Daniel Poort
Chapter 2: BODIES
CHAPTER 2: BODIES
The forensic evidence was more than the six man Rock Ridge Sheriff’s department could hope to process, never mind the fact that Rock Ridge Sheriffs didn’t have a lab to process it in. Body parts, blood, a half-burnt cabin and a 911 recording from a seventeen year old girl who was one of his daughter’s senior English students at Rock Ridge High School. Erica Potter, most likely kidnapped or murdered by Alan Potter, her father. Just what I need on my last day on the job. Sheriff William Harkins had a fishing trip planned the following day to celebrate his first day of retirement and he was now sure he was going to have to cancel. While it was true that in 24 hours he would be officially retired, Bill couldn’t leave this one unfinished, not with the girl still missing.
He thought briefly about trying to stay on if it came to it, but his replacement was already settling in and the small community’s budget couldn’t support the pay of two Sheriffs. No, if I’m gonna follow this one through it will be on my own. It was just as well. The new Sheriff was nice enough, and Bill was sure the guy was capable of handling the typical small town bullshit, but something like this was way out of Ray’s depth. Bill had already done him the favor of requesting the state police take over the case.
Erica Potter. Bill knew the missing girl. Now, on his last day, she was missing, the fire was barely out on her grandparent’s vacation home, and at least in the near term Bill was overseeing the investigation of the most brutal murder in Rock Ridge history.
The next few hours saw Bill canvassing with the rest of the deputies for leads while the forensics team from the state police took over crime scene processing. The forensics would take some time to come back and canvass hadn’t turned up anything. Noon on my last day and I’ve been at work for eight hours. Then the first real piece of evidence quite literally showed up on the doorstep.
“Hey Boss,” Deputy Carlyle said frantically as he burst into Bill’s office. “We’ve got something big.”
“What is it kid?” Bill asked.
“Somebody left this on the front steps. I think it’s the killer’s manifesto.”
“Did anyone see who left it, Carlyle?”
“No and the cameras are still out.”
“If we don’t catch this fucker because the council was too damned cheap to spring for fixing the cameras I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.”
The state forensics team did what they could to get evidence from the delivered pages but quickly came up empty. The manuscript was released back to Bill’s team as the State Investigators wouldn’t be there until the next day. At Bill’s behest, Carlyle made a dozen copies the document, a very neatly packaged volume that seemed to be written on some sort of typewriter. Bill took his copy into his office and hoped it would yield something useful. Alright, let’s see who you are.