Family Patriarch

I was 21 when I first met my killer...

Hi my name is Harry Gregory-Underwood, I’m a Junior at Oxford University majoring in Law. When I graduate, I want to become a Criminal Lawyer and work for the top Law Firm here in Britechester,England, Person & Person Inc. I was found dead in a ditch at Sanderson Park by my dear roommate, Tabias Ferguson at exactly 2am on March 4th near a brothel called Slooshes.

I was born in Liverpool, England to a bread factory worker and a teacher. Edmund Gregory and Tessa Underwood were there names, I was the eldest child to ever be born into this family so I guess you can say I had a lot of responsibilities and expectations put on me growing up to excel at everything I did in life so it put pressure on me to not make any mistakes and keep up with my ‘perfect person’ image that my family and friends saw on a daily basis. Well all my friends except for one, Tabias Ferguson who’s now my roommate here at University. Tabias is majoring in Pre-Medicine and wants to be a Cardiologist when he graduates, I know he’ll do a fine job at that. Now back to my story on how I got here in this ditch.

“There’s a dead body in a ditch at Sanderson Park, it appears to be a murder as there’s stangulation marks around the neck area, stab wounds to the left and right lower abdominal areas and a contusion to the right side of the head. My guess is this young lad has been in a fight of some sort that started out harmful then ended up deadly really fast. Maybe a fight over a drug deal gone wrong. Could be a fight over a young lady. Who knows… ” stated Agent Tyler B. Piperston as he leaves the crime scene to hop over back to the police station to write out the case notes. Agent Piperston was an arrogant, egotistical, and impatient detective who just wanted to climb the ladder of the Criminal Career quickly just like his father Winston H. Piperston did back in the day when he got promoted to chief sergeant in just a matter of 2 years being on the force, it wasn’t right but he knew a lot of people so he got what he wanted when he wanted it. Is it fair? No, but guess what? Life isn’t fair.

Moving on…

[Back at the Britechester Police Station]

“Case number 302 is almost closed, we just have to find the killer and seal the case … Now moving on to the next,” stated Agent Piperston. “Hold on Agent Piperston, Something doesn’t sit right with this case. I mean when we had our people search the dorm room, they found Harry’s side of the room destroyed, blood on the walls, in the bathroom there was a pool of blood in the bathtub and from the bathroom floor, there was one last thing in the room. A note that said ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue, I know what you did and your spirit will pay for it in the end…’ What does that mean? Is that some time of evil, cult thing or what?” said Agent Myra Yearly.

“I’ll handle the case from here on out Myra, I know you, you’ll probably want to investigate further and go above & beyond to prove a point. Stay out of the way and you won’t lose your job.” said Agent Piperston. Despite what he said, Yearly went ahead to investigate the case instead of paying attention to Piperston’s threats and went forth to interview the customers at Slooshes.

Have you seen a 6’1, 21 year old red-head male here at Slooshes? He was found dead in a ditch near Sanderson Park at 2am by his roommate.

“Nope, I haven’t. But man, i’m so sorry to hear that. Hope you find the killer soon.” said the bartender .

“Nope, sure haven’t seen him. Hope you find the son of a gun that killed that young man.” said a man while drinking his beer.

“I think I have seen him here getting a lap dance by some long- haired brunette and I think he might’ve left with her. I’m not sure… Oh wait i think that was a buddy of mine named Clark who left with that broad… Oh well I hope you find him.” said a man while receiving a lap dance from a random woman.

After interviewing people at the brothel, she decided the next best thing is to investigate the family to see what the family was like and if any changes occurred in the last few months leading up to the murder.

“Hi Mrs. Gregory- Underwood, I’m so sorry for your loss. Do you have any idea who might have murdered your son?” said Agent Yearly in a concerning voice.

