The Silent Witness

The crime scene was pristine, almost too clean. No fingerprints, no murder weapon—just a body slumped in the leather chair of a dimly lit study.

Detective Claire Mason examined the only possible witness: a parrot in a golden cage.

“Who did this?” she murmured, half-joking.

The parrot squawked, then in a perfect human voice, said, “Don’t fight it, Henry.”

Claire froze. She replayed the sentence in her mind. Was the victim struggling? Was there someone else in the room?

The parrot flapped its wings. “Don’t fight it, Henry.”

Claire turned to her partner. “Get the voice records of everyone in this house. This bird just told us everything.”