Things Go Boom

PHILADELPHIA ,2042-

 My wife, Detective Monica Nellis pointed to the rainbow in the sky.....

"Ouu Nate, that's beautiful isn't it." she said..

I looked at it...

''It is...isn't it?" I said.

We were down the street from the apartment she lived in, when I first met her, When we first became partners in Homicide...before we got married..

"Wow...I used to love rainbows when I was a  little girl.." she said..

"You know what I love?" I said, smiling..

"Me! Anything else? " she asked and smiled...

"Probably...but you're foremost in my mind most of the time.." I said..

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.." she said...

We kissed passionately for a few minutes.....Then we stopped...We walked to my flying car and headed back to the precinct ...Or at least we thought we were...

We took the long way, so we could observe...the river..

Monica observed the clouds...It was an overcast day....and yet it was a humid ,near 100 degrees....

"Wow! Partner...those clouds are getting darker..." she said..

"Yeah, almost like an omen.." I said..

We had no idea...That it was indeed an omen...

II-

Today was indeed overcast....

"You know what Nate?" she said Monica as we flew back...

"What?' I asked...

''When the weather feels like this...you know overcast...that's when I feel like making love the most..."she said matter of factly...

"YEAH???" I said...

Monica laughed...

"Keep your mind on your flying....I shouldn't have told you that until we landed.." she laughed...

"It is good lovemaking weather and we have central air in our duplex...."I said.. "And those new sheets you bought..."I said.

Monica cracked up laughing...

"My goodness....all I had to do was say making love and you're planning our afternoon...Wow ,am I that good?" she asked..

"Even better than you think you are..." I said smiling!

At that moment...we heard the loudest roar we had ever heard in our lives...and saw what looked like a mid air explosion....

We saw a flying taxi...on fire......just dropping from the sky....

And heard another roar so loud, the shock waves shook us...

We then heard and saw another explosion as the flying taxi crashed right outside of the city...

"Nate, oh my god...what was that?" said Monica...

"I don't know...Let me land this thing..." I said as I slowly landed my flying car into a nearby field...

III-

We landed and ran toward the wreckage...

''Partner , this crash looks bad...I'm calling the fire department and my sister..." said Monica..

"Roger that." I said...as I and several people who saw the crash rushed to the scene....

It was a gruesome sight....The Flying Taxi had crashed and burned. ..and inside...I could see the bodies of the driver and four passengers, nearly incinerated....

"Oh My God!" I said...Putting my hand over y mouth....

"What happened?" asked one of the by standers...

"I don't know...My wife and I were up there....We just saw this thing explode.." I said..

"Faulty gas line?" asked one man...

"I don't know.."I said...

My sister in law, Monica's identical twin sister, Dr. Monique Cotton arrived on the scene within the hour with her staff from the M.E.'s office and Crime Scene Investigation staff....

Several uniform policemen formed a perimeter and kept the crowds away....

Monica looked stunned....

"Oh My God!" she kept saying...

We work Homicide...We see sudden  and senseless death everyday...but this ,which we thought was an accident at the time was so sudden and right in our faces....

"You alright Mo-Mo?" I asked..

She pulled herself together....

"Yeah...Yeah I'm good...Let's survey the scene..." she said..

A young girl ran up to us...

"I got a photo of it as it happened....I was taking photos with my new camera and I caught it.." she said..

"We are going to need a copy of those photos..." said Monica..

Lt. Cotton and Detective Kylie White drove up...

 ''Hey guys...what happened?" he said and then he looked at the carnage...A Flying Taxi burned to a crisp and five bodies so badly burned that identification might be impossible..

''Whoaaaaaaaaaaaa!"he said.

"Hey Nate, Mo-Mo...What are you two doing here? I got the call and I came out..." she said..

"We were on our way back and it happened right in front of us almost...  The Taxi was flying in the opposite direction and then  it exploded right after it passed us.." I said.

''Wait a minute...Kylie, you got a call? From who??  We just reported this a half an hour ago..We were first on the scene...I called The Fire Department and the Medical Examiner's office,...Who called Homicide? and why?? This was an accident..."asked Monica..

"I got a call from a man around 4:50 pm saying that there had been a horrific accident , an air taxi had exploded..." said Kylie..

Monica looked at her watch...It was 5:37 pm...

''4;50 pm...That was just as it was happening..That was a pretty accurate call.." said Monica...

She was right...Almost as if somebody knew it was going to happen when it did...but how? This was a freak accident..Wasn't it? I wondered....

Lt. Cotton pinned a Gardenia on Monica's blouse and one on his wife, Dr. Monique Talbert-Cotton's blouse...He slowly ran his hand up her skirt and squeezed her butt..

Monique blushed and removed his hand..

"Frankie please..Not here...Not now.." she said..

She looked on as all five bodies were removed...

They were burned beyond recognition...

"Oh My God!!!" she said as they were pulled out of the wreckage and put in body bags and carted away...

''Jesus...they were all burned to a crisp...You think it was a faulty gas line or something?" asked Kylie..

"The Fire Department and our Auto unit will have to look into that..."said Lt. Cotton looking solemnly as the bodies were moved out..

and put in the M.E. vans..

and driven off...

"I'm gonna have a time identifying them....they're all burnt so badly..."said Monique..

"If the vin number of that flying taxi can be located...We can trace it and at least identify the driver of that route..."said Monica..

"Good Thinking.."said Lt. Cotton...

Some Firemen and I dusted the burnt remnants...It was enough for me to use my cyber eye and get an identification.....or vin number...I put it in my smartphone...

"I got it..Let me get my tablet out of the car and see if I can run it down.." I said..

I did and it took me just twenty minutes to find out the Flying Taxi was from Uber....I called them and gave them the bad news and asked who was the driver on the route...

They gave me 29 year old Stafford Linsey...


"Well I think I've identified the driver...That's one down and four to go." I said.

"Good work partner.." said Monica...

Kylie , two CSI men and three firemen walked over to us...

"Hey guys we found some more burned parts over here...and they're not part of the flying taxi..."said Kylie..

A fireman asked me...

"You guys were in the air when the accident occurred right?" he said.

"Yeah...it had just passed us." said Monica..

"Did you guys notice anything else up there? Another flying car that it might have collided with?" he asked.

"No...It was just us two..."said Nate...

Another fireman sad-"If they were flying that way....They might not have seen it..." he said.

"Seen what?" asked Lt. Cotton...

"A Drone!!!  These parts we found over in that cornfield....They're from a drone and we've found the remnants of explosives..." he said.

 "EXPLOSIVES?" said Kylie..

"OH MY GOD NO!  YOU MEAN THIS WASN'T AN ACCIDENT??" asked Monica.

"No mam...We still have to inspect the frame or what's left of the flying taxi....but this was no accident...This thing was hit by a drone...." he said..

"Oh My God!" I said.

 "Kylie, you got a call from a man , right around the time this was happening...He called Homicide...?" said Monica..

"Yeah...."she said..

"This was no accident....This was a murder....A mass murder...."said Lt. Cotton...

Just then, Monica got a phone call...

"Detective Monica Nellis..Homicide..." she answered...

There was the voice of a man on the other end...

"Sometimes.....THINGS GO BOOM!" he said and hung up...

"Who was that Mo-Mo?" I asked..

"Some man...He said...."Sometimes Things Go Boom!" and then hung up...

"Maybe it was some nut..."I said..

Monica looked like a cold chill had run down her spine....She said..

"No....I don't get the feeling this was any random call...I think whoever this was..He's somehow responsible for this and he wanted us to know." she said..

"Yeah....I was afraid of that..." I said.


(TO BE CONTINUED)