“OF course not, I have no idea, my Harry is such a good boy. He doesn’t have any enemies that I know of. All I know is that he went to some brothel to celebrate his 21st birthday and the next thing I know I get a phone call from Agent Piperston saying my Harry is dead. No one solved my boy's murder, they just set it to the side just like all the other unsolved murders in this God-awful town.” said Mrs. Gregory-Underwood sobbing into her pink fluffy pillow. “Ok, gotcha Ma’am. My apologies on the Britechester Police Department’s behalf for lacking on the job, we should have never left your son hanging like that. I will see to it, his murder gets solved, even if I have to lose my job and/ or my life. You have my word, Madam. said Agent Yearly confidently as she walks out of the Gregory-Underwood household to further investigate the crime.

[3 weeks later…]

After going undercover at Oxford University as a Pre-Law College Student for several weeks, she discovers the note on the end table next to Harry’s bed and decides to dig further into it. She carefully finds some of Harry’s handwriting in some of his previous homework assignments, turns out the handwriting on the previous homework match the handwriting on the note; Could this be an apparent suicide instead? Why would he want to kill himself? Why would he stab himself? That part makes no sense.

She walks out of the dorm room and stumbles by Tabias Ferguson, Harry’s roommate.

“ Excuse me Tabias, Listen my name is Agent Yearly. I’m undercover to solve your longtime friend’s murder case. Do you know anything about it? It’s okay, you can tell me.” said Agent Yearly.

“Okay well, yea I know a little something… So Harry was actually depressed for a couple of months because he was actually failing all his classes and he didn’t want to tell his mum because he didn’t want to make her upset so he hid it from her. Also, he caught his girlfriend Drusilla cheating on him a few days after finals so that made him even more depressed. So then he went up the street to Slooshes to get drunk and have a good time with some college frat men here in Cambridge Hall, I followed him so i could look after him but a lot of people ran ahead of me to get in the brothel so I lost him in the crowd. Long story short, when I came back to the dorm, he was sloppy drunk and left a note you saw on his end table. He was the one who violently destroyed his bed, tried to hang himself with the shoestrings of his yellow Adidas sneakers his father gave him several years back but the attempt didn’t work. Harry grew angrier and went into the bathroom to close the door behind him, next thing I knew I heard silence. That’s when I got scared and yelled out his name, I didn’t hear a response so I busted the door open with my foot, found a sharp, bloody projector on the sink, a pile of blood on the floor, and discovered his body in the bathtub, I was the one who carried him to the bed to try to wake him up.

[ MOMENT OF SILENCE]

Tabias slides down on the hallway wall onto the cold, tiled floor sobbing after he realized what just happened…

I DIDN’T WANT TO BELIEVE HE WAS DEAD! I CAN’T BELIEVE HE’S DEAD, OH MY GOODNESS, I’M SUCH AN IDIOT. I SHOULD OF KNOWN TO CHECK ON HIM SOONER BUT I DIDN’T KOW WHAT TO DO SO AFTER I FOUND HIM UNRESPONSIVE, I BURIED HIM IN THAT DITCH AND CALLED YOU GUYS. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DON’T TAKE ME TO JAIL, MY PARENTS WILL FREAK ON ME. PLEASE DON’T TAKE ME JAIL, I WAS JUST HELPING MY FRIEND [Sobbing continuously].”

Agent Yearly was speechless at that moment and had no choice but to comfort him at that time. she didn’t arrest because that would be the reasoning? Lying to the police? Murdering his friend? No way she couldn’t do that because he didn’t. Clearly, it was a tragic suicide. A young man took his own life shortly after his 21st birthday, she knew she had to do the brave thing and inform the deceased’s parents.

“I’m so sorry to disturb you but I have solved your son’s murder…” stated Agent Yearly to Mrs.Gregory-Underwood before entering her home.

After explaining how her dear son fell dead, she screamed as if she was being murdered herself while falling to her living room floor while her next oldest children were holding her in comfort.

I quietly left the house to get in my car and had the deepest cry of my life. I , Agent Yearly was proud that I gave a mother peace but also saddened that the young man ended his life because he thought he had to live up to a standard of life that he obviously couldn’t keep up with during his young adulthood.

If there’s one thing I learned from this case, it’s that Life is too short. Live it wisely.