“I trusted you,” I said to James. He sat across from me, head hung, sitting in a small room coming to a plea bargain. Lawyers waited outside for us to finish our personal business.
“I thought you were my man, my assistant, my James. You were the one person who I knew could go through an investigation for me, but you were just as bad as any who tried anything. Just as bad as the others behind bars.”
“No, it’s not like that,” he pleaded. “I did it for—“
“No, I know why you did it,” I quickly exclaimed. “Milkman losing business to machines, anxious to frame them. You knew if I went into court and said the appliances did it, it would be fact to everyone. People would toss their fancy refrigerators and go back to the milkman.
“And the perfect opportunity. On the days she wasn’t there, you could do whatever you wanted to her appliances, setting them up to attack her. You blew that toaster, and then set the piece for her to have it fixed at the appliance store across the street from my office. And she went for it; two birds with one stone. Dead in my office.
“And then at every step, you pointed me back to the machines, leading witnesses back to the machines. And you almost got away with it.”
He continued to look down, away from my eyes. I knew he had nothing to say, and I was done. Calling for the lawyers, I stormed out of the room.
I almost wish I hadn’t solved that case. It hurt, I’ll admit, but it was good for me. I don’t trust anymore, but I guess that makes me more fair.
And that’s the story. Greatest challenge I ever faced in my career. Actually that’s not true. Maybe next time.
(Well, that’s it! Please comment; was it worth the read? Did I do a good job making the ending feasible and surprising?
Because I had to do a write-up for this for class, I’ll post that along with my next normal blog post. It’s not particularly interesting, but if you’re curious about how this tied in my “Humans & Machines” class, that’s where I explore the basis for this.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!)
One reply on “"Overtoasted" Part 7”
The ending came as a surprise to me because I expected James to be loyal and trusting, like any private assistant. I wonder why Aaron Maglue, who’s supposed to be intelligent and cautious, chose him out of all the men in the world to be his private assistant. Aaron should have investigated James more deeply before making him his private assistant and entrusting him with sensitive crime info.
I love Raoul’s accent because it makes me laugh. But I can’t really figure out what type of accent he has (Scottish? Dutch?).
Overall, I really did enjoy the story. Your little episodes kept me in suspense. I think the story’s funny, and there seems to be a moral behind it (even the person closest to you can be your foe so be constantly vigilant) so the story’s worth reading. I would read this as a bedtime story to a child so that he/she can learn a real-life lesson. This story resembles one of those Sherlock Holmes stories/videos that you tagged on your del.icio.us site. You must be a huge fan of detective films and stories.
I’m looking forward to your write-up and your next post.