Conner and Andy Investigations: Origins of Gain and Loss

When Conner was young, around twelve, he took a wrong turn on his way home. He discovered an abandoned library. He pulled off the weeds and vines over a panel. He pulled open the glass protecting the panel and put his hand on it as it was a handprint identification scanner. He was immediately shocked and flung to the trunk of a tree. He felt odd and his head hurt. Then a tree branch fell on his arm and broke his wrist.

He had the gift but lost it in the head-bashing in the retirement center. And somehow Andy gained the ability, but it was used in a different way.

Conner and Andy were in their first official investigation. They were investigating the death of a man who resurfaced from the mud during a thunderstorm.

Conner stood in the mud and looked at the dead man. He was balding and wore a trench coat over his clothes.

Andy looked at the dead man’s watch and pulled off of him to see the time. He stared blankly at the watch and saw two visions.

A man continuously stabbing the balding man in the heart.

The still alive man buried in the dirt by the killer.

Andy dropped the watch.

“Andy?! Andy?!” Conner asked Andy while he shook him.

“Yes, I just — saw something,” Andy replied.

“What did you see, the killer?”

“Kind of or at least I think I did?”

“Where are they?”

“It was more of vision — a vision of the murderer stabbing the victim and then burying him.”

Andy checked the muddy man’s pulse on his wrist. “He’s — still dead.”

“You’re a psychic, can see the past, since when?”

“I don’t know, it just kinda happened when I grabbed this man’s wristwatch.” He pointed at the dead man.

“Did you see the murder weapon or the killer?”

“I don’t know, the vision was blurry. All I saw was the killer’s black leather jacket and a red butterfly.”

“Did you see anything else?”

“No.”

Andy saw the red monarch flutter by once more.

They walk away from the crime scene and drive back to the office.

Conner opens the office door and said, “So, all we have to go by is one descriptor and a butterfly? Maybe if you hold the watch again, you’ll see something else.”

“I could try, but — ,” Andy replied. “I think the watch fell into the mud.”

They returned to the crime scene the next day. The mud had hardened and dried into dirt. The body was gone, the police must have taken it. They looked around for clues.

Conner pulled the watch out of the dirt. “Here, try it again.”

Andy grabbed the watch from Conner and looked at its face. He focused on the hands of the watch, the big hand frozen on the twelve and the little hand eight. He stared blankly at it. He closed his eyes. He saw two more visions:

The bald man answering the front door to his apartment and it’s the killer in a leather jacket and black jeans.

The bald man waking up being pulled in a body bag.

He told Conner about the visions and the new descriptors like the number “3B” on the apartment door.

“Which apartment building did he live in?” Conner questioned Andy.

“I don’t know, I only saw the number and letter on the door. I only saw things through his perspective,” Andy replied.

“Well, we have no other clues or evidence.”

“We could come back tomorrow, maybe we’ll find something else.”

Thunder clapped as they walked back to the scene of the crime the next day.

“We should hurry this up, it’s going to rain soon,” Conner suggested.

“I’m trying,” Andy replied.

The rain started to pour and Conner opened his umbrella. He held under himself and Andy.

Andy tripped on a rock and Conner grabbed him by the wrist. Lightning struck the umbrella and the current reached Conner and Andy.

Conner saw through a vision:

Andy sitting in their office.

Andy outside a watchmakers store with Conner.

They fell into the mud and held their heads in pain.

“We might want to check out the watchmaker store to find out more about this watch,” Conner suggested as he stood up.

“What?” Andy replied as he also stood up, still holding his forehead in pain.

“I saw a vision of us outside the watchmaker store,” Conner explained.

“I — ” Andy rubbed his forehead and blinked rapidly. “Oh.”

They drove to the watchmaker store and found a sign dated a few months ago that it went out of business.

Andy later looked online to see if the local news channels had posted anything about the murder. “I found something online about the murder. He was a watchmaker and owned that store, but the rent went up and he had to sell it. No one put in an offer to buy it, he got so desperate, he called the mob to buy the place.” He continues to read, “The police are still investigating and there’s no other information known.”

“So, we know that. It was the mob, but who in the mob killed him?” Conner asked.

“I only know he wore all black and had black hair. Johnny Black?”

“What kind of name is that?”

“I don’t know, the mob is known for nicknames, like Fat Tony.”

“Oh okay, we still have to find him and get the evidence.”

