One early morning, a detective by the name of John L. Newman was told about a murder of a man he was very much close to. It was his very own father who had been murdered. This was a great shock since he was a veteran soldier who served since ‘45. He went to see the location in which the murder took place, which was John’s father’s house. Langston Newman, John’s father, was known as a great man to his community or you could call it a ‘society,’ so it was a shock, as he had no known enemies, well except for his war enemies. John took off his hat and knelt as he graced his fingers across his father’s face, John feels like he has been in this place before.

Not a single tear goes down his face as he stares at his dad’s dead body. All the other ‘supporting detectives left as the smell of the body was too much. John’brother, Will, Looks at John and then back at his dead father and breaks down into tears. John stares as his brother cries and finally is tapped on his shoulder, by his ‘supporting detective, Graham, which allows John to tap out of his ‘zone.’ John gets up as Graham asks,

“Well, any clues to as what happened here?”

John replied,

“Well, a murder, A murder happened,”

Graham stares at him with a look at him that just says, “No shit, Sherlock.” Graham proceeds to say,

“Go on?”,” Well, let’s see, wound on his stomach, resembles that of a knife stab, I’m sure he was murdered with the use of a sharp weapon, such as a knife, and judging by the footprints, the murder’s shoe size seems to be around 11 and a ha-”

“Pretty weird don’t you think, the way the footprints are, one’s deeper that the other” John looks at the depth of one footprint then the other,”

“Great eye Graham, I suppose that clue may be able to lead us in a breakthrough,”

” And how do you suppose we do that?”

“Well, it’s pretty simple, we go to our local customized shoe manufacturer.”

“And he is…?”

“Well, I suppose you’re uh missus would be able to he-” ‘

“No way in hell! I will not talk to that bloody woma-”

“Calm down there, man, she’s just an Ex, go ask her for some help, who knows maybe you might get some.”

[John nudges Graham with his elbow]

. “Come on then, arguing is not going to allow us to make a breakthrough, is it? Now man up and ask her for some info.”

[John and Graham stare intensely]

“Go on then".

Graham finally musters up the confidence to go and ask Mary, Graham's Ex, about some info whether a person has asked for a shoe, likely 11 and a half, that is longer than usual shoes for the length of their leg is shorter than its other.

"Mary, I'vie come here on some details or info you many have about a person who has asked for custom shoes, slightly bigger than the other for their leg is shorter that-,”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable sharing that info with you,”

[A long sigh escapes Graham’s mouth as he proceeds to explain]

“It’s a part of the murder that has happened, and it seems you’re the only local shoe customizer here.,”

“Well, I suppose in that case I might be able to give you a list.”

[Mary hands Over Graham a list of names]

As soon as Graham leaves, he eavesdrops on Mary’s call,

“He has just asked for a list of names that I have customized shoes due to their ‘length of leg,’ do you think they’re onto us?”

Graham leaves with a bit of confusion wondering as to who Mary was talking to. Graham finally walks on over to his house when suddenly, footsteps on the muddy ground. Someone else other than Graham’s own, Before Graham could react and turn around, a tall figure, stabs Graham right on the back. Watching from afar had John, staring at what he had just seen, contemplating all his choices. He remembers he sent Graham to Mary. John now thinks Mary is a part of the murder in a way. John walks over to the body of Graham and calls the police.

“All the fog in the air, it made it difficult to see, but it was a tall, dark figure, he was quick with it, same style, a stab, he left the same footprints.”

John reported it to the police. One police officer stares at John, with a look that says, something’ not right. Sergeant Finnegan removes his cap and right as he was about to step on the footprint, he looked down and tilted his head as he realized, John lied, the footprints were even.

"Detective Newman. You reported to the responding officers last night that you saw the killer leave prints here. You said they were... uneven. Like the ones from your father's place."

(Looks down, not even looking at his face) "I- I thought they were, Sergeant. The fog, the shock of seeing my partner..."

(Cuts him off)

"The shock. Of course. But the cast we took, John... they are quite clear. They are uniform. A heavy heel, size eleven, certainly. But perfectly balanced."

Finnegan takes a step closer.

"You mistook an evenly balanced footprint for a footprint of a physically impaired person’s footprint, pretty suspicious if you ask me.”

