Ashes

A lit cigarette filled the room with smoke.
        I could see no plausible explanation for a lit cigarette being wedged between the lifeless fingers of a corpse at a crime scene. It was the last visit the body would receive before being taken to the morgue. The evidence had been labeled, and the outline had been drawn with the famous chalk. It seemed impossible that evidence like this could have gone unnoticed.
        I theorized that perhaps one of the neighbors wanted to play a sick joke on the police, but I quickly dismissed the idea. The entrance was under surveillance twenty-four hours a day, and as for the window, well, it was on the fourth floor. That was far too much effort for a simple prank.
        There were only two of us in the house: the deceased and me. Even so, just to make sure, I searched the rooms for some clue that might explain such an extraordinary coincidence. It was possible that someone had dropped it in exactly that position and hadn’t noticed. Unlikely, but possible.
        After searching each room, I returned to keep watch over the victim for a moment. I didn’t want any more unexpected surprises. Nothing in the kitchen. Nothing in the bedroom. Nothing in the bathroom. Nothing under the bed, behind the doors, or even inside the refrigerator.
        It was beyond my comprehension.
        I headed toward the front door. I needed to call my supervisor to report the irregularity and act according to his instructions. I turned my back on the man and, just as I was reaching for the doorknob, I felt a heavy pressure on my shoulder, as if someone had grabbed me. A voice whispered:

        “I am the murderer.” My skin prickled.

        I quickly turned around, but the corpse had vanished. All that remained were the cigarette ashes and the butt in the center of the outline.

Context

This short story was written for a contest in which the length was limited to 200 words. Both the theme and the intention were free, so, as I think it is the right thing to do in this kind of texts, I tried to establish an idea to break it in the last lines.