Foul But Fair
‘And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief candle!’, is a quote used by Shakespeare comparing life to a candle. ‘Though it shines bright, it’s only temporary’. Life is not everlasting, you live what you are destined to live, except if your life is ended by a bullet shot by someone else. Then it’s another whole story…
Killed in cold blood… Shot, to be more precise. Edward Smithers, a fellow thespian was murdered on the night of the most important show in his life. Who knew that it would be his last…?
It happened on December 11th 2008, Sydney Opera House. It was the beginning of the worst days that the city Sydney had ever seen.
Edward Smithers and his crew were going to perform Macbeth. All those passionate about this tragedy in Sydney were attending the show. They were all waiting impatiently for the crews’ performance.
Suddenly they heard a loud gunshot.
The red curtains opened.
Everyone gasped… out of horror
On stage lay Edward’s dead body and a girl facing him with a pistol…
The crowd erupted with a cacophony of screams. Everyone was traumatised. The background characters gasped with their hands on their mouths and tears rolling down their cheeks.
Everything else was a blur. Some people passed out. Then the cops arrived with their loud resounding sirens. Policemen were shouting and yelling ‘Freeze!’ and ‘Put your hands up!’. It was a traumatic experience. They arrested the girl holding the pistol.
Edward was murdered backstage. It was a cold room with the floor made of creaky wood planks. The lights were not functioning well and would flicker at times. It smelt like something rotten. There were many insects. The wooden walls looked like they were about to break any minute. A renovation was long overdue. ’All the drama happens backstage’ was ironically true. There was no way that the show could go on after this devastating experience…
After the murder, the city of Sydney was quiet like a cemetery. Everyone stayed in their homes. It was like a ghost town. It was a cold and sinister environment. Winter was here already. The town was mourning. There was a chilly breeze passing through town and a gust of unpleasant wind that seemed like it was carrying sadness from one house to another.
Who knew that the end of the bullet would not only cost someone’s life but also the town’s sanity?…
NEXT CHAPTER
Detective Jones decided to investigate this disturbing case. He brought the girl who was holding the gun to the interrogation room of Long Bay Correctional Center Prison. The girl looked like she was in her early twenties. She had dark straight hair that bounced as she walked. Her hair reached to her shoulders. She had fair skin and super shiny dark eyes. Her eyes shone like gems but they were completely lifeless. She had no expression, like all her energy had been drained. She had sharp features and a latin trait.
After sleeping in the police cell, her hair was messy, Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles and were half closed. It looked like she did not sleep at all. Who could blame her, though? The cell was cold and only had a mattress and a light bulb in it. It was as lifeless as those dark eyes of hers.
‘What is your name?’, asked the detective.
‘Ella’, she murmured.
The detective started asking Ella questions. But all she would do was shake her head and run her hands through her hair. She was taping her feet on the floor and biting her fingernails, mumbling something.
The detective started to get annoyed and angry. He slammed his fist on the table and the girl gasped. She looked frightened, terrified almost…
‘Oh and that scares you’, exclaimed the detective. ‘You killed someone!’, he yelled. The girl had tears rolling down her soft, pillow cheeks.
Finally she managed to open her mouth and whimper, ’This is bigger than you think, there was a bounty and…’, the door slammed open. It was her lawyer standing beside it. ‘And what!’, yelled the detective. Her lawyer told her to stay quiet and ushered her out of the room.
Jones had a very short temper, much like his height. He ran his hand in his chocolate hair and sighed. It was his first case as a detective. He was very young but, ‘Age is just a number’. Despite his age he was very intelligent and graduated out of Harvard early. He had a round face and soft features.
He asked himself why would anyone want to defend that girl?
She had blood on her hands.
She was a cold-blooded killer.
‘I must be missing something’, he thought to himself.
NEXT CHAPTER
The next day, Detective Jones went to visit Ella in her house. To his shock he saw both Ella and her lawyer unconscious and lying on the floor!
Beside them was a large pool of bright, red, slimy blood. Jones immediately called the ambulance and was even more frustrated and confused.
He was pacing the hospital waiting room of St Vincent’s Hospital and waiting impatiently for a doctor to tell him what happened. He prayed that Ella was alive even though she was a murderer. She was his only lead.
Hours after waiting, a doctor finally came.’ Mr. Jones’, he called.
‘Yes’ the detective replied, rushing to the doctor.
