fiction
Mystery, crime, murder, unsolved cases. Contribute your own tales of crime to Criminal.
Caution: Wet Floor
Being a janitor is tough. The higher ups always look down upon you and the hideous messes and smells you got to deal with on a daily basis are genuinely nauseating. I used to be a cleaner myself, it wasn't nice. Yet, this isn't a story about me and my shitty work experience, no it involves the workplace death of Stan West, who slipped and fell off a flight of stairs in a Runcorn warehouse. Stan smashed his head against the ground as he fell, bursting it open into an explosion of gore and blood. Ghastly! What a way to go, at least it was instantaneous. The poor man didn't feel a thing, perhaps fear as he fell and the uncertainty of survival but that was fleeting. A moment of panic before eternal slumber. There are worse ways to go, that's for certain. Now, what does any of this have to do with a janitor you may ask, well it is because the floor overlooking the whole warehouse was wet with soap, as if being recently mopped and cleaned of footprints. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping the workplace clean, none whatsoever. However, the janitor on duty had forgotten to do one crucial thing; leave a wet floor sign up! It is such a simple yet important thing to remember, believe me, I know. When you've got so many responsibilities as a warehouse cleaner, it is unfortunately very easy to forget the little things like leaving warning signs after cleaning up a spillage. With that in mind, the workplace death was investigated intensely. At first, everyone believed the incident was a terrible, unfortunate freak accident. That it could've happened to anyone. However, as detectives dug deeper and deeper into the case, they discovered that Stan West wasn't the nicest worker on the team. He was a ruthless supervisor, the type of guy who was too young to be in charge, which meant his ego often got the better of him. The dead man was only 23 years old and often had a mouth on him, as in he yelled and screamed a lot at his underlings, including the lowest of them all, the janitors. It was Lucas Red who was on duty as janitor the day Stan died. This was significant, because Stan seemed to have the biggest rivalry with Lucas who had worked for the company for almost ten years, while Stan had only recently started, ending his career two months into the job after his unfortunate passing. Lucas was well respected despite his rank among everyone else who worked there, mostly because the old geezer was polite and knew everyone who had been working at the place as long as him. Nobody liked the young, cocky university students who walked into these old workplaces and began barking orders. A lot of the time, these young smart asses made things worse instead of better and they always thought they knew best because of their fancy diplomas and degrees, etc. It is a common sight in warehouses like this, the veterans get on with the job because they know best, while the new bosses scream the place down trying to manage everything. It is a vicious cycle and Stan West was the worst of the worst. The very same day that Stan had died, he was barking orders at lower ranking staff members, most of which were even younger than him and allowed this abuse. Stan got high and mighty, demanding Lucas clean up after their mess. The janitor did as he was told begrudgingly, then an hour or two later, he forgot to leave a wet floor sign outside of Stan's office, which was on the second floor, beside the stairs overlooking the whole warehouse, which was where he soon unfortunately fell to his death. Not once had Lucas ever forgotten to put up a wet floor sign until that fateful day. Of course, nobody could prove for certain that Lucas did this on purpose, even I have forgotten to put up wet floor signs in my very own cleaning career, so it's very easy to fumble the ball like that from time to time. The rest of the staff vouched for Lucas too, "not our precious Lucas!" They protested, "couldn't be our friend Lucas, he wouldn't do that!" The police were at a loss, the evidence couldn't stick. Nobody except for the suspicious detectives believed Lucas could've ever been that sneaky or insidious. Eventually the case ran cold, Lucas was let go of his position as Janitor due to the "accident" and everyone who loved him actually threw him a leaving party, there was cake and a big massive thank you card. The woman cried, hugging and kissing him farewell, the men hugged him and shook his hand, wishing their old friend luck. Perhaps Lucas really did just forget to leave out a wet floor sign, it may have even happened because the janitor was either so upset or angry that a simple thing like that had simply left his mind. We'll never truly know if Stan's death was an intentional murder or not, it will forever remain a mystery.
By Joseph Roy Wright12 months ago in Criminal
3 Suspects
The death of Shane Austin was a strange one. He was a cheater, someone who dated and sexed with multiple women (some even claim men) as he was known to be a sex addict. Oh how his poor addiction meant hurting those he loved, it was a vicious cycle, one he couldn't help but his exes didn't see it that way. In fact, he had dated so many people, that three ladies he slept with wanted him dead.
