Short Story On The Boardwalk

Detective Warren Gallagher arrived at the Santa Monica pier a little after eight that morning. He was feeling rather lively because last night his girlfriend Amanda had agreed to become his fiancé, and because the barista at Cultivar Coffee Bar had given him an extra shot of espresso on the house. It’s wasn’t every day that he got to report to his job as a crime scene detective looking forward to the day that lay ahead of him. As he stepped out of his Subaru and began to walk up the boardwalk his partner Detective Nix joined him at his side. Nix was a tall and buff guy — the type of guy that you’d see over on Venice at Muscle Beach showing off their biceps to the tourists. His bald head looked shinier and shiner each day Warren saw him.
Doesn’t make sense,” said Nix. “Sweep the businesses on this end of the boardwalk, check out if they have any cameras facing this direction. See if we can get a closer look at the perps face. I’ll head back to the station and wait for forensics,” Nix told Warren. Warren nodded as he made his way back underneath the tape. Nix made his way back up the boardwalk and Warren watched as he walked away. Warren envied his partner for always being the one who got to make all the decisions. It seemed that no matter the situation, Nix was always going back to the station in the city sitting at his desk eating a hoagie from the vendor up the street “waiting for forensics”. Warren knew that he was the underdog at the station and he dreamt of the day when his time of paying his dues would come to an end. Warren crawled back under the tape and made his way into a boardwalk souvenir shop where an annoyed teenager stood behind the counter. She chomped on her gum with her hands on her hips and gave Warren the most exasperated of looks. “Hello? Sir? We’re opening late today. Didn’t you see the sign? Some dude was shot or whatever, we have to wait until everything is cleaned up.” Warren
Warren’s gut intuition was right; he did know the tall man. He was the tall man. The tall lanky man on the screen resembled Warren to a tee. The more Warren stared into the face of the man, the more the pixels cleared up and the more he could see his face in the tall mans. Only it wasn’t him. Warren lowered his head into his hands. “Keep it together. This isn’t what it looks like” he thought. “It’s not me. It’s gotta be some type of freaky doppelgänger or something. I didn’t do this”. He rewound the tape a few more times and each time it left him with the same effect. Warren stood up from the chair and paced around the small closet. “I can’t be here,” he thought as walked back to the television and ejected the tape from it. He walked away and reached for the door handle. He was startled to find Mandy standing outside the door in the hallway leaning against the wall. He tried to look as collected as possible but he was very aware of how jittery he was