A mystery in St. Louis (a Lackadaisy fanfic)

A horrific tragedy and discovery

"I'm going to radio in. Damn it! With the rain we might not have any evidence," he groaned as he grabbed the radio. "You going to be okay kid? I can take you home."

Francis nodded and said, "I'll be fine I just need to process," with that said she went to talk to her friends to see how they were doing. Like her, they claimed they were going to be fine but right now they weren't all right with what happened.

Francis' p.o.v.

"It's funny I wanted him to leave us alone but I didn't expect this," Rocky said in a guilty tone.

Not used to seeing Rocky look so serious I place a hand on his shoulder, "Rocky this was a murder, not a wish gone bad. You had nothing to do with this?" I assured him still shaken at what I had seen.

Then a sudden shift in the shadows next to us made me look to my right. I saw old weary yellow eyes. We moved closer as we saw the faint-out light of a cat hidden in the shadows. He flinched at my gaze and backed up in the bush. He seemed to cower and then he said, "Please. I did not mean any harm. I have broken the sacred rule and visited the land of the day during the night. Please do not harm the Guardian of the Dead."

"Hey, no one is going to hurt you," I said softly and then I looked out to see Kong rounding on the others babbling about how he was going to murder the murderer.

Rocky whispered, "Uh, Franny, what if he..." he pointed to Solitare. I considered Rocky's thought and when I looked back at the cat hidden in the shadows, I doubted he was a murderer. He was too scared, even by me and he was nearly twice my size just by looking at his faint shape.

"You got to get out of here. If Kong sees you, he will turn you inside out!" I whispered and walked away from him. The cat didn't say much to me; he just muttered some kind of prayer of thanks and then bolted out of the bush. But to my horror Kong whirled around and saw him just as he made cover for the tree.

"You're going to die!" Kong yelled and in a frantic the old cat looked at us and leaped up the wall. Kong went past us to case him along with the Herman twins.
"Kong wait!" Rocky and I followed them hoping to prevent another murder.

I tried to implore Kong to wait so Bluebeard could question the old cat. We were right behind him as we landed in an old yard littered with various items. Including an old bathtub that was flipped over. No sign of the old man.

"Damn it all to hell!" Kong shouted frustrated that he lost his target. "You runts! Any idea where the coward disappeared to, smartass?" he asked us rudely.

"With this lousy weather, I can't tell which direction home is," I replied. "Kong listen we need to bring him in for question-"

"He's further, Boss," said Herman.

"But only three gardens remain and then it's the end of the line. Then we'll grab him!" said the second Herman.

"Yeah, yeah!" Kong nodded. "Yeah! Let's go!" Ignoring my plead they continued with their chase. I signed frustrated not with Kong's stupidity but with everything.

This whole case was awful from the start and tonight was the worst yet. "I'm done I should have minded my business when I found that body."

"Franny," Rocky said trying to comfort her.

"I'm not a cop, I should have just left when I had the chance."

"Why didn't you?" asked Rocky.

"I don't know, or I can't explain. At first, it was cause my job was affected, and then Felicity... Oh, poor Felicity." I couldn't stop then, "Now... I've had enough of this nightmare!" I yelled as Rocky patted my back. "Not that it matters if I stay, all my theories about the murders are destroyed. What would the killer gain by killing a pregnant woman?!"