"Raze #1: The Proposal"

A Story by Jack Buckner

“Raze #1: The Proposal”

By John Smith

My name is James Razeman, but most people simply just call me Raze. I was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. The house that I grew up in was real s**t hole if you know what I mean. The entire property was shaded under trees and the yard’s grass was over grown. My father walked out us when two years old. There wasn’t really a man in the house when I was growing up. Some say that I had a troubled life. Maybe that would explain the reasons why people often describe me as “really fucked up”. But I never saw that way.

I grew as most children do, happy. I wasn’t completely aware of the s****y situations my mother and me were in, but hey, do any kids? I was a happy child. I mean, I didn’t have too much, but need it to be happy. I just wish I could say the same for my mother. At the time, I thought she was happy, but now looking back, she wasn’t. She couldn’t have been.

When I was eleven years old I remember coming home from school. I walked into our s**t hole of a house after the school bus dropped me by there and threw my backpack onto the hardwood floor.

“Mom?” I shouted only to hear nothing-dead silence in return. I knew this was strange. I mean, Jesus Crist, my mom didn’t even have a f*****g job! Where the hell else could she be? “Mom?” I shouted out again. There was still no answer. I began to walk up the staircase. With each step I took the creek of the wooden steps grew louder. I can remember my heart beginning to race as if it was about to thump right out of my chest. Beads of sweat roiled down my forehead like a waterfall.

“Mom? Are you home?” I shouted again praying for an answer. I got none. I slowly grew closer and closer to her bedroom door. When I got there, the door was cracked open. I slowly pushed the rest of the door open and there was my mom. She was lying there on the bed. Her eyes were wide open and lifeless. There was cut over her wrist and blood was covering her white bed sheets.

The next I remember was sitting on the top step of the front porch while the ambulance took my mother away in a black body bag. Police Chief Reynolds sat down next to me to comfort me. He said it was suicide. But I knew it wasn’t. It couldn’t have been. With the bruising around her throat, it looked as if someone had nearly chocked her to death before finally cutting her wrists for a quick and silent death. I was convinced that it was murder. It was at that moment that I decided to be a detective. I needed to find out the truth of who killed my mother.

But like everything else, time went on. I was taken from the house and put into a group home. Honestly that life wasn’t much better. My foster mom was a secret alcoholic and drug addict. Now I know what you’re thinking, who on earth would let an alcoholic woman be a foster mother? That’s she was a “secret alcoholic”. She acted like the perfect mother to the men at the agency, but what they didn’t see is what went on behind those doors.

I tried to keep it quiet and keep out of the way until I turned 18 and was finally able to leave that f*****g house! Years later I entered the local police force only to leave three years later to open my own private detective business.

I recall the very first case I had quite well. I was sitting at my desk with my feet propped upon while gazing out of the window when I got a phone call. I picked up the phone and said “Hello?”

“James!” I heard a voice say. I recognized it instantly. It was Mr. Wright, my former Principal from high school.

“How can I help you Don?” I asked him.

“Our school just got a bomb threat. James, I think you need to come down! I got something that you might want to see! He said to me. I quickly left the office and went down the stairs getting into my slick black Mercedes and started it. I quickly put it into drive and drove across town to the local high school and got out. I locked the door behind me and walked over to the front door of the school building. Security is very tight in schools now a days so I had to press a gray speaker button to call the front office.

“How may I help you?” A lady asked from the other end of the line.

“Yes, my name is Detective Raze and I was asked to come down here to discuss something with Principal Wright!” I said to her. She said nothing else and I could hear the locks in the door rotate and unlock. I opened the door and walked into the front office. The woman I talked to earlier pointed to her right at Principal Wright’s door open. I walked over towards it and walked in.

“Hey James!” He said to me with a long face. “It’s been a long time!”

“It’s Raze now!” I told him. I sat down at the wooden chair across from his desk and looked at him. “Look what do you want? Do you need my help to find the SOB that planted a bomb in the school?” I asked him.

“It’s worse than you think!” He told me as he handed me a photograph. “He left us that at the phone booth where he called us.” He added. The picture was of my mother.

“You think that this guy is the son of a b***h that killed my mother?” I asked him. He nodded.

“Flip it over!” He said. There was something written in black ink on the back.

I heard you were looking for me! I heard you’ve been looking for me for years. I hate to burst your bubble, but you will never find me! I always win! So Detective Raze, are you ready to play the game? The message read. The Game is simple! It doesn’t end until one of us dies! So are you in or out? If you decide to play, your next clue will be at my next crime scene. I’ll see you there, but you won’t see me.

I knew that I had to play the game!

Courtesy of True Crime Press

A division of TTP Entertainment

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© 2014 Jack Buckner

Author's Note

This is the first story in a proposed trilogy! I got the Idea for "Raze" several years ago and wrote the original story. I recently just rediscovered it and decided to expand on it a bit. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

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Featured Review

Edward G. Daniels

Ok, you have me hooked! So keep writing so we readers can find out what happens next! Be a little more descriptive of the scenes (such as his office....etc.). The background gives up a picture of Raze but give us more personality stuff! Looking forward to more!