Black Coffee

"Shit, I'm late."

James woke up to a strange scent in his apartment. However, he couldn't have dwelled on it any longer because he was deathly late for work. Hurriedly, he got dressed without showering and headed off. This was nothing new for him, but anyone would think he'd changed when he was promoted as the new vice chairman. Despite being late to work everyday, he was never immensely late as he was right now. So, this morning he left his condominium without having any fuel for the day.

His whole mood while working in the office was sombre, and so this left everyone around him confused and on edge. Wanting to see if he would finally flip out. Eyebrows furrowed and eyes dead, lips pursed and mind messy, he pressed the call in button underneath his desk to get his secretary, also his best friends, into the room. When no one walked in, he buzzed again and still no one showed.

This was very odd to James. There were no messages, no calls nor emails-nothing that could've informed him of her absence. More so, his mood today was something even stranger. He resorted to the fact that he really needed more sleep. Checking the time on his wristwatch, he saw that it would be time for brunch and decided that some coffee would make his day better. He headed out. Shyly, he smiled at the other co-workers in. Hopes to appease their curious and prying eyes.

"I wish I knew that was wrong with me today, too." He thought.

Only a 15 minute walk away down the street, situated a small but popular coffee shop. James had overheard his co-workers speak fondly of this place and his secretary would always fan girl in his ear about how good their black coffee was. 'It was to die for," she had said. He smiled at the memory which quickly turned into a frown when he remembered that she hadn't showed up this morning. He sent a quick text asking if she was okay.

With the scorching summer sun penetrating his pale skin, his nose slowly turning a vibrant red. James briskly made his way to Saint Lue's Coffee Shop, it was a smell adorable place situated at the end of a cul-de-sac. He did think to himself that it was odd he was craving the infamous black coffee in this hot weather, but the caffeine would give him the adrenaline his body so desired.

Closing in on the entry way, he was met with the smoky aroma coffee. This motivated his tired bones to push the heavy door in to enter. As soon as he stepped shop a hand nudges him on the shoulder and he heard,

"You've finally arrived, our main suspect."

He looked to his right and saw, a stranger dressed in suit and tie with a large grey trench coat over it all. An almost-finished cigar in his mouth and grey fedora hat in hand. Behind the strange man there were a total of five police officers around and yellow duct tapes all over the place. A crime scene.

However, James was completely lost.

"Wait, what?" He was at lost for words at what he had heard and his heart started pounding rapidly and his knee slightly weekend. His reaction to this alerted the man and he quickly snapped his finger, immediately two of the five police officers came behind James and grabbed his arms and dragged him to the nearest seat in the coffee shop. The man sat down in the chair in front of him.

Lead Image

"My name is Detective Kim. Why did you do it?" The strange man was even more peculiar to James and the vague question made him a lot more confused.

"Why did I do what?" honestly, what happened here, and why am I a suspect?" James spit fired.

The genuine tone in his voice surprised the detective and he glanced at one of his co-workers before looking back at the suspect. "You don't know what happened here? Well, it is odd seeing that you would come here if you aren't aware of what happened." He started, "then tell me, why are you here?"

"I came to order a cup of black coffee." James breathed and the cop asked his colleague by the name of Nate, to make two cups of hot black coffee.

After a few long minutes of awkward silence, the ginger placed two cups on the table and James hurriedly reached out to occupy his shaking hands. He slowly lifted it up to his lips, the strong scent instantly settled his nerves.

"Well, there has been the murder of Mikayla Johnson. A close person to you, Mr. Miller, according to her family. You know anything about it?"

James blood ran cold at that.

"What? How could this happen? She's my best friend and how/could no one tell me this? When was this?" He looked straight into the officer's eye in shock. The last time he recalled was around 3pm yesterday, they were supposed to meet up at this very same coffee shop at seven, but he fell asleep. That's what he could only remember anyways.

"She was found in the back of this coffee shop, yesterday at 7pm." He replied, carefully watching James reaction.

James put the cup down and a tear fell down his face. Soon enough he broke down crying, "why would anyone do this?"he was angry, sad and mad. He couldn't believe what he had heard and he wondered how her family was coping with this news.

"That's what I am asking you. Why would you do this?"

He looked up in disbelief he curled his hands into a fist. "You think I did this? Why would I hurt my best friend? What kind of twisted joke is this?"

"Calm down, Mr. Miller, I'm only suspecting you. Here, drink your coffee to calm down it's going cold and everyone knows black coffee doesn't taste good when cold." Detective gestured to his cup, his hazel eyes zoning in onto James green ones as if saying, 'if you have nothing to hide, drink it.'

James took the bait, he lifted the cup to his lips and drank.

"We did a background check on you in advance. You suffer from dissociative Identity disorder, but apparently you wouldn't know that until you have a taste Of black Coffee". The sly detective said, when he knew James started drinking. The suspect froze and removed the cup from his lips making eye contact with the man on the other side of the table.

The man smirked, "The taste of black coffee works wonders doesn't it.?"

"I can see it in your eyes. You remembered everything that you did last night after having some in this very same shop and seat."

The suspect remained silent and his mannerisms from earlier had disappeared. His long black hair plastered against his wet face. His jaw clenched and the strange scent he smelt when he woke up earlier this morning now made sense. His eyes dead, except for the glint of light that showed his guilt and everything of last night played on in his mind like a broken record.

"Now, Mr. Miller why did you kill your wife? Also, you never leave without her in the mornings, wasn't that strange how you did, today?" The detective asked, signalling his men to arrest the man.

James miller slowly smiled.

Author'sNote :

I would like to say that I did my best in writing this, but I had procrastinated, so I guess I could've done better. So, to all those who have decided to read this. Thank you and I really appreciate it.