Eyes of the Beholder: A Thriller Novel

By Grace H. Hunter

Maximus Fuller is obsessed with one beautiful, female season: APRYL! Driven by the dark corners of his mind, he baptizes himself in the shadows of Apryl's world. Yet, after shifting from shadow to shadow, Maximus’ prying eyes soon discovers that Apryl's existence is for a purpose far greater than any of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World. But, greatly limited by his method of shadowing Apryl "in the flesh," he takes his neurotic fixations of shadowing her in a more technological direction -- frame by “hi-def” frame...

However, through Maximus' "hi-def" scheme of shadowing Apryl, he eventually feels deceived by her as well as the everyday happenings of those who are involved in her world, after continuously witnessing shocking things about them and Apryl, which he accidentally unearthed and wasn't prepared for. Whereupon, "in the flesh," Maximus' hand is now forced to take part in a whole new obsession: DUE SEASON!

“Eyes of the Beholder” is an exciting story of twists and turns that b-u-i-L-D-S with suspense, while taking its readers on an engaging thrill ride. It’s perfect for fans of "SEASON and SHADOW" crime.

"Eyes of the Beholder" book excerpt: “I don’t know how in heaven’s name did you survive, but, this go round, I’m going to make sure that you’ll have no problem in reaching the spiritual world.”

“I am a unique kind of breed and simply can’t help what I am...”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace H. Hunter
• Release date: Aug 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370126675

Grace H. Hunter

Biography coming soon...

Book preview

Eyes of the Beholder

by

Grace Hope Hunter

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidences either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Text copyright © 2001 by Grace Hope Hunter

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, uploaded, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system or stored in a date base or convey via the Internet or a website without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations that are used in articles or reviews. Otherwise, it is an act of unlawful piracy and the theft of the author’s property, as well as a violation of their rights to do so.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First EBook Edition (A Thriller Novel) 2016

ISBN: 9781370126675

Acknowledgments: Thank You

First and foremost, I give humble thanks and appreciation to the Creator of all for his many blessings… I want to also thank my friends and family members, as well as my readers for their unconditional support. You all continue to make my writing a better work of art, and I am truly grateful to you.

And, to all artists who are willing to believe and follow your dream, no matter what the obstacles, stay forever faithful…

Contents

Acknowledgments

Thank You

Prologue

TEST OF SPIRIT

Chapter One

WARNING SIGNS

Chapter Two

THE AWAKENING

Chapter Three

FRIENDLY FIRE

Chapter Four

THE POWER

Chapter Five

LIGHTNING STRIKES

Chapter Six

UNWELCOME EYES

Chapter Seven

PROPHECY

Chapter Eight

REVELATION

Chapter Nine

OPERA OF DOOM

Chapter Ten

JUDGMENT DAY

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Holy Bible: Ephesians 6:12

PROLOGUE: TEST OF SPIRIT

Gone were the days of living dangerously and wandering aimlessly for brighter days were here to stay and fully alive in all of its glory; shining before her… Or so Apryl Wells seriously needed to hype herself into believing. As Apryl’s hands grew cold as ice and her body trembled in fear, she nervously walked from beyond the giant, blue-velvet curtains to the outdoor concert stage, quickly putting her hand up to her face, slightly blocking the corner of her eyes, towards the area of the concert stage that was on the left side of her. She was desperately trying to avoid looking over at the empty space where her three backup singers routinely stood. After all, as a seer, Apryl was well aware that if she had looked slightly long enough in the direction of where her three backup singers frequently stood to perform with her, she had grown strong and experienced in possessing the ability to see the essence of their ghostly images fading in and out through a higher power in her bloodline that was passed down to her by her mother’s lineage. So, she couldn’t allow herself to go to that place that was not of this world at this moment in time, especially after looking back and taking into account the cause of why her three backup singers couldn’t be there with her in the flesh.

