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CHAPTER7
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By nightfall the news had spread all around town and everyone had their own opinion as to what had taken place. In the local pub where most of the patrons who liked to imbibe on the odd weekend gathered, it was all anyone could talk about. Suggestions were made and theories bandied about, and rumors and whispers of rumors were started.
Officer Pete Bailey took up his usual seat at the small bar and perused the room where other patrons were seated at small wooden tables with mugs of their favorite brew, some long forgotten in favor of the latest gossip.
In the background some soft unrecognizable melody piped through the outdated speaker system as voices spoke in hushed tones as everyone tried to come to terms with a murder in their town.
For some it was a first, since they hadn’t been born when the last one occurred, and their innate fear of being murdered in their sleep was heavily mixed with the excitement of the movie like scenario, as the story grew more embellished with each telling.
“It was old man Doss who found her I heard. Sad thing, very sad thing. Such a young woman.” Sam Fields the owner of the feed store and was one of the few there who was around for the old case, tipped his bottle of brew to his head after making that announcement to his table of interested cohorts.
Nigel Thorne and Gary Wesley, who both worked for the post office were joined by Elijah Stone who owned the town’s only auto repair shop. These four along with Sam made up one group while at another table, Jeffrey Spooner, the grocery owner and his wife Sophia, sat with their heads together.
All over the usually lively room people were more reserved, whether from fear of the unknown or because of the respect most humans have for death, when they feel their own mortality staring them in the face, it was not known.
“So what gives Pete? Any news on what went on here?”
“Now Sam, you know I can’t discuss that with you.”
“Well can you at least tell us how she died? I hear tell that her face was gone, is that true?”
Pete could’ve done without that reminder. He’d spent the better part of the day trying to get that image out of his head. With all the running around he’d done today he was able for pockets of time to put it out of his mind, but once his mind stopped running it always came back to that atrocity, something he was sure he had to look forward to for a long time to come.
That’s why he was here on a weeknight when he usually only came in every once in a while on the weekend. Those images had ran him out of his home where there was nothing but four walls and empty rooms, and those dreadful images to keep him company.
He should’ve known there would be no escaping it though. That in a town like theirs it would be the talk on everyone’s tongue. He was still coming to terms with the horror himself and though he’d bemoaned the fact from time to time that his job was little more than helping little old ladies and men to cross Main Street, he wished he could go back to yesterday.
Yesterday when the most pressing thing he had to look forward to was whether or not he’d be able to get the time off to take his mama to her doctor’s appointment next week.
A day when there was nothing as horrid as murder to taint the beauty he’d always enjoyed since his childhood days in this serene village that time had long overlooked.
A day when he sat out on a park bench and watched the local kids at play, knowing that they were safe unlike their counterparts in the big city. Now that was all gone and even those kids he was sure, will be touched by this event that was bound to change the landscape of their sleepy little town.
“Like I said Sam, I can’t discuss it.”
“I expect Detective Sparks knows what she’s doing.” Just then his phone rang and he saw that it was Celia, Detective Sparks. There was a time when he’d see that number on his phone and his heart would give a little blip.
Ever since she showed up here when he was a young lad, fresh out of the academy he was star struck. Still is for that matter. It didn’t take long to know that she knew what she was doing even though she was never really given the opportunity to show off those skills that she’d learned back where she came from.
He’d been instantly attracted, to her mind, the person she was; but it was her beauty that had held him spellbound for the better part of three years. She sure didn’t look like anyone else in town, or anyone he’d have expected to find on the force.
Her dark tresses and those bright blue eyes, not to mention her slender statuesque form looked more suited to a Paris runway than hidden away here in this out of the way place where no one ever hardly came.
He imagined most people felt the same way. He’d seen the men of the town’s reaction to her in those first days. Had seen her work hard to overcome their disbelief that she was capable of the job she’d been hired to do.
And the women, who’d looked at her askance as was to be expected in a small town like this where everyone practically lived on top of each other. But she’d proven herself many times over, overcoming what he now saw as their prejudice against a pretty face.
It had taken him much longer and truth be told he still wasn’t all the way over what it is that he felt for her, but he’d learned to live with it; this unrequited love or lust whatever you want to call it.
He’d never done anything as crass or stupid as to approach her with his budding feelings, but it had been hell working so close to her, sitting in the office at the desk across from hers day in and day out with that beauty staring him in the face.
“Yes boss?”
“Just got a call that there’re some kids up in the woods disturbing the scene.”
“Why don’t you call patrol to go take a look?”
