Rasan Correa

A murder occurred. A large company just lost their most profitable CEO, Stan Hammers. He was able to earn the company over 5 million dollars that year. But so much fame and money came with a price. Stan had friends, fans, haters and enemies. One of these enemies killed Mr. Hammers for an act he didn't know that he committed. I will tell you the story of Mr. Hammer’s death but don't hate me when I am done. 

Our story starts with a teaspoon of medicine, a bitter tea, and a late worker. That worker is Ember Lee Frost. And when I mean late he is late.

    Beep! Beep! Beep! 

"Uh," Ember's alarm was going off. If he was ever going to get to work then that alarm would be his last hope. 

"What time is it?" Ember says groggily. 

Ember checks the time on his phone. 

"Oh only two hours since I had to get up," Ember said with a sigh. 3,2,1 

"Wait two hours!" 

Quickly Ember gets out of bed and goes to his closet. He puts on his work clothes and gets ready for work. He puts tea on the stove and into a cup. 

"Better get going," Ember said with a sigh and leaves his apartment.

     Now our detective, Luna Hazel is working on the case. 

"Ok, what do we know about the murder?" Luna asked

"From the cameras, we can tell that the person was white," said her partner Kai Anderson. 

"So we lowered the search to 197,285,202 people. We are on the right track." 

"Ha ha, very funny," Kai said. 

With no leads, the detectives had no chance of finding the culprits of the crime. 

"Detective, detective," one of the other officers came running to Luna.

"Yes, what happened?” Luna asked

"We found some important evidence. Before he died Mr. Hammers was writing on a sheet of paper. There were a bunch of names on the sheet but, most were crossed out except for a handful." 

"Now we are getting somewhere, get a team to go pick up these people," Luna said. 

"There was also an address on the paper." 

"Kai and I will go to that address." 

The detectives visited the address. At the address, they found a mansion with a man, the housekeeper of the place standing outside.

"I was expecting you to come," the housekeeper said. 

"What do you..." 

"Where are the others?" The housekeeper cut off

"What other," Luna asked.

"You must leave if they aren't with you."

"Who?" The detectives look at each other confused.

"The ones on the list. Mr. Hammers told you what he wanted you to do on paper. Did you even read it?"

The detectives, more confused than ever, left the house.

"So we can't go in unless we bring the people?"Kai asked.

"I guess so then come on let's go get them."

    Walking down the street Ember sipped his tea. The bitterness filled his mouth and burned a little. The loud cars on the street were by fast Ember however took no notice of these cars as more pressing matters were on his mind. he was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't notice the police cruiser

pull up next to him on the street. 

"Hello, are you Ember Frost?" 

"Yes I am, is there something wrong officer?" 

"I am going to need you to come with me." 

"Do you have a case against me because I don't have to go if you don't." "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be," Kai said with a sigh.

"Ok, I'll come."

     The police slowly but surely picked up all of the people whose name was on the list and brought them back to the mansion. 

"Ah I see you have got the people." the housekeeper said, 

"Yes now, can we come in?" 

"You may come in." 

"Wait," said one of the people whose name was Brianna Lia. 

"Why are we here? We were brought here without any information. 

"You will learn more information when we go into the house." 

"No, I am not going into this house until I learn why we are here." 

"Just go in the house," Ember replied. 

"Who asked you to talk? I want to know why we are here." 

"I do as well but if we want to learn anything we have to go into the house." "

NO! I will not go into that house unless I learn why we are here." 

I hated Brianna so annoying 

"Do u really want to know why you are here?" Luna asked. 

"Yeah, I do." 

"It is because there was a murder.” 

“What!” all the “suspects” yelled. 

“So why are we here?” one suspect James Crawford asked, 

“I didn't kill anyone and I have high hopes no one around me murdered what, who was killed?” 

“Mr. Hammers,” Kai said, 

“Oh, then can I go?” James asked 

“Why do you want to leave all of a sudden,” Luna asks. 