Although, still grieving, Apryl managed to work things out, by slowly removing her hand away from her face, and was determined to perform one of the best concerts she had ever done for her loyal music fans, even though, now, her heart was fluttering away. While she zoomed in and out of the mixed TV cameras, cable and dish networks, webcams, plus coming face to face with the anxious and enormous crowd, Apryl froze for a moment and had a panic attack. She felt as though there was no way in the world that she would be able to perform at her best in such a wrecked condition. And, as if that weren’t bad enough, tiny speckles of sweat had increasingly multiplied throughout her forehead, and her wobbly, long legs started to collapse, which was caused by all her mental and physical anguish. That immediately signified, to her, a red flag warning of a blackout was about to strike her to the ground. To add more turmoil to the host of paralysis that she was already experiencing, standing right there, dead center of the stage, with several, hot spotlights beaming down on her, in Apryl’s messed up mind, she asked herself the mystery question, "Could he possibly still be out there in the background--WATCHING ME?! CONTROLLING EVERYTHING?! DOING EVILS?! Frantically, zipping her head in nearly every nook and cranny area of the concert arena, like a tortured soul, she, at last, had gradually panned in on her mother, who was over in the VIP section, for a sense of strength. By enjoying the image of her mother with both hands straight in the air, cheering her on, like an over the top, teenage groupie, Apryl’s confidence was restored again. By liberally drawing in a long, heavy breath of air, which she fully embraced, as it had saturated her lungs, allowing the air to slowly go deeper within them, Apryl was all set to hit her first, long-drawn-out singing note. Thus, with much pleasure, she realized that the show must go on; at no matter what price she might have to suffer.

As a big, vibrant smile came over Apryl’s face, while still feeling her heart very much racing away, the stage’s intense spotlights dropped with a booming sound affect all around the whole arena, giving way to just one bright light, directly shining down on her. Situated there in the middle of this huge stage, like she was a single, sparkling star in the dark, heavenly galaxy, the drummer in Apryl’s full, instrumental band, positioned a ways behind her, began striking his drums to a beat, as though he was mimicking the exact rhythmic thump of Apryl’s heart. When Apryl boldly opened her mouth to perform the very first hit song, which initially hurled her into global, superstardom status, she released a sloppy sounding voice that caused her to stop cold as a result of her being taken aback by the horrid, cracking sound of it. Briefly pausing to say a quick prayer and to shake off the jitters, as well as to clear her dry throat, to entirely support her and to swiftly help her get back on track, Apryl’s audience began shouting out upbeat words to her. These warm, caring, and loving words had indeed eased her nerves, and the next musical vocal chords that she would release were like the texture of golden, silk honey, woven together by the Most High’s master angels, whose main purpose was to gift Apryl with an earth-quaking voice to move the people.

So, without adieu, in welcoming the splendor of this beautifully enriched, fall day, which revealed its sultry romance with Mother Nature -- by means of emanating a multihued backdrop of sun kiss yellows, searing, crimson reds, tangy oranges, lavish burgundies, and warm chestnut browns -- along with her music fans in tow, Apryl threw one of the most unparalleled concerts for her music fans in love and appreciation for her many blessings because of all their support. The tone of the atmosphere that was electrifying the air was of pure intoxication and contagious to everyone who was caught up in this musical extravaganza.

Then again, even on this dynamic day when the sun-drenched, blue sky had steadily surrendered to a gray overcast, it seemed to have provided an animated effect on the plant life during Apryl’s performances. As the brisk winds threateningly swirled around the arena and started picking up, the scanty, dangly leaves and the skinny, finger-like branches on the massive oak trees, surrounding the concert area, had swayed back and forth to a mesmerizing rhythm, just like Apryl’s fans’ hands had swayed in the air, in the wind, to the tempo of her music. It was much like a shared vibe that was reminiscent of a holiday jamboree, resurrected from a flash of the past when life was more about having fun and free-spiritedness. Not to mention giant beach balls being tossed from one end of the concert arena to the other end among the crowd, and the ear-deafening fireworks after dark in the park, which was entering into almost the end of Apryl’s concert performance, were quite a spectacular sight to behold.

For a fleeting two hours, Apryl wowed her audience as she blissfully performed on stage, which by looking at her would have made the Queen of Hip-Hop, Soul, Mary J. Blige, nod her head in sheer approval. And, in the spirit of the eternal R & B hit R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Apryl was akin to the likes of the phenomenal Aretha Franklin, considering the superior command she had over her vocals and the brilliance of taming the ivory keys of a grand piano. She undeniably demonstrated that she possessed today’s it girl factor. Apryl’s music fans, as well as Mother Nature’s foliage of fall in full attendance, were able to enjoy and witness first-hand the true essence of a soulful songstress on fire.

