The "Good" Guy Always Wins

Detective Alex Rees was an investigator; he was good at his job, but one unsolved case had been haunting him for weeks. It was a murder case in a quiet suburban neighborhood.

Nothing ever happened in the neighborhood; all the residents knew their neighbors and the people across from them, and everyone around then, well, that's what they wanted you to believe at least.

The neighborhood was oddly quiet; nothing ever happened—no children playing or laughing or people walking, for that matter. There were so many secrets around every corner and every which way.

The cold case had consumed Decetive Rees for years. It was a series of unsolved murders. Most of his colleagues and superiors had given up on this case and left it to him.

The pressure of the media and everyone around him was pushing him to the brink of losing his sanity. Everything he would do would always lead to a dead end, and he could never solve anything.

Alex unlocked the door to his new house. It was in the heart of the suburban neighborhood he had been investigating for all these years. He was in desperate need of a fresh start and a new lead.

He had one neighbor, a man named Arthur, who was one of his prime suspects, but he thought the man was innocent.

Arthur Whitman, 34 years old and 6”2, has brown hair and brown eyes and doesn't leave his house often. His wife and two kids—a daughter and a son—died in a car accident, allegedly. He was just an ordinary man turned evil by society.

Alex looked at the picture of the car that had been in the accident.

“A car hit them, and they went off a bridge into a pond, killing his wife and two kids, but he survived. The driver's side was smashed in, and so was the back window.” Alex read the police report aloud to himself.

He held the picture of the damaged car that the cops had found in the pond.

“GNR 0132. GNR 0132. The license plates match up, and the cars are the same color,” Alex said to himself, looking at the pictures he had taken earlier.

He looked outside at the car; it was the same car that had been in the pond; in fact, the car seat was still in the back seat, but the driver's side window wasn't smashed in, and neither was the back window.

“How would he have survived if the car was smashed in? And how did his wife and kids not survive?” Alex asked. Something wasn't right.

Alex got up from his chair and walked out of his front door. And there Arthur stood, mowing his lawn.

“Hi neighbor,” Alex waved with a smile, and Arthur waved back anxiously.

“That's a nice car; when did you get it and where? I am trying to get one like it,” Alex said. He was lying straight through his teeth, just trying to make conversation for more clues.

“I think I got it in 2018, I don't remember how much though, I'm sorry,” Arthur said, and the two of them looked at the car together.

“2018, that's pretty good for how good of shape it is right now,” Alex said as he looked inside the car. There were no signs of water damage. Maybe it wasn't the same car as the one in the pond.

“Oh, do you have kids?” Alex said, and Arthur nodded.

“I did, a boy and girl; they were the light of life. Someone in this town kidnapped them, and I haven't seen them, but I have been looking tirelessly, with no luck,” Arthur said.

“I'm so sorry about that,” Alex said, sending his condolences to his new neighbor.

And he walked off. That's not what it said on their posted obituaries online. They were not kidnapped but killed in the car accident in the pond, so something wasn't right.

Alex looked in a few of the neighborhood Facebook groups he had joined.

Arthur was in one of them; he never spoke, but he did have a profile. Alex clicked on it.

“Arthur Whitman, proud son and single father of two,” Alex said, reading it. This was last updated in 2019.

He had a few friends, and Alex scrolled through them.

“Victoia Whitman,” Alex read and clicked on her profile. It was a picture from the early 2000s of a woman.

“Mother of two, proud wife,” Alex said. It was last updated in 2015 when she and Arthur got married.

“He updated the single father of two after his kids and his wife were killed in the car accident,” Alex wrote down on his notes.

A week had gone by, nothing. No murders or weird things were happening.

“Good morning, Arthur!” Alex waved with a smile, and Arthur waved back. The two of them had started to develop an acquaintance over the past week and a half.

“That's a nice ring,” Alex said, and Arthur nodded.

“My wife is out of town right now, and she texted me reminding me to wear it,” Arthur said jokingly.

“How is your wife's name?” Alex asked.

“Victoria, Victoria Whitman, we got married back in 2015,” Arthur said, and Alex nodded. That was the first time he had told the truth and didn't contradict anything else he had previously said.

“Well, you have a nice day; I need to get back to work,” Alex said, walking away.

“Alex.”

“Yes?”

“What do you do for a living?” Arthur looked at Alex with a blank look on his face. He was trying to catch Alex in a slip-up.

“It's complicated. So I work for my parents at their bakery shop, but I also work from home with my other job, which allows me-.”

“What's your other job, Alex?”

“I work for a company that has me working on their billing and stuff like that. I'm not even supposed to have the job, so keep it on the down low,” Alex said, making a joke.

“That's cool; I'm going to go back to watching television,” Arthur said, walking back towards his house.

“Arthur?”

“Yes?”

“Please tell Victoria I said hello.” Arthur nodded and quickly walked back into his house, and Alex did the same. Arthur was getting suspicious of Alex; he could tell.

“He targets people with dark secrets. He was said to have killed his 67-year-old neighbor, but it was ruled as self-defense. But he left a star on him; he had done that with all 13 of his victims, including his wife and two kids,” Alex said to himself.

Those are some of the new leads he found. He targets older people by blackmailing them with their secrets and then killing them.

“So why did he kill his wife and two kids?” Alex asked.

Alex continued to look through the Facebook groups.

Erik: Arthur, I'm so sorry about your wife, Victoria. 3.19.2018 Four likes, one comment

Maria: Losing someone so close to you is so sad. If you need any help with your kids, let me know. 3.19.2018 Two likes, one comment

None of it was helpful, just saying that she died.

