Genre: Mystery/Suspense 

Plot: A detective investigates fortune tellers

Words to use: mind, predictions, future, power, crime, destiny, sage, voodoo, magic, spirit, whisper, secret, tarot, divination, foresight

Written by Rachel Knepp

Detectives Colin McCabe and Jim Payne, complete polar opposites in their opinions, watched the fluorescent sign flash Welcome to The Psychic Festival. A yearly event, the dates were for a whole four days.

“The power of the mind, Jim, is unbelievable,” Colin said to his partner. Jim looked at him with a smirk on his face and gritted teeth, a storm cloud gathered over him. He had been dealing with all the superstitious nonsense from him the entire day and felt burnt out. They drew up outside the convention center, double parking to get as close as he could to the entrance. He didn’t like walking miles to get to a crime scene. Jim slammed the car door shut and headed straight toward the doors, nudging his way through the crowd.

“It’s all nonsense, Colin, don’t be ridiculous. They are just scammers, trying to use their voodoo, or whatever it is, to take people’s money,” Jim said, hopping out of the passenger seat.

The call came to the station, and they both ran out of the station. Not another one! Predictions had been made whether there would be another murder or not, but Jim hoped not. In his opinion, crime wasn’t something you should bet on. 

All sorts of people arrived for the first Mystical Conference. The very first day, a woman had been found bludgeoned in her space, surrounded by tarot cards. Then the manager of the local movie theater, a visitor, had been found in a chair at the makeshift dining area, strangled, a tarot card in his pocket. And now another fortune teller, found in one of the offices, a set of tarot cards on her stomach and some sage in her hair. The only suspects at this time was a list of fortune tellers.

“This is just evil,” Colin said, his face of stone determination, “whatever you believe.”

“Well, I know there is no such thing as magic. Whoever is doing this is one hundred percent real person, and not a spirit,” Jim said.

“That we can agree on,” Colin replied. He didn’t think this had any connection to the beyond, but he liked to keep his mind open.

They pushed through the milling crowd of onlookers, questions posed on their faces. They hear a question from a reporter, “any statement about what happened, Detective?” 

“No statement yet,” the detective told him decisively, brushing past. Such a bother, he thought with a smirk on his face. 

Located in the interior offices of the conference center. The offices weren’t used much so they didn’t bother putting anything personal in any of them. A desk and a couple chairs, bare walls.

“You would think if they could actually tell the future, the victims would have protected themselves better.” Colin said to his partner who returned a smirk. 

“Right? Maybe they thought it would be their destiny,” he quipped back. 

“Okay, you two, that’s enough with the callous sarcasm. Time and place, and this ain’t it.” The deep voice made them both turn.

“Sorry, chief,” Colin said, “No disrespect intended.” He turned back around to look around the body. It filled the office chair, leaning back, mouth wide open, looking surprised. 

“Guess she didn’t predict this,” Colin said and gave a quick embarrassed backward glance at the Chief detective behind him.

The chief had been occupied with a quiet whisper from another detective to hear him, and he let out a sigh of relief. 

“Are there any cameras in this area?” McCabe asked the officer standing nearby.

“None, sir, and the ones they had were tampered with by someone,” she said, her face turning green. 

“Are you okay, Officer Kline?” Colin asked the youthful face pulled tight by the severe bun on the top of her head. She held youthful enthusiasm for most of the newbies on the police force, but she had some trouble with some aspects of the job.

“Yes, I am okay. My first dead body,” she replied, coughing and clearing her throat, looking away. 

“You will get used to it – unfortunately,” he replied, his voice diminishing with the reality of police work. 

McCabe had been looking through the pockets of the victim. He pulled out a tarot card from the inside of her brightly beaded vest and sighed deeply. “Someone is adding to their body count. Guess we are dealing with the same person.”

“And we know the person had the foresight to leave no clues behind,” Colin said, he scratched his chin, something he did when he got frustrated with getting no answers. 

“Let’s get the body back to the morgue and have them do their magic. Maybe there is some secret hidden within,” Colin made a whirling sound and moved his fingers, like he was conjuring up something out of thin air. Hopefully, a clue that lead them to the culprit. That would be a nice bit of divination.

The criminal investigation team had searched through the office carefully, finding nothing of significance besides many fingerprints. As the body was beginning to be lifted from the chair carefully, a small sound of metal piqued the interest of the detectives.

“What was that?” Colin said. Jim looked at the carpet beneath the chair furtively.

“Looks like a tiny bell. There is an attachment like it came from a bracelet or necklace.” Jim replied.

They looked at each other. “I guess we do have a clue. Someone made a mistake.”

Stay tuned for Part 2 – Sign up to receive alerts to my next post.