John suddenly notices the LLD patients list and takes it up. After all the questioning, John returns home. He sits at his table, staring at the names of the list in his hand. The list is full of people that could have killed his father even Graham’s killer’s name. John imagines all the possibilities, and as he thought, it became night. John is standing at a board in which he has connected Mary to the murder case. Then suddenly, a sting of pain hits him as Mary attacks him with a knife. His mind snaps, the room is feels as if, the person who was stabbed is not John anymore, it is something else, someone else…

‘John’ turns around as Mary takes the knife out of his back; ‘John’ plans out the outcome in his mind. He starts with a block to Mary’s knife attack, which conveniently enough, disarms the knife off Mary, John’ then hits Mary with a strong cross to the stomach. While Mary knelt in pain with her hand holding her stomach, John’ quickly goes behind her and uses a tissue to make her lose consciousness. ‘John’ sighs in great relief and again, the room is completely silent. John regains consciousness and stares down at an unconscious Mary. He realizes, he did not just die, he nearly killed Mary. As John stares at his hands, He hears police sirens, He stumbles over Mary’s body and picks her up and places her on his bed and locks the room. He rushes over to put on a jacket which covers the stab.

“John, just doing a regular check up on the civilians, while we noticed, Mary was nowhere to be seen. Do you have any ideas as to where she is?”

(John Panting),

“Uh, no, not at all.,”

“You seem like you’vie had a long day, John.”

Sargent Finnegan leans closer to get a better look in John’s house and sees a drop of blood but does not question anything of it…yet. The police finally leave John alone as John says,

“I’m working on the LLD patients list, if you could leave me alone?”

John opens his locked door and then, He cannot find Mary in there. John looks around the room as he tells himself,

“It’s over, I-I’m done!”

John goes on his bed and prays that this was all just a dream. John quickly takes a first aid kit while laying around in his house. He finally notices the knife on the table Mary used, as John goes to pick the knife up, He feels a distinct memory of holding the knife before. He shakes his head and places the knife back on the table. John realizes Mary stabbed him in the same pattern as the murders of Graham and His father have happened. Is Mary the murderer? John picks up the list of LLD patients’names and is surprised to see his own dad’s name on it. After flipping through more pages, He finds his brother’s name on its Aswell. John puts the list of LLD patients on the table and says,

“A murderer should have a motive, perhaps his or her motive is to take the lives of LLD patients, but why?”

John lets it go and heads to sleep.

As John wakes up, he hears a ring from his phone. John picks up to be informed of yet another murder. He quickly gets up and heads to the location, this time it was far. When John reached, He sees the body of his brother, but this time, hanging from a tree branch. John looks up, staring at his brother’s dead body. He looks closely while the police discuss whether it is suicide. John knelt and saw the same patterns, Footprints, one deeper than the other, a wound that resembles a stab. Sargent Finnegan gets increasingly suspicious as all these murders are close to John. John feels like he has been in this place before, just like at all crime scenes. Sargent Finnegan appears out of nowhere and says,

“Well, Detective John, we all feel as if it’s a suicide, what do you feel about this?”

“It is all too similar for a suicide Sargent. I-I thi- “

(John faints and falls)

All the officers rush to pick John up while the Sargent just stares at him. John wakes up in the ICU room in which he is laying on a bed. As he opens his eyes, he sees Sargent Finnegan standing next to him. Before John could even open his mouth, Sargent Finnegan says,

“John you are suspended. Get some rest, you cannot investigate your family or the murders anymore.”

Finnegan leaves without explaining any further. John breathes loud and clear and then a doctor comes.

“You are all good to go Detective John, you will be discharged in about 5 minutes, oh and, don’t bother about paying, Sargent Finnegan has paid for you”,

“Thank you … doc?”

John gets up and changes into his normal clothes. As John prepares to leave the hospital, he sees a tall man, just staring at John from across the street. The man was leaning on a dark blue car, which was Mary’s car. As the man proceeded to walk across the street, he went to John, not looking at him but just being close enough to him to say,

“You sent your partner to Mary. That was stupid.”

He paused just enough for John to acknowledge what he had just said.

“She is safe now. Boss wanted her back. If you even go looking for those shoes, that includes the list, you will meet your partner.”