Andy looked down and back up. He hacked into the police database and found a Kyle Black. It said he was arrested a few times for assault and battery. Aliases ‘Johnny Black and ‘Ninja’. He escaped from prison recently and went back to working for his boss.

“We could just go back to the watchmaker’s store tomorrow to see if anything changed,” Conner suggested.

Conner parked in front of the old watch shop and pet store sign replaced the big clock sign. They got out of the car in shock.

“I could have sworn this was watch shop yesterday,” Conner said.

“Right?” Andy asked, also confused.

Andy opened the door for Conner and they looked around. There were no pets in cages or crates or fish in tanks. No pets to be found. They walked up to counter

“Excuse me?” Andy asked as he tapped the bell at the checkout counter.

“Yes,” a man dressed in all black said as he walked out from behind the curtains.

“Where are all the animals? I know this is a new store, but have they come in yet?”

It’s him, the man in all black with black hair!

They both thought as their eyes widened.

“Don’t worry about it, they’re comin’ real soon,” the man replied in a sarcastic tone.

“I — I don’t believe you,” Andy replied with hesitation.

Conner gently hit Andy on the back.

“What are you doing?” Conner whispered to Andy.

“I think I know what I’m doing,” Andy whispered to Conner.

“You going to get us killed,” Conner whispered back.

“When do think they will be coming in?” Andy asked the possible mobster.

“A week? — A week,” the possible mobster repeated the words of the whisperer behind the curtain.

“A week, huh?”

Andy looked around a little harder for anything out of the ordinary. He pointed at a camera in the corner as the man turned his back to talk to the whisperer.

“We’re closing, I’m gonna have to ask ya to leave now,” said the man as he turned back around.

The man pushed them out of the store.

They got back in their car.

“Looks like we’re doing some breaking and entering tonight,” Conner propounded.

“To steal the disk from the camera?” Andy asked.

“Yes,” Conner replied as he took a sharp right turn.

Night fell and Conner and Andy parked their cars in front of the pet store. Andy used his technical skills to jimmy the lock.

“We’re in,” Andy whispered.

Conner shushed him as he opened the door slowly not to jingle the bells on the door or sound off the alarm they might have.

Andy heard the gentlemen in the back playing poker. “Here’s our next move…”

“Give me a boost,” Andy whispered as they stood below the camera.

Conner held out his hand and set the other under it.

Andy stepped on them and his short stature and lightness made it easy for Conner to lift him. Andy opened the camera and grabbed the tape as quickly as he could. Conner lowered his hands and Andy to the floor. They rushed out and forgot about the bells hung on the door.

“Who’s there?” they heard a mobster say right before they left the store.

They ran to their cars and quickly drove off, to the office.

Andy unlocked the door to the office and he put the disk in his computer. Conner followed.

Andy skipped to the day the mob, the boss and his associate Johnny Black, showed up to watch stop.

They heard the boss say, “We heard you were lookin’ to sell this place.”

“Yes, I’m desperate,” the shop owner (the bald man or now dead man) replied in distress.

“Well, we got a proposition for ya. We buy your store and you’ll owe us,” the boss insisted.

“What will I owe you? If you don’t mind me asking,” the shop owner said in fear and curiosity.

“Your life,” Johnny Black said.

“What my associate means is you’ll owe us a great debt that will be paid off over time,” the boss corrected.

“Sorry, I’m afraid I — can’t do that,” the owner said in fear and declination.

“What why not — I mean why not? You won’t have to own this old place anymore. We do you a favor, you do us a favor,” the boss counterargued.

“I’m sorry, it’s just too risky,” the owner still declined.

“We just have to take it from ya then,” Johnny said, grabbing the man by the shoulder and shaking him.

“Now hold on, our offer has been declined, let’s go,” the boss changed his tone.

“But boss, we need this place, come on!” Johnny shouted.

“Let’s go,” the boss said as he pointed his head toward the exit.

Andy then skipped to the next day on the disk.

The store was destroyed, watch displays and windows broken, watches stolen. The owner, nowhere to be found.

Andy skipped ahead.

They heard a gunshot and saw what looked like blood trickle into the store from under the curtain.

Andy skipped further on the pre-recorded video.

The store was now an empty pet shop owned by mobsters.

“We’ve got it, we’ve got the evidence. We just have to show it to the police,” Andy said in excitement.

“I know — ” Conner sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Andy asked Conner.

“I was just having fun solving this that I don’t want it to end.”

“Me too, but we’ll solve more cases and have more adventures.” Andy smiled and winked.