After Apryl’s concert’s climactic finale, amid, what had seemed like, a whole ten minute standing ovation, she extended several honored bows to her audience and tenderly tapped at her heart with her hand as a show of love to all of them. She next looked over to the VIP section again and saw her mother’s two teary, proud eyes staring up at her on stage, as Apryl humbly absorbed the crowd’s high spiritedness. Blowing a loving kiss to her mother, Apryl could feel that her mother’s eyes were relaying to her that she had done exceptionally well in spite of her past’s trials and tribulations. This now drew tears to Apryl’s eyes that she desperately fought hard to fan off and hide with her hands. Apryl never had the actual pleasure of crying simply out of happiness, because the only time she usually cried was as a result of hurt and pain. Then, all at once, she started recollecting , right there on stage, that, in the past, she had to actually delude herself, as she slept, about her life being alive and exciting in this same way, and here it was, in reality, staring at her right in the face, during this very instance.

Nevertheless, Apryl took several steps to the front of the stage and in sheer amazement gazed straight out into this colossal crowd with these great big, surprised eyes. She was almost floored from being overwhelmed by joy while standing over this vast ocean of forty thousand music fans of thunderous cheers and hysterical screams, echoing throughout the entire universe. Also, thanks to her fans, who poured into this enormous stadium in the middle of her hometown to see her perform, she realized it was the most humbling high point ever in her music career.

At the same time, all of a sudden, for just a passing moment, when Apryl was taking in all of the exuberance of everything going on around her, she dredged up in the back of her mind how it hadn’t always been this way. She also thought that even though it had felt like oh, happy day! nearly every day during this period in her life, despite it, she felt bound to hold onto the haunting memories of her past scarcely being all that great or filled up with this much happiness. Or, she being this well received, as she was at this incredible time. After all, this remarkable calling, as a musical extraordinaire, certainly wasn’t something that she always dreamed of or felt worthy of wanting for herself while growing up as a fatherless child of impoverished means.

Thus, alas, rather than soaking up this wonderful feeling of contentment and clinging to the huge satisfaction of living a life of grandeur, which a lot of folks would have sold their souls for, if given the chance, Apryl was hard fixed on forever holding onto the old days. She felt that as a consequence of her past afflictions and the horrible things that she stood as a witness to, it had served as a deep reminder, whenever she stood among anyone who had grand ideas in their hearts about her, that she was called on to be an instrumental vessel in a complicated world.

CHAPTER ONE: WARNING SIGNS

In getting to know the hardship that Apryl had eventually become triumphed through in order to arrive at this meaningful level in her life, one would have to go back to the days of her stormy, younger yesteryears, when she was agonizing over what her father had shamefully and cowardly done to her as his little, baby girl.

Flashing back to almost a decade of Apryl’s once upon a time, unstable life, when her father had given up all hope and had abandoned her and her mother altogether, she crumbled into little-bitty pieces, causing a huge mental strain that she was at war with on countless days. It left her a defenseless little girl in the wilderness of a scary, lowly world.

It also didn’t help much when Apryl and her mother were forced to move into a hardcore neighborhood because of their poverty-stricken situation. A faint portrait of this underserved neighborhood would be described as slumlord houses and apartment buildings that had ripped venetian blinds, due to folks incessantly poking their heads out of the windows. Ugly blankets, substituted for curtains, in these dirty windows. Trash, crumbled up beer cans, and soda bottles had littered yards and streets; as well as loud music had poured out of homes, into the streets. Not to mention the riled up and vulgar music coming from thugs’ cars passing by, which had, at times, muffled terrifying screams for help, until their voices were hoarse, coming from homes of several low-income single females because of their abusive male partners’ brutally beating them. It was similar to something disturbing from a horror movie.

There were also these filthy speaking, shifty characters, who hung out on almost every street corner, talking smack and mouthing off about this, that, and the other, trying to get their hustle on. And the insecure man-boy gangsters, who strutted throughout the neighborhoods with their vicious pit bull beasts, bucking at their rivals. In addition, there were these sick alcoholics, just reeking of cheap whiskey, smelling up the neighborhood’s playgrounds, parks, and streets from pissing their pants, then stumbling around and falling down drunk, embarrassing their close friends and relatives. Not to mention the, Lord help them, rampant homeless people, the sight for sore eyes drug addicts, and the sassy acting, wise-cracking ladies of the night.