By Joseph Roy Wright12 months ago in Criminal
Razumkov and his role in Ukraine
Recently, the name of Dmitry Razumkov, former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and one of the key figures of the Servant of the People party, has been increasingly appearing in the Ukrainian political landscape. His actions and statements are increasingly interpreted as attempts to shake the situation around the ruling power, which raises questions about his true intentions and potential ambitions for the highest state office. This seems especially relevant in the context of possible early presidential elections, which are increasingly being discussed in Ukrainian political circles.
By Sebastian Boyer12 months ago in Criminal
The Storm's Deception
The storm raged outside, a tempest of howling winds and torrential rain that lashed against the windows of the isolated Victorian manor. Clara stood in the dimly lit parlor, her fingers tracing the edge of a silver letter opener on the mahogany desk. The clock struck midnight, its chimes swallowed by the thunder. He would be home soon.
By Nada soliman12 months ago in Criminal
Bad Coffee
William Barnes loved a morning coffee, it wasn't just the caffeine rush it gave him but the taste of it was all so delicious too. The way the milk mixed in with the hot water and cocoa beans was simply heavenly. Every single day he'd get up between the hours of eight and nine o'clock in the morning (except for weekends of course; where he'd lie in bed until 11am) dragging himself out of bed before brushing his teeth, getting dressed into his business suit then finally, after all those tasks, he'd make himself a fine good cup of coffee to start the morning. William was almost a millionaire, a high ranking office manager who had a lot of enemies in the workplace (those being below him) as he tended to be a very strict and uncaring boss. It was never personal, "just business!" He'd tell them, as the ex-employees left the building with their heads down in shame and humiliation of getting fired. The first few times William was forced to fire people, it was tough. It made him feel like a monster, destroying people's livelihoods was never fun. Some of them would lose their temper and scream; "well, fuck you William. I was going to quit soon anyway!" Completely losing their cool and professionalism in a moment's notice. Eventually it made him laugh inside, how these brown noses instantly dropped their butler-like act the moment they were let go. William was 57 and had been working since he was 20, with 37 years work experience under his belt, starting off as an intern until now was a long and boring trip that meant a lot of corporate cock sucking to get on top (not literally of course, I was speaking metaphorically). On the most stressful of days, William would drink sometimes up to five cups of coffee, the afternoon drinks typically consisting of Decaf Coffee (like I said, it was simply the taste he loved best). William loved all types of coffee, his favourites being Lattes, Cappuccinos and good old Americanos for those particularly difficult mornings. He had an assortment of different flavoured coffee beans, such as mint, chocolate and caramelised editions of his favourite brands. In his kitchen stood a fancy five thousand dollar coffee maker, that was a pain to repair or clean out but made the greatest cups on God's green earth! There were a hundred different options on this fridge sized gadget, you could select how much milk (if not any) was in your cup, how creamy it would be, you could even select how hot or cold it came out and there was an option to choose how many tea spoons of sugar went into the drink. It was truly insane, the type of contraption a casual coffee drinker would find infuriating to figure out. For most people, a spoon of coffee, sugar and milk was enough, but not for William! No, every cup had to be perfect. Otherwise it would be like drinking mud, according to him at least. He'd even rage at his own interns if they dared deliver him a less than satisfactory cup of coffee. Yes, he was that petty and cruel! Now one morning, William woke up at the usual time, groggy and half asleep, dragging himself out of bed like normal to finally rush downstairs and grab himself a nice hot cup of the special stuff his expensive coffee machine could make him. The tunes of gears turning, electronic beeps and the flow of liquids entering his favourite coffee mug was always a pleasant and heavenly sound to hear before a long day of hard work. He noticed the coffee had a darker shade than usual and almost screamed in frustration, knowing he had forgotten to clean out the machine recently. Alas he didn't have time to make another, as the machine was pretty slow unlike pouring yourself a basic cup. So he drank the black coffee and immediately spat it out, it tasted sour and muddy, then bloody! Like iron blades had cut open his gums, he spat out gore onto his kitchen floor and suddenly fell ill, crashing down onto the ground as bubbles of pink foam (stained that colour due to his internal bleeding) squirted from his mouth, he began convulsing on the floor as if having some kind of heart attack! The coffee wasn't just rotten, the milk wasn't off (making it taste sour) no, something far worse had happened to William's precious little coffee, it had been poisoned! With this realisation, William stabbed the back of throat with two long fingers, puking up what he could, but it was already too late! The poison had done its magic, his body was crying, pleading for death, eventually William stopped breathing altogether, his body stopped moving, his consciousness faded into darkness and his heart stopped beating. The tyrannical boss was dead.
