Cabin Death

Helena, Montana

November 24, 2003

8:45 p.m.

The rode was slick as I drove down. It curved around a large mountain and made it difficult to steer. I was finally able to get out of the office and get some vacation time. I was going out to a small cabin that my friend, Jeffery, owned. I hadn’t seen him in months, so this promised to be a fun time.

Heavy rain pounded against my windshield as I tried to steer the car away from the edge of the road. The sky had darkened since I first left and it was nearing night quite fast when, finally, the small cabin came into view. I parked my Volkswagen up the side of the road and pulled on my heavy raincoat. I decided to bring in my suitcases when the rain cleared so my things wouldn’t get wet. I knew Jeff had to be in the cabin since I could see the light on from the cracks under the door.

Jeff lived closer to the secluded area and he had left a day earlier, so I knew that he was there. Jeff was the only one I knew that had a set of keys to this place. He would vacation here with his family during the summer holidays, but once most of his family passed away or moved, the place just became his and no one argued about it. We would come here to get away from the college life and spend the nights drinking and having wild parties. This time, though, it was just going to be us two, so we could catch up on old times.

After climbing the steep hill, which was hard because the rain made the ground into mud and the grass had became slippery, I approached the wooden cabin. I knocked on the door three times in succession and waited as patiently as one could out in the rain. When no one came to answer I began shouting Jeff’s name, but received no answer and became worried. He could either be in the bathroom and therefore couldn’t come to the door, or something was wrong. I pounded at the door and yelled his name for several minutes more, but there still was no answer.

I took several steps back and then rushed the door. It shook momentarily under my weight, but then nothing happened. I slammed my shoulder against the door several more times and it finally gave way, allowing me to stumble into the room. The bright light assaulted my eyes and I shielded them for a while. Once I got a good look around I noticed Jeff’s body lying unmoving on the floor.

I gasped and rushed to his body, shaking it slightly. He didn’t move. I then felt for a pulse, my own heart pounding in my chest, and was dismayed when there was none. Tears began pouring out of my eyes then and my heart wrenched painfully as I tried to clench it with my fist, but only managed to wrinkle my coat further. I saw that Jeff had a gun in his hand and a trail of blood was coming out from beneath his head. I tried not to panic and so looked around the room first, scouting for clues.

The first thing I noticed was that the Indian carpet he received from his wife had a corner turned over. There were several newspapers strewn over his desk and chair, as if he had been researching something. The weird coat hanger I had given him, after buying it in a yard sale, was still in the corner, it’s twisting vines enclosing umbrella’s and hats. On the wall behind me was a display of two swords and a gun, but it looked as if another gun had been taken. The gun that Jeff held in his hand and the one on the wall were a perfect match.

This didn’t make sense. As far as I knew, Jeff had no enemies. I don’t believe for a second that Jeff would do this to himself right before meeting up with me. Someone had murdered him. Yet, this didn’t seem plausible. The door was locked from the inside and only Jeff has the keys. The only way would be if the person entered the cabin with Jeff, killed him, then took the keys and locked the cabin from the outside, making it seem like a suicide.

But who could have done something like that? I continued to look around the area some more, looking for clue in the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen. When I found nothing I made my way back to living room to have another look around. I knew that I should have contacted the police immediately, but I felt as if I had to do this for my friend, not call the cops immediately so it could get shoved down in the ‘mysterious cases’ file.

I paid a closer attention to his desk and the coat rack, trying to find something out of place. The desk only contained a list of things Jeff had to do, like pay his phone bill and buy a ring binder; no real evidence. Upon closer inspection of the coat rack I found an item that didn’t belong—a purse. Jeff and I are obviously males, so why would we need a purse on our trip?

I grabbed the handbag and looked through it quickly, but found it only empty. When I was ready to give up and call the cops I felt something hard on the side of one of the pockets. I opened it quickly and found a silver bracelet inside; the one Jeff had given to his wife for their anniversary!

I dropped the purse then, unable to believe what I just discovered. For some reason Jeff’s wife, Aggie, had killed him and tried to frame this up as a suicide. Aggie would be the only person able to find and enter this cabin, and it wouldn’t have seemed suspicious if she had wanted to tag along with my friend.

Aggie probably hung up her coat and purse on the rack once entering the room, and in the rush to flee the scene she left her purse behind, only taking her coat. I reached for my cell phone and sat on the chair, finally calling the cops. Once they arrived on the scene they asked me what had happened. I told them exactly how I came here, why I was here to begin with, and what I discovered.

Surprisingly they took me seriously and asked be to type this out to add to their report. Hopefully they’ll able to find Aggie and figure out what motive she had for doing this.

I’m attending Jeff’s funeral next week. The autopsy showed that a shot to the head was the cause of death. May he rest in peace.

A/N: I wrote this short story for my English class. My teacher gave us a cartoon picture of someone murdered and we had to write a story accompanying it.