Consequently, out of fear, and to guarantee her chances of survival in this God-awful environment that she referred to as home-sweet-moan, Apryl felt that it was crucial for her to implement some radical changes into her life. So, in one way or another, she chose to acclimate herself to these people of the streets in Knoville, New York, otherwise known as Nowhere-ville, even though, without fail, she knew that these people got "NO" where in their lives.

What’s more, these people of the streets were mean-spirited, notoriously violent, and infinitely threatened to cripple the whole neighborhood. It had inevitably given birth to the shaping of Apryl’s defiant character and caused her to mature at a far greater speed than other kids her age. Not forgetting that being frequently driven into homelessness, repeatedly suffering from hunger pains throbbing away at her scrawny belly and spiritually lost and afraid had sealed her street credentials and sharpened her survival instincts.

In the course of time, all the weapons of survival that Apryl had armed herself with had especially helped out when things had gotten too intolerable to handle while she was wrestling with the madness of her world. On the other hand, because of these grueling conditions that she was subjected to face day in and day out, it had made her such a bitterly angry person inside. From this stage forward, everything bad that could happen to Apryl usually did happen to her in due part of her playing a large role in it. Though, ironically, the only time that she was able to find some sort of relief was when she was ripping and running around in the neighborhood, with her juvenile delinquent friends, acting wild, loud, and rowdy in the streets.

Apryl’s friends had even given her the street name, Red, because of a small, semi-red birth mark on the left side of her face, on the cheek. Most folks around thought that this birth mark was unusual because of its resemblance to an open umbrella, with a walking cane handle attached to it. All the same, even with Apryl’s rough exterior, and now strictly going only by her given street nickname, Red, she felt as though she wasn’t as much of a roughneck, compared to her friends, due to her being a late bloomer in this heavy thug life that she couldn’t help but to unavoidably slip into. After all, it had this exciting and alluring affect over her common sense.

Then, in order to convincingly prove to herself and to all of her friends that she was fully in the mix of things and no different from them, Red carried out acts of unruly and intimidating behavior against totally innocent strangers who crossed her path. She would particularly inflict it upon those who had reminded her of her father. Nevertheless, feeling compelled and desperately wanting to fit in perfectly, so that all of her friends would be further accepting of her without question, Red forced herself to take part in crimes with more dangerous risks attached to them.

There was an incident of crime involving Red foolishly making an illegal run for one of the most seasoned career drug dealers in the neighborhood, who was dubbed by folks around as Dark Vader. He acquired this befitting name because as soon as the sorcery of his personally handmade blend of cooked-up drugs, which he had christened bliss, had invaded his victims’ bloodstream, it was as though the light in their eyes would immediately fade to dark, hence the name--Dark Vader. However, his legitimate line of work was as a medical doctor because as a youngster he exhibited a high aptitude for chemistry. Though, in spite of Dark Vader’s luck in being able to come up out of the ghetto, in order to become a medical doctor, he simply couldn’t leave his shady activities alone. One of his main objectives was to distribute bliss to some of the finest-looking prostitutes in the business to supposedly help them get over the shame and guilt they felt working the street corners, hustling for their hard-earned dollar. Not to mention it being for their personal services of attending to his unspeakable needs and scouting out clients for him to help keep his private medical practice stay in the full swing of being operational.

Once Dark Vader’s ego had spun out of control, he then pushed bliss off on school kids, pregnant women, who were junkies, and the mentally challenged. In his crazy way of looking at things, given that ignorance was indeed bliss, he wanted to make his product more available to the desperate and feeble-minded, and then recruit misguided youths as runners in order to keep them bliss bound. By feeling like this was the best way to give back to the community, which he so-called adored so much, he actually believed that it had aided in keeping jobs flowing in the neighborhood. Nonetheless, even though Red was somehow able to elude Dark Vader’s crooked dealings, which was set off by her scary run-ins with blissed-out fiends, her criminal activities were primarily centered in home invasions, shoplifting, and disorderly acts of vandalism through her already destitute neighborhood. At the same time, just being a juvenile, these crimes would land her into minor trouble with police and later on with her mother, after her mother was made aware of her unlawful conduct through her close neighbors’ constant attempts of warnings.

