Ahhh yes. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, friends. It's been a busy day on the farm made better by numerous people getting a hold of us complimenting us on our farm raised turkeys. Makes all the work worthwhile. I hope you get to enjoy some time with your loved ones. Here is a treat for your evening…
"There's no sign of either one of them anywhere on this property, Lieutenant."
Glancing back up at Tanner, DeWitt let out a frustrated sigh and rested his arms on the roof of the dark blue LTD, taking in the haunting scene close to midnight. As his small army of support began to trickle in, the yard of the old farm house was quickly turning into a parking lot for unmarked police cars and black and whites.
"But we do have two bodies in the basement. Caucasian males. One mid-twenties, one mid-forties. Shot point blank in the back of the head. Definitely execution style. Ed says they've been dead for less than a couple of hours. The entire lower portion of the house is rigged like a prison, you'd never know it looking in from the outside. Somebody started a fire in their...their operating room to hide evidence but it went out before everything was burnt. There was quite a bit of blood on the floor. Several drips on the stairwell and main floor as well. Oh, and there are signs of a shootout upstairs. We picked a shell out of the wall, definitely .38's against some heavy artillery."
Bill's words were sending a shudder down his back as Roy stared out into the foggy darkness surrounding the property and beyond.
"Their car isn't here. I take that as a good sign…", he breathed before putting both of his cold hands back into the pockets of his light gray dress pants.
"Lee and I are going to walk the driveway and check out that intersection, see if we can see any signs of where they might be headed."
"Already done.", came Andy's answer, as the young man reemerged from the thick fog, flanked by his friend, a flashlight in hand and a piece of glass in the other.
"The area is pretty torn up and we found tire tracks of at least two heavy trucks and what we believe may be the Lieutenant's vehicle. There's debris by a large pine tree missing some of its bark, so they either crashed into it or were pushed."
Clenching his jaw, Roy met Tanner's worried brown eyes for a moment, before clearing his throat.
"Any indication which way they went?"
"Yes and no."
Andy's voice was breaking as the young man began to tremble in the cold. Handing over the piece of glass that was part of the Galaxy's blinker, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, before continuing.
"There are tracks in two directions. One truck went one way, one the other. The cars' smaller tracks were obliterated by the larger ones after a few feet, meaning they were followed by one of the trucks. We lost their tracks once they got onto the gravel part. Judging by how tore up this driveway is, their…chase started shortly after they left the house. There're tire tracks on the grass as if they were trying to go around somebody. Maybe unexpected company."
"Damnit…"
Absent-mindedly playing with the piece of glass in his hand, DeWitt let out a forced breath, noting more headlights appearing in the driveway of the farm house.
"The communications van is an hour out yet, once they get up here, we'll have access to our radios again and can to start search parties. You two know this park better than the rest of us…where do these roads lead to?"
Roy, the taller of the two, nervously glanced over at Andy, who shrugged.
"One leads to the Hollow Springs Campground. From there on, it winds back down into Clear Lake. The other one slopes uphill and deeper into the mountains. There are a couple small paths that go off it but they're not wide enough for vehicle traffic. Eventually it ends in a big turnaround overlooking parts of the park. Essentially it's a dead-end road."
