murder

smoke suffocated the room
a mix of gunpowder and tobacco
detective
detective
officer
detective
chief
photographer
officer

chief knelt down over one of the three
he skipped the first after seeing the bullet-filled-chest
then the second after not finding his head...
but finally stopped on the third. the last.
face blown off
shotgun
point blank
skin up
across
skull
brain matter
torn vision-specimens
torn jaw
pearly whites

FLASH of the camera

chief pulls a pad from his pocket
back left
and a pen from another
front left on jacket
and meets the them both to inscribe a name

the chief wrote it blindly
his vision corroded by the puffs of his cig-
[ -arette, -ar, -a-weed... ]
the first

and the puffs cleared and he checked his handwriting

tesl