Regardless, conveniently for Red’s sake, on several of these lawbreaking flare-ups, when she had gotten into trouble and was consequently caught for it, she was extremely lucky enough to have a supportive ally reliably by her side. This particularly strange friend branded Mad-Ass-Max by those who had experienced him, but whose given name was Maximus, was this incredibly resourceful male friend of Red’s during the times of her getting into a boatload of mess. Somehow, he had mysteriously figured out a way to come to Red’s rescue when none of her other closest friends would even attempt to try.

Without a smidgen of fear or guilt inside of Maximus’ veins about the possibility of its aftermath, he had one of the most systematic tools he used as influential help in order to get Red out of situations that were made up of such criminal magnitude. Quite cleverly, he had secretly obtained the means to breach the police station’s computer’s network database, which was also being utilized by the FBI, to falsify Red’s police records and to help keep her out of its system--not to mention dishing out vengeful deeds to other innocent people in the process.

While in the course of bailing out Red, sadly, it had also sparked Maximus into dabbling in on a little pet project of his own, on the side, which was quite near and dear to his heart. As a personal vendetta, he created elaborate arrest warrants through the police’s computer’s network database for completely innocent people who happened to pluck his nerves--including for both of his parents who he hated immensely for going AWOL on him when he was just a mere child.

To ring in his parents’ wedding anniversary with a big bang, Maximus’ momentous gift to them was a fake arrest warrant, related to a long history of charges linked to the smuggling of blood diamonds into the USA. All of these blood diamonds were allegedly hidden inside of the booties of ill babies they had paid for while in Africa. On top of that, this warrant stated that his parents had supposedly put these African babies on the black market to sell to high-profile movie stars and music artists. Finally, the arrest warrant highlighted that his parents would fence off all of the blood diamonds to the highest bidder of underground mafia groups in exchange for top-quality printing plates in order to make high-end counterfeit money to flood the economy. All of this was allegedly said by Maximus’ parents to have been done so that they could live out their golden years in luxurious comfort.

Once police authorities had finally caught up with Maximus’ parents for their outstanding arrest warrants in, Sin City, Las Vegas, they had burst down their two big Venetian doors of their deluxe-suite hotel room, with guns drawn and ready to blast, and arrested them as they were intensely and immorally swept up in their buck-wild frolics, amid a horde of couples infamous for the lifestyle of switching partners. With this crazy-looking hair sitting atop their sweaty heads and their unflattering naked and portly bodies jiggling away, as they had tried to make sense of what was happening to them, they madly screamed at the top of their lungs to the police officers, bloody murder, that exploring their fetishes in private was not a crime in the good ol’ US of A.

As one police officer handcuffed Maximus’ parents and read them their legal rights, another police officer informed them that had it not been for an e-mail sent by a mysterious someone to their police headquarters, who had nicely leaked their whereabouts to them, as well as enlightening them about their so-called charitable adoption work with African babies, they wouldn’t had taken on this case in such an aggressive manner. Although, now, staring in the eyes of these offended, angry-faced African-American police officers, like they were insane in the membrane, Maximus’ parents felt that, seeing as they were talking such craziness about the two of them, it was best for their safety if they peacefully and silently went along with them.

In addition to Maximus’ parents, a well-fabricated arrest warrant had also appeared for a hardworking, immigrant grocery store owner and happily married family man, who turned Red in to the police one day after she had maliciously destroyed some merchandise in his store. The grocery store owner’s warrant was for assaulting police as they were attempting to arrest him for soliciting male prostitutes in a part of the city known for such activities. Regrettably, this led to him losing his business, which took him all of fifteen years to finally get established, because of his wife leaving him and taking their kids with her, as well as him feeling all alone in suffering through his misery. His wife appallingly found out about his alleged closeted prowls for male prostitutes during the police’s embarrassing apprehension of him at their store and right in front of their longstanding customers. However, the most humiliating thing about this case was that when police officers had come to the grocery store to arrest the owner, due to Maximus’ fake warrant, they bent him over the sausage bin, like he was a common, low-class paid whore, and, while prodding all over his body and, particularly, in his lower region with their nightsticks, had lobbed sausages at his face, yelling at him over and over again, saying, You get off on boinking dudes and assaulting police officers, freak? Afterwards, the police officers told the storeowner about how they had wanted to bring shame on him, directly in front of everyone, for not being an example of a real man and in retaliation of him assaulting one of their fine, fellow boys in blue.

