of him. The problem we have with Martin is that he is a mysterious fellow who has a great deal of criminal records which includes an attempted murder of his half-sister; but nonetheless ; the kind old Evie let him work in her coffee shop. Could this maniac be her killer? Before we could figure that out, the victim’s oldest son; David Stellings came running into the crime scene yelling out for his mother. Sergeant Ray and the other officers rushed inside and took him back outside informing him that the shop is a crime scene. David was physically and emotionally upset, come to think of it, the only person who provides him with money to suppress his drug addiction is gone. Why wouldn’t he be upset, right? As I was interviewing him he said something peculiar “it was a .22mm to the back of the head; right? “ of course I and my partner were taken aback! I asked him how he knew about it  because we never disclosed it to the public. He smiled sadly and told us that she alwayskept a .22mm in her office shelf behind a pile of books. We later took him down to the station for more questioning. He then went on to tell us that only he and his two sisters know that she kept a gun in the shelf behind a pile of  books. Now, the investigation shifted from the workers in the coffee house to the the victims’ own flesh & blood! David Stellings was a drug addict as I disclosed earlier and could go to any extent to get money to satisfy his addiction, the 2nd child Flora Stellings is a good girl; she never had trouble with the law, was a straight A student in her high school and college and she went on to get married and move to the nearby state. The last child is Hyra Stellings. She is a nut case In most degrees because she also meddled in drugs  and got pregnant twice all in her final years of high school . She is currently studying  law in the local college. We were informed by David that Hyra was their mother’s favorite and that made him angry all the time. Would that be a recipe for murder? 

   Flora and Hyra Stellings came down to the station looking very much upset. They held each other and cried as I informed them of their mother’s murder. I felt sorry for them; but a detective has to do what a detective has to do so I summoned them, one at a time, for questioning. Flora was at her work in a hospital 500km away when the murder took place and Hyra was in her dorm room studying with a bunch of friends. 

   2 days has passed, and there is no new leads. The suspects were still David Stellings and Martin Capello. But how did the alleged killer know where the gun was? It has to be one of Evie’s children! We confirmed David’s alibi that he was not in his place of work at the time of the murder and several witnesses confirmed that they saw David loitering the neighborhood around the time of the murder. And the fact that he actually knew where the gun was and where it was shot in her body, was compelling enough to make an arrest. A week after Evie Stellings’ murder, her son David Stellings was convicted of her murder. He remained adamant that he was not the one that killed her but the jury won’t buy it! He was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. I and my partner can finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Evie’s murderer was behind bars. 

   After I’ve retired for almost 25 years, I got a bizarre letter from a woman called Tina Daniel.  This woman wrote that she is Hyra Stellings daughter and that she knows what happened to her grandmother 25 years ago. She wrote to me that she knew who it was and that it was not her uncle David who killed her grandmother all those years. I was flabbergasted, because what she wrote next was all too good to be true. On that faithful day, Hyra Stellings left her, 12 year old Tina & 11 year old Max, with her best friend in her dorm room informing her that she was going to ‘patch things up’ with her mother. She left around 12:30 pm and when she arrived around 1:50 pm, she looked so agitated and Tina overheard Hyra telling her friend that ‘ she took care of that bitch once and for all’. As a 12 year old she didn’t quite understand what she was talking about but now that she’s grown up; she   Knows that her mother was responsible for her grandmother’s murder. She went forward and described how she carefully entered the window and took the .22mm gun from the shelf and waited for Evie to enter her office. When Evie settled in and was checking the shop’s records, Hyra jumped from the back of the huge flower vase and shot her mother once in the back of her head killing her instantly. But Hyra Stellings was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and had only a month to live. After I finished reading the letter, I couldn’t believe what I just read. I began to tremble. For all these years we had the wrong suspect, locked in prison for a crime he swore he did not commit.