Chuck

Chuck is a garbage man. He is a 6 foot, 220 lbs man. His hair and eyes are brown, and he has an unshaven beard. He is wearing some dirty overalls (because of his work) with a white t-shirt under it, and some old brown boots. Chuck lives in Chicago and has a wife and kid. Every day he complains about his job because he hates it; but he has no other choice. He is a high school dropout who didn’t care much for education. Even though he doesn’t seem to be book smart, he has street smarts. Since Chuck works for the city, he knows almost every street. He also knows a lot of people because he sees them every week and chats with them. So he is a pretty well known man to a lot of citizens in Chicago.

While doing his regular route, Chuck went to the same alley that he goes to every week. The alleyway is in between two large buildings and is stopped at the end by another building. There are broken windows on the buildings with glass all over the floor. There are boxes and newspapers everywhere. The trash cans are over packed with garbage and there is also a dumpster. This is the type of alleyway that you would find homeless people living. Other than probably finding a homeless person sleeping there, the alley is filled with cats. There are cats under boxes, near garbage cans, and even crawling into the buildings through the broken windows. This is just a dirty and messy alleyway that Chuck has to go to every week.
So Chuck was going to empty out this packed dumpster. He was removing the trash bags that were on top first and working his way down to the bottom. When Chuck got to about the mid level on the dumpster, he saw something very unusual poking out. After over turning a trash bag he noticed an arm sticking out from beneath the other bags. He panicked and started screaming for his coworker Bob to come over and look. Bob went over right away and couldn't believe what he saw. Chuck started removing more bags from the dumpster quickly and noticed that it was a woman who was laying there. She looked very young around 27 or 28. She was blond, had blue eyes, and was wearing a pink dress. Her body and face were bruised up from being beaten. On her chest was a gun shot wound and up at the neck there was another one.
After seeing the body, Chuck didn't want to touch anything else because he didn't want to tamper with the evidence. While waiting for the police to arrive, Chuck looked around to see if he could find any evidence or clues. He was searching the alley really good when he noticed two shiny small objects on the floor near one of the buildings' walls. Chuck walked up to it and saw that it was two bullet shells. He also noticed small pool of blood and drops leading to the trash can. Looking at all this made him feel sick and disgusting. Why would someone kill a young woman in an alleyway?, he was thinking. Was someone trying to rob her and killed her because she was fighting back? Or was this girl killed by someone that knew her because they were trying to get revenge. After looking around a little more he didn't find a purse but he did find a small clutch on the floor. Inside it was a couple dollars, a credit card, and her license. He read the license and saw that he name was Julie Olson. Looking at her address he realized that she lived right up the block.
Chuck started walking up the block towards Julie's house. When he got there he looked around and didn't see any signs of forced entry or a struggle. Chuck knocked on the front door to see if someone would answer but no one did. He tried to see if the door was unlocked but it wasn't. The window on the side however was open. Looking at the window, Chuck knew that it was wrong to enter the house but he was curious so he did it anyway. Inside the house, he looked around and saw that there was a message on her answering machine. Chuck pressed the button to listen to it and realized that it was Julie's brother yelling at her. The brother was angry at her and said on the message that he didn't like what Julie was doing with another man and that he would kill her if he caught her. This immediately brought up a red flag to Chuck because he was thinking he had the proof right there in his hands. So Chuck took the tape and ran with it back to the crime scene to give it to the police.
The police were then questioning Chuck about what he did and found. They were angry with him and told him that he was tampering with evidence. So they arrested him and took him to the police station. At the station, police were talking to Chuck and told him that even though he was trying to help what he did was wrong because it could get him into a lot of trouble. There could be charges for breaking and entering and also tampering with evidence. Although the police were mad, they thanked him for finding the tape because it was a strong piece of evidence. Investigators were eventually going to go to Julie's house to look around for more evidence but the police were happy getting this tape quickly. So the police decided to let Chuck go and his coworker Bob came to pick him up.
A few hours later, police had Julie's brother, Phil at the station. They were questioning him about the threats he left on the tape. Phil said that he was angry at his sister Julie because she was dating a guy that was no good. He said that Julie's boyfriend would fight with her a lot and sometimes threaten to beat her. Julie was always in fear around her boyfriend but was to scared to leave him. After questioning, police let Phil go and were discussing the information that Phil told them among themselves. When Phil got outside, Chuck pulled up in his car and started talking to him. He told Phil that he was the one who saw Julie dead in the garbage and found the tape in her answering machine. Phil then told Chuck about Julie's angry boyfriend. Chuck got the address from Phil and decided to go to the boyfriend's house. When he got there, he knocked on the door and no one answered. He looked around for an open window and found one on the side of the house. He crawled through the window into the house and just then, the police showed up because they were going to question the boyfriend. That is when Chuck started to panic because he was not suppose to be part of this case. Police already gave him a chance and now he would definitely be in big trouble. He quickly went out the window just as police were breaking in the door. He fell at an awkward position and hurt his leg but he didn't want to get caught. So he got up and limped quickly around the neighbor's yard and quietly went in his car and left. This was one of those times that he had done something stupid after being told not to and he could have gotten caught.
The police were searching the boyfriend's house for evidence that he might have killed Julie. What they were hoping was that the boyfriend would be home so that they could question him but he wasn't. While searching the house, police found a big piece of evidence. What they found was a gun that was under a bed mattress. The 9mm gun matched the type of bullet shells that were at the crime scene. There was also two bullets missing in the clip from keeping it completely full. This definitely brought up a red flag because evidence was strongly pointing to the boyfriend. The only thing is that police just didn't know where he was. So, what police decided to do was wait outside the house until the boyfriend arrived. They were going to have a stakeout.
After waiting four and a half hours, the boyfriend arrived home. It was already completely dark out, which was perfect cover for the police to grab their suspect. They quickly ran to the boyfriend and started yelling for him to "stop" and "freeze." Police took him into custody and started questioning him. The boyfriend was named Ray, and he was a mechanic. Ray told police that he was fighting with Julie and that he would never hurt her. What made Ray really suspicious though was that he didn't look too bothered that his girlfriend was dead. Another piece of evidence was that he had scratch marks on his arms and one on his face. He said that it happened while he was working but police could tell it was a lie. When the police showed him his gun and the two empty bullet shells, Ray said that wasn't his empty shells. So police asked him what he did with the two missing bullets that were in the clip, he couldn't come up with an answer. Ray started to panic and jumped from his chair. He tried to run out of the interrogation room. That is when police grab him, threw him on the floor, and cuffed him. They had Julie's murderer in their custody with evidence proving the murder.
Ray was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The news was all over the Chicago newspaper. When Chuck saw what was on the cover of the newspaper, he was shocked but happy that Julie's killer was captured. Even though he didn't get a chance to find evidence in the killer's house, he was happy that he got to help police by handing them that tape. He was upset that this poor girl died so young but he was thrilled that justice was served. Chuck called Phil and they talked about the newspaper. Phil was in a mess about his sister's death, but he was glad that the killer was caught. He said, "now the man whom I never liked and trusted from the beginning, will get the punishment he deserves!"