By Joseph Roy Wright12 months ago in Criminal
The Last Bus
For several nights now, Benjamin Riley has been getting the last bus home after work. He finishes his shift at the Eastern warehouse district just outside London, catching the last ride home at 11:32pm. Most buses run much later than that, but not that far out from the main city. It is a long and tiring journey, one that drives across the whole city before finally, after almost 2 hours of travelling it reaches a bus stop a further 20 minutes walk away from his home in some god awful council estate (there aren't any buses that stop closer to his apartment). Benjamin is 32 years old and he's been a warehouse operator since he was 20 and what a shitty career path he had chosen, this must've been the 15th (possibly 16th) warehouse job he had since then and they were always just as bad as the last. Early days are usually the best, because that's when the bosses go easy on you. Even the regular staff give the new guy space, you're lucky if that lasts even a month in these types of places. People soon show their colours and they ain't bright, beautiful blues, reds or greens, but shit stained brown, piss yellow and black as coal. Everyone who works in ware housing is positively depressed, and it simply sucks the life out of you! The only good thing about Benjamin's current workplace was the hour long lunch break (an absolute god send!) and finally getting home after a 12 hour, long, boring and dreadful shift. Now he felt like a massive creep about this next part, but there was a young, beautiful woman who had been getting the same bus home recently from Camden Square, she was an absolute bombshell! Long, blonde hair, an angelic face and stunning features, such as a super model's body and the designer clothes she wore only added to the lady's beauty. The reason Benjamin felt like a creep, was because he simply couldn't keep his eyes off her. No matter how hard he buried his face into a book or his mobile phone, he just couldn't help but glance at her from time to time. He suspected she was aware of him, despite never making a fuss about it. She must've been in her early twenties, while Benjamin was a balding thirty plus guy, who would never stand a chance with her anyway. Yet sometimes her gorgeous smile could brighten his day, even though he never actually spoke to her and tried to keep himself from even talking to her, he admired her and hated himself for even looking in her direction. The last thing he wanted, was to scare this crush of his. Benjamin had never been good with women, he was always better off ignoring them because they always found him creepy. The man simply had no game, no luck whatsoever when it came to the opposite sex. He lived alone and hungered for company, despite this he was a secret gentleman giving the woman her space, not once advancing on her as the weeks and months went by. Then one Friday night, that all changed. There was a big gang of men, all drunk wearing neon glow sticks and necklaces, obviously coming home from a mad night out clubbing in Camden. The Mysterious woman that Benjamin fancied, always sat at the front of the bus, while he always sat at the back, half asleep after his long shift. This night however, as the young hooligans boarded the bus, screaming, shouting and laughing drunkenly, being loud and obnoxious, Benjamin was wide awake. The blonde up front looked visibly uncomfortable as the men entered, looking at her up and down because she was (at least in that moment) unfortunately incredibly attractive.
By Joseph Roy Wright12 months ago in Criminal
Denied
The first time I ruined a man’s life, I felt nothing. I remember watching him stumble out of his office, shoulders hunched under the weight of what I’d done. His wife would leave before the month was over. His children—three of them, all in private school—would have to transfer somewhere less dignified. Their waterfront estate would hit the market at a desperate price.
By L.K. Rolan12 months ago in Criminal
Trump Pardons Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: A Political Saga
In a move that has sparked both support and criticism, former President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Rod Blagojevich, the disgraced former governor of Illinois. Blagojevich, who served as governor from 2003 to 2009, was convicted of corruption-related crimes, including an infamous attempt to sell a U.S. Senate seat vacated by former President Barack Obama.
By Jagdish Bhosale12 months ago in Criminal
The Man Who Changed to Survive. AI-Generated.
The Man Who Changed to Once upon a time, in the heart of a bustling city, there lived a man named Aric. He was an honest and kind-hearted individual, always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need. Raised with strong cultural values, Aric believed in trust, love, and respect. However, in the ruthless modern world of the 21st century, these very qualities became his downfall.
By Banik Sojib12 months ago in Criminal
