Misbehavin’

****Click here for previous installment of Vivid Black –> The Darkside

Without a doubt, Cliff Lewis was a tweeker. He constantly scratched and dug. It made Henry and Ray, crawly skinned, prickly and itchy. Lewis had an old injury and couldn’t stab with brutal cruelty like The Zombie Reaper.

Cliff tore at himself, and shared details they didn’t have. He did touch the victims, and saw and heard the killer from behind. Black leather jacket. Black boots and bloused pants.

“Um, he muttered. Cussed. Kept sayin’ stuff like ‘Why him?’ and…well, can I cuss?” Is it misbehavin’ if I cuss?”

Jaw clenching, Ray glared.

“Well, uh he kept droppin’ f-bombs.”

Today’s installment of Vivid Black is brought to you by the word “misbehavin'” as prompted by Velvet Verbosity’s 100 Word prompt. It’s a blog hop so click the picture over there on the left to go check out some of the other entries.

Of course, if you are going to bring up the word “misbehavin'” the song “Ain’t Misbehavin'” comes straight to mind, so enjoy a little Billie Holiday singing like only Billie could.

To read the entire Vivid Black series so far, Click HERE.

Whittling Clues

****Click here for previous installment of Vivid Black –> Knock Knock

With a stack of papers tucked in a folder, Henry escaped Max’s apartment frustrated and angry. Max acted clueless, stupid but Henry knew better. It drove him crazy, but he had what he needed.
~~~~
Another spray of paper covered the work table. This time Henry and Ray poured over Zombie Challenge lists and looked for anyone who competed in all of them. They found 27 names.

“Well this was a brilliant mistake. Damn. That’s a lot of legwork boss.”

Ray smirked, “Let’s toss it to the tech nerds. They can whittle it down,” glanced sideways, “Then we’ll get some exercise.”

LeeRoy and Lance picked Linda at Mod Mom Beyond IndieDom to choose this weeks song and she chose “Brilliant Mistake” by Elvis Costello.  I wrote another installment of  Vivid Black using the song title as inspiration.

To read the entire Vivid Black series so far, Click HERE.

Lost and Found

****Previously Henry made a phone call. Click the link for the last installment of Vivid Black – The Call

“Dammit Jones! Get those files found or I’ve gotta go to Ray with this.”

“Henry, I don’t know what’s going on. Results are in each files. Those sheets had to be removed one by one.”

Henry angrily scrubbed his face. The photos showed an oval black smudge on the right cheek of each victim. The shape was good for a fingerprint. It could be grease, coal dust.  The trace analysis could  ID the killer. The crisis of lost or misplaced paperwork was a cauldron on the verge of boiling over.

He heard paperwork shuffled.

“Wait wait! God… here they are.”

Velvet Verbosity’s 100 Word Challenge presented the word “Crisis” as inspiration. Trying to resolve the cliffhanger I doubled up with two quick posts so I would get lynched. 🙂

To read the entire Vivid Black series so far, Click HERE

The Call

****Previously Henry had discovered a clue. Click the link for the last installment of Vivid Black – Exposing Fury (Finding Answers)

Phone snatched, he dialed the morgue.

“Yeah, Jonesie?”

“Don’t call me Jonesie.  ‘Sup?”

“I’m lookin’ over the files. I found something.”

“OhhhK.”

“Where’s the trace analysis from the victims?”

“What? It’s not there?”

For Trifextra Week 53 we have this prompt:

For the weekend prompt we’re asking for exactly 33 words of dialogue. I’m leading you on a bit more with the previous cliffhanger in Vivid Black. Some answers are on the horizon. 🙂

To read the entire Vivid Black series so far, Click HERE

Exposing Fury (Finding Answers)

****Previous installment of Vivid Black – Going Backwards

Finding the coded note, a deviation from the usual text messages Max used to get word out about an upcoming Zombie Gauntlet Challenge, was a gut punch. Henry hoped whatever the latest victim, Thomas Earl Garcia, had clutched in his hand would provide some fresh leads in the case. That damn note and Max being tied into the case again stretched his patience to the breaking point and he lost it.

“Every time I turn around Max frickin’ Linder is there. He’s like like the damn flu. You think you’re done with him, and he comes right back. Never anything good and just annoying bullshit. The bitch is, that piece of paper doesn’t mean shit. Stupid kid was just trying to find the damn challenge.”

Fuming in anger, cursing and raging under his breath, he shoved through the swinging morgue doors so hard they banged the walls on either side. Gesturing with his hands as he marched to the elevator, he poked the up button over and over. A whershh announced the opening doors. Henry stepped in and began to gather himself as he rode to his floor. A thought was itching in the back of his head and he began mindlessly drumming his fingers on his lip again.

When the doors opened to the fifth floor he hurried acrossed the hall into Investigations. At his desk he frantically searched for the victim files. In hand he fanned each, as he laid them down in order.

Demarion Jones,
Linzee Reiger
Joshua Henderson
Sarah Jane Jacoby
Thomas Earl Garcia

His heart sprinted in his chest as his mind flew from point to point.

Could it be?

His eyes rolled over each blue file and a grin stretched across his face. He looked up into his partners face. McEwin unsettled by the idiotic look on Henry’s face threw his hands up,

“What?”

Henry replied,

“Yes!”

“What?”

“A clue! Finally a damn break.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Crash, a song not released as a single, is on Safetysuit’s album “These Times”. It definitely fits Henry’s situation in this piece. He’s ready to give up but he just needs to take a breath and don’t stop! Hard lesson to learn. Can’t wait to see what Henry figured out.

Linking up with Trifecta for their weekly word prompt challenge. Submissions must be between 33 & 333 words and must use the 3rd definition of the given word. The word this week is:

BITCH (noun)
1: the female of the dog or some other carnivorous mammals
2 a : a lewd or immoral woman
b : a malicious, spiteful, or overbearing woman —sometimes used as a generalized term of abuse
3: something that is extremely difficult, objectionable, or unpleasant