Short Story
The Popsicle


The popsicle felt amazingly delicious against her dry tongue, but all of a sudden she could not move a bone in her body. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, but she was mute. She faintly felt and saw her loving father shaking her trying to wake her up from this dreadful nightmare. She could not feel anyone’s icy fingers against her soft cheeks. She heard the sirens in the distance and could barely make out the rectangular shape of the crimson fire trucks. Then the girl could not see or hear anything. It was like all of her senses stopped functioning. She realized she might die. That was the last thought she had before her heart stopped beating.

That was August 30, 2007 when Kelsey Hale died at the age of 10. She was visiting Utah’s famous farmer’s market with her father. Why would anyone want to kill sweet young Kelsey Hale?

There were two investigators on the Kelsey Hale murder case, Eli and Jamie. Ducky the medical examiner completed an autopsy as soon as possible. Kelsey’s father, Charlie Hale, was the judge for PIS, Private Investigating Service. Shockingly, poison was the cause of death. Ducky believed it was from the popsicle she was enjoying.

Eli and Jamie were going to question Kelsey’s father first, because he could have some information to catch the person.
Now Eli and Jamie went to see, Kelsey’s father. They told Charlie about the recent discovery about the poison. Jamie asked Charlie where he was two months ago. He was shocked that they really thought he may have killed his precious and only daughter. He was getting choked up. He told them he was in a meeting in Minnesota. Eli asked if anyone had ever threatened to hurt his family. Charlie Hale said there were two people. They both were convicted under Judge Hale. Charlie said they both thought that their jail terms were too long. Eli and Jamie went to go investigate the two men, Tyler Meta and Luke Morris.
They have a lot of people who could have done this. Now they are going to see the person who was selling the ice cream and popsicle, Steve Hay.

“Who is your boss?” requested Eli.

“I have no boss really. The Blue Bunny Ice Cream folks wanted a person to sell ice cream at the market,” acknowledged Steve.

“Do you know Kelsey or Charlie Hale?’ questioned Jamie.
“No, I’ve heard of the girl though. Also, I think her father is a judge. Wait! Do you think I poisoned that young innocent girl?” bellowed Steve.

“You are one of the suspects,” informed Jamie.

“I did not do it. I have no reason to kill her,” Steve miserably said.

“We have no more questions for you right now, but we might converse with you again,” declared Eli.

“Fine,” Steve said furiously. It looked like steam was about to come out from his ears.

After they questioned Steve, they went to see if there was any poison at Steve’s house or work area. It was all clean.

“Hello, welcome to Blue Bunny Ice Cream. How may I help you two today?” asked the receptionist with enthusiasm.

“We need to speak to the person in charge,” explained Jamie.

“Sorry, you need an appointment,” responded the lady.

“I am agent Eli, this is my partner Jamie and we are from PIS,” announced Eli.

“Sorry, go right in,” said the lady flabbergasted.

It takes Jamie and Eli and a few minutes to get to the office, because it is all the way on the opposite side of the building.

“Hello sir, we have a few quick questions,” stated Jamie.

“Please, call me Mr. Collins, and yes go right ahead,” replied Mr. Collins.

“Do you know about the murder of Kelsey Hale?” demanded Eli.

“Yes. I heard you suspect she was poisoned with our ice cream. I do not know how that can be. You can check around the building and factory for any evidence,” suggested Mr. Collins.

“Thank you. We will do that,” answered Jamie.

Ring! Ring!

“Hello,” Eli said answering his cell phone.

“Hey, this is Ducky. I have an update. The poison that was in Kelsey’s body took two months to kill her. There were no symptoms to suggest she had anything wrong. What we do know is that it was a painless death,” identified Ducky.
Eli said thanks and closed his cell phone.

“Sorry about the interruption. We would like to see your records from the last year of who was working at the stand please,” said Eli.

“I will fax it to you,” answered Mr. Collins.

They checked every room and closet in the factory for any sign that poison was stored there. They found nothing.


Jamie was skimming over the case documents for Tyler Meta. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for keeping a child hostage for a ransom. The child that was held against her will was diabetic. Tyler gave her a lot of sugar and sweets. That almost killed her. Jamie did the math. Tyler was released two months and 21 days ago, but he was caught stealing so he got three more months in jail. That proved Tyler was innocent.
Eli was getting information on Luke Morris. Luke received 15 years in prison for killing two people and injuring another one in a car crash. He did not have a license because he was just 15. Eli also found that he previously worked at the ice cream stand.
Eli and Jamie came together to discuss the information they found. They decided to get a warrant to search Luke’s home.

No one was home when they entered Luke’s broken down trailer. When they first stepped in the house, their poison detector was beeping. It sounded like someone breaking in a house with a security system. They found two types of poison; one was the kind that killed Kelsey Hale and another poison that can also kill. Right when they found enough evidence to arrest Luke Morris, Luke stepped in the house. Jamie read him his rights and placed him in handcuffs.

“Mr. Morris, how do you plead?” asked Judge Cavender.

“I plead not guilty,” notified Luke.

All over the court room there were gasps. Eli and Jamie went to the stand to show the judge and jury the evidence, the job application, the poison found in his house, and the threatening notes. After a long eight hours of debating, the jury finally came to a decision.

“Luke Morris is guilty of the murder of Kelsey Hale,” announced the jury.

“Yes I did it! I almost got away with it. I was going to kill you next,” he yelled pointing his finger right at Charlie.
Judge Charlie Hale felt a tear run down his check.
“You’ve ruined my life, so I ruined yours!” bellowed Luke Morris.
A few days later they found Judge Hale’s body, cold and lifeless in his study. His suicide letter said that first he wanted to be with his wife and daughter. Lastly, he thought it was his fault that Kelsey was murdered.