Graham Lenzo Ellis was asleep on his couch in his living room apartment, with only a pair of striped boxers for warmth. He had been getting ready to enjoy another day of work; as usual. Graham had basically been working on finishing up another report to the chief on a gas station robbery. It was so mundane and average a crime that all the evidence was already there to convict the robber of his crime when they finally got it. ‘They’ being his partner and him. He was the one who offered to finish the report it was no big deal, just a few paragraphs on why the man did it and how they caught him. Nothing much. Yet after he finished typing it up and emailing it out he set his laptop on the coffee table, watched a few shows and preceded to pass out. He had set his alarm clock the day before still just in case.. The only problem was he was a deep sleeper and wasn’t certain if he’d be able to hear the mechanical clock all the way from his room. The day before so that didn’t help his situation one bit. Also upon closer inspection one could see headphones in his ears, connected to an Mp3 of sorts… Why he was listening to music and he was still asleep? He couldn’t tell you. He was a deep sleeper and that was his only explanation for it all. His mouth was gaped open as he snored to himself. It wasn’t an elephant snore, but it was close enough.. Sleeping in the odd position faltered the way he slept.. If anything he must’ve been dreaming about a case or something simply by the expression that had taken hold of his face. It was almost sociopathic in a way, more calculative and less feeling… an odd concept. But he wasn’t a dream analyst so he wouldn’t know. And for a moment he didn’t care. Yet suddenly there was a loud knocking outside his door.
Graham jumped and pushed the headphones off his ears. The loud sound snapped him back into reality. It felt so surreal there was just no way to explain it. The superstitious detective got up and walked over to his room to turn of the alarm clock he beat it by a minute or so. And whoever was at the door was still knocking,
“I’m coming, I’m coming..” Graham said as he made his way back over to the door. Glad he was at least wearing an over sized T-Shirt and boxers at the time. Touching his head the brunette thought he might be coming down with something. After all it made no sense how he could hear a voice one second only to not the next… He could miss the day. But then again, he had duties at work he needed to attend to and he couldn’t take a day off without proving his illness so… Graham just shook his head to wake himself up and opened the door to see his landlady standing outside,
“Good morning Tabitha.. It’s not even Halloween yet, what do I have to thank for being so lucky as to see you earlier…” In his groggy state he hardly made sense of the words that poured out of his mouth
“Don’t give me that sweet talk..” she said almost in a jeering tone, or was it cheering? He couldn’t tell,
“Your check bounced.” She said simply. Graham stared at her wide-eyed for a second or two before the word,
“What?” Came out of his mouth.
“Your… Check… Bounced…” She said slower that time.
“No I heard that just,” Graham pinched the bridge of his nose,
“It shouldn’t have did you call the bank…?” “I called the bank they said that you didn’t have an account there.” “This can’t be happening…” He mumbled to himself remembering his fortune from the night before,
“Look Tabitha I still owe you this month’s rent on all Hallows Eve. Give me today and tomorrow to sort somethings out and I’ll try and get the bank issue under control.” “I know you’re good for the money,” she said,
“I’ll give you till my birthday [Halloween] to sort out your little problem.. Till then... Just get some sleep or whatever it is you cops do…”
As he shut the door behind Graham let out a sigh… It made no sense to him, how could the check bounce when he had watched the transaction go through. ‘Expect an extra bounce in your step’. When Graham first read the fortune a few nights ago he figured it meant something in a more positive note. Nothing like this…
“No one said it had to be a good fortune…” he thought to himself as he turned on his left heal and made his way to the bathroom door connected to the room he was previously occupying. It was an apartment… Of course, most rooms were going to be connected to various other rooms it’s just how it worked.. Letting out a yawn he didn’t even glance at his own reflection in the mirror, why would he need to? He knew full well what he looked like... Graham scratched his cheek, it had the feel of a beard growing, and at times he wished he would grow one and other’s he didn’t; it really depended on the time of year and if it was fine with the fortunes or not. The stumble wasn’t that of a logger’s so he felt no need to shave but as long as there were razors in the world, he wouldn’t care. Walking over to the shower he took a glance out of the room to look at the clock.
“Awh what a way to start the day…” He muttered. Graham then heated up the shower, took off his boxers. And shampooed and conditioned his hair. Nothing exciting really, Gareth never thought it was… He didn’t have any odd habits when it came to bathing, no rubber ducky, no singing in the shower.. Just cleaning himself from the days before, that was it. When he finished taking a shower, Graham turned the faucet off and walked out of the tub. He finally looked in the mirror now and felt that he looked fine in his opinion which was one of the only ones he cared about.
Walking out of the bathroom and back into his room, he threw the white towel in the pile of dirty clothes he had accumulated over the month.
‘I’ll remember to do that when I come home..’ He shook his head with this thought. He’d have to sooner or later, but right now it wasn’t on his mind, maybe when he came home. It didn’t help that his check bounced, if it hadn’t he’d have extra time to clean his laundry rather than check in with the bank and see if they made a mistake.