“Wait, then why does he still say she's alive?” Alex asked himself.

Alex looked at her obituary. It had changed from the one he read last week. This time, it said she was dead, but her body was never found.

Arthur was above the police. That's why the story kept changing over and over again. He was above the police and had paid them off.

He only killed old men, apart from his wife and two kids. The old men were all linked by the stars he had branded into them after their deaths.

All 10 of his victims were retired police officers or worked at the police department.

His story never lined up. That was the only evidence Alex needed.

It was Arthur. He planned all his murders, always staying one step ahead of law enforcement and playing his murders out so they all looked like an accident.

From blackmail, extortion, manipulation, and preying on the weak members of society with their secrets. He was good at what he did.

He got up and walked out his door to Arthur's house. Arthur was waiting for him on the front porch.

“Why?” Alex asked.

“She died in a car accident; I didn't kill her; she's my wife; why would I kill her?” Arthur said, and Alex smiled.

“Why did you park your car in front of my house? You have a two-car garage,” Alex said. Arthur's face paled.

“You knew from the get-go that I was doing an investigation on you, so why did you continue to lie to my face?”

“I didn't lie; they all died in a car accident.”

“Yesterday, you said your wife was alive and on a business trip.”

“That's my second wife-.”

“Victoria Whitman? The same woman you said was on a business trip and the same woman who died in 2018? And if she was still alive, then why did you put a single father of two on your Facebook account in 2019? Why would you do that if she was still alive?” Alex asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Why’d you do it?” Alex asked, and Aruther punched him square in the face and started running.

Alex took off after him. They ran for a while until Arthur stopped in front of a ditch.

“Why’d you do it?” Alex asked, and Arthur turned around and pointed a gun at Alex.

“You won't do it.” A bullet pierced Alex's shoulder, but he stayed calm.

“You think I won't kill you and cover it all up? I have done this plenty of times; you are just like those cops anyway. I'll pay you off, then I'll kill you.”

“You don't kill people for no reason.”

“I have a reason.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“What is it, then?” Alex asked with his head tilted.

Arthur went silent. He had no real reason to kill Alex, so he wouldn't do it.

Then Arthur lunged at him and pinned him down to the ground, and he put the gun to his head.

“You are just like them; just kill me already; I am a murderer, I admitted it already. Is that what you wanted?” Arthur said that and got off of Alex.

“I'm not going to kill you; no matter what you do, I am not going to kill you.”

“Why, because you want to be the good guy who helps me?”

“No, it's because I want to see you burn in hell,” Alex said, and he took the gun from Arthur.

“I'm going to ask you one more time. Why did you do it?” Alex said and continued to stay calm in the matter.

“This place is awful. It's the worst town I have ever moved into. So many things would happen, and they would never do anything,” Arthur stops.

“Continue; I will listen, only if you tell the truth.”

“My wife was cheating on me.”

“So you killed her?”

“I don't remember.”

“What do you mean you don't remember?”

“It was all a blur. I was so angry when I found out; it was over such a long period too. And she blamed me. Blame me for everything; blame me for our kids being weird; blame me for everything.”

“So you killed her?”

“Yes, well, I don't remember. We had swapped drivers on a road trip, and she fell asleep, so I put our kids on the side of the road and drove the car into the water. I waited to call 911, and when they finally came, she was dead.”

“Was she abusive towards you in any way?”

“To my children, yes, and I think I was in such a rage that I don't remember killing her, but I had to kill her, not because she was cheating on me, but because she would hurt them time after time again.”

“Did you kill your children, Arthur?”

“No.”

“What happened to them?”

“This evil town happened to them. Every few years, they try to make people into bad guys and make them look like awful people. I was the target. They ruined me; I lost my job; my family doesn't speak to me; and one of these people took my children. They took them away from me; they were everything I had left in this awful world, and the police didn't do anything. They did nothing when my wife died, and they did nothing when my children got kidnapped.”

“I wonder why people do that every couple of years. It's like they are moving from town to town. Were you going to kill your children?”

“God no, I hoped that I would have enough money to send them off to college, and then I would turn myself in, I guess.”

“Why did you kill the 10 other people?”

“I killed four people. My neighbor, the neighbor across from me, and their wives.”

“How'd you kill them?”

“They were all old, so I would go over there to help them. The husbands were retired police officers who worked on my wife's case and my children's case. I killed my neighbor first with a bat. Beat him to death. His wife came home, and I stabbed her, making it look like a suicide. My neighbor across the street and his wife both died in the fire I set. I took their dogs out of the house and took them to the humane society.”

“Did you kill anyone else?” Alex asked, and Arthur shook his head.

“Thank you for cooperating with me, Arthur; the system doesn't do nicely to murderers even if they are in good spirits,” Alex said, and he handcuffed Arthur.

“I am not a hero or anyone who saved you. I have morals and don't kill people without hearing their explanation first,” Alex said as he and Arthur walked toward their houses.

Alex watched as Arthur got put in the back of a cop car.

“Don't kill anyone in prison,” Alex said, and he drove away just like that.

All these years of his life were solved in two weeks. Alex walked back into his house and sat down in his chair.

He was done with this job.

He blinks and stretches. And then he picked up his phone and dialed a number.

And the other line picked up and Alex spoke into the phone “He took that blame; they are off my case again. I am moving to the next town; let's do it all again. They are never going to catch me.”