The doctor was wearing a long white robe and a mask on his face. Despite his mask, the detective could see that he had a sad and disappointed look on his face. ‘Unfortunately neither the lawyer nor the girl made it’, he said sorrowfully.
‘Damn it!’Jones yelled in anger. He stomped his foot on the ground. Everyone around him in the waiting room gasped in shock. They stared at him shamelessly and with judgement after the scene he had made. But Jones couldn’t care less. The only lead he had was now gone…
After the sad news Jones returned home and started thinking. The only lead that he had was now dead. The doctor told him that they were both shot in the stomach and bled to death. ‘There was a bounty’, that was what Ella had said. What could that have possibly meant?
Was there a bounty on Edward’s life? Jones was spiralling with possible answers of what that could have meant but even though he was a detective he was still very young and had his limits. He yawned and went to sleep.
NEXT CHAPTER
After a salubrious sleep, the young detective decided to visit the victim’s parents. He was pretty much desperate for more information as his lead was now dead and Edward’s autopsy results were yet to come. Luckily he had their exact location.
He drove to northern Sydney and saw an elegant house. The two-storey house, made of white marble, was massive. It had beautiful glimmering pillars on the front porch. The house was next to the beach and stood on soft shiny sand. It was spectacular, yet the house looked empty and creepy. The flowers were wilted. The place was silent. The house looked like it was worth millions.
The detective then went to knock on the door. The door slowly creaked open and a lady answered. She looked like she was in her 60s. She was very short. Her eyes were red and it seemed like she had been crying for hours. She had a pained expression on her face. Her skin looked like a roll of used tinfoil that you tried to smooth out and use again.
‘Who are you?’she asked in a low voice.
’I’m with the police and I’m investigating your son’s case,’ Jones replied.
‘Oh, well come in then’, she said with a sweet smile.
When Detective Jones first stepped in he could not hide his shock. The house was beautiful. He saw two gigantic round staircases leading to a balcony on the first floor. In the middle he saw a humongous chandelier embroidered with colourful crystals that shone like stars. The stairs were golden and the room that they were in looked like a lobby.
But none of that mattered. All he could concentrate on was on the fig tree in the middle of it all. A mighty fig tree. It was weird to have a tree inside a house. But the detective did not question it. The fig tree was big and mighty, much like this house. The leaves were greener than the colour green. The five were pink and shiny. There was something about this tree that seemed special. Jones could not figure out what it was. But he knew deep inside that ghat tree was a symbol. A special symbol.
Jones saw a young lady sweeping the floor. The Detective guessed that she worked for the owner of the house.
‘That’s Lila. She is our most loyal worker. She cleans the house’, the woman said pointing to the lady who was sweeping the floors.
The victim’s mother brought him to the kitchen. It was beautiful. It was his dream kitchen.
In the kitchen the detective saw an older man who he assumed was her husband. He looked grumpy, with a frown on his face. He looked like he was in his 70s and his eyebrows looked like mountain peaks.
‘Who’s this?’, asked the grump.
The lady explained that Jones was the detective investigating their son’s case.
‘Hmmm, have you found anything yet?’, he asked curiously while flipping through the newspaper and sipping tea.
’No sir’, Jones replied quickly.
‘Why ask?’, the mother said,’We already know who it is.’…
NEXT CHAPTER
‘What!’, yelled detective Jones. It was so loud that you could hear the sound echoing through the walls of the mansion.
‘You really know who it is?’, said the detective with a hushed voice after realising how loud he had been.
‘Well, we don’t have any proof, but we think that it’s our daughter Mia Smithers’, the mother said with a glimmer in her eyes that made it hard to believe that she was not being sarcastic.
‘Why would you accuse your own daughter?’, the detective asked intrigued. The mother leaned closer to Detective Jones and whispered something in his ear. The detective was nodding while she was talking and that went on for a few minutes.
Finally when she leaned back, she said,’’My husband already knows about that but it is confidential and top secret information so I do not like speaking about it aloud. It holds truths that none of us can begin to understand.’’
By the time she finished, the detective was already rushing to the door and thanking the mother. Jones was not a very grateful person and took things for granted. But this secret was about to change everything.
‘’Thank you so much, my debt to you is unconditional!’’, he cried out, grateful.
He rushed to the car and as he was starting it he said, ’Next stop, the lion’s den.’
