Storytelling Week Twelve: Greed is the Master

Greed is the Master

I was sitting at home reading the paper, smoking on my pipe, when I got the call.

"Holmes, I have some bad news. The town drunks went out the other night and have not returned. Their excursions never last more than a day and the townspeople are getting worried. Would you mind taking a look into it?" said the soft voice on the phone.

"Of course," I said shortly as I hung up the phone. I was getting sick of chasing after these boys. Their drunken "adventures" were getting out of hand. As much as I didn't care to find them- it was my job. Even in a town this small there is still some detective work to be done. So I set out to their usual bar to ask around.

I went straight to the bartender. He watches over his customers like a hawk- surely he knew what happened.

"How's business?" I asked as I took a seat at the counter.

He replied wearily, "Oh, just the usual. Scraping by in this small town. If the Wilson boys don't show back up I may just be out of business."

"Funny you mention that- it is actually why I am here. I heard they have been gone from town a few days and nobody seems to know where they went."

"Yeah, they haven't been in here since...oh, Tuesday night I believe."

"Did they do anything out of the ordinary that night?" I asked as I pulled out my notepad.

He paused and looked to be trying to remember. He is getting older and struggles more to recall nightly events.

"Not really. They were mouthing off about taking on some punk a town over. They are always getting into fights and looking for trouble. I believe the person they referred to was named D if I remember correctly."

As I was jotting all this down I heard a voice from behind me.

"One of the boys came to see me that night," a cracked voice sputtered.

I turn to see the town's medicine woman. She was an old, frail lady. She walked the line of medicine and witchcraft very closely. So I was instantly intrigued. "What on Earth could he be purchasing?" I thought to myself.

I quickly asked, "Can you tell me what he was buying? Which boy? Was he alone?"

She replied, "It was the young one with the blonde curly hair. He seemed to be alone- he bought a vile of rat poison. He claimed he had a rat infestation at his home."

I thought to myself, "It is the middle of summer- usually rats don't try to come inside unless it is cold weather. It is strange that he would be having a problem with them right now."

I nodded to her and thanked her and the bartender for their help. I set out through the door. My next stop was the youngest Wilson boy's home with the supposed rats.

I knocked- no one answered. The door was unlocked so I let myself in. In a quick sweep of the room I could tell there were no rats here. So I decided to look further. I entered the bedroom and saw the closet had been rummaged through. I looked in to see if something was obviously missing. I noticed there were no bags. He could just not own any- or that could be a clue. It seemed too soon to tell.

As I was headed to the next room I noticed a receipt on the dresser. It was dated late Tuesday night. He purchased three loafs of bread and three bottles of wine. The medicine woman did not mention any supplies on him.

I sat on the edge of the bed thinking about what my next step should be. I figured my only option was to find the man called D in the next town over. I set off in that direction.

I was about halfway there when I noticed a circling of vultures over the woods. I did not think much of it at first considering animals are always dying there. I walked a bit further but I had a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I felt like something was just not right.

I thought to myself, "I need to see what these birds are after. It is probably nothing but I have time to check. I am sure the Wilson boys are just drunk in the next town. They can wait."

I ventured into the woods- following the sound of the vultures. Not too far in I came to the most gruesome sighting.

It was the Wilson boys. I could tell by the blue tattered ball-caps they were always wearing. They were half decayed and picked apart by the vultures. My stomach turned over and I immediately puked. The smell was almost unbearable. I did not want to get any closer but I needed answers. A million questions ran through my head. "Was it murder? Was it a group suicide? Was it of natural causes?"

There was only one way to find out.

I approached the bodies with caution- hoping no wolves would come out and fight me for their dinner. It was nearing dark and I could hear their eerie howls in the distance.

There was one boy off by himself. I went to him first. It was the youngest Wilson boy. His blonde curls stuck slightly out of his ball-cap. He was the one who bought the rat poison. He was covered in stab wounds.

Then I went over to the other two boys. They seemed unharmed besides of course the damage done by the vultures. I then noticed a reflection of light coming from the bushes behind them. I moved back there and found three bottles of wine. They were completely drained. With the boy's drinking problem I assumed they finished them all themselves. I also noticed bags full of gold coins. It all started coming together.

How they ended up in the woods we may never know. But my guess is they found the gold then they sent the youngest boy back to retrieve bags to carry it with while they stood guard. The youngest must have gotten greedy and wanted it all to himself so he made a plan to poison them through the rat poison and wine. They must have had a similar greedy plan and stabbed him to death upon his arrival with the bags they needed. Then they drank the wine unknowingly and died shortly after.

"Is that the whole story, sir?" asked the man debriefing me.

"Yes," I replied sternly.

"What did you do with the gold?"

"I turned it over as evidence of course."

"Alright, sir, that is all we will be needing from you. Thank you so much for your services."

As I shook his hand and left the room I smiled slyly to myself.

Little does he know I only turned in about a fourth of the gold I really found.

The Gold

Author's Note: This story is based off of a story called the Revelers from the Canterbury Tales. The original story included three drunk men who went off the kill Death. They meet an old man who tells him he just saw Death in the woods and points them that direction. They come across the pile of gold and that is when the greed sets in. The plans of the three men follow the story I just told. One poisoned the two and the two stabbed the one, even though at the beginning of the story they all swore to always be loyal to each other.
I decided to do a murder mystery this week because I have not done a story like this yet. I felt like a story about greed would be a perfect opportunity to do it. Greed got all three friends killed. Then in the end greed prevailed again with the detective stealing some of the money. Greed can be a dirty devil and stories like this can help to show the consequences of your greed. I tried to keep most of the plot the same but just tell it basically backwards to show the process of the detective.

Bibliography: The Revelers. The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908).