The Tell-Tale Heart: Police

The police station was quiet. Just the occasional turn of a newspaper. I was staring at the oil lamp until we received a call from a lady. The ringing of the phone echoing in the dim-lit room. I derived it was something urgent like a kidnapping since it was the middle of the night. We picked up the phone. A lady was screeching into the receiver, stating she hear a shriek from the house next door. We succumbed after half an hour of her explaining what she had witnessed. And we agreed to take a look. I surmised it was nothing, just someone dropping a cup and shrieking I and two other officers climbed into the coach. The moon was shining eerily in the pitch-black sky, hanging there like an orb.

I grimaced when I swallowed bitter coffee that barley quenched my dehydrated throat; I coughed as we drove in to the darkness. We came to the first house and I made a cursory glance down the street. Nothing suspicious. We wait after we knocked standing on the stairs that were clad with snow. A man in red robes stood under the frame of the door. We ask if he heard anything. He nods. A shriek from the house down the street, he corroborated. We nod and said goodnight.

We went to the house the neighbour and the lady were speaking of. The house stood proudly against the dark sky, as if proving us wrong. It was a perfect house, other than some abrasions on the wood, stating that it's old.

I knocked on the door that simulated black ice. A man appeared smiling warmly, he looked as if he was awake for hours maybe. We ask if we could take a look inside, he welcomes us in as if he was waiting for us for a very long time. We walk gingerly into the house. Room after room. We enter the master's room last, where an inventory of precious goods were left untouched. We were satisfied.

We sat in the warm room and chatted as if we were all best of friends. The man looked uncomfortable allof a sudden, perhaps we should leave...but my partners were deep in conversation. The man stood up suddenly. Talking rapidly. Faster and faster. Grated the chair. Stomped on the creaky floor boards. I was alarmed at his actions. My voice fades away. The man looked as if he was ready to scream and run for miles. And finally. Finally he burst. Ripping the floor boards apart. Yelling. Louder and louder. Until a dead man with milky eyes lay. Stone dead.