NIGHT 1It turned out although his bar was replaced by a car wash Lou was still in business just down the street. I stumbled in there about five o'clock for a bite and a drink and stumbled back out at two in the morning. I always said I knew how to hold my liquor but Lou always had a way to prove me wrong on that count. He held my keys and car for the night, leaving me to fend for myself on the dark streets, damp from pouring rain. Still unfamiliar with the place it took me a fair bit of time to get my bearings while doing my best to keep from tossing Lou's famous roast beef sandwich. I thought a cigarette would calm my nerves and my stomach but it was nearly impossible to light the thing in the rain. I was a sad sight to see alright - leaning against a street light, my hat and coat was soaked through, hands fumbling with a lighter and drenched cigarette that wouldn't take. A stranger came up to me, a hand outstretched with a bright flame emitting from his lighter. I gave him one look sideways, but took the light anyways. "Thanks." The first puff in and out calmed my stomach but the fresh face refused to leave and that didn't set right with my nerves.
"The only people that come out on nights like these are troublemakers," he said to me frankly. He didn't look familiar but that isn't saying much in this town. I grunted and inhaled again, really dragging out the smoke as I sent it flying into the night.
"What are you going to do about it officer?" I ask him. He gave me a smirk. "Gonna book me for the night? What will the charges be, suspicious stagger?"
He smirked, and looked like he was going to respond when we heard a blood curdling scream, like the ones in the shows. But this was no show. Suddenly my drunken stupor left me and me and this other guy went running, trying to locate the scream in the now deafening rain. "Any idea where it came from?" The other man asked me. What a daft question that was.
"With the rain making sounds echo all around us there is no way for us to tell. Come on then, you go that way and I'll go this way. I'll see you on the other side of this block."
God was not on our side that night. We ran around the whole of Sencity, ending fittingly out in front of city hall. Daylight was breaking now, and my weak stomach was starting to catch up with me. The other man let me go home while he went to the nearest emergency phone to call the police.
When I returned to my run down motel room I didn't even bother with my clothes. I feel straight head first onto the bed, and I awoke several hours later thinking it was just a dream. I poured myself a drink in one of those styrofoam cups intended for coffee and tried to rationalize what happened. When I was on the case I'd have dreams. Horrible dreams, usually. They'd be about the deceased or the victims of their own crimes. The ones that weren't horrible were usually about the dames that hired me, vixens though they were. The night after the blood curdling scream I don't remember any dreams, just a mixture of rain and confusion.
I had set up with the front desk when I signed in that a paper should me left at my doorstep every morning, and so with a throbbing head and barely recovered inhibition I went to gather it from the doorstep. The sun seemed twice as bright as normal, the sidewalk dried up even after the all night downpour. I grabbed the paper from in front of my door and threw it on the bed. I didn't even want to look at it. I made myself another drink before splashing warm water on my face and straightening myself out. My hat and coat were still wet but they'd dry soon enough.
Out of distractions from the work to be done, I finally grab the paper and pull it open. It confirmed my fears, and my stomach got that tight feeling in it I only get when a case seems unsolvable. It wasn't a dream then. On the front page in big bold letters read the phrase
ARISTOCRAT FOUND DEAD. I wish at that moment I could find the man that gave me the light. Maybe he could help me make sense of this. It went on to explain the death - it was a knife wound in his throat, something the police attributed to a late night mugging gone all wrong. They argued that it wasn't the wound that killed him, but rather he bled out, unable to call out to help. It even gave the general location of the act - due south of me and my late night companion. If we had only gone that way to start with, perhaps we could've been there in time.
That tight feeling in my throat always told me something else, too. The death so soon after the mayor's was no coincidence. It might have even been planned that I wrong into the man with the light. It could've been pure chance that the man showed up at all, and we were both thrown into hell last night. Regardless of these idle thoughts, something in Sencity is bringing a revolution by force, whether the town likes their methods or not.
END NIGHT 1
BEGIN DAY 1
SUBMIT LYNCH CANDIDATES BEFORE 10:00 PM MST 7/31/2013