Chapter 48 - A Body Found

Jared and Michelle Brooks heard gunshots early that morning. Even though they lived in somewhat a country setting, no hunting was allowed around the area and definitely not on their property. When they heard the first shot, they were surprised but they dismissed it until they heard the second shot.

"Call the police" Jared yelled to his wife as he ran out the door and began running across his lawn and headed for the dead end road.

"Please be careful Jared" Melissa yelled to her husband. Sometimes she wished that he wouldn't get involved in things like this. Whoever was shooting could decide to shoot him.

Jared was not in very good shape so he had to stop along the way a couple of times to catch his breath but he got to the road just as a blue van and moving truck went flying past him. He wondered what they were doing. Jared cautiously began walking up the road and saw where the tracks had stopped. He noticed that the tracks led off the road on the left hand side so he began walking on that side. He saw the man's body almost immediately since no one had moved the body. He walked over and found that he was dead. As he looked around the area, he saw that there was a patch of grass near a tree that seemed to be soaked in blood. He quickly walked over to the spot, knelt down to look at it more closely and then touched his fingers to a spot of red. Jared knew immediately that this was indeed blood.

As he was rose back up, he suddenly heard sirens and two police cars pulled up into the area.

"Put your hands where we can see them." One of the officers said from the car.

Jared raised his hands and said "Sir, this is next to my land. My wife was the one who called you. My name is Jared Brooks."

"Do you have id to prove your identity?" The officer asked.

"Yes, it is in my pants pocket."

"Take it out slowly and throw it to me" The officer further instructed.

Jared did as he was told and the officer picked it up and looked at it and then lowered his gun. "He's okay boys." He said to the others.

"Sorry about that. We had to be careful. I'm Officer Leonard. So what's going on here?" the officer asked.

"No problem Officer." Jared said. "I'm not sure. We heard gunshots and knew that something was wrong. I arrived just as a blue van and a moving track took off out of here quickly. There were two shots fired and obviously one of them killed that man. I just noticed this little spot of grass that appears to have blood on it."

"Did you disturb anything?" the officer asked.

"I didn't touch the man but I admit that I did touch the grass to see if it was blood or not and I believe it is. I haven't disturbed anything else."

In the meantime, the other officers had gotten out of the vehicles and were walking around.

"Hey Dan, I found something" one of them yelled to Officer Leonard. "What did you find Keith?"

"Come see for yourself." Keith responded. They all rushed over as Keith pulled off some brush that had covered up a woman's body.

"Oh my God" Jared said.

"This isn't pretty." Dan said. "Why don't you go home?"

"I'm okay. That poor woman."

Keith had put gloves on and looked in the woman's pockets. He found a wallet and opened it up to see if he could id the body. Inside there was about $20 in cash and a note that simply a phone number in case of an emergency. He then searched the man and found that his name was Rob Carew. His wallet contained just under a $1000 in it. Whoever killed him was definitely not after his money and didn't seem to care about him since they had done nothing to cover his body.

Keith went over to his car radio and called the dispatcher. He gave her the number and told her that he would wait.

"Billy Melrose here" The person who answered said. The dispatcher patched the call so the Keith could talk.

"Sir, this is officer Card. I'm calling you from Albany, New York."

"What can I do for you officer?" Billy asked.

"Sir, I have a young woman who has been murdered who has your number in her wallet to call."

"Do you know who she is?"

"There isn't any id on her person but she had this number in her wallet to call if there was an emergency."

"What does she look like?" Billy asked.

"Hang on, let me go get better details." A few minutes later

he got back onto the radio and said "I would say she is about 5' 6" or so, has brown hair that is about neck length, brown eyes and probably weighs around 115 - 120. Quite honestly I would have to say that she was a very beautiful woman. It is sad that someone shot her."

"Oh my God!" Billy exclaimed.

"Sir?" Officer Keith asked. "Do you know who she is?"

"Yes, I think I do. She is a civilian that we use sometimes on cases?"

"Cases sir?"

"Yes, this is a Government Agency."

"Oh, I had no idea. Well Sir, we are going to bring her to the Morgue. Do you want to send someone for her or how do you want to handle it."

"I have a man going through that area soon. I know he will want to positively id her. He should be checking in soon. Can he call you to make arrangements?"

"Yes" Keith gave his number to Billy and then asked Billy if he could have the man's name and the information on his vehicle because the State Police could keep an eye out for him. Billy knew that Lee was so upset that he might not check back in for a while and might actually drive past Albany before he heard from him so he agreed and gave the officer the information. Keith took Billy's information and then asked "Sir, do you know a Rob Carew?"

"Yes I do. He works here too. Why?"

"Sir, he is dead also. His body was near the woman's. Will this man of yours be able to id him also?"

"Yes he can. He worked with him."

"Thank you sir. We'll be in touch. They said goodbye and hung up. Afterward, Keith used the radio to call for an ambulance and then to put out an alert for Lee Stetson.

Meanwhile, Jared had finished giving a statement. As he looked back at the body, he said "Such a shame that such a beautiful woman was killed. I wondered what she did for someone to murder her like that."

"I know" Said Dan. "We might never have found her without your help. At least we can search for her family and let them know."

"I guess that is a good thing but so sad. I hope she didn't leave behind any children. Okay, well my wife will be worried so I'm going to go home. Do you need anything else from me?"

"No Sir. Thank you again Mr. Brooks." They shook hands and Jared headed home. The ambulance was pulling in as he started to cut through the woods to get onto his property.

The Ambulance attendants quickly bagged both bodies and loaded them into the ambulance and then they headed for the morgue. The officers spent the next hour combing the area for clues so they could bring justice to this poor woman. There wasn't a lot to go on though. Sadly, they worried that this might end up being one of those unsolved mystery murders. They soon wrapped it up and headed back to the office to await the phone call of the person who might know her. Maybe he could give them some clues.

TBC