Clueless Cases (Chapter 6): The Broken Glass

Everyone gasped after hearing the news about the death of Mr. Dunston. Cliff immediately immersed himself in a deep thought.

"How?" Cleo whispered without any real reason.

Ivy shrugged, her solemn face turned expressionless. "How should I know? The sergeant only sent some of his people a few minutes ago."

Cliff suddenly jerked his head up, a somber look showing on his thin face, mingled with realization. "What if -," he began, but a coming officer stopped him in his tracks.

The officer looked younger and less experienced than the others, a weary smile was carved on his lips. He wasn't fit like all the other officers the children knew, but not too skinny either. His auburn hair lay flat under his cap and his electric green eyes twinkled, displaying a hint of enthusiasm.

"Hi," he greeted as he approached the group. "Sergeant Simerwell sent me to get you."

Cliff and the others didn't move.

"Is the door open?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah. The sarge wants to show you the murder scene."

The young detectives finally stood up in a grave manner, realizing what they might see in just a few minutes. They followed the officer towards  the murder scene, where they would find a dead body.

Cliff glanced up at the officer beside him. He wasn't very tall. "I've never seen you before," he said uncertainly.

The young policeman was a bit startled as he seems like he was thinking deeply about something. He looked at Cliff. "Well, that's because I wasn't here before," he chuckled. Cliff could hear a light Australian accent in his speech.

"You're new?"

"You could say that. Not actually a rookie, though, but yeah. New to the job. Chester McGrillan by the way. Clifford, was it?" he added before Cliff was about to introduce himself.

They arrived at the front steps of the victim's house, and with a deep breath, went into the front door. The air inside was filled with a flowery scent, something close to lavender, mixed with something else. Something none of them can place a finger on it. The room was huge, with a flat screen television stuck on the wall, a round soft carpet on the vinyl floor, a rectangular wooden coffee table in the middle of the room, two red single-seated sofas -

- and a body.

Silence. No one spoke. The policemen were scattered everywhere in the room, and due to the soft sounds from above, Cliff assumed there were some who had been ordered to search upstairs. Some of the officers, including the sergeant himself, were examining the corpse, which was lying lifeless on one of the sofas.

Kevin and Tyler stepped forward, but as they approached the coffee table, Tyler stopped. The others watched him, apparently puzzled as he slowly lifted his left foot.

"What is it?" Ivy whispered.

The children gathered where Tyler was standing while he picked something up for the others to see. It was a small fragment of glass, glinting under the sunlight flooding the room. They exchanged confused glances.

"Sarge," Cleo broke the silence,"we found an evidence."