Conner and Andy Short Story

Conner and Andy’s plane lands back in Loverton and they walk off the plane and into the airport. They take taxis back to their own homes.

Andy calls Conner the next morning.

“I don’t think I can come into work today, I’m too jet-lagged and exhausted,” Andy says as he yawns.

“You don’t have to come in, I’ll just go in to do some paperwork,” Conner replies.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Andy says.

Conner gets ready and drives to the office. He imagines it’ll be a calm day.

He unlocks the door and sits at his desk. They’ve only had a few cases in the past few weeks, so it only took him a few hours to write the reports. For the rest of the day, he searches local news articles online for unsolved cases. He finds a few, but he discovers the police are already investigating the crimes. He logs onto Andy’s computer to move over some documents with his flash drive. When he finds a folder titled, “Short Stories”. He opens it and reads a few of them. He’s surprised they are actually good, but he’s afraid to talk about them with Andy, they might be private.

He leaves the office early and returns home.

The next day, they both come into the office at the same time. Andy goes to turn on his computer but finds it already on.

“Hey, did you log into my computer yesterday?” Andy asks Conner.

“No, why would you think that?” Conner asks back quickly.

“I don’t know, maybe because you left me logged in. How did you even know my login info?” Andy asks.

“I’m a hacker,” Conner answered.

“Do you open any of my files?” Andy queries.

“No,” Conner lies.

“Good because it shows me the last time I opened my files,” Andy says derisively.

“Oh no,” Conner says in worry.

“It says my short story, ‘Distortion” was opened — yesterday at 3:42 pm,” Andy says.

“I was curious, I don’t know much about you,” Conner admits.

“Did you read them?” Andy asks.

“Yes,” Conner replies.

“Did you like them?” Andy questions.

“They were okay. I’m just kidding, I loved them. They were so well written but may need some editing,” Conner admires.

“Really? Can you edit them, since you read a few of them already?” Andy asks.

“Sure, but only one at a time,” Conner barters.

“Deal, I’ll email you over some of them,” Andy says.

A client walks in, their friend Jeremy.

“Jeremy, is something wrong?” Conner asks.

“Yes, my uncle’s been shot and you two to help me find out who killed him!” Jeremy shouts in a panic.

“We’ll take the case!” Conner shouts, standing up from his desk.

“Please sit down, Jeremy,” Andy says with a smile.

“Tell us what happened,” Conner says.

“Well, I take care of him at his house because he’s sick. But when I came back from buying him groceries, he had been shot in the head in his bed,” Jeremy explains.

“Do you think he killed himself?”Conner inquires.

“Why do you think he killed himself? Because he’s sick and wanted to die? Why would you think that?” Jeremy questions.

“I don’t think that, it’s just an option. Does anyone else take care of him?” Conner asks.

“He has a nurse, but too sweet and kind to kill him,”

“We’ll see about that,” Andy whispers.

Conner raises one of his eyebrows and says, “We’ll take a visit to his house later today and look for clues. Make sure you’re there.”

“I will be,” Jeremy says as he leaves.

The day went on and Conner checks his watch, “We still have to investigate Jeremy’s uncle’s house.”

They walk out and drive to his uncle’s house.

Conner knocks on the front door.

“Glad you guys are here. Let me show you the crime scene,” Jeremy says as he lets them in. He leads them to the bedroom.

“Here it is,” Jeremy points out.

“Jeremy, why didn’t you call the police or an ambulance? His dead body is still here,” Conner says, holding his nose. The stench of the decaying body fills the room.

“Because I wanted you guys to investigate,” Jeremy replies.

Conner calls emergency services and they pick up the dead body.

Conner and Andy search the room until Anita, the uncle’s nurse walks in.

“I’m here to pick up my last paycheck. Good, you got him out of here,” Anita says.

“Yeah, I’ll have the check for you next week, Anita,” Jeremy says.

“Wait, before you go, Anita. Where were you when you heard about his death?”

“I was at another house taking care of a different patient, why?” Anita asks.

“Just wondering,” Conner says, looking away.

