Revolutionary Mystery

“He’s not going to come out of retirement. When he left, he made it clear that he was done solving mysteries.” I heard one of my former colleagues say. They were outside of my tent, acting as if there was no way I could hear them. What they didn’t know was that I already expected them, especially after they found the body. “I don’t know why we’re bothering him with this.”
Ever since the world nearly came to an end in 2014, I learned to keep my ear pressed to the ground. That skill had helped me become one of the most sought after detectives in the world, along with the fact that I didn’t need any of the former technology that used to has been the standard in the crime solving industry.

“We have to follow orders and get him to figure out who the body belongs too and why she was killed.” The temptation to jump out of my tent and tell them what I already knew was becoming stronger, but I took a breath and counted to 10. For some reason they thought that I wasn’t itching to take this case on. “I just hope that he says yes, the Captain won’t be happy if we don’t bring him back.”
“It’s not our choice though, they know that.”

Finally I unzipped my tent and looked at the men. The rest of the people who lived near me, also poked their heads out of their tents. I shot them a warning look and they retreated back into their homes, it reminded me of turtles. “What do you guys want? I’m not coming back to the force. I retired.”

“Who retires at 33? Come on, come back to the force for just one case. We really need your help, and knowing you, it’ll be solved by 2041.”

It was December of 2040, so they expected me to solve the case in less than a month. Luckily for them I already had a head start on the case. “Fine, I’ll take the case but this is the only one. The dead woman is Angela Thompson, Granddaughter of The Leader. The autopsy says that she was shot, but if you look closer at the body, she was actually strangled.” My former colleagues looked at each other in shock. It was as if they had no idea that I was going to be asked to look at this. “Don’t be surprised, I knew that I was going to be asked to do this and I knew that I was going to take it. Her husband is in big trouble with very bad men but I don’t think it has anything to do with them. This screams of the revolutionaries who want to send The Leader a message.”

“Well let’s get back to headquarters, so you can tell The Captain what you think.” My mind wandered to who could have killed this girl, but I already knew. My theory to my co-workers was what I had been working off of ever since I had heard about the body being discovered.

Agreeing to solve one more case for the department of mysteries had tired me out, so when we got in the horse carriage, I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. A popping sound woke me up. Our carriage was being shot at, but why. Instantly I knew that the reason everyone’s life was in danger was because of me. This told me that I was on the right path when it came to finding out Angela Thompson’s killer. In the Department of Mysteries they were trained to kill, “Don’t return fire. Once they see where we are headed, they’ll leave us alone.”

The carriage pulled to a stop. The others drew their guns, I didn’t have one because it was against the law for a civilian to own a gun. They listened to me and didn’t fire their weapons, but they did jump out of the carriage.

“Man down!” was shouted after another shot was fired. My fear was that I had just got someone killed, but there was no time for that worry. Getting to The Captain and thusly The Leader was imperative. It meant that everything that I was hearing was right, that there was a subset of people that were willing to kill to send a message.

“How did you know that there was a revolution afoot?” The remaining colleague asked as he got back into the carriage and it began moving again. He eyed me suspiciously for a minute, then seemingly came to his senses.
“I heard a rumor from some of my neighbors about a dead body being found and wanted to find out more about it. It’s my curious nature, so I decided to start poking around. When the Doctor left, I snuck into the morgue and examined the body myself. The bullet wasn’t near anything vital and was just done for show. When you look at the neck, you can see where she was strangled. Then I started wondering why this victim was chosen and I found out the connection to The Leader and everything fell into place.”

Maybe going back to the Department of Mysteries was what I should do, they were correct in asking who retired at 33? There was no way that I would be able to stay satisfied just sitting around in my tent and not solving mysteries. Yet because of my instinct and ability to read people, it made me a liability to many people. The previous Captain had been corrupt and letting people get away with things, until I reported him to the Second in Command. That nearly cost me my life, but The Leader had granted me early retirement with full benefits. Now the body of his granddaughter had been found, and while the exact person hadn’t been found, it was for a hreater cause. It was time for me to come out of retirement.