Murder in Mayberry

Chapter One - An early morning Call

Sheriff Andy Taylor was sleeping soundly in his warm bed when his phone rang loudly and shrilly sending him toppling onto the floor before he scrambled to his feet and grabbed the receiver.

"Sheriff Taylor." He said around a yawn.

"Sheriff it's Sarah," the young telephone operator said in a nervous tone she'd never used to address him with before. "I just got a message for you from Mrs. Mavis, I really think you should get over there."

"What's the problem Sarah?" Andy asked in his most soothing voice even as he began pulling on his work pants right over his pajama bottoms.

"Mrs. Mavis says there's a dead man on her lawn!" Sarah said sound almost hysterical.

"Oh my, alright Sarah it's time to hunker down and be brave alright?" Andy said quickening his pace that much more. "You need to call Barney Fife and Doc Brown and have them both meet me at Mavis', you understand me?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. And Sarah,"

"Yes sheriff?"

"Keep this to yourself until I say otherwise." Andy said sternly.

"Of course." Sarah said before ending the call.

Andy was hoping for a misunderstanding. But sadly it was one of the few times when things were even more serious then Sarah had made it sound. There was a dead man in old Mavis Walker's front yard and so far it looked like murder. The body was that of a young man with shaggy brown hair and well worn cloths. The boy looked familiar but Andy didn't know him by name but had seen him around town enough to know he was local.

When Barney arrived 'with his uniform in perfect order of course' he was struck with shocked disbelief and for once was as silent as a church mouse. He just stared at the boy with bugged out eyes and a gaping mouth.

The body of the young man laid in the snow of the early winter morning, his chest was a bloody mess. There were two sets of foot prints leading to the body when they arrived that wasn't their's or the witness's one ended where the boy fell the other set circled the body a number of times then set back the way they'd came.

"Barn, I'm gonna need you to rope off this area and keep people away until doc brown gets here to look the boy over." Andy told his deputy who was still staring down at the body with slacked jawed shock. "Barney I need ya here with me."

Barney gave himself a bit of a shake then nodded his head mechanically. "Yeah Ange, yeah I'm with ya." He stuttered out.

"Good man." Andy said said slapping him on the back.

Sheriff Taylor fallowed the foot prints as they lead back the way they had came now with droplets of blood accompanying them. They led to an alley just off main street and didn't come back out so the sheriff took out his rarely used side arm and entered the alley, the snow was to melted here for prints and the blood trade had dried up the alley was empty aside from trash and closed doors. On the left was the candle shop, the butcher's and the town bakery on the right was the town's one and only attempt at a bar and it had been closed and boarded up since the county went dry. There wasn't any blood on any of the doors or anything as obvious as that but Andy knew the killer had come this way and had gone into one of the establishments as means of escape. The bar's back door was still boarded up tight so that only left three escape routs that all led to well liked and respected folks. Andy sighed this was just going to be a Jim Dandy of a day.