Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad you like the story so far, hope you like the rest of it.
The Headless Horseman of Monroe County
Chapter two
Later back at the motel
"Don't read anything into it Dean."
"Sam he said the horse didn't leave any tracks."
"Yeah but it was raining and muddy out. The tracks could have filled up with water and weren't visible to the naked eye or were washed away in the rain."
"Or…he didn't leave any tracks just like Henshaw said."
"Or it's all a prank like I said."
"We won't know that for sure unless we check around."
Sam smiled and shook his head.
"Okay, I can see you're not going to let this rest. We'll check around and then when you're finally convinced there is no headless horseman we'll find another hunt. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
"Where do you want to start?"
"Well like you said Bradford is a college town, why don't we start at the local college hangouts."
The Sleepy Hollow Inn
They drove around town until they found what appeared to be the main hangout for the college kids in town. It was appropriately named The Sleepy Hollow Inn. Sam pointed to the name as they walked into the bar.
"Guess where they got the idea of the Horseman from?" He said smiling sure he was going to be right on this one, there was no Horseman just a college prank.
"That doesn't mean anything. There could still be something going on out there."
They walked into the bar and instead of getting the usual suspicious looks that they usually got when they walked into a strange bar they got smiles, mostly from the women. They kept to themselves at first but did manage to play a few games of pool with some of the college kids that hung out there. The brothers deliberately lost a lot of the games to make it look good and to keep on friendly terms with the students. They told the few people who asked what they were doing in town the same story they had told the reporter, that they were writing a book on urban legends. They listened to a few stories about the Horseman but no one seemed to know anything more then what the paper had already printed. If they did, they weren't talking.
Later as they walked to their car
"That went well." Dean said smiling. He had gotten used to walking into unfamiliar bars and getting the cold shoulder from the patrons and it was nice to finally get a friendly greeting.
"Yeah they seemed like a nice bunch. … Did you notice that girl with the long reddish hair who kept to herself?"
"Yeah."
"She seemed like she was scared of something, especially when the talk turned to the Horseman."
"Yeah I noticed."
"Maybe she knows something."
"Or maybe the stories just scare her."
"Well hopefully she'll be here tomorrow night; maybe we can get close to her."
The brothers planned on hanging around the bar for a few days and talking to a few more people about the Horseman including the red haired girl. They also planned on checking out the people who had claimed to have seen the Horseman.
The next day
They headed out to the home of the first person whose name was on the list that the reporter had given them, a Tom Brown. Brown lived on a small farm on the outskirts of town. As they approached the farm they noticed police cars and an ambulance sitting out front. The cops were up on the front porch talking to a woman while the ambulance driver slowly pulled away. Since the lights and siren weren't on the brothers knew it wasn't an emergency, or the person they were called for was already deceased and there was no reason to hurry. Dean waved the ambulance down as it drove past them.
"Excuse me but we wanted to talk to a Tom Brown. Do you know if he's home?"
"Are you friends of his?"
"We're reporters and we were going to ask if we could interview him for a story we're writing."
"Sorry but Mr. Brown passed away."
"Oh… that's too bad. What happened, a heart attack?"
"No…" The driver looked at his partner not knowing if he should release any information but then decided it would be in the paper the next day anyway. "He must have slipped and fallen into one of those machines that you use for separating corn from their husks….he was decapitated."
TBC