Deviance

-Vince-

Her message came at an awkward time. My mind was elsewhere at the time. I had another case to solve. (Yes, it kept piling up.) This one needed more insight.

So here I was at this conference. One of my colleagues came up with the idea.

“Deviant Minds?” I asked.

“That’s right,” he said. I stared at him.

“Why?” I asked. My colleague tapped the side of his nose.

“Just figured you could use some pointers on the case.” I narrowed my eyes.

“What are you saying?” he asked. My colleague shrugged. I rolled my eyes.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll go.” So I’m here now.

The day I arrived was chilled. Everyone was just setting up. Guess I got here early. What now? Welp, maybe I could walk around for a bit. So, that’s what I did. I checked into my room and got some lunch. And that was about it.

Oh, there was something else.

While at lunch, I met Victoria Fisher. It happened by accident. I sat at the bar of the hotel. I ordered a club sandwich. While I waited, someone sat down next to me. I slowly looked out of the corner of my eye. She looked so much older than on TV. The wrinkles on her face reminded me of old paper. The ruby in her earring looked so big. Hey wait… I know her.

“Ms. Fisher?” I asked. The woman turned her head.

“Who’s asking?” she asked. She looked me up and down. I cleared my throat.

“I’ve seen you on TV,” I said.

“Thank you,” Victoria said. “And you are?”

“Oh, nobody. I’m just here for the conference.” We stared at each other for a moment. Victoria narrowed her eyes.

“Uh-huh,” she said. The bartender came over with what looked like a glass of Pepsi. Ms. Fisher would be one of the key speakers at this conference. The safety of the city was the theme, mostly focused on sex crimes. Maybe it could help me.

Maybe…

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Day One

I got up early. First was the meet and greet. I had no interest in that. So far, I wanted to hear what Ms. Fisher had to say. I wasn’t a huge fan or anything. I was just open for ideas at this point. Her talk would begin at ten. I could kill time until then. And that’s what I did.

While I walked around, I took notes. I picked up some intriguing tips. Along the way, I put my own pieces together. Cook was the main suspect in this case. I flinched when I thought about him. He probably had others doing his dirty work. I had other suspects on my short list, but he was at the top.

“Excuse me,” someone spoke up. I turned and looked behind me. A man about my age in glasses stood.

“Do you where the Deviant Mind Panel is?” he asked.

“No…” I said.

“Oh,” he said. The guy sounded so disappointed. He wandered away. I waved at his back.

“Bye,” I said. Actually, that didn’t sound like a bad panel. Just needed to find it first. I took out the pamphlet to see where everything was. What time was it now? I looked at my phone. Almost ten. I better get going. I turned and walked through the lobby.

I wasn’t sure if I was staying all weekend, but I could stay a bit longer. Hey, it was to a catch killer. All for the safety of the city.