Thud. Thud. Thud. I groaned, rolled out of bed and stumbled to the door.
“Who are you, what do you want, and why at this time of night?” I asked while squinting from the lamplight “kind of need sleep”.
“Well, I know exactly how you feel, but we need you right now, James,” replied Gerald.
Gerald was pretty much what’d you see cops look like in the cartoons, well-rounded and love pastries, but he was straightforward downright serious. The man can make jokes, but I’ve not seen him laugh since we were kids, got worse when he was promoted to sheriff. The work we do surely changes you. I wonder if he’s seen worse things than me
“Gerald? What happened at this time of night? It’s like, three in the morn.”
“we have an ‘incident’ at the museum, along with theft” he stated.
I shook my head wearily “Just let me get ready. Make a pot of coffee for me and you can help yourself to some”.
He walked in groggily and swung the door shut. “That I will do”.

We had arrived at the museum an hour after Gerald woke me. At day it was a bright, happy place. Kids were there every day, looking at the Dinosaurs and planes. There is quite a lot of stuff but those two things mainly I remember. At night, the museum was dark and gloomy. It made you feel like someone was creeping up on you, or some of the wax sculptures would spring to life and start chasing you.  First time I’ve been in there at night, and I hope the last.
“It was just a normal night, sitting in the room. I was just about asleep ya know, with the night shift an’ all? Soon as I close my eyes, I hear shattering, tinkling, a shot, and that was all I can recall” I simply nodded and wrote down the story.
“Well, at least you ended up better than your friend out there, Alex.” Alex was the one of two guards who were attacked. He was the luckier one and only ended up drugged, the other guy got it a lot worse. He’s like the guy you’ll always see at the bar any time you go down. Always got something to drink, but from the museum management, he’s never shown up drunk, especially on night watch. Reeked of whiskey if you ask me.
“Aye. ‘tis a shame, great man, not very old either.”
He could have been drugged, due to the bloodshot eyes, but I just think he’s drunk. One part that confuses me is why didn’t the thief kill both guards instead of one? I got up to check out the area, and I discovered the gruesome scene. Glass and blood everywhere, whatever was on display, gone. Poor guy had his brains blown out and on the wall. I shivered.
“Never does feel right working next to a dead body, eh?” Gerald uttered while shaking his head.
I swore “Gerald, why do you always do that? You’re like a tub of lard but you’re stealthy as a fox. You’ll make someone have a heart attack if you keep that up.” He grinned and snickered for the first time in a while.
“Didn’t really mean to, but sorry. Anything yet on the scene?”
“Nope, I just got done questioning Alex. Let me have a few minutes. Try talking to him.”
Gerald nodded his head and was off. I got down to check out the area. Somethings off here and I don’t know what. It just feels like I’m not seeing everything here.  Right as I’m thinking, one of the officers is walking to Gerald and I realize he was about to step on the glass.
I grabbed him, “Hey there, watch your step. Around the glass please”
“What do you mean around the ‘glass’?” he sneered. I pointed at the glass on the ground  and his mouth made a big O. He simply walked around and left me alone. Some people. Why can’t they realize that the glass is on the outside… Wait a minute, it’s on the outside? And indeed it was. I felt a spark of comprehension. If the guard was shot from the glass, could have Alex been the guy who shot him through the glass and broke it to get rid of the bullet hole? I spent the most of that morning scouring for the piece of glass on the ground that could have had it.  3 or so hours of that morning were spent looking for the piece, and I finally found it. A few pieces of glass put together that formed a whole with the bullet hole in it. It was crude, but it was clear evidence of it. I took a look inside the room where Alex was “drugged” and found a single bullet casing next to the chair. I picked it up, bagged it with the glass, and ran to the man himself.
“Alex, where is your gun?” I queried.
“Yeah, here” he mumbled while handing it over.
“Also, do any of you know where Gerald is? Anyone?” I asked the officers. They all said that I’d find him back at the office, because they found the person who did the crime.

“So, that’s what your recounting for us? What happened yesterday morn? The judge asked. The court room was much brighter, yellow wall paint and lots of sunlight in there. Hurts pretty much anyone’s eyes cause it’s so bright
“Yes, and the reasons why I believe Alex to be the thief and the murderer is because his gun had only five bullets in the cartridge, which, it still does. Two, the glass was broken and it wasn’t into the room, it was from the inside. From the glass, I have been able to make a crude bullet hole out of it, along with the bullet’s casing. Last but not least, why would the said thief drug one person, kill the next, steal the bracelet, and then break the glass? Plus, a soggy trail of footprints to the bakery doesn’t seem very logical, the prints could be as old as four days.” I presented said items to the courtroom, then everyone in the room was staring at Alex, except for the “thief”. Anyone could tell he was relieved that he was saved from a sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. He was only a baker. When Alex had almost become white as a ghost, everyone was silent.
“What do you plead, Alex?”  Asked the judge. Alex didn’t respond. He was too shocked, so the judge pled him guilty and sentenced him to life for first degree murder and theft of a very valuable object. The court meeting had Adjourned and we were able to leave.
“My god, James. How did you even find all of that stuff? Nobody would have traced it back to Alex, even with just one piece of it” Gerald praised, “Also, you should get sleep now. Your eyes look more red than green.”
I laughed “I don’t really remember how I got all of it too much, just that I wrote it down, and yes, I’ going to go get some well-deserved rest,” I said wearily. “It’s been a long two days.”