Body Drop

Chapter 1- Bodies at Scene

Bodies. Bodies were everywhere. They were laid out in a field surrounded by a wooded area. There was a pattern. Bodies laid out in circles inside one another.

“Wow, this is something,” John commented. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“I should hope not,” Mary his partner responded. “How many did they say?”

John flipped open his notebook. “Three to begin in the inner circle And, then going out, each circle has three more. There are six circles. Total sixty three. Bodies are head to toe. They go left from inside and then in the opposite direction going out with each circle. Outer circle heads go right.”

“So there’s a pattern.”

“Yeah, except the male female thing seems random.” John paused. “Thirty males; thirty three females. Ages seem all over the place but they’re just estimates.”

“Still strange, ” Mary interjected. “Clothing seems random. Some are dressed more formally while others are in everyday duds.”

“And, two have nothing. They’re all facing up though. But, then some have pieces of a wardrobe missing,” John went on. “The officer first to scene has a run down of everyone. Plenty of pics available. I send them to your phone.”

“They want to start bagging them up, ” Mary said pointing to those just outside circle. “It’s going to rain soon.”

“I think I’ve seen enough. The smell is too much.” John concluded.

They were wearing full head masks but they didn’t help much. John backed away and Mary followed. The field was mostly grass. After walking around the perimeter of the circles, John and Mary split up to examine the woods. As they entered the woods where there was markings, the process of removing bodies began. Each body was to be traced before bagging. The process might take a while.

Detectives Mary Knolls and John Taylor entered the area that officers marked as the most likely way the bodies were brought into the field. Mary went first following a trail of markers to what looked like a dirt road that hadn’t gotten much use in recent years. There were some tire marks. The officers had taken a cast and photographed the tracks Mary took a few shots on her phone..

“Looks like someone had tried to erase some of the tracks. I’d say it was at least two people who did this. It doesn’t appear the bodies were dragged,” John stated. “Tire tracks indicate a truck and with that many bodies it would make sense.”

“Where does this road go?” Mary asked.

“Leads to Miller Hill, “John told her. “Its a public road. But, there’s no homes or known structures near by. Road gets little traffic. Area is mostly used by hikers like the ones who discovered the bodies. They went home so we will have to give them a visit.”

“Why did they call us for this?” Mary asked.

“What’s that?”

“Maybe, we’re just a bunch of suckers?”

“No, not this time. Think its because we have a a history.”

“What history?”

“For solving some a weird case,” John laughed. “Once you get a strange one, it kinda sets you up.”

“The Simon case?”

“Yeah. Everyone thought aliens were involved, and you’d gotta think the same. That one was unexplainable.”

“Until we made sense of it. This one will take like forever just to sort through all that body evidence.” Mary turned to go back.

“It sucks but you’ve gotta admit. We got a lot of press. We were everywhere.”

“I remember,” Mary walked on with John catching up to her. “I got a call from my nephew in California. He wanted information for a school thing.”

Back at the field, the two went to their car. John got in the driver’s side. They had to make their way through wild bush till they picked up a dirt road. This was the way the hikers had come so everything was rough going till they got back to the paved road that they had come to spot. It was another part of Miller Hill Rd.

“Miller Hill’s a long roadway. It goes around the area we were in,” Mary stated looking up from her phone. John nodded as he drove on.

“Where were the hiker’s parked?”

“Where we came out. Finding the bodies ended their hike,” he said. “It was the smell. Both of them lost their breakfast.”

“I understand. Glad they told us to bring haze masks. I would lost mine,” she cringed putting her phone away.

As John drove he pointed out the connecting road to the one that they had been on. “That’s where they say the truck came out onto Miller.”

“Should we take a look?”

“Nothing to see really. There are pictures they took but no tracks,” John said as they passed the intersection. “There was nothing else on the road either.”

“This is going to give me a headache,” Mary moaned.

“I have aspirin in the glove compartment.”

“Thanks, but I’ll hold off for now. But, good to know,” Mary said. Should we call those hikers or should we go back to office?”

“Go back to office,” John stated. I want to look at everything we got so far first.”

“Good point,” Mary agreed. “I could use some coffee.”

“Coffee? I could use a drink.”

“We’re still on duty,” Mary reminded him.

“I know but its how I feel. I’ll stop at the Deli before going in”

———-to be continued———–