There I stood , starring down at the receipt from the old coat I had found in lost and found section of the New York subway.it was hard to read what was on the crumbled up piece of paper,the ink had become hard to see,almost invisible but nothing stood a
match against me.

Nothing new on the receipt,The cashier's name,Ada and a typical grocery list;eggs,milk,bread,dish soap,a pack of gum.This is the kind of list that leaves your memory as it's being paidfor.

One detail stood out to me.
The date being 5th September, 9:18 p.m which was
the day Lauren besette's husband,Tobey Daniel bessette said he was nowhere near the metropolitan
area of new York,And also the day Lauren besette
disappeared.

I ,detective Pikachu hale didn't like receipts,it was too random, could easily be forged but this receipt came from toby bessette,himself,donated or probably forgot.

Five weeks after that incident,Lauren was reported missing.I delayed asking questions to give the grieving widower,Tobey some time and space.

In my office,I spread the receipt paper under a bright light,the ink was still as faded as my eye under ordinary daylight could see,the lamp light didn't help much but made a bit of a difference, the store name
"Riverside market- east metropolitan area new York." was clear.

Tobey lived at the west metropolitan district,just a forty five minutes drive away.At 9:18 p.m he was out buying groceries,by 9:30 p.m according to his statement,he was home alone .
At 9:45 Lauren's phone had last been active near a river in the metropolitan district.nothing after that.

I called in Tobey,he had the face of a man who had a carefully maintained life,he look put together,his shirt was neatly ironed,a controlled,non-shaky voice .

I slid the receipt to his side of the table where he had sat opposite me .
"I don't know what that is" Tobey said, immediately.

"You don't shop there"

"Nope"

"But you were there that night, weren't you?"

He paused and said lightly "No"

I pushed the receipt even closer along with the lamp for him to see clearly .

" So someone put it in your coat pocket ?"

He looked me dead in the eye "or someone wants you to think I was there"

It was a clean and direct answer,no stutter. Too clean.

There was a little write up with a black pen at the bottom of the receipt.

"Happy anniversary T"

"You didn't celebrate your anniversary that week?"

I asked with a slight frown.

" We don't always celebrate on the date
that it was meant,sometimes a week from
the date or days after".

"Lauren wasn't home that night" I said quietly.

The store clerk remembered him,she said that he had been there that night.

He was in a hurry,he ordered the cake last minute and wanted it that night .

"He said it was for his wife" the store clerk remembered .

After much investigation and talking to alot of friends and familes. I didn't find much.

Lauren had already planned to leaveTobey,there had been a lot of arguments,secrets ,disagreements.

I started to put two and two together.i examined the receipt further,a scribbled loyalty number at the bottom of the receipt belonging to a cashier named "Ada Byron",Tobey's mistress.

The story quickly unfolded,Lauren had been always been suspicious.Tobey had gone to see his mistress,Ada that night,Lauren had followed him while tracking him.
Witnesses recalled seeing Tobey and Lauren having a big argument,a very big one ensued between the two outside the market in the east metropolitan district that caused stares. A lot of stares. a lot of
stares.

Lauren was never seen or heard from again.The only thing that was discovered was her phone four weeks later around the metropolitan district river forefront,her body was never even found.

The case cracked open because of a little crumbled receipt found in a coat that ruined a man's alibi .
A man's picture perfect story destroyed by breads,eggs,and milk that never got home.

That receipts revealed details. Two things were revealed; He went to see his lover that night.

He had lied about his where abouts
The "Happy birthday T" on the receipt was written by the cashier Ada Byron ,he was secretly seeing .

When Daniel bought the cake ,he casually wrote it on the receipt because it was the anniversary of when they first met,not his anniversary with his wife Lauren.
An affectionate little note which ruined his entire alibi .

A coat of secrets indeed.

#fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #inkwell