“The Smallest of Details”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: Cork.

A single cork. That’s all the evidence we have.

Still, I can guess what happened here. From the location of the cork, I can tell that the suspect was standing in the doorway when the bottle was opened. The slight wetness still on the cork suggests that the bottle was opened not too long ago and that the bottle contained some sort of olive oil. One of the fancy brands, because those are the only ones that bother using corks rather than plastic caps.

That in itself is very telling of the victim, as the cork was found in the victim’s house. One would assume that a guest doesn’t typically bring olive oil to a party, so it’s safe to assume that the olive oil–and the corked bottle–belonged to the victim. That being said, in order to own such expensive olive oil, there would have been a number of possibilities.

One, the victim was able to comfortably afford luxuries such as expensive olive oil, meaning that they were in a fair financial position.

Two, the victim was not able to afford the olive oil by themselves, which means that it was either gifted to them or someone did, in fact, bring it to the party.

Three, the victim regularly used this brand of olive oil, so the placement of the cork was not by accident.

Four, the victim did not know how to open the cork, and so the opening of the bottle was somewhat of a struggle and therefore the location and placement of the cork cannot be trusted.

I guess this just goes to show that even the smallest of details can be the most telling.

Final Comments: I don’t really know what happened with this one…

Overall Rating: 😣