Coffee House Writers

Top Menu

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Article Categories
    • Creativity
    • Culture
    • Design
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fiction
    • Food
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home
    • Lifestyle
    • Memories
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Relationships
    • Sports
    • Style
    • Technology
    • Travel
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Founder
  • Meet Our Admin
    • Chief Editors
    • Editors
    • Poetry Editors
    • Advertising Team
    • Recruiting Team
  • Testimonials
  • Apply
  • Login

logo

Coffee House Writers

  • Home
  • Article Categories
    • Creativity
    • Culture
    • Design
    • Family
    • Fashion
    • Fiction
    • Food
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home
    • Lifestyle
    • Memories
    • Nonfiction
    • Poetry
    • Politics
    • Relationships
    • Sports
    • Style
    • Technology
    • Travel
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Our Founder
  • Meet Our Admin
    • Chief Editors
    • Editors
    • Poetry Editors
    • Advertising Team
    • Recruiting Team
  • Testimonials
  • Apply
  • Login
  • Calm Seas

  • Dreams Change: Life Continues

  • Gardening: The Ultimate Stress-Relieving Activity for Better Health

  • Visiting the Arboretum

  • The King

  • Time

  • Mr. Keith’s House – Part VI

  • I’ll Never Live Up to the Call

  • Skinchangers Chapter 2.2

  • Behind Your Mirror

  • A Gap In Time – 1

  • Saying Goodbye to NCIS: Los Angeles After 14 Years

  • Love’s Cut

  • A New York Summer

  • Welcome to Hell: How Can I Help You?

  • Paradise Falls: Chapter 1

  • Cloaked Miracles, Part 3

  • Becoming a Mother

  • A New Home

  • Unlock Your Hidden Potential: How to Tackle an Extraordinary Challenge with Ease

  • Appreciate Your Talent

  • Writing With ADHD: How Hard Could it be?

  • Southern Ways – Part 1

  • Skinchangers Chapter 2.1

  • The Book

  • The Familiar Mask

  • The Mystery of Cash Castle: Part 14

  • Shivering Leaves

  • Calming the Chaos of the Heavy Mental Load

  • Paradise Falls: Prologue

FamilyRelationshipsFictionMemoriesEntertainmentCreativity
Home›Family›The Linux Mysteries

The Linux Mysteries

By Destiny
October 23, 2019
1386
0
Share:
Crime Scene Tape
Photo by kat wilcox from Pexels
This entry is part 1 of 12 in the series The Linux Mysteries

The Linux Mysteries
  • The Linux Mysteries
  • The Linux Mysteries – Part Two
  • The Linux Mysteries – Part Three
  • The Linux Mysteries – Part Four
  • The Linux Mysteries – Part Five
  • The Linux Mysteries- Part Six
  • The Linux Mysteries- Part Seven
  • The Linux Mysteries- Part Eight
  • The Linux Mysteries- Part Nine
  • The Linux Mysteries-Part Ten
  • The Linux Mysteries-Part Eleven
  • The Linux Mysteries-Part Twelve

I’m dedicating this week’s story to my father, John Constantin. My dad has been very supportive and motivated me to become a writer, and he is the first person I turn to for bouncing story ideas around. Dad has helped me create the main protagonist, Detective Stuart Linux, in my new murder mystery series “The Linux Mysteries.”

Part One

Blood covers the concrete sidewalk; it’s spilling over into the street—a bullet wound in the chest and head. A black leather purse is torn apart at the end of West Avenue. How can a person be so cruel to kill an elderly woman? A sweet older woman who was probably a loving grandmother who made cookies for her grandkids every Sunday after church. I don’t understand criminals.

“Are they that desperate?” Detective Linux shrieked.

He can’t look at the victim anymore. She reminds him too much of his grandmother, and being on West Avenue brings back many childhood memories.

All through grammar and high school, Stuart Linux and his two best friends, Copper, and Riley, would meet at Riverside Park at seven in the morning. They would play a quick game of football and then ride their bikes to school. Copper always thought if they rode their bikes to school together, no one would pick on them. They would use one hand to eat their Pop-Tarts for breakfast and the other hand to ride their bikes.

It was a tradition of ours for so long, until that night at the park. I often think about them, but never pick up the phone to call.

“Detective, I have the forensic team coming down here to collect evidence.”

“Stuart, did you hear me? Stuart, is everything okay?

“Yes, sorry, Harry, I lost focus.”

“Did you have another dream last night?” says Harry.

“Yeah, the one where she is drowning on the beach and calling my name.”

“You will solve the mystery; I have faith in you, bro.”

“These dreams feel so real—like she needs me to rescue her,” says Detective Linux with his arms crossed.

Officer Harry Bell says, “Go home, buddy. I will stay here with the forensic team and will leave a report on your desk.”

Stuart padded Harry on the back and slowly walked back to his car. He remembered eating grilled cheese sandwiches at Albert’s Restaurant around the corner when he was about eight years old. Being back home in Riverside feels refreshing and overwhelming at the same time. The restaurants and shops Stuart visited as a small boy have since disappeared, and the city he once loved looks like a deteriorating neighborhood. Plastic bottles and cigarette butts littered the decaying grass, and there were houses with boarded-up windows and broken metal gates. Wow, everything has changed.

Detective Linux unbuttons his caramel trench coat to reach the inside pocket. He grabs his car keys and pushes the unlock button. The keys are in the ignition, and he turns up the radio, blasting “Hurricane” by Luke Combs through the car windows. He’s driving down the road with a don’t care kind of attitude.

Thirty minutes later.

Detective Linux arrives at his mother’s house. He quietly shuts the front door behind him. He hangs up his coat on the wooden hooks above the entryway storage bench and walks into the kitchen. A yellow sticky note catches his eyes as he walks up to the refrigerator.

