Casebook Murders: A True Story of Crime and Justice
(content warnings: cops, gun violence, suicide)
You are matt, a detective living in Chicago. You have a pistol and a police badge. You enter the forest where you believe the criminal you're searching for fled to. Suddenly , you hear a noise from behind a tree.
hide behind a different tree and watch carefully
You hide behind another tree and watch the criminals through your scope. They seem to be running away from you, but then they stop and look back at you.
"I'm not going to shoot you," one of them says. "We need to talk."
"I'm listening."
You nod and continue watching the criminals as they walk up to you. The man approaches with his hands in his pockets. He looks like he's about thirty years old, but you can't tell if that's just because of how pale he is or what kind of clothes he wears.
"What do you have in your pockets, mister?"
The man looks down at his pockets and pulls out a small black object. It's a gun! He points it right at you and fires off several shots before turning around to run away.
You drop your rifle, grab the man by the shirt collar, and throw him into the bushes.
Handcuff the man
You cuff the man and take him back to the station house. While you're there, you get a call on your radio saying that someone has been shot dead near your office. When you arrive, you find that it's actually two men who were killed while trying to rob a bank nearby.
call 911
You dial 911 and wait patiently for an operator to answer. After a few minutes, you hear a female voice come over the phone.
"911? What's going on?" she asks.
"A man was shot dead in my neighborhood," you reply.
"Oh, I see. Well, we'll send some people here immediately."
draw a chalk outline around the bodies
You draw a chalk outline around the corpses so that the police know exactly where to search. A couple hours later, you hear sirens outside and then a helicopter landing nearby.
type a police report about the bodies on my typewriter
You type a police report about the bodies on your typewriter. You spend most of the day writing it up and sending it off to the local newspaper. By nightfall, you've received a phone call from the chief of police asking why you didn't write up any more deaths in your area.
"There weren't any more deaths today, sir"
You say "There weren't any more deaths today, sir." The chief tells you that he wants all the reports sent out to him by tomorrow morning.
After getting ready for work, you check your typewriter and find that it's completely destroyed.
investigate the destroyed typewriter
You go to the destroyed typewriter and find that it was filled with gasoline. There's also a note attached to it which reads:
To Whom It May Concern:
This is not a hoax. This is real.
perform handwriting analysis on the note
You read the note carefully and realize that it was written by someone who knew you very well. They wanted to warn you because they had information about a killer stalking their neighborhood.
call 911 and report the killer
You call 911 and tell them what happened. They ask if you saw anything suspicious, but you don't think so since you never leave your home at night anymore.
move to a different neighborhood
You decide to move away from your old neighborhood altogether. You're still worried about the killer though.
Five years pass...
go to work
You go to work as usual. No one has seen or heard anything strange lately. One day, you get a knock on the door.
look through the peephole
You open the door and see a man standing there. He looks like he's been crying. He says his name is John, but you can't remember it. He asks if you're Mr. Smith and when you say yes, he starts sobbing uncontrollably and begs for help.
"How can I help you, John?"
You say "How can I help you, John?" He doesn't answer right away. Instead he just stands there looking down at his feet. Finally he turns around and walks back into the house without saying another word.
ask John if he's the killer
You ask "John, how do you know my name? How did you kill those people?" He replies "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. My life is over now." You sigh and say "Well then, maybe we should forget about this ever happening..."
handcuff john
You take him outside and lock the front door behind you. You explain to him that he better confess to killing all of these people before you let him out of jail. He tells you that he'll do whatever you want, but after five more minutes, he breaks down and admits everything.
arrest john for murder
You grab him by the collar and cuff him. He cries out in pain and begs you not to hurt him anymore.
"Why didn't you stop me? Why couldn't you save her?" he says tearfully.
"Because I love you too much,"
kiss john tenderly on the forehead
You kiss john goodbye and walk back inside the house.
The next morning, you wake up early and head to work. The sun is shining bright today, which makes you feel happy again.
ask the chief if it's okay for me to retire now
You ask Chief Bogo if it's okay for you to retire now. He says sure, but only because he wants you to stay on as a cop.
Five years later...
become a writer of hard-boiled detective novels
You decide to become a writer of hard-boiled detective novels. Five years pass and you write your first book, which is called The Casebook Murders: A True Story Of Crime And Justice. It's an instant bestseller! People keep asking you where you got the idea from.
"I got the idea from my old job, when I was a detective and a cop"
You say "I got the idea from my old job, when I was a detective and a cop." They think you're joking, but they don't seem to mind.
Ten years later...
Your second novel is published and sells millions of copies worldwide.
give away 90% of my money to the poor and travel the world
You decide to give away 90% of your money to the poor and travel the world. Ten years pass and you've traveled all over the world, but you haven't seen any good places yet.
go to paris to get inspiration for my next book
You decide to go to Paris to get inspiration for your next book. You spend two weeks there, but nothing comes of it. After ten years pass, you realize that you're just bored with the whole traveling around the world thing.
calculate how old I am now
You look at yourself in the mirror one day and figure out how old you are now.
"I'm getting too old for this"
You say "I'm getting too old for this." Then you put on some music and dance around until your eyes start burning.
Twenty years later...
write another novel
You write another novel, which is very successful. People keep buying them. Your publisher keeps sending you more books, so you keep writing more novels. Twenty years after that...
give an interview to the newspaper about my career and remarkable longevity
You give an interview to the newspaper about your career and remarkable longevity. They find it interesting enough to run it in their paper every once in awhile. Twenty years after that...
Twenty years after that...
You wake up one morning and realize you're not dead anymore.
look in the mirror
You look in the mirror and see that you're still alive. You walk outside and notice that you live in a small town called New Salem, Illinois. There are no other people here except for yourself, who looks like he or she has been sleeping all night.
look for a newspaper box
You look for a newspaper box and find one, but nobody's home. You call out to the person inside, but they don't answer. You try again, and again you get no response.
look for a payphone and call the chief of police
You look for a payphone and call the chief of police. He answers immediately, but doesn't seem interested in what you want to talk about. Instead he tells you that his son was killed by a drunk driver yesterday and asks if you can tell him anything about it.
hang up
You hang up because you're really tired of talking to strangers.
A few days later, you hear a knock on the door. It's the chief of police. He wants to know if you'd like to come over for lunch sometime soon.
slam the door
You slam the door shut as hard as you can. The chief of police comes in with a big smile on his face and says "Hi, I'm Chief of Police John!"
He leads you into the kitchen where there are several sandwiches and drinks sitting on tables.
run away
You run out of the house crying. You head back to your car and drive off. As you pull away from the driveway, you suddenly remember that you forgot something at home. You rush back to your house and find that everything is gone!
"Oh god, get me out of this nightmare!"
You say "Oh god, get me out of this nightmare!" and start running down the street screaming. A man runs after you yelling at you to stop. You turn around and scream back "I'll kill myself! I'll die! Please help me!"
get shot by the man
You get shot by the man. His eyes widen when he sees your body fall to the ground. He then turns around and shoots himself in the head.
The narrator says "And so ends this tragic tale of a police detective. However..."
At the end of the story, you see a picture of a man holding two guns pointing them at you. He looks very scary.
"This is how things turned out," the narrator says.