“No reason but if you have no proof of association so we can leave, correct.” 

Wrong.” Kai corrected, “Before he died Mr. Hammers wrote a list, a list that on the top said 'Enemies' most names were crossed out but you twelve." 

"So just because he has a list that impossibly knows what people don't like him that means that one of us killed him, that makes no sense," James said.

"No it wouldn't make sense but we cross-referenced the names to the people that belong to them and found that most are either dead or don't live in the US they just don't like his methods for some reason," Luna explained.

"You are the only twelve suspects that could have done it. Speaking of the crime just so we are clear that list was accurate right."

Nobody objected to the detectives claim no matter the circumstance they couldn't bring themselves to lie about such a thing.

James persisted, however, "So because I don't like someone I am now a criminal that is going to jail." 

"You aren't criminals but you all don't like Mr. Hammers, you live in the USA, you aren't dead, and you all match the depiction of the murder from the security camera," Luna explained.

"So are we criminals or not because if the answer is no then I must get going because I actually have a job to do, "Ember said

"Well, I guess you are a criminal because I can't have you leaving. The evidence is good enough to keep you in police custody so I suggest you stay here," Kai said.

"No, you will not be going to prison either." The forgotten housekeeper announced."You will be staying in the house that is right in front of you until the case is solved.

After all was said and done all twelve suspects agreed to stay at the house. Four weeks it took the police to catch the culprit. The first week was difficult for us as we had to get adjusted to the new lifestyle.

While the suspects were adjusting to the new location the police were working on the case.

"We know that the killer was already in the building, he... wait to look at this Kai."

"What," Kai asked.

"Right there look there is a flicker in the tape someone messed with it and if I decrypt the change."

Luna does some camera work on the computer and gets the original film. The killer snuck in and killed Mr. Hammers.

"We know that the killer can use a computer which is everyone that we have at the house."

But obviously, the killer is a pro. He or she was able to edit it so well not even the tech crew could see it." Luna replied.

"Well, Ember, James, Alice, Jake, and Brianna all worked in some kind of tech." Ember is the only one working in it now."

With that, the detective had a case with some reliable evidence.

"Wait, look at this the killer hurt himself. It looks like an electric shock of some sort when he looked through the file cabinet. Mr. Hammers was smart he installed a shock system so the killer would shock themselves if they didn’t have the key, we also know the murder weapon," Kai said.

"Wait what is the weapon?"Luna asked

"A hammer.”

“That is sick are you for real?”

“Yeah I guess they thought it would be funny.”

Nothing happened on the second week the detectives had a team search the desk for blood as Mr.Hammers did fight back. No results are back yet.

"Did you hear what the murder weapon was, "Ember asked Alice and Jake.

"No." they both replied intrigued 

"It was a hammer."

"Well, at least the murder had a sense of humor," Jake replied.

"How did you know that?" Alice asked.

"The boy, Kai, he told me."

The third week came by in a flash and Jake was talking to Kai.

"Was Mr. Hammers really killed with a hammer," Kai asked

"Yes, how did you know."

"Ember said that you told him and he told us."

"I didn't tell Ember what the murder weapon was."

I messed up my story. Kai started to leave to go tell Luna the news when he got a call.

"Detective, we were able to run the DNA you found it matches with Ember Lee Frost."

"Thank you," Kai said

I looked right at Kai then started to run. Ember ran as Kai chased him and called for backup. He didn't need it, the no longer suspects heard the commotion and came to help. Together they caught Ember and were able to put me in jail.

By now you know the truth. I am Ember and I told you at the beginning you might hate me well let me tell you why I did it. Like I said, Mr. Hammers did things that he didn't really know that he did. That is why he had so many enemies. He helped his company grow but destroyed some lives in the process. He destroyed my mom's life and he bought the store that she owned. Without any funding, I lived with other family members until I was able to buy my own house. It took her too long to find a job and that took a toll. She got sick and the day I committed the crime she died. I just wanted you to remember that your actions can affect other people no matter how big or small.