John hurriedly ran back home for the list. He reaches his home, panting, and feels relieved as he sees the list on the table. He looks at the list and studies the names, Langston Newman, and Will. He goes to his brother’s room and looks at the photos of his father’s room. He noticed that in both rooms, even while his father and brother had LLD, their shoes were nowhere to be seen after the murder. John heads over to his brother’s murder scene and notices he is not wearing any shoes. He looks at the photos of his father’s murder scene and notices his father was not wearing any shoes either. He realizes that the Murder did not have LLD, instead she would wear his victims’ shoes and fake their footprints. John asked himself again, "Why?" Why them? And now he has his answer. LLD people’s shoes have untraceable, unique shoes. No matter how much you trace those footprints, you are not going to get any DNA or lead to the killer. Even after all of this, the same question remains asked. Why? Why kill them? Just because of untraceable, and unique footprint, does not mean to kill them off. Only reason for this is if the killer is a true psychopath. As John returns, He meets yet again with the tall figure.

“I told you to leave the shoes alone Newman,”

John replies with,

“Go back to your boss, tell him I’m done with the shoes, I’m looking for the man who stole my brother’s.”

John did not wait for the tall figure, he ran, shoved him, to his car and drove straight to his home. He then took out his service pistol from his lockbox. His badge meant nothing, but the gun does. He looked at the names of Langston, Will, Thomas.

“He is well organized, he will go for Thomas, and so on. Thomas Is an elderly man, retired teacher, easy target.”

John wore a long, black trench coat to cover the gun. He is no longer a detective; He is just a desperate man chasing a monster. John got in his car and drove straight to Thomas’s home. John reached his house. John did not even dare to knock, he broke the latch and shouted to Thomas as he closed the door behind him,

“Police! Stay where you are!”

Thomas was just sitting at the table, unfazed by what John said. Thomas continued flipping through the pages of his newspaper and sipping his tea. John was visibly confused; he looked down at Thomas’s shoes; they were clearly customs.

“Thomas, you are in grave danger, trust me. A murderer around town may be after you.”

Thomas keeps ignoring John as if he is not even there. John hears a knife being drawn out and footsteps. John stares at a tall figure wearing a trench coat as he stabs Thomas. John’s eyes widen in shock, John stares as he is unable to move and then suddenly, the killer takes off Thomas’s shoes and creates fake footprints out of it.He then takes both shoes. The killer quickly gets out through a window. John tries chasing after him but trips on Thomas’s dead body. The room goes silent as John loses his consciousness. John later wakes up in the ICU room. He realizes it was all a dream … or was it? He sees Sargent Finnegan walk in the room. John thinks that he has lived through this day before and thinks that Finnegan’s just going to say that John is suspended.

“John, I am hoping after you get discharged, you will not go after this case, so I will keep you updated. Another murder has happened yet again, this time it was an elderly man by the name of, ‘Thomas’.”

“But I-I was just in my home…”

“Well, we found you laying on the ground of your porch. Witnesses say that they have seen Liam punching you and knocking you out.”

Sargent Finnegan says as he leaves and finally says,

“Take care, John.”

John replays what Sargent had just told him. The exact method he had dreamed. John rushed to the docks. He asked the local men where a tall man, driving a dark blue car went. It took John 2 hours and a 50-pound note, but he finally found Liam. He saw Liam leaning over a few barrels, counting stacks of money.

“Liam Doherty”

(John did his research about him with the help of being known as a detective)

. Liam did not bother to look at him, he slowly took out 250 dollars and noticed it was John when he turned his head over.

“They said you would be smart enough to not chase after the case. Seems as not”

Liam says and laughs. John stares him down and replies,

“I need to go after cases if there are people out in the open like you. Where is Mary, and why should I leave the shoes alone?”

Liam replies with,

“Mary’s safe, where she needs to be, away from people like you.”

John scoffs and says,

“Away from me?

(John says as he points to himself)

“She put a knife in my back, you think I do not know who she works for?”

Liam looks at his eyes and replies with,

“Oh please, you are just a detective, you just see the knife, nothing else. Liam takes a step towards John. Do you think you are hunting a killer? No, you are messing with our business.”

John replies with,

“Hmph, please, I lost my father and brother because of those shoes! [John exclaims]

Now what kind of business is that?”

Liam scoffs,

“Let me tell you something kid, we do not care about your dead family, we care about the shoes. We care about what is in it. Liam leaned in and said, “Mary’s shoes were hollow, kid. Perfect for moving diamonds, microchips, and methamphetamine. Boss needed it moved. Your father? Your brother? They are all mules.”

