Late Night Crime

By: tanya3140

Some people have a knack for finding strange things. Strange things always seem to find Zane Legends. It was very late at night, and the stars were clearly visible in the sky. It was really an odd occurrence, as this area was cloudy, for the most part. Zane was walking down the streets, trying to maybe spot a constellation or two on his way home. While he was waiting to cross the road at the intersection, he heard a loud alarm from farther up the street, having nothing better to do he decided to check it out.

Running a few blocks up the road, he finally reached the source of the alarms, a very large church loomed over this section of road with only candles lighting the front and inside. Some people were still so old-fashioned, he thought as he headed inside. The main hall inside wasn’t any more welcoming than the exterior, a large chandelier hung over the large winding staircases that led to who knew what upstairs. The police hadn’t quite arrived at the scene yet, so there was ample chance to wander around, at least for now.

Zane cautiously avoided the stairs that led upwards, and instead headed through the wooden door between them, that opened up into a smaller room with a smashed display case. Standing next to it in the dim candlelight was a church figure of some sort, looking quite distraught over what had occurred, “Are you alright, sir?” he inquired.

“I am, thank goodness, but our precious artifact most certainly isn’t!” Turning to face Zane, the man looked almost scary himself, with scars running down most of his face, and some way down his arms. The patterns vaguely reminded him of his own scar, which he gently ran his hand over, before speaking.

“What happened here? I heard the alarms a few minutes ago, and came running to see where they were coming from.” he glanced over at the smashed display, there was a very soft-looking velvet cushion inside, and the glass had landed everywhere in the room except the inside of the case, “Odd… shouldn’t there be glass inside the case if it was broken into?” Zane started to ramble to himself a bit, squatting down to inspect the case closer. The other man took a step towards the case as well, and did the same,

“Why would you think such a thing was important! The necklace was obviously stolen, can’t you see?”

A loud thud came from outside the display room, and the both of them turned towards the door, “That must be the police, let me go let them in.” The man excused himself, rushing out and shutting the door behind him. Zane waited a minute and followed him, there wasn’t really anything much else of interest in the small room anyways, though he did think it odd that neither of them had introduced themselves to each other as of yet.

As Zane exited the room, shutting the door slowly behind him, he saw the police meeting with what he assumed to be one of the priests of the church, and the man from inside the display room. Walking cautiously over to them, he slipped into the conversation and interjected, “Hello officers, and you two” He nodded towards the two men from the church.

“Who are you exactly?” The police officer turned towards him, very much confused.

“I’m Zane Legends, though I wasn’t here to witness the crime, I do have some information you might consider useful…” Zane trailed off, glancing back towards the display room. The man with the scars did seem quite nervous whenever it was mentioned.

“And what information would that be, Lane was it?” The police officer didn’t quite remember his name, though it was a typical occurrence, it was also a quite frustrating one, “Zane, Zane Legends.” He repeated, slightly agitated at the police officer’s ignorance, “You might want to pay attention to the location of the glass in the room over there,” He pointed to the wooden door, “It might shed some light on the real culprit of the crime.” Zane said quite satisfied, even smirking a bit at the dismay of the man with the scars.

“D-don’t listen to him! I saw it all with my own eyes! A man dressed in all black came in, smashed the case and stole it!” he cried, though none in the group were really listening.

They opened the wooden door, which creaked open rather slowly this time, and they all entered the room, which was rather cramped with the four of them,

“Not all of us have to be in here… I could leave i-if you wish.” The man had pulled his cloak up over his face, though Zane could easily tell he was nervous.

“Nonsense, I think we should all be here for what Mr. Scars has to say on this.” Zane rather nonchalantly pulled down the hood of the scar man’s cloak, and exposed a gold chain around his neck. The priest looked rather surprised at this revelation, while the cop was only confused.

“What is that supposed to be?” The police officer asked, turning to the priest before eyeing the broken glass.

“Why th-that’s the necklace that was stolen, isn’t it?” There was a rather accusatory tone in the man’s shaky voice, that much was very clear.

Zane smirked, before turning to the police officer and saying his farewells. The scar man was fuming, looking like he could almost kill him. As the officer turned to arrest the man he yelled out at the leaving Zane, “How did you find out? It was all planned so well!” He was practically snarling. There was only a chuckle in response, before a long pause. Zane stopped walking and turned around before responding.

“To be fair, there was rather a lot of guessing involved, but, plan your crimes better if you wish to get away with stealing valuable things like this.” He turned on his heels and left the church fully.

After solving a crime like that at this time of night, Zane decided he needed a treat. He stopped by at a coffee shop a couple blocks away, only barely managing to buy some donuts before hearing another alarm sound, “Sausages! I don’t think I’m ever getting home tonight…” He said resignedly before grabbing his donuts and running down the street under the stars again.