The Beast of Brookville

Chapter 6

Sheriff Collins, or 'Sam' as most people knew him (and simply Sheriff to the rest), was sitting at his desk reckoning with the latest news; a serial killer, already equipped with a shiny nickname, was probably prowling where he'd lived all his life. These sorts of things just don't happen here. He caught himself on the cliche, a classic projection by the naive - these sorts of things can happen anywhere, he knew this. Using both hands to scrub the tension from his face, he settled in a moment of peace before peeling open the cover of the file.

"Ok," he says to himself, how the hell do we move this forward?

The bare-bones case read: 4 dead - 2 adults and 2 children, violence exacerbated by sexual assault pre and post mortem; absolutely no leads connected to the family.

Great.

Unconnected murders are near impossible to solve without the perpetrator striking again or messing up - please God let the lab techs find something.

A small "ahem" cut into his attention.

"Sheriff Samuels?" Sarah said nervously.

He realized she must have been standing there for some time trying to get his attention.

"Hi, Sheriff...it's Sarah...Sarah Wilson" no hint of recognition. "...I'm a friend of Forrest's?" Sarah punctuated the sentence, they'd met a few times of course, Sarah the perpetual third wheel to the Opal and Forrest shenanigans, but now that she was standing in front of him she couldn't think of a single time they'd exchanged more than basic hellos before now.

"Do you have a moment to chat, Sheriff?" Sarah really wasn't sure how she was going to do this but she knew he would only hear her theory if she was direct about it. The man respected respect.

The small girl, or woman, he realized she was now, stood in front of him visibly terrified but stern. He realized Sarah had been on the periphery of his son's life as long as he could remember, but he'd met her enough times and had decided he didn't dislike the girl. Sam always thought Sarah was an oddball but a part of him was grateful Forrest had people to go to, as small as it may have seemed. He'd bailed them out of minor 'kid stuff' trouble a few times but even then, he knew the girls were good for him.

"It will only take a few minutes, it's about the new murders, the Beast? I think I found something" Sarah wasn't sure what would pique his interest but his silent stare was eating away at her.

"Oh uh yes, sure, have a seat" he pulled around a small stool for her to sit on, it wasn't much of a gesture but he didn't want her to get too comfortable, he could already feel the pressure to get out and catch the Beast creeping down his neck and he didn't imagine this kid had a lot to contribute.

Sarah sat down carefully, worried she'd lose her grip on the beat up vanilla folder she'd obsessively read over the last few days. She and Opal hadn't talked other than general niceties since Opal stormed off when Sarah suggested Forrest's truck was more than a casual coincidence. It broke her heart but she'd reviewed the details over and over and couldn't talk herself out of it.

"So...I know you are probably already on this" she said. trying to preempt the blow of his inevitable rejection "but I've been working at the Gazette which uh...which gives me access to some more things from the other local papers and, well...and uh, I went digging a bit and here's what I found".

Sarah carefully opened the folder to the first overly highlighted and sticky-arrowed page, "there are similarities in the Summer Murders from last year".

More gestures to the stickied lines on the initial coroner's report, page turn, and pointing to the police report on the nearby reckless truck. Sarah felt her anxiety around the situation rise to full jitter level as she saw the Sheriff looking at the page with the type of truck highlighted. If he had any reaction to it he hid it well. Sarah pushed through.