Solved Kevin Simmons '23 One thing that I pride myself on is my ability to solve puzzles and mysteries that nobody else can. This talent is what made me put on the badge. It’s what got me all of those promotions over the years. More than once, I’ve seen the whole precinct giving me a standing ovation for a job well done; I had found the kidnapped kid, or stopped the serial killer, or something. Countless times I saw my picture on the wall of the department, with the words, “Sean Gorman, Detective of the Year,” printed under it. It all becomes the same thing after so many years, it all blends together. The years feel like they’ve all disappeared from my life. Time just vanished, case after case, murder scene after murder scene, clue after clue. I’ve seen more corpses in my career than I could count, so many that I barely even care when I see a dismembered victim on the oor. I hardly even remember why I became a cop in the rst place. I’m sure that the naive, innocent, 20 year old me was raving on about “making the world a better place” or some such nonsense as he applied to the academy, but 40 years later, I feel like I haven’t made any impact at all in the grand scheme of things. A le getting slapped on my desk snapped me out of my moping. My eyes icked up from my desk to the bright eyes of my new partner, Mike. I say “new partner,” but Mike has been my partner for the better part of a year now. He was pretty much fresh out of the academy when I rst met him, and we were partners shortly after. I thought it was funny, that to him it probably seems like ages since we became partners, but to me, it’s gone by in the blink of an eye. “Come on, old man, we’ve got a case,” he said, picking up his keys and wallet from his paper-strewn desk energetically. He stopped, saw that I had not moved yet, and sighed at me. “Stop daydreaming and get moving, we’ve got a crime scene to get to.” I grunted out of my desk chair and grumbled, “Yeah, yeah. I’m coming.” As I stood up, pain ared through my knees, which I promptly ignored. I was beginning to really feel my age these last few years. From bad knees, to a sore back, to the start of arthritis in my ngers, I was nding it harder and harder to get around. Seeing Mike buzz around me everywhere we go only highlights these changes for me. I followed as he strode through the boisterous station out to the parking lot, where I spotted his car. We hopped in and I asked, “So what do we know about the situation?” “Not much right now,” He said as he backed the car out of its parking spot. “Two victims murdered in their house, a boy and his father.” “And the mother?” I asked him. “Apparently she died four years ago,” Mike said, shrugging as he turned onto the street, following his GPS. “It was some type of disease, the doctors couldn’t gure out what it was exactly. She died after two months in the hospital.”
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“Did you hear anything else about it?” I said to him.