NEXT CHAPTER
It was time to head to southern Sydney, where the victim’s sister lived. Luckily he also had her exact location. When he drove up to her house he was shocked to see a tiny home made of wood and with a metal roof.
It was already raining and he could hear the loud sound of the tiny water droplets hitting the roof, creating a loud and unpleasant sound. There was a chilly breeze that made Jones feel a shiver down his spine.
As he walked to the front door he saw long icicles hanging from the roof. He knocked on the metal door and felt his knuckles burn. The door was frozen. Thankfully before he had a chance to knock again the door slowly creaked open.
Behind it stood a brunette girl. She had dark brown hair and it was straight. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked tired. Her eyes looked like a serpent’s eyes, her pupils were as thin as a line and they were dark green, like a snake’s scale. She had crooked teeth. She was wearing grey rags layered on top of each other with holes in them.
‘Who are you?’, she said with a cold and stern voice.
‘I’m Detective Jones’, he replied as he showed her his badge,
‘Well, come in then’, she said as she slowly smiled wickedly.
When the detective first stepped in, he could hear the wooden floor creak and to his left he saw a messy kitchen with dirty dishes. To his right he saw a brown couch with holes all over it and the white fabric popping out. In the middle he saw a small two- chair table and a white flickering light over it.
He doubted that this was the right place and even if it was, how would the girl’s parents be so rich and leave her with nothing?
But none of that mattered. All he could notice was an empty shelf with one thing on it. A gun.
A long-barreled firearm used for accurate shooting. A rifle. It was neatly tucked away on the top shelf.
‘Don’t worry I have my permit’, she reassured in a mischievous voice. She then led him to the table and told him to sit.
‘I’m Mia and I presume that you are here to talk about Eddie’s death’, She said in a queer voice.
‘Nice to meet you Mia and if by Eddy you mean Edward Smithers, then yes you are indeed right’, replied the young detective.
She nodded and the detective started asking questions. She replied to all of them easily without hesitation like she believed everything she was saying.
The detective had no intentions of drowning her with questions but after he saw that rifle he knew he had to ask even more.
‘So what do you think of your brother’s death? How did you react? Does your family visit you often? Can you show me your permit for…’ the detective was rudely interrupted by the ringtone of his phone.
He took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the name, it was Doctor Marshall, he was supposed to perform the autopsy. The detective had impatiently been waiting for days.
‘Sorry I have to take this’,he said as he took the call.
‘Hello this is Doctor Marshall. I have the autopsy results. You might want to come see for yourself’, she said and then hung up.
‘I’m sorry, but I have to go’, the detective said to Mia.
‘Oh no, it’s fine’, she replied
The detective thanked Mia for her time and rushed out of the house. Then he quickly headed to the hospital.
NEXT CHAPTER
As he arrived he instantly recognized Doctor Marshall and the doctor led him to the morgue. As soon as he stepped in the room he could feel a cold shiver down his spine. It was cold and it smelled horrible, like blood, decay and dead bodies. It was creepy and gloomy and the detective prayed that this was the first and last time that he came to this place.
There were at least 50 drawers in which they stored bodies. But in the middle there was a table with a white cloth covering it. The detective assumed that this was where Edward’s body was.
‘Here lies the victim’, he said pointing to the table in the middle.
‘You may not believe this but the autopsy results shows that he died from a bullet of a different gun than what the girl was holding’, the doctor said.
‘What?How! The girl was holding a pistol and all the evidence points to her!’, replied the angry detective.
‘Well, that evidence isn’t solid proof’, said Mr. Marshall.
‘W-well I’m getting there’, stuttered the embarrassed detective.
The doctor said,‘The results show that the bullet that Edward died from is from a long-barreled gun that has very precise shooting.’
‘A rifle’, whispered the detective.
The doctor nodded. ‘I-Im sorry, I need to go, I think I know who it is’, said Jones as he quickly rushed out of the room.
NEXT CHAPTER
He made a phone call asking for backup to the police. He had to return to Mia’s house. He drove his car as fast as he could. When he finally arrived he got out of the car ready for anything . But to his shock he saw Mia standing outside of her door holding a rifle and ready to shoot…
‘Well, well, well, look who finally came back’, said Mia in a wicked voice.
‘I know it’s you, killing your own brother, that’s unjustifiable. Even for you’, Jones said.
