Detective Lancaster’s office is a small one with many windows. He’s sitting at his aged cherry-wood desk, reading files non-stop. He has been working overtime to find any leads to William Grant’s murder. It’s the eve of midnight and he’s wide awake, looking through Cornelius Blaire’s criminal record. He finds a list of different assault, extortion, blackmail, attempted murder, manslaughter, and fraud charges leading back thirty years or so.
As he takes his precious time to read through his files, he can’t help but feel hatred toward this man and his family. Suddenly, his partner comes in carrying a folder in his hand.
“Hey, what’s up,” Frank greets his partner.
Jones slams the folder on top of his desk.
“We finally got the full autopsy report on Grant.”
Frank sits up and places Cornelius’s criminal file to the side. He opens the folder and gets an eyeful of gruesome pictures. He sees William Grant’s deceased body with an incision in the form of an X. He then flips through the images and finds a detailed description of Grant’s examination.
“Estimated time of death; morning of September 29th at 7 o’clock am,” Frank reads quietly to himself. “Possible cause of death: blunt force trauma. The deceased has suffered from a series of lacerations minutes before his death. The areas are as followed: his right leg, left shoulder, forehead, neck, right jaw, and left hand.
Deceased suffered from a fractured skull and vertebrae by falling on or against an undisclosed structure.”
That last sentence he read from the report completely blew his mind.
“Are you serious? Someone threw him so hard against a wall that it fractured his back and skull.” Frank asks his partner.
The look on his face is total shock.
“It gets worse. Just keep reading,” Jones tells Frank as he pulls a chair towards his desk and takes a seat.
“His neck shows signs of sever strangulation. Swelling under his left eye indicates possible assault before death. Fracture nose; caused by car accident. Victim received a deep incision on torso and abdominal wall after death. Heart of deceased has been completely removed…” Frank immediately stops reading.
He then drops the folder onto his desk and throws his pen on top of it. He then leans back in his reclining desk-chair and sighs his hardest while staring directly at the autopsy report. A thousand thoughts race back and forth in his mind. Frank has never felt so confused in his entire life.
“I’m not saying this to be funny,” Frank informs his partner. ‘But what the literal fuck is going on?”
“The hell if I know,” Jones replies. “What I do know is that these murders are linked. Also, I got those footprints analyzed again. They remain unidentified.”
“What do you mean by unidentified?”
“I’ve went to wildlife experts, boy scouts of America mountain bikers, and even the fucking zoo, and none of them has ever seen footprints like that before.”
Frustrated, Frank brushes off a stack of papers onto the floor.
“Damn it!” Frank’s frustration erupts from his mouth.
Jones flinches a little by Frank’s outburst.
“Frank, we can’t fold under pressure. This is what we signed up for.”
He takes a moment to calm his frustration.
“I know. It’s just this case is fucking with my head man. It’s keeping me up at night. I’m starting to get freaked out by this shit, seriously. Something strangled a man and threw him against a wall and fractured his damn skull.”
“I hear you. It has to be some plausible reason for this. We’ll find out.”
Frank looks down at his pen and begins to think about the old man’s testimony. He remembers how the old man was stressing the fact that he saw a strange creature in the woods. He remembers the fear and honesty in the man’s graying eyes.
“Do you remember that old man?” Frank asks his partner.
“What about him?”
“Do you remember what he said? He said he saw something in those woods. He said it wasn’t human.”
His partner looks down into his lap and shakes his head.
“Jesus Frank, don’t start talking crazy.”
‘No, I’m not. I’ve been on this force long enough to notice some odd things about this town. There’s something unusual going on here.”
“It’s just an unusual case, that’s all. People kill people. You’re not thinking straight. Listen to reason Frank. You’re talking crazy right now. I think you should take tomorrow off and get some sleep.”
Frank sighs hard and marinate in silence for a moment.
“You’re right. I think I’m just tired.”
“That’s exactly what you need. As I said,” Jones states while standing. “There’s always a reasonable explanation for everything. Our job is to find that explanation.”
“Right,” Frank agrees.
‘Don’t stay up to long.”
“I won’t.”
‘I’ll call you later,” Jones says before leaving his office.
Minutes after his partner leaves, Frank does manage to come back into reality. Although he agrees with what his partner said about every case having a reasonable explanation, he can’t stop thinking about the old man’s testimony. Frank has never been very superstitious. He doesn’t believe in ghouls and goblins.
One thing is certain, he does believe in his gut instincts, and they tell him it’s something unusual going on in the town of Glenworth…
CHAPTER 25: THE ACCIDENT