Nothing To Fear ....

Call For Reinforcements

      Chief Potter passed several of the out-of-towners as she drove up to the crime scene, and as she parked her car, she rolled down the window and called, "Cosgrove!"

      "Yeah, Chief?" the officer responded, jogging over to the car.

      "They're not letting the witnesses leave, are they? My orders were to keep everyone here until I could speak to them!"

      "No, ma'am,"  he said. "Those guys just walked up here to check on their friends, and I sent 'em home."

      "Good," she responded, exiting the vehicle and walking up the overgrown driveway until she found Sergeant Gibbs.

      "Okay, Roy, what have we got here?"

      "One adult male, deceased, massive trauma to the abdominal area," he replied. "Doc Bigelow estimates time of death somewhere between 10 PM and 3 AM, but he says he may be able to tighten it up when he does the exam."

      "Any ID on the victim yet?" she inquired.

      Gibbs looked up from his notes and replied, "Yeah, that's actually the least shocking thing about it. It's Frank Soames."

      "Damn!" Potter said, running her fingers through her hair. "I always knew he'd come to a bad end, but this wasn't quite what I expected. So how did our visitors manage to find him?"

      "Apparently, they got a little tired of being cooped up in the house and decided to go for a walk. They say that they found a rifle on the ground, with some footprints leading away from it, so they followed the tracks to make sure nobody was out here injured or something." 

     "Well, I guess 'or something' might cover it," she muttered. "Do we have the gun yet?"

      "Working on it. Hartzfeld took one of the witnesses to show her the location, so she could get pictures on-site before she brings it back," Gibbs answered.

      "Excellent. So , where are the others?" 

      Gibbs pointed toward the derelict house, and Chief Potter saw the young woman, Ms . Scanlon, along with two of the men. Purdy and Flanders, if memory served. They all looked somewhat shaken, but she we happy to note that no one seemed to be hysterical. It wasn't necessarily unreasonable, or even unexpected, at scenes such as this one, but it made it a hell of a lot harder to gather information.

      As she started toward the group, she saw Officer Hartzfeld emerge from the treeline , holding a rifle in gloved hands, trailed by another of the visitors. Biersack, she recalled. 

      They approached her, and Hartzfeld said, "This was about a quarter-mile from here, footprints seem to be mostly from the victim, and maybe a couple belonging to the fella with the camera. He was apparently the first to see it, and he walked over to get a better look. I taped off the area until we can get casts of the prints."

      "Good job, Officer, now go get that tagged. Mr . Biersack, would you come with me, please?"

      Andy followed her to where the others were waiting, and he moved to stand next to Joe, putting a hand on his cousin's shoulder.

      "You folks are just not having a great vacation, are you?" Potter inquired dryly.

      "We're actually supposed to be here working, but we're not having much luck with that, either," Andy stated.

      Chief Potter began to question them about the days events, having them walk her through the details several times. By the time she was satisfied that she had gotten as much information as possible, it was nearly dark.