It all started on January fifth, year 2025 at 5:30 AM. “There was yelling coming from next door in Apt. 235, then two small bangs and silence filled the Skybrook Apartment complex” 

“When I got up to make breakfast, I walked into the kitchen, and smelled something funny, but I thought it might have been the garbage so I dismissed the smell and made me, my husband James, and my daughter Olivia breakfast.

 “When Olivia and James woke up they came into the kitchen and greeted me goodmorning. Olivia went into the living room and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV, I asked James to take out the garbage,” “Sure hunny, I thought I smelled something weird,” said James, “He took out the garbage but even after the garbage was taken care of we could still smell something weird.

 “I think the smell is coming from next door,” said Olivia. “I will go check it out, maybe Paul is just cooking something,” (In the background on the TV): “Just in, there was a horrible fire at the Skycreek Apartment complex last night,” “Isn’t that just five blocks down from us?,” asked James “I think so,” I said “Well I’m going to check on the neighbor.” “Ok” said James. “I went next door and knocked,” the door slightly creaked open  “that’s weird” I said, so I opened the door the rest of the way while I was calling out for paul “Paul… Paul, are you home,” I said, “as soon as the door swung all the way open I saw Paul Floress just lying there dead on the floor in a pool of his own blood.” 

“I started to panic, I was screaming Call the police, call 911, someone do something,”  my Husband James came running out of our apartment “what's going on, are you ok? Why do I need to call the police?,” said james “I’m fine James… but I can’t say the same for Paul Floress, he’s dead,” ''Oh my god, ok, ok I will call the police right away,” said james “and that’s when we waited until you guys showed up,” said janet.

 “Ok, is that all the information you have on what happened here last night?,” said the police officer “Yes, that’s everything I know, the only thing I heard last night was some arguing, two quite bangs then silence,” said Janet  “Ok, thank you ma’am,” said the officer “those two bangs could have been the person who shot paul, I could have caught the guy that did it, but I just went back to sleep,” said Janet. “Ma’am it wasn’t your fault, please calm down,” said the officer.

A week prior at the Brook view hospital you could hear people chanting “lend a hand, lend a hand, for the helping hands in hospitals charity,”.

 Xander Quinn, Mary Quinn, Janet Mckellen, James Mckellen, Olivia Mckellen, Daniel Gonzallez, and Paul Floress were all working at the hospital to raise money for the Helping Hands in Hospitals charity that they started for Carl Quinn, Xander’s dad that had been  diagnosed with cancer, and needs a major surgery to have a higher chance of fighting off cancer, but his family couldn’t  afford the surgery so they started the Helping Hands in Hospitals charity, also known as the H.H.H charity. 

They were trying to raise $25,000 dollars for Carl’s surgery, it took them a little over three months to raise the money but they finally earned enough money for the surgery in fact they actually had some left over money, so Carl, Mary, and Xander Quinn all agreed to share the left over Money with the other families in the hospital that couldn’t afford their major surgeries, hospital bills, ect. so that every family could be taken care of and be healthy.

 Everything was going as planned then just three days before Carl’s surgery all the money that had been collected from the charity was gone, “All of the charity money for dad… it’s… it’s gone,” said Xander.

 Xander rushed over to his mom and told her what had happened “Someone stole the charity money.”  “ Who could be that greedy, stealing money from a sick person that has cancer?” said Mary Quinn.

“Mom, who are you calling?” said Xander “I’m going to hire a private detective to get your dad’s charity money back… He needs that money… your dad is getting weaker everyday.” said Mary Quinn When the phone call ended there was hope in the air for finding the stolen money “I hired a private detective to get your money back Carl,'' said Mary “What’s the detective’s name?” said Xander, “Beth Harper.'' said Mary “Beth Harper! Daniel’s sister was talking about how famous she is for all of the cases she has solved over the years.'' Said Xander “Good, then hopefully she can find your dad’s money,” said Mary.

“We're meeting with Beth Harper tomorrow,” Said Mary “oh ok” said Xander.

The next day Mary and Xander met up with Beth Harper at a local coffee shop called “The Golden cup”.   They talked about all of the details of the day the money had gotten stolen.

 “I have a suspect in mind,” said Beth Harper “who?” said Xander “It’s too early to be for sure yet, but something is telling me it might have been your friend Daniel.” said Beth “There is no way Daniel stole the money, we have been best friends since kindergarten, also why would Daniel steal the money in the first place?” said Xander “well maybe he just wanted to take the money for himself,” said Beth “Daniel isn’t like that, he wouldn’t just take money like that,” said Xander “ok, but I will look further into it.” said Beth “Ok, but I’m telling you he didn’t do it” said Xander.

A couple days later Beth Harper called Mary Quinn, “I called the hospital and asked them to pull the security camera footage of the day the money got stolen, if you want you can come down to the hospital with me to see if the footage tells us anything.” said Beth “Ok,sounds great… meet you at the hospital in about 20 minutes,” said Mary “ok, sounds great bye.” said Beth “Bye.” said Mary then the phone hung up “Xander… do you want to go to the hospital with me to look at some security camera footage with me?” said Mary “Sure,” said Xander.

