And back again! Still typing with one hand, but it's better than being bored.

This will be a series of one-shots from an outsider point of view. It will be updated every time I think of a new one.

The title is taken from a song by the Eagles. And I still don't own a bloody thing. Just so you know…

Fail grasp on the big picture

All hell breaks loose part II

Inspector Devon tiredly rubbed his eyes. This case honestly didn't make any sense whatsoever. No matter how he looked at it. There was just no logical explanation. It had been two weeks since the incident, and everyone involved was still baffled. And with reason.

He grabbed his notebook and his trusted fountain pen. Writing things down always helped organising his thoughts. If only actual events could be placed in order so easily.

In his old-fashioned handwriting, he stared making a neat list. He had done it before of course, but it had produced no coherent thoughts. Every time a scrap of information was added he'd make a new list, or a diagram with the more complex cases. This was complex alright. But the list remained depressingly small.

1. Strange black smoke sighted over old cemetery.

He paused and stared at the line he had just written. The smoke had to be real. Dozens of people had seen it. But what it was… They all described it as a thing for lack of a better world. Crawling like a ball of black worms, laced with blue lightning. An entity. Something alive.

Fireworks? A bomb? No gunpowder had been found on the scene. There was plenty of sulphur lying around for some reason. That probably had something to do with it, though nobody really knew how yet.

2. Cemetery ravaged, one dead body found on the scene.

The cemetery itself didn't really matter all that much. It was miles away from anywhere. It hadn't been used in decades. So what if some kids wanted to have some fun, wreck the place and set of some fireworks? It didn't show much respect for the dead, and it was further proof of the dreadful state modern society was in, but it was relatively harmless. But a man was dead. And that was the greatest mystery of all. The man was identified as Jake Talley. He was a marine. A good one. Honoured for exceptional bravery. Scheduled to return to the USA before the end of the year. A decent and patriotic man. He had gone missing a few days before the incident.

In Afghanistan.

It didn't make any sense whatsoever. He had disappeared from his bed without a trace. The five men sleeping in the same barrack had all been murdered. And nobody had heard anything.

Inspector Devon shook his head. Jake Talley had no reason to kill his fellow marines and make a run for it. And nobody could have taken him without alerting the guard and leaving some kind of trace behind.

And then there was the logistics of the whole thing. Jake Talley could not possibly have returned from Afghanistan in time to be murdered in a small cemetery in Wyoming a few days later. It just wasn't possible. He hadn't used a military airplane or a commercial airline or any other kind of fast transport as far as anyone could tell. It seemed like he had just vanished in one place and popped up in another. And that, of course, wasn't logical.

And he hadn't just been murdered. He had been executed. Someone had found it necessary to pump him so full of bullets he was practically magnetic. It was honestly gruesome. Something a man like that really didn't deserve.

The inspector pushed his notepad away. This case was only two weeks old and he had already used all his ingenuity and resources. Time to pass this one on to someone else. Somehow he knew that the murder of Jake Talley would be a cold case file before the month was over.

Just a little something to pass the time... Let me know what you think!