Unfortunately, though, as an immigrant who had barely escaped a senseless execution in his own country, he fled to the USA in hopes of he and his family’s life being safer and standing a much better chance at human rights. In spite of all this, as a fanatic religious follower, who had eventually lost total faith in his God, as a result of feeling letdown by him--not to mention him becoming a broken spirit of a man, caused by this inhumane injustice, the grocery storeowner committed suicide when he couldn’t get his family back nor convince anyone of his innocence. He chose a slaughterhouse method of unburdening his soul by dropping to both knees while yelling in his foreign tongue, WHY, my Lord?! then slashed his throat clear, from ear to ear.

Shockingly, Maximus accomplished all of this miserable grief with the assistance of his homemade computer that he proudly named Frenchie, which he built during his earlier years of perfecting his skills in cutting edge computer technology. Yet, the oddest thing behind his whole logic of naming his computer after a female was because of a past, self-righteous belief that no female, who he would meet in life, was ever going to measure up to his unique specifications. All the same, every time Maximus had used Frenchie to strum away his victims’ existing, normal lives with the stroke of a finger, after tapping her ENTER button, giving much pleasure to the forefinger that struck it, he would shiver, like he suddenly got a chill, and shout out, French kiss that! like he was telling Frenchie, the computer, to kiss all of his troubles goodbye.

From the early tragedy of Maximus fully embracing the evil that purely existed within him, he knew that his irresistible urges of causing chaos, which was never attempted by anyone else, was a clear sign of the dark side that would inevitably rise up inside of him and take total control. Still, as long as it had inflicted some pain in the end, it made him feel quite powerful in doing terrible things that the average person wouldn’t have the heart to impose on a living soul. In which case, it wasn’t anything short of Maximus being his usual, charming self when he sounded off the alarms at the police station, where the trouble had eventually reared its seismic head, about the fake arrest warrants that he created.

The police station’s higher-ups were notified of a potential, serious situation within their computer’s network database system after severe legal actions were brought against them by the brother of the grocery store owner for causing his abrupt death, and by both of Maximus’ parents for their false arrest while enjoying the wonders of Las Vegas. In view of these awful lawsuits hammering away at them all at once, and after comparing handwritten reports to the whirlwind of variations in their computers’ database system, police officials were forced into launching a full-blown investigation. And, for the reassurance of feeling a sense of confidence with their network database system again, these hacker-like events prompted them into securely modifying it to a superior upgrade for future protection.

Unsurprisingly, though, when Red had once again gotten herself into trouble with these very same police officers, this time around, Maximus had quite a headache of a time trying to penetrate the police station’s upgraded computer network database system. Then, due to being under extreme stress, while working within a small timeframe on behalf of Red’s criminal case soon approaching juvenile court, it had pressured Maximus into making a major screw-up. By mistake, he left a precise trail of his last illicit activity that could potentially lead police officials right back to where the rift in their computer’s network database system had begun.

After later becoming aware of this colossal foul-up, and out of desperation about his tight situation, because of not accomplishing the task at hand, Maximus had to hastily resort to turning to a once mentor, but now distant friend of his, named Officer Knowles. To top it all off, good ol’ reliable Officer Knowles also happened to be a well-respected police officer for many years at the same police station where the dubious events took place.

Through Officer Knowles’ attempt at trying to help out Red’s criminal case, he pulled her hardcopy file because he believed it to be more accurate than the police station’s own computer database system. By taking Red’s police file back to his desk to have a thorough look through it, Officer Knowles felt that it would best prepare him for what to say when it came time for him to speak in juvenile court. However, as a result of him momentarily stepping away from his desk to get a hot cup of coffee after he finished reading Red’s police file, he inadvertently forgot to put it back into the file cabinet. This brought forth the opportunity of it being observed lying on top of Officer Knowles’ desk by what would turn out to be snooping police