“You killed my family for some stones?”,

“Their lives were worth nothing. Perhaps we may have even, given life, recognition, and importance to their lives. Now, I'm not the murderer you’re looking for. So don’tgo chasing those shoes, and don’t go chasing me.”,

[Liam takes his Newport and as he lights it up, he looks up seeing John, still standing there]

“What, you want one?”.

John sighs and walks away.

He drives away, straight to home.

John arrives at his garage and gets home. He takes a glass of water and drinks it all up. He smelled something off...The scent was coming from his bedroom... When he enters the room, he realizes, it's the smell from the attic. He sees mud dripping off from his bedroom roof, right where the attic is. He enters the attic and sees 3 shoes. All 3 being the 3 shoes missing from the crime scene. He checks inside them, no diamonds, no meth, nor any microchips were to be seen in all 3 shoes. He puts the 3 shoes on his table for examinations. Suddenly, he snaps. The room goes silent, once more. Only after 5 minutes, he snaps again. He goes over to his sink, washes his face with cold water. He stares at the mirror, expecting to see himself in the mirror, well who else? ...

Instead, he sees a dark figure, he quickly turns around to see, no one else... He looks back at ‘his’ reflection on the mirror. He sees a man wearing a trench coat. He hears a deep voice saying,

“You were never a great detective John.”, “You were just the delivery boy, and I'm the one who decided the delivery was over.” The room went silent; John had just taken in what the dark figure had said.

A loud bang broke the silence.

“POLICE, OPEN THE DOOR, WE KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE, NEWMAN!”

John furrowed his eyebrows as he recognized his voice. It was Finnegan’s voice. He looked at his hands, slightly covered with blood and mud of the shoes. He quickly washes it off and heads to the door, with a towel, still wiping his hands. Finnegan observes what he can; he sees that John is wiping his hands with a towel. He was able to get a lookin his house and saw 3 shoes that matched the descriptions of the customized shoes from the crime scenes. Finnegan’s eyes widen in shock. He pushes John to get inside. His eyes, still locked onto the shoes on the table. Finnegan looks back at John.

Finnegan says with a shaky voice, “I really didn't want to find out this way... You said it yourself. The killer took the shoes of its victims for himself...”,

“Look, Sarge, you must believe me, I-I found it, in my attic. Someone placed it there. Please, I-I'm telling you the truth, believe me.” John tried explaining; he was on the verge of tears.

Voices in his head started saying the same thing, “Tell them John, you know where the diamonds, you know what happened, tell them.”

Finnegan says, “We did a deeper dive on those witnesses on the porch. Turns out, they didn’t see Liam knock you out. Instead, they saw you standing alone, screaming at the air, acting as if you got punched and fell.”

John tries saving himself by saying, “No-No, Liam told me about the diamonds.”

Finnegan replied, “We talked to Liam, yes, he is a smuggler. He said he told you everything because he was afraid of you. He said when he looked at your eyes, he didn't see a detective, he saw a man who had murdered his own blood.”

John says, “The diamonds aren’t in the shoes...”

“Then where are they John? Because if we find them, there isn't anyone who can save you”

John reaches into his pocket, he feels something hard, he doesn't remember putting it there.

“That's right John, take it out slowly.”

John reveals a small bag; he pulls the drawstring.

“Open it”

Finnegan sees the diamonds inside.

“I didn't take these Sarge; y-you must trust me.”

Finnegan replies, “At your father's house, the prints were uneven. You found that out too quickly, I must say. At Graham’s murder, you were too slow, we arrived just as you killed him, you wouldn't’t make the prints yourself, could you? You weren't able to make up your mind on it. Just went with the pattern, no uneven footprints, yet you said there was uneven footprints.”

The voices in John’s head said, “He’s right John, the detective was too slow, the soldier had to finish off the job.”

“I loved them, Will, Dad, [John sniffles] I didn't k-kill them”

The voices in his head said, “They were a stain on The Newman’s John, I dint kill my father, I just retired a soldier who lost his honor. And that brother with the brain size of a peanut. Even that’s too much for him.”

“John, put the towel down, slowly, and keep your hands on the back of your head.”

Finnegan said as he aimed his gun at John’s chest.

John looks at the knife behind the towel, the same knife Mary used on him, or did he use it on her?

Suddenly, John snaps again, but this time, he didn't move, the room went silent, He acted as if nothing had gone wrong. He didn’t feel like a detective anymore, he felt like the man behind it all.

“You should have stayed in the car, Sarge, the delivery is officially over.”