 They then drove down to the hospital and met up with Beth Harper, “Ok, lets go over the security camera footage.” said Beth.

 They went into the camera footage room and a security guard went to the footage of Carl Quinn’s hospital room from the day the money got stolen “All I can see is someone in all black with a hood on, came in and stole the money.” said Beth “Look at the shoes that the person stealing the money is wearing… Daniel doesn’t have those shoes, and even if he did he would never wear them.” said Xander “I like that you pointed that out, nice work Xander,” said Beth “It also looks like an older guy by the way he walks.” said Beth “Yeah” said Xander.

 “Who is an older guy that worked for Carl’s charity that would steal the money?” said Mary “you should give me a list of names of all the people that were working for the charity,” Beth said to Mary “Ok, that’s a good idea.” said Mary. 

Mary and Xander visited Carl before going home while Beth Harper left the hospital to go find more clues about the case. 

When Xander and Mary got home Xander got a call from Daniel “My sister heard that Beth Harper is your detective, she also found out Beth Harper was accusing me of stealing the money so she decided to start looking into Beth Harper’s past a little deeper, my sister found out that Beth Harper used to date Paul Floress!” said Daniel “The same Paul from my dad’s charity?” said Xander “yes, they use to date in college but they also both served some time in jail together because they got busted for trying to rob a store like 15 years ago, and since Beth was famous for her work the police department made a deal with her stating that the media and news could not talk, post, or record anything related to Beth Harper’s arrest. 

That’s why no one knew about her being arrested.” said Daniel “I never thought about Paul Floress being a suspect until now… thanks for all of this new information Daniel.'' said Xander “No problem.” said Daniel. 

The phone hung up, Xander went to go tell his mom the new information he learned about Beth Harper and Paul Floress “Hey mom, I just got off the phone with Daniel and guess what?” said Xander “what?” said Mary “Daniel’s sister did some deeper digging on Beth Harper’s past and found out that she used to date Paul Floress!… the same Paul Floress from our charity!” said Xander “really!” said Mary “also get this they served time a little over 15 years ago because they got caught trying to rob a store for money, and Beth Harper had a special deal where no news or media could get out about her being arrested that’s why no one knew about her arrest until now,” said Xander “Oh my god, if I had known that before I wouldn’t of had hired Beth in the first place,” said Mary “I know, right… Daniel’s sister is going to do more research on Paul Floress… then maybe we can get somewhere on this case of dad’s stolen money?” said Xander “yeah hopefully… isn’t Daniel’s sister going to college to become a private detective?” said Mary “yeah, that’s what Daniel said… I guess she's just a natural at it because she’s figured out more in the past two days than Beth Harper has solved the whole time she has been on this case.” said Xander “maybe she will be the one that actually solves the case and get back carl’s money?” said Mary “yeah maybe,” said Xander. 

Two days later Daniel’s sister, Carrie called Xander to tell him some new information she found out about the case “Hey Xander, it’s Carrie, Daniel's sister… I found out some new information about Paul Floress and your dad’s missing money case,” said Carrie “really” said Xander “yep… I went down to the hospital and told them that I was working on the missing money case for Carl and asked if I could watch the security camera footage, they allowed me to go watch the footage… and I noticed something in the footage, a piece of paper or something fell out of the thief's pocket while they were stealing the money.” said Carrie “I wonder what fell out of his pocket?” said Xander “we should go back to the hospital and see what dropped on the floor,” said Carrie “yeah, I will go with you to the hospital… you can just ride with me and my mom because we were already planning on going today to visit my dad.” said Xander “Ok, sounds good see you soon,” said Carrie “ok, bye.” said Xander. 

After the phone hung up Xander and Mary went and picked up Carrie then drove to the hospital, then visited Carl in his hospital room, Carrie and Xander started looking all around on the floor, “I don’t see anything on the floor Carrie?” said Xander “the janitor must have cleaned the room so maybe they found whatever the thief had dropped and might have put it in the lost and found?” said Carrie “good thinking Carrie lets go check,” said Xander “ok, lets go,” said Carrie “mom me and Carrie will be right back,” said Xander “ok.” said Mary. 

 Carrie and Xander went to the front desk and asked to look in the lost and found, they were shown the way to the lost and found. “Ok, start looking for anything small and looks like it could be a clue to who stole the money,” said Carrie “ok,” said Xander.

 They looked for a while and were about to give up until “Hey I think I found something over here” said Carrie “it looks like the same thing that fell out of the thief’s pocket,” said Carrie “it looks like a random name tag… probably just one of the the workers from the hospital,” said Carrie “let me take a look at that,” said Xander “it looks like someone painted over it, let me scratch off the paint… the first letter is P… then followed by A… U… L… F… L… O… R… E… S… S… “It says Paul Floress,” said Xander “I think we may have gotten enough evidence to accuse Paul Floress of stealing your dad’s money.” said Carrie “Yeah, because now we have even more evidence… We have the information about his past, the security footage, and now his name tag that fell out of his pocket when he was stealing the money. I’m going to call Daniel to give him the new information on the case,” said Xander “ok.” said Carrie. 

