Chapter 1
A Tragic Loss




“Bye dad! Bye Jen!”
“You’re not going anywhere mister!” The person yelling was Jennifer Watson, A very kind person. But unfortunately she was also zaidi than a little vain. Jennifer’s idea of a good time was dependant on how many parties she could visit before being dragged back home. She also happens to be my sister. Well I say sister; she’s actually my adoptive sister. I was adopted when I was 5 years old after my parents died in a skiing accident. “If I have to clean this place up, then wewe are too!”
“But there’s not much left and wewe have everything just about wrapped up,” I objected noisily.
“That doesn’t matter; wewe are staying here until everything is done. wewe got that?”
“Yes ma’am” I alisema wearily. My name is Murdock Holmes. Not the most fitting name, but my dad Lost a bet. After my parents died, everything they owned was taken away to cover some debts they owed; leaving me with nothing but the knowledge not to ever go skiing in the spring. That’s the only reason I kept my ill fitting name; it’s the only thing I have left to remember them by.
“Well?” she said, staring at me.
“Well what?” I responded with a similar stare.
Her eyebrow began to twitch; a sure sign that if I didn’t rephrase my answer in the inayofuata 3 seconds, she’ll be cleaning me off the floor when mom gets back. Unfortunately for me, I’m not the brightest bulb in the box.
One,
Two,
Three,
“GET OFF YOUR LAZY punda AND HELP ME au I SWEAR TO GOD, THEY WILL NOT FIND YOUR CORPSE!”
“Right on schedule.”
“What the hell are wewe blabbering about?” she said, obviously still a little steamed.
“Nothing at all,” I said, deciding not to push my luck any farther. Ten dakika later, the room was clean and I was once again on my way out when I was stopped.
“Hey, son!”
“What is it, dad?” Mark Watson is a former U.S navy muhuri and is currently unemployed. He is a major shopaholic, but due to him being a compulsive prankster; he is currently banned from most of the stores in a ten mile radius.
“Could wewe go to SuperSales and pick up one of those precooked chickens?” he asked.
I sighed. “Fine, I’ll go get one before I come home. Okay?”
“Speaking of which; where are wewe going anyway?” Asked Jennifer with raised eyebrows. “You alisema last night that wewe didn’t have anywhere to go all siku and wewe were going to spend the siku putting in applications.”
“I’m just going to be out for a few minutes,” I said, having completely forgotten about putting in applications. “And I’ll pick an application up from SuperSales while I’m gone okay.” I made a beeline for the door and was soon outside and heading left towards Main Street.




Jonathan Campbell, the current chief of the local law enforcements homicide division, was relaxing in his office when there was a knock on the door.
“Sir, are wewe busy?” The woman speaking was Campbell’s lieutenant, Marilyn White.
“What is it, White?”
“Well Sir. We received a call about twenty dakika zamani from a local supermarket. They alisema that they had been robbed and that one of their employees was murdered trying to stop it.”
“You don’t sound very convinced,” Campbell responded without opening his eyes.
“There is no body. Sir.”
“So what makes them think that someone was murdered?”
“They say that they heard a gunshot and then they heard the employee in question; a Mr. Harold Morgan, scream,” She responded quickly.
Jonathan looked at his lieutenant; a woman whose judgment he trusts explicitly, with interest. “Did wewe send anyone to investigate?”
“No Sir. I thought I should inform wewe first.”
“So what do wewe think we should do?”
“Well Sir. Most of our officers are already working on the murder of that local dignitary; so I don’t think we should waste too much time on a murder that might not have happened.”
“True. But we do have to investigate.” Campbell said. He turned around and thought for a moment. “Aha! Didn’t we get a transfer a few weeks ago? wewe remember, the vice guy.”
Ms. White flashed a small grin. “Yes we did. Do wewe want me to send him?”
“Yes, also send around six officers to help out,” he replied.








It was around 2:30 when I stopped to take a break beside the large water kisima, chemchemi located at the center of town. SuperSales couldn’t really be called a store as it’s only open five hours a day. The store opened at three and closed at eight. So that means I had 30 dakika to kill before picking up dad’s chicken. I frowned and set off towards SuperSales; figuring that I would either find something to do on the way there, au I would just get there a few dakika early. As I approached the mitaani, mtaa that SuperSales was on, I heard a commotion from the store. Sure enough the moment I turned I found myself face to face with a ukuta of police tape. One of the cops turned around in time to see me bata underneath the tape.






Sean Nelson was busy taking notes of what he saw at the crime scene when he heard footsteps. Wondering what it was, he turned around just in time to see a very familiar face ducking underneath the tape.
“Murdock!”
The sneaky 15 mwaka old froze and looked up with a grin. “Why hello there Mr. Nelson; it’s nice to see you. How are you,” Murdock alisema hastily.
“Well, I was fine until someone decided to break the rules and waltz straight into a crime scene,” Sean said.
“Wow. That guy must be a real idiot.”
“Yes, wewe are.”
“But I didn’t waltz in; I distinctly remember ducking.”
Sean sighed. “What are wewe doing here Murdock?” Murdock put on an indignant face. “For your information, I was here to buy a chicken for chajio, chakula cha jioni tonight!”
Sean laughed. “So your dad’s still a shopaholic huh?”
Murdock couldn’t help but grin too. “Ya, he still does that.”
Sean’s mood lifted slightly. “Well I’m sorry, but you’ll have to go somewhere else and get it,” he alisema with an apologetic smile.
“What happened here?” Murdock asked.
“The employee’s claim that their coworker was murdered here,” he alisema with a disbelieving glance at the workers who were standing just inside the store.
Murdock eyebrows rose. “Claim? wewe don’t believe them?”
“Look at it this way; there is no body, no blood, no murder weapon, and no witnesses except the phantom gunshot that the workers heard and even then, there’s nothing on the cameras to onyesha that anyone was hurt.”
“It does seem a little hard to believe,” Murdock admitted.
“It’s zaidi than that, it’s impossible.” Sean said.
“Something still feels weird though, but I can’t place my finger on it.” Murdock muttered thoughtfully.
Sean chuckled. “Maybe wewe should go get that chicken and think it over during dinner?”
Murdock laughed. “Ya I think I will. See wewe later Mr. Nelson.”
“That’s Officer Nelson to you!” He shouted after Murdock.
5 dakika later, Murdock was back at the water fountain. He looked around at the various shops; trying to figure out which one to go to. Murdock sighed. “Well, it’ll have to be one that’s hiring au Jennifer will kick my ass,” he said, walking towards one of the shops with the help wanted sign posted. As he passed kwa the water fountain, Murdock failed to notice that someone was running towards him at full speed.
“Get out of the way!”
Murdock started to turn around when something slammed into him. Murdock was knocked backwards into the fountain, hitting his head on the figurehead on the way down. Murdock was dazed so he couldn’t get his head above water. ‘I swear to god; if I die kwa drowning in a water fountain, I will haunt whoever hit me!’ Murdock thought as his consciousness faded.



That's that. Any reviews are welcome...don't be too mean on the reviews tho....BTW what do wewe think of the name? Tenchu means Divine retribution in japanese.