‘Hmmmm, you thing that you got it all figured out and while you are finding out more information , you are forgetting the bigger picture.’, she said.
She adjusted the gun.
Then she loaded it.
She brought it closer to her eye.
She closed one of her eyes.
Then she put her finger on the trigger.
She was ready to shoot.
‘Thump, Thump, Thump’, Jones could feel his heartbeat getting faster and faster. It felt like she would pull the trigger any second.
Luckily he planned all this. Just as she was about to shoot Jones screamed,‘wait!’, confusing Mia. Giving enough time to the cop that was behind her the whole time without her even noticing, to whack her on the head with his baton. Making her pass out.
He sighed out of relief. His plan had worked. Mia was unconscious and he had solid proof that she was the murderer. He was also very grateful that he called for back up as without them the plan might have not worked and he may as well have been killed.
NEXT CHAPTER
There they were in the interrogation room of Long Bay Correctional Center Prison. Jones was ready to ask all his questions, but before a word even came out of his mouth Mia said,’ You think that you have got it all figured out, while really you are losing sight of the bigger picture.
‘That’s the second time you told me that. What do you really mean by the ‘ ‘bigger picture’’, he asked curiously, for answers.
‘It means that you were supposed to find the murderer and prevent more people from being killed.’, she said
Before Detective Jones could even reply, Mia innocently said,’ Yet now two more people died, the lawyer and the girl. Isn’t’ that so detective?’
“Enough about me”, the detective said as quickly as possible in hopes of changing the topic.
‘I know that you killed your own brother’, he said.
‘He isn’t my brother’, she said in an angry voice.
‘When his parents would die they were to give all the money to him and leave me with nothing. Now that’s no longer an option as Eddie is no longer here’, she added in a victorious tone.
‘So that’s what all this is about, heritage’, said the detective
Mia ignored his comment and kept on talking.
‘When I was a baby my mother left me in a basket. She put the basket on the Smithers door and then rang the doorbell. Then she ran away.’, she said in a hurt voice
‘Did the Smithers treat you well?’, asked intrigued Jones.
Mia replied, ‘At first they did, but then they started to…’, she was brutally interrupted by a cop who abruptly opened the door.
‘You need to see this Jones’, he said in a scared voice as he told the detective to get away from the woman and rushed him to another room.
A troop of cops had to search Mia’s house while the detective was talking to her. But what they found was very shocking.
NEXT CHAPTER
It was a flyer, with the picture of Edward Smithers’ face in it. Below the photo was a number. A big number. ’1 million dollars to whoever kills him’ was written on the flyer. On the bottom of the flyer the detective could see, ‘By: Mia Smithers’.
Jones could not believe it. All this time there was a bounty on Edward’s head. He started spiralling with questions. Who saw this? Was that why Ella was scared? But most importantly, where did Mia get all the money?
At that moment Jones realised it all. He ran out of the police station and drove as fast as he could to the Smithers house.
Mia was just distracting him by feeding him lies. Everything she said were lies.It was Mrs’ Smithers who had told him the truth about everything. About her.
He was breaking all rules on the road and was driving way over the speed limit. The only way that Mia could even afford to put 1 million dollars on a flyer was that she got her will. The Smithers will, and the only way that that could possibly happen was that the… He blocked the thought out of his head and kept on driving. That’s why she wanted to kill Edward or ‘Eddy’ as she said, it was all because of inheritance! Now if the Smithers were to die, all the money would go to her! They only had two children, one dead and one alive.
NEXT CHAPTER
He finally arrived at the Smithers’ house. He kicked the door open and in front of him he saw Mr and Mrs Smithers lying on the floor in a pool of blood…
They were both shot.
Their bodies lay under the special fig tree.
He could feel tears rolling down his cheeks. He had failed to protect them, he had failed his duty.
He looked up only to see ‘Lila’ the cleaner who worked here, holding a gun and pointing it at Jones, at gunpoint. The detective could see that on the maid’s other hand was a flyer with the face of Mr. And Mrs. Smithers on it… It was another bounty! He put his hands in the air and froze…
This was it.
Mia had won.
He had lost…
Did you know that fig tree flowers are actually hidden inside the fruit? Their flowers bloom inside the fruit. So even when the fruit rots and all hope seems to wither away, the flower is still in there. It has to still be in there, right?
By: Shifa Khodabocus
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