Crimes In A Small Community

Sometime in the middle of the night, Julie and her boyfriend died.  Right under the nose of the county sheriff's detective.  McGirth wasn't the sharpest pencil in the drawer.  Only last year he boasted of using his silencer to murder two coyotes in his yard.

"They could git my kids, " he justified.

The children are preteens and the coyotes are clearly more afraid of them than to come close enough to do harm.  Besides, parents need to parent.  But this writer forgot, that children today are society's problem, not the responsibility of their parents.

The detective's wife is often seen driving her Lincoln SUV about town.  She and the detective are wide in statue so I suspect this vehicle fits them comfortably. Having said this, I wonder about the former's ability to protect the people in the county who pay him in such a wide condition.

Interestingly enough, the wife was on the board of this community homeowner's association with her next door neighbor and friend, the president.  One would think a detective's wife would know better than to be a part of homeowner association funds going into the president's personal bank account.  When community representatives spoke to the Sheriff's Department regarding this, they were told quietly, "to let this go."  One could only wonder how a detective's salary affords a Lincoln SUV.  We can use our imagination here.  That and family money. Enough to buy into an upscale community.

Detective McGirth lives in front of Julie.  To the right of him is the Pesty family.  The Pesty's have a surveillance camera posted facing their driveway and the road.  Has anyone thought to examine the footage?

The son and his mother have been at odds for some time.  His girlfriend and he were arrested for severely injuring Julie last year.

The deaths of Julie and her friend, were both naked at discovery.  Could the son have caught his mother and her friend in an intimate moment?  Could he have seized the opportunity to destroy both of them?  Could he have been on drugs at the time?  This incident was kept secretive for five days by the county Sheriff's Department.  Until an investigative reporter decider to probe a bit further.  Neighbors were suspicious from the get go.  Both Julie, her son and her son's girlfriend has been in trouble with the law on numerous occasions.

Beth was shopping in a store in town, when the manager of a thrift shop happened by.

"Hey, Beth, how have you been?"

"Fine, except for the allegedly murder-suicide,"  she said.

"OMG, I knew that woman," the manager said.

"She told me there was a man that was going to kill her," the manager added.

Beth contacted Detective McGirth who assured her he would call the

But that never quite sat well with Beth. She decided to pay the woman a visit.

"Hey you, the store looks great!  Love the smell of apple cinnamon," Beth said.

"Thanks, how do you like the store now?"

"It is really attractive," Beth said.

"Should be, you sure donated enough here," the manager said.

"Hey, do you know Detective McGirth?"

"Do I know him.  He is one lazy man.  Didn't investigate the burglary in my sister's house.  He doesn't do a thing!" the manager said.

Beth remember the black stake she found in her yard the day after the moving van damaged her hill
making indentations from the entrance to the community, around the log road encircling her home.

She thought about the documentary she tried to upload to her Mac yesterday.  iMovie uploaded every photo in her computer.  The documentary never uploaded.

Beth thought a minute.

Maybe all of this is a sign.  Maybe it is time to drop the investigation, drop the Missing Time documentary on her extra terrestrial experience.  Evil is brewing right there in Oakwood.

UPDATE:  An informant mentioned this writer that the deceased woman was having an affair with a a family member's husband.  The wife was never questioned.

Coldness Comes

An arctic cold front sent wind barreling out of the northwest spreading its abundance along the eastern United States.  Again. Beth knew the snow would be a cover for so much that was happening. But what?

An early walk to the hill above revealed rabbit and fox had made their way across the land. She hadn't seen the fox in nearly four years.  Wondered about them. Wondered if her gun toting cop neighbor with a silencer killed them.  She noticed more crows around the homestead the past year.  Perhaps they weren't confused by the global warming, but were awaiting carcass dinner.

Without her beloved dogs, she would never know.  They had a way of communicating whatever was in the community.  Racing from one end of the house to the other and looking up told the story.  Now, she would have to develop those senses on her own.

Her senses were developing.  Escalating.  Between the downloads and exhausting winter chill, her body was resting more.  Quieter. She loved being on the mountain.  It is safe.  Natural.  Home.

So much of her landscape was changing. Even nightfall was changing.  About an hour after sundown that the light in the sky seems to fade.  It is as though someone is dimming a light bulb.  A giant light bulb.  It happens in an instant. Then gone.

Beth's bed is near a sliding glass door which leads to a sunroom.  There is lots of light coming into the room.  The bed is a clear tower from which to observe.

Soothsayers and prophets tell us that we may have a few days of total darkness.  The academic mind can not fathom that because there has been no analysis leading to it.  No formulas, no history, no models.  But we know things happen that science can not explain. And I know enough to balance the academic with the realities of life.

It was Tuesday morning and Beth was driving down the eight degree grade. She couldn't  hit the brakes fast enough.  It was an arrow pointed down on the left side of my road.

"It has to be a surveyor marking," she thought.

Later that night, at the annual homeowner's association meeting, Beth asked her next door neighbor about it.

"Did you have your land surveyed?" she asked.

"No, we plan to do that next month," the neighbor said.

"Well, there is some kind of marker on my land.  Will you ask your husband to take a look at it?"

A half hour later a text arrived.

"He says it is an a marker of some sort. "

"That is what we thought," she said.

"You know, Fred filed the legal papers against Mike?"

"I didn't know," Beth said.

"Yes, he would have gotten them a week ago," the neighbor said.

We both thought the same thing.  Mike.

"But Mike was out of town, visiting Edisto Beach.  He took the whole family" I said.

Something doesn't fit.

It was just about a month ago when family members discovered a murder-suicide down the street. Neighbors wondered if someone else did it.  Maybe a burglary or something. The house went up for sale almost immediately.

But what about the marker.  It was placed on the same line as her neighbor's house.  While Beth felt safe enough, she worried about her neighbor.

Then Beth wrote her own letter about the barking dogs to the homeowner's association board.  She had had enough.
Stand tall or get out of the way.