“What? Who are you two?” Anita asks.

“We’re Conner and Andy of Conner and Andy’s Private Investigations,” Conner says as he shows her his badge.

“PIs, eh, I’ll be going now,” Anita says.

“Wait, we have — and she’s gone,” Conner says.

“Suspicious,” Andy says.

“Very suspicious,” Conner repeats.

They check around for clues, the gun or murder weapon is missing from the crime scene. They find used hankies in the bedside drawer and his clothes and shoes in the closet.

“We need to talk to Anita, she’s our only suspect,” Conner says to Jeremy.

“I’ll try to get a hold of her, but I don’t she’ll answer,” Jeremy says. He calls her on his phone, but she doesn’t answer.

“Well, keep trying until you do get a hold of her. Text us when you do,” Conner says before leaving.

Andy follows.

In the car, Andy asks Conner, “Have you had a chance to read and edit my story yet?”

“No, I’ve been working and we’ve been at Jeremy’s uncle’s house,” Conner says with a grin.

“I know, I’m just excited for you to read it,” Andy says, placing his hand on Conner’s thigh.

“Woah, we’ve only been on a few dates. We’re not there yet,” Conner says, batting his hand away.

“Okay,” Andy says, looking away.

Andy unlocks and opens the door for Conner, “After you.”

“Why are you being so pushy and nice today?” Conner asks.

“I don’t know, I just know you’ve been stressed — -”

“Have you been doing this to get me to read your story? I read it when I get home, okay?” Conner confirms with Andy.

“Okay,” Andy says with giddiness as he walks to his desk.

“Hey, do you it might have been Jeremy?” Andy asks.

“Why would Jeremy want to kill his uncle?” Conner asks back.

“I don’t know, maybe because of life insurance or a will,” Andy suggests.

“Good points, I’ll add a picture of Jeremy to the board,” Conner says.

Light turns to darkness as Conner lies in bed reading Andy’s story. He makes minor edits and suggestions for the story. The story is about a boy living in a simulation, but he doesn’t know it yet.

Later, he closes his laptop after finishing Andy’s story and goes to bed.

The next morning, he emails the story with the corrections and suggestions to Andy.

Andy checks the corrections from Conner and quickly emails him the next story.

This emailing back and forth continues over the next few days. They became closer with each read and edit, Conner learned more about Andy through his writing.

Conner got a text from Jeremy the next day in the office.

I’ve been trying to call Anita

for days, but she won’t

respond until now. She said

she’d meet with you on Friday

at 2 pm.

Sure, where?

At the park.

The breeze flows through Anita’s long blonde locks as she waits for the investigators to arrive.

They walk up to Anita sitting on a park bench on her phone.

“I’m glad you came. I know, something,” Anita says.

“What’s the something you know?” Conner asks.

“I know, it was Jeremy, he told me to — -

Jeremy drives up into the parking lot. He walks up to Anita with a gun and says, “Don’t say anything else, Anita. I know you wanted all the money for yourself, but you aren’t getting any of it.”

“Jeremy, what are you doing here?” Anita asks, knowing the answer to the question.

“You know exactly what I’m doing here. I’m here to take what’s mine. You wanted all the money for yourself, so you were going to tell them I did it. I would’ve been sent to jail, but not anymore,” Jeremy explains.

“Jeremy, you don’t know what you’re doing. Put the gun down,” Anita pleas.

“Jeremy, we’ve known each other for years, you don’t have to do this,” Conner pleads.

“Stay out of this, Conner,” Jeremy pushes Conner out the way.

Jeremy shoots Anita in the head and she falls to the ground. Jeremy runs off.

“Well, we know Jeremy did it,” Andy says.

Conner calls the police and they catch up to him. He is jailed. Jeremy’s sister gets a large sum of the money left from the will.

Over the coming weeks, Conner and Andy went on a few more dates, bowling, cooking class, and restaurants. Conner read all of Andy’s stories and edited them. Andy fixed the mistakes and took his suggestions. He continued to write, but he wants to write something different. Something he knew about. A detective story.