Two ropes, one knife, and one burlap bag.  That’s all he needed to go forward with his plan.  He thought to himself, if I can pull this off, nobody else will have to die.  As soon as he got to his car, he heard a blood curling scream of a man, and with a screech of his tires, he was gone into the night. 

“Victor Hayden was murdered last night at around twelve o’clock, by a knife wound.  He also had a burlap bag on his head, which is weird,” said the Chief of police, Max Schnider.  The police were down at the crime scene in rural Missouri.  At the scene there was the body, a shell casing from the gun, and a man’s jacket not the victims though. 

“Why don’t we bring in some onlookers from that small bar over there.  Someone was bound to hear or see what happened,” said one of the officers.

Down at the station, three people were brought in, two men and one woman.  The woman was let go because she said she saw a man running but couldn’t tell which direction he came from.  And plus, the man drove away in a car.  One of the men, George Demo, had some information though.

“I saw a man running from the direction of the scene.  He was wearing a t shirt, jeans, and a hat.  He got into a black Cadillac and drove off.”

“You didn’t by chance get a license number off of that would you?” 

“Na man, I was a little tipsy by the time he drove off, but I know I saw him run and get to his car.”

“It looks like you may need my help!”

“Oh, good lord help u,” said the Chief. 

“It’s ya homie, Jackson!” said Jackson Black.

Nobody on the force trusted Jackson, even though he had helped them on many cases before.  He was tall, but fairly large, and had one minor flaw; he loved food.  And anytime he didn’t want to do something the police wanted him to do, he would only do it if they got him food.  The police had wasted a lot of money buying him food over the years, but he was a great detective. 

“So, what we dealing with?” said Jackson. 

The Chief filled him in on all the details, and after, Jackson wanted to go look at the crime scene. 

“Well, well, would you look at that.  It’s good old Victor Hayden.”

“You know him?” asked an officer.

“Oh heavens no.  I just wanted to say that.  It sounded cool.”

“Jackson, please stay on track.  We’re trying to figure out who killed this man, and I don’t want you to be goofing off,” said the Chief.

As Jackson poked around, he saw a small letter imprinted in the grass.  The letter P.

“Oh Chief, imma need some breadsticks before I tell you what I found.”

“Brent, get some breadsticks so we can hurry up this process.  Now, tell us what you found.”

“The letter P. Remember about two years ago, this same letter appeared on the grass near your station and y’all had no idea what it was from?  All your bushes and shrubbery were destroyed, but murder by possibly the same person is a lot worse than destroyed bushes, wouldn’t you say? And if I remember correctly, you caught the person responsible for the vandalism?” said Jackson.

“Yes, we did.  His name was Sam Johnford.  He had to do fifty hours of community service, but that’s all.  We haven’t heard or seen Sam since then.”

“I suggest we pay a visit to Johnford’s house, shall we? Oh, my breadsticks. Thanks,   Brent.”

They all went over to his house, but to their dismay, nobody seemed to be home.  The Chief yelled, but no one came to the door, so he knocked it down.  A man was hanging from his banister, Sam Johnford.  In his room they found a burlap bag, a knife, and one rope.   Also, they found a diary on his desk.  One entry was intriguing. ‘I’m going to do this.  Ben Carol has to die or else he’s going to kill anyone that comes in his way.  I aim to hang him after killing him, if I get that far before he kills me.  We were best friends, I don’t know how this could have happened to him, but he will die for killing all those innocent people. This is a personal thing for me. I will follow through.  SJ’ 

“Well, it looks like all those things in his closet were meant for a Ben Carol.” said Jackson. 

“All, we are now looking for a Ben Carol.  No one stops until he is found.” said the Chief. 

Two weeks later, Ben was found, confessed to everything, and was given a life sentence in prison. 

“Great work Mr. Jackson. Not only did you help us bring down a serial killer, you have restored you trust in me.  Thankfully, you only asked for food once, and breadsticks for heaven’s sake.  Well done, all,” said the chief.