‘I’ll Maybe they confused my check with someother Graham Ellis’s bank account and that’s why... Wait how many Graham Ellis’s are there in America.. Gawh! This is sooo annoying!’ At his closest, he picked himself, business like attire, complete with a white oxford shirt, red tie, and dyed black baggy jeans. He wore a pair of black and white checkered Vans, something that didn’t match the outfit but it didn’t matter to him. It would be easier to walk around with sneaker shoes, rather than dress shoes anyway.
‘Yes let’s add blisters to my already painful day that’d be great...’ he thought sarcastically to himself. The disappearance of his rent money getting to him. He sat down on the bed and he pulled up his socks and slipped on his shoes. Standing up he pulled his shirt down a little. Then looking at his dresser mirror, he gave himself a wink, before making his way over to his dresser, he picked up the comb that was sitting right there and combed his hair in no particular style or way, mainly since he didn’t really care which way his hair went. As he set the brush down he reached for his Axe body spray something he made sure not to dose himself too much with or else he had that new car scent. Which he didn’t know if that’s what attracted some people or not, but he wasn’t going to get into that.
Graham decided he would eat some breakfast before he left his apartment to head into work. A chocolate éclair toaster strudel seemed to be the best on the go breakfast at the time as he poured his coffee and put a fortune cookie in his pocket for after breakfast. Just as the toaster popped out his strudels his blackberry went off with a generic monotonous ringer. He never felt the need to change it to a song because it wouldn’t be professional. And if he ever forget to turn his phone off and he was in a meeting or prepping for his next case he wouldn’t be embarrassed if it went of. Precautionary measures, but they’re always necessary. The only downside to having a generic ringtone was he never knew who could be texting or calling him at that time. Though flipping it open he found out exactly who it was. His new partner. As much as he liked his old partner back home the omens were a little too freaky for his liking, like a gather of crows on the pine tree when it was just him and Rick (old partner) outside. Pushing that back into the box of tangents it came from… His new partner Piran wasn’t that bad a guy… It was just with Graham’s natural passive lifestyle the other’s rambunctious one was a bit stand-offish at first. Graham has loosened up from the first time he found out he was partnered with the shorter one, but he still doesn’t know how to act around the other if that says anything. After reading it over he texted the
playful back with:
‘Yep, I do. I had it saved on my b-berry,
just in case and all… Hopefully, we
won’t run into anyone from the station
and cause suspicion.. I don’t think they
ever had a festival like this where I’m
from.. so this’ll be.. different, at best.’
After the message was sent off he grabbed his coffee in one hand and held the cooked strudels in his mouth. A juggling feat for the average working man. When he made it to the ground floor he had eaten the strudels in the elevator yet still he the coffee in one hand as he headed to the parking deck where his cobalt ford was He opened the car door and jumped inside, set his drink in the cup holder, put the keys in the ignition, and started it up. The radio came on to some FM radio station playing the latest hits. He turned it to an AM news station and listened about the latest incidents going on. One being on the recent mass suicide crimes. Being the older brother to a twin who lost his sister he knew what depression looked like and how it affected people and family’s. Hell his nearly divorced but pulled it together in the past year or so. The only thing was he didn’t get what was driving the teens to do that, after you get past high school a new world opens up to you and you don’t have to limit yourself. Graham let out a sigh; maybe no one understood his logic but him. Graham was only a few more blocks away from his place of employment. He didn’t really want to go. Okay he did but the idea to actually do something more than file papers was a bit exciting for the Superstitious. He wondered if there would be anything unique to it all. He still had yet to read his horoscope, yet decided it could wait till the next stop light before he loaded his email on his blackberry. No sense in getting in a wreck and finding out his horoscope was ‘
Focus means everything pay attention to the road ahead’ not that it was today but it had been a few months back. When he was in park at the stoplight ahead he loaded the screen. He put it in the coin holder to wait till he parked in his usual spot, it wasn’t till he was finally at work did he read his horoscope.
‘Cancer:
It's hard for you to get much done today,
as your energy just doesn't flow like it usually does.
That's okay, though, as now is a time for you to
sit and think rather than to move and act..’
“Huh…” He sat in park as he let the words rest in his head a while. They were always like puzzles, big puzzles that needed to be solved. Of course it took some time to figure out puzzles in general but who knew maybe he’d figure this one about before lunch break? Graham grabbed his coffee and made sure his door was locked before he headed inside the building. He got a few points and giggles as he walked to the lockers no doubt in his mind that some prank had been pulled and it dealt with him. It wouldn’t bother him… Graham just wished people wouldn’t act like it was some big secret they needed to hide because most of the time they didn’t try and hide it at all. As he neared his locker he saw the reason for the clamor was someone had, badly, shooped a fortune cookie into the blue monster from Sesame Streets hand. It was a motivation poster it said ‘FORTUNE’ in big words, and under it the rest of the text read ‘Everyone has one’. It wasn’t that bad actually. But really, this was the cause of the snickers? Graham let out a sigh as he opened his locker to put his coat in. He placed his coffee down and gently peeled off the poster and stuffed it in his locker. He’d throw it away but would rather not walk around the office with it. Making his way to his cubicle he took a sip of his coffee and simply went to thinking about what the horoscope said and if it could hold any connection to the murders as silly as it seemed, maybe it could. Graham also tried to make it look as though he was focusing on work just in case the chief walked by.