CHAPTER 1
BODY FOUND
ROYAL WOODS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, ROYAL WOODS, MICHIGAN
MARCH 13TH, 11:45 am
Royal Woods, Michigan. A fine little town in the northern part of the USA. All seems well at first, but you've got to understand that, even in a small town, there is crime. All sorts of crime. Drug dealers, bank robbers, child molesters, kidnappers, child abusers, rapists, the works. And when they break the law, that's where I come in and try to seek justice for all. I'm the Sheriff. The name, in fact, is Sheriff Johnathan Reginald Hughes.
It was another fine summer morning. I had clocked into work a few hours ago. I had on the standard issue department uniform. A blue button up shirt and khaki pants, a black tie, a gold star Sheriff's badge over my heart and a name tag on the other side of my chest, black shoes, a black gun belt with my personal nickel plated Colt Trooper Mk III revolver 38. caliber revolver in the holster. I've had this weapon ever since I got elected into office in 1973, right after I got discharged from serving in Vietnam. It may be a little outdated, but she's reliable.
Anyway, as I sat at my desk, drinking a cup of coffee and looking at a framed photograph of my wife and 5 grandkids, I looked over to my two detectives, Stanley Hartmann, and James Bowie. It was at that moment when Earl, the desk clerk, walked up to me. "Sheriff?" "Yeah?" "We got a hot one, a dead body of a minor found in the park". "Alright, time to roll!" I said, picking up my Colt and sliding it in my holster. "Hartmann, Bowie, you're coming with me".
ROYAL WOODS PARK
MARCH 13TH, 11:57 am
We arrived at the park and indeed the desk clerk was right. The victim was a young boy, with white albino hair, dumped into a garbage bin. One thing to note was that he was wearing some sort of squriell uniform, but without the head part. The coroner, my daughter Jenny, was already on the scene. She already had the body, carefully lifted out of the bin and began to look him over. "Alright Jenny, what do we have?" "Well dad, the victum is about 11 years old. I don't see any signs of a scuffle anywhere around the dumpster." "So I guess someone murdered him somewhere else and then dumped the body in the dumpster", said Hartmann. "So far yes", said Jenny. "Do we have a time of death?" I asked. "I'm guessing from the body temperature, he probably died somewhere between ten and eleven o'clock last night", said Jenny.
I looked at the poor boy's body and saw the bruise on him. "Ouch, what did this heartless sumb***h to to 'im?" "From the looks of the wounds, I'd say our perp used someting round, hard, and cylinder like. Like a baseball bat. I'll do an optopsy on him when we get him to the morgue." "Did the victim have any belongings or anything on his person which we can use to identify him?" asked Bowie. "I didn't find a wallet on him", said Jenny. Hartmann noticed something. 2 sets of footprints, both different sizes. "Two different sets of footprints", said Hartmann. "So I've noticed", Jenny said. "So far, one is the size of a child's, the other is an adults'". "Okay", I said, "Bowie, Hartmann, let's search the premises for my clues".
We began to scan the area for anything that looked like evidence. After a while, Bowie called. "Hey Sheriff! Hartmann! I found something". We ran over to Bowie who was standing next to a bush. He was pointing to the heat part of the squriell costume the victim was wearing. After putting on gloves, Hartmann picked up the head and we began to look inside. We then found a label on it. "Royal Woods Middle School", I read aloud. "Do you think the victim was a student there?" asked Bowie. "I don't think so", said Hartmann, "He looks too young to be in middle school". "Maybe we can find him through the County School records", said Bowie.
As we walked back to the dumpster. I saw a female member of the R.W.P.D. handcuffing a tramp. I knew this woman well. "Olivia Schoffner, what do we have here?" "Sheriff", she said, "I found this drunkard sleeping underneath a tree, he says he saw something last night". I looked at the tramp. "Is this true?" "D*** right!", said the bum, "I was drunk as a skunk last night and I saw something". "Good, we'll interrogate you at the station", I said as I turned to the detectives. "Alright boys, clean up everything here and gather-" "Hey Sheriff!" said a voice. I turned to one of my deputies who was waving his hand. "I found something". I walked over and the deputy pointed to a pair of baseball sneakers, caked in mud. I took a good look at them and saw a couple of initials on them. "L.L.", I said before turning to Hartmann, "Have these bagged". "Got it Sheriff". "Meanwhile, let's find the idenity of the victim".
EVIDENCE SO FAR:
- A dead boy with white hair wearing a squriell costume. (identification missing)
- Boy's head has a bruise to the temple.
- The boy has been dead since around 10:00 - 11:00 last night.
- Victim has been killed with a hard object, round, hard, and cylinder like.
- The head of the costume with a label that says "Royal Woods Middle School". (Victim is too young to go to middle school)
- A pair of muddy baseball sneakers with the initials L. L. on them.
- 2 sets of foot prints. One set is the size of a childs, the other an adults.