The note read, “I made your favorite food for dinner; it’s in the fridge. Microwave for three minutes, love Mom.”

His face lights up like fireworks on the Fourth of July when he takes off the red lid of the storage container and sees meatloaf and mash potatoes. Stuart grabs a fork out the drawer underneath the coffee pot and sits at the kitchen table. He places his elbow on the table and leans his head on his left hand. Grandma was lying still on the tile floor of the bathroom. Her skin pale as a ghost and her body cold as ice when he kissed her forehead goodbye. Stuart was very close to his grandmother, and her death was sudden. For the last month, he sees her calling out for help. She is in the ocean, trying to keep her head above water. The sky is bright blue, like on a summer day. There’s a white sandy beach, and it feels so real to Stuart like he is actually on the beach—like it’s not a dream. Something in his gut tells him that his grandmother dying wasn’t out of the blue. Stuart places his dishes in the kitchen sink and goes into the garage. The family has been clearing out grandma’s house and trying to figure out what they should keep and sell. Seeing grandma’s brown recliner without her sitting in it, makes everything a reality.

Yesterday, Stuart’s mother was labeling the boxes to keep everything organized, but this one large cardboard box had a piece of paper in it. The paper was yellowed and wrinkled and had the following numbers “4,8,2,1,9,0,” written in smooth black ink.

“Where did Momma leave that paper?” Stuart says, itching his head.

He checked the industrial shelving unit against the wall next to the doorway. The paper is peaking out of the cardboard box labeled “Keepsakes.” Stuart lifts the entire box and brings it with him back to the kitchen. On the way back in, he flips the switch to light the chandelier that hangs above the kitchen table. Stuart opens the cardboard box, and there’s nothing. He turns the box around, and a medium-size box pops up. There’s nothing inside the box. He spins the box counterclockwise, and a small box appears. Something silver peaks out of the box. He rips the top open and finds an antique metallic jewelry box. The jewelry box is unique, with floral markings engraved.

“I wonder what trinkets grandma stored in here.”

He flip-flops the jewelry box and sees a combination lock on the box typically where a key would be inserted. Stuart moves the multiple cardboard boxes onto the floor and takes a seat. He stares at the numbers written on the fragile paper. It took Stuart six times to unlock the jewelry box. It turns out the combination was his birthday, but the numbers on the paper were written backward. With Stuart grinning from ear to ear and his eyes wide open, he lifts the cover-up and finds a brash barrel key.

“What does this key go to? I have never seen grandma with this key before.”

Key

Photo courtesy of Kristina Paukshtite; courtesy of Pexels.

Series NavigationThe Linux Mysteries – Part Two >>
Tagscrime scenemysterious keyfamilydetectivesDreamsscience fictionFriendsMemorieschanges in lifedeathseries storyfictionmurder mystery
Previous Article

The Novel Part 8

Next Article

Genres I Love Writing

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Destiny

Destiny J. Constantin is passionate about education and writing. She holds a Master's Degree in English & Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. In November of 2021, Destiny began her teaching career. She currently teaches advanced college witting at Medialle University. She strives to become a best-selling author one day. She is the co-author of "The Journey with Dad" and "The Journey with Dad 2." The Journey with Dad series was written with her father, John Constantin, and they are children's stories about a father and daughter taking mysterious road trips after facing challenges. Destiny loves putting magical twists on stories while reflecting on her personal experiences. In December 2020, She published a young adult fantasy short story titled "The Story of Lady Sapphire" and a cozy murder mystery short story titled "Murder by a Cupcake" in Coffee House Writer's Anthology. In addition, Destiny continues to create baking articles and short stories in various genres, including mystery and young adult fiction, on the Coffee House Writers' platform monthly. Destiny is also a book reviewer for Reedsy Discovery and Functionally Fictional. She reads and reviews books for best-selling authors and indie authors in various genres, including young adult fantasy, mystery, and contemporary romance. Destiny is currently working on writing her first young adult novel, titled "I'm No Ordinary Girl." Destiny Constantin is a self-taught baker and enjoys baking for friends and family. Destiny enjoys reading books by Cassandra Clare, Nicolas Sparks, John Green, Veronica Roth, Gayle Forman, and many others. Her favorite book is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. She enjoys writing mysteries, children's stories, and teen fantasy because it's what she knows and loves to read. Read Destiny's blog posts and book reviews on her website, Destiny's Magical Creations.

Related articles More from author

  • CultureMediaCreativityFamily

    Roseanne: Nostalgia At Its Finest

    April 9, 2018
    By Lindsey Taylor
  • Shade Photo of Woman
    FamilyRelationshipsFictionMemoriesHealth

    The Other Part Of Me

    March 9, 2020
    By Sylvia Stein
  • A poem about the remains of the holidays
    CreativityFamilyRelationshipsFictionPoetryEntertainment

    Spirits of Christmas Past

    January 6, 2020
    By Patricia Harris
  • CreativityRelationshipsFictionEntertainment

    Angel Maker – Part Three

    October 14, 2019
    By Lorelei
  • forest photo
    CreativityFictionEntertainment

    The Enchanted Press Part 18

    February 24, 2020
    By Ellwyn Autumn
  • CreativityEnvironmentLifestyle

    Room To Grow

    December 23, 2019
    By Stephanie Wyatt

Leave a reply Cancel reply

You may be interested

  • EnvironmentHealth

    What Procrastination Means To Me

  • LifestyleCreativityPoetryMemoriesHome

    Cocooned

  • FictionRomanceFantasy

    Same Day, Different Universe-Part Three

Find us on Facebook

About us

  • coffeehousewriters3@gmail.com

Follow us

© Copyright 2018-2023 Coffee House Writers. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s administrator and owner is strictly prohibited.