Phone rings… ring… ring “Hello,” said Daniel “hey I think me and Carrie may have just solved the case… we have evidence that proves Paul Floress of stealing the charity money.” said Xander “really!” said Daniel “yeah and we wonder if Beth Harper is working with Paul Floress once again all these years later?” said Xander “yeah, that’s probably why she was trying to accuse me of stealing the money instead,” said Daniel “yeah,” said Xander. 

“Well thanks for the new information,” said Daniel “you're welcome… but I’m so mad right now… when I see Paul again me and him are going to have some words with each other!” said Xander “yeah same… your family has treated me like I’m part of the family and sometimes I feel like we actually are family, that’s why I care so much about your dad getting better.” said Daniel “Yeah, well I will talk to you later ok,” said Xander “ok, bye.” said daniel then the phone hung up.

 Xander greeted his dad for a while, He told his dad about what carrie and him had found and about all the evidence proving Paul Floress of stealing the charity money, then Xander, Mary, and Carrie all got back into the car and drove home… a while later Xander made a call.

 “Hey Daniel, i need to talk to you about something…” said Xander “Ok go ahead… you can tell me anything,” said Daniel “this might be a crazy idea… but you can’t tell anyone about what I’m going to tell you,” said Xander “ok, i won’t tell anyone,” said Daniel “you have to promise me that no matter what happens you can’t tell anyone about this,” said Xander “ok… ok I promise, can you tell me now,” said Daniel “yes I will tell you… so you know how all of the evidence points to Paul Floress of being the thief right?” said Xander “yeah what about it?” said Daniel “since we have enough evidence to prove it was him I want to go to his house and make him confess to what he has done… I’m thinking about taking my gun to teach Paul a lesson if you know what I mean?” said Xander “I know were both furious about him stealing the money but I don’t know about bringing your gun?” said Daniel “yeah but Paul deserves it he stole money from a sick person that has cancer… I mean come on, who does that?” said Xander “yeah I mean I get it but what if you get caught and thrown in jail? the police could find your fingerprints or there could be witnesses” said Daniel “well… I have an idea to get rid of the evidence!” said Xander “like what?” said Daniel “well if I take care of paul with my gun then you could come back and take care of any evidence by setting the place on fire,” said Xander “are you sure this is a good idea?” said Daniel “yes, Paul Floress deserves it he stole my dad’s money… we should do it tomorrow night and I can find the money at Paul’s house then everything will go back to normal and my dad will be able to get the surgery he needs,” said Xander “ok, but are you sure, like really sure you want to do this?… Are you positive you want to go through with this?” said Daniel “I’m positive, he deserves to feel the pain me and my whole family went through when we found out my dad’s money was stolen,” said Xander “Ok, well if you're in I’m in,” said Daniel.

 It was January fourth the day before Xander and Daniel planned on killing Paul Floress, they went and bought some supplies for their plan, as the day passed by Daniel and Xander carefully planned out the best and most efficient way to kill Paul Floress. 

Hours later at four-thirty in the morning Xander sent a text to Daniel saying “Daniel it’s time I will text you again when it’s your turn, P.S. Thank you for being my best friend since kindergarten. You have always been there for me and whatever the outcome is after tonight we will always be friends no matter what.”

 Xander arrived at Paul Floress’s Apartment at five-twenty in the morning, Xander busted open the door and confronted Paul Floress “Paul Floress!!! You stole my dad’s charity money and now you're going to pay for what you have done!” said Xander “Why are you in my apartment Xander? And why are you saying I stole your dad’s money?” said Paul “don’t act like your innocent I have evidence to prove you stole the money,” said Xander “ok, fine but so what if I stole the money you're not going to do anything about it,” said Paul “where’s the money?” said Xander “why would I ever tell you that?” said Paul, Xander pulled out his gun and said once again “where is the money? I won't ask again” said Xander “Ok, ok, it's in a hidden compartment under those floorboards'' said Paul as he pointed to the floor. Xander, still pointing the gun at Paul, lifts up the floorboards and finds all of the money that had been stolen from his dad’s charity.

 “Now you are going to get what you deserve,” said Xander.  Two shots were fired and Xander quickly ran out of the Skybrook apartment complex and went home with the money.

Xander texted Daniel saying “Daniel it’s your turn now,” So Daniel gathered his supplies and went to what he had thought was Paul Floress’s address and set the apartment on fire but it was in fact not the same Paul Floress his Name was Paul Floris only a couple letters were off. 

An innocent person and a thief that had stolen money from a sick cancer patient had both died that night. Daniel texted Xander saying “it’s done.”

The next morning Paul Floress’s body was found by his neighbor Janet Mckellen, while the police were looking around in Paul Floress’s house Beth Harper came to Paul’s apartment to try to look for the money and Found Out what had happened to Paul Floress, Beth Harper left the scene and Xander, Mary, and Carl never heard from or saw Beth Harper ever again.

Carl got his surgery and was able to fight off the cancer and life went back to normal, Xander and Daniel never spoke about what had happened the night Paul Floress died ever again, Carrie became the next biggest Detective, that’s the last thing anyone has heard about the mystery of Paul Floress case.