Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-31424920-20180912211450

 October 19th – 6:17 AM 

Officer Wilson stood with his back to the road. A line of police cars, along with an ambulance and firetruck, were parked on the shoulder. They had formed a wall in front of the small lake, but it was not enough to stop curious residents from trying to steal a look at the scene. A few stood on their back porches, looking across the golf course to the lake that sat adjacent to it. Typically, the subdivision of Beau Chêne was quiet at this time in the morning, but things had taken a turn from their usual routine.

“Nick, I need you over here,” Officer Brooks called.

Officer Wilson did as he was told and stomped the remainder of his cigarette out under his boot. As he shuffled through the grass till damp with morning dew, he lowered his sunglasses. A landscaper stood talking to Brooks. The small utility cart he drove around was parked close by, his cup of coffee still resting, untouched, in the cup holder. Officer Wilson outstretched his hand and introduced himself to the man, who in return identified himself as Richard Sinclair.

“Can you please tell my partner what you just told me,” Officer Brooks asked in a calm, yet still authoritative tone.

“I was on my way to the green on the fourth hole when I noticed something floating in the water. At first, I thought it was just a garbage or something kids had thrown in during the night. So, I pulled my cart over to go pull it out. As I got closer, I realized that… well, it was a person.”

His gaze drifted behind the two officers for a moment. He looked at the body that had been pulled from the water and laid out on a stretcher. He shivered before turning his attention back to the two men in front of him.

“I started to panic at first but calmed myself down and called the police. So, I waited here until you guys pulled up.”

Richard once again looked at the body. Despite it being a considerable distance away, he still felt a slight urge to walk further away. Officer Brooks noticed his line of sight and cleared his throat. The groundskeeper immediately focused back on the two officers.

“I know this isn’t the most comfortable situation for you to be in at this moment Mr. Sinclair, but I need you to pay attention to us. The sooner you can get our questions answered, the sooner you can go home.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that…”

“You’ve never seen a body before?”

Richard and Officer Brooks turned to face Officer Wilson. He stood in silence with a neutral expression.

“This isn’t the first time either of us has seen something like this, and it’s a guarantee that it won’t be the last. I can assure you that it never gets any easier. Now please, is there anyone or anything else you saw?”

“That’s what I called you over here for,” Officer Brooks said. “Apparently, someone called neighborhood security last night about a suspicious person in a lot next to their house.”

Officer Wilson did not so much as raise an eyebrow. Richard twiddled with his thumbs before speaking.

“One of my friends takes the night shift patrolling the subdivision. The security is provided from the HOA by a third-party company. He said that a woman called about a man standing in the lot next to her house. I don’t know any more about it, but I’d be more than happy to give you his phone number.”

Officer Wilson nodded as Richard pulled out his phone and copied the phone number onto a golf score card from his cart. Handing it the officer, he shook Officer Brooks’ hand.

“We’ll have the report typed up at some point this morning before we give your friend a call. Thanks for your assistance. If you come up with anything else that you think could be useful to us, don’t be hesitant to give either of us a call.”

Officer Brooks handed him a card with their numbers. As he turned around, he found Officer Wilson standing by the edge of the lake. He had lit another cigarette and was letting the smoke slowly flow out of his mouth. A cool front had come in during the night, causing the lake to form a thin layer of fog over it.

“Let’s get going, Nick,” Officer Brooks called out. “We have a lot to do today.”

Officer Wilson took one last look at the rising sun. It had just crested over the tree line, causing rays to beam through the branches and into the thin mist that still hung in the air around the lake. He glanced down at the body before stomping the cigarette out under his boot.

 October 19th – 3:06 PM 

Nathan Osbourne stared out the windshield of his state-issued SUV as it cruised down I-12. Although he was not the biggest fan of the vehicle’s poor insulation from road noise, it was not enough for him to make a complaint. The Louisiana State Police treated him well.

“You’re listening to Bayou 95.7, the classic rock of New Orleans.”

He had lost the Baton Rouge station somewhere around Hammond and hated sitting in silence. This station played too much glam rock, but it was the only thing on the air he was able to tolerate.

Although Nathan was positioned at Troop A in Baton Rouge, he had been informed shortly after lunch that he was needed in Mandeville. He had known one or two people with Troop L over the course of his career. They were nice enough, so he hoped the rest of the town would be just the same. Accommodations had been made for him to stay at a bed and breakfast in the older part of the city. It apparently was one street over from the Pontchartrain lakefront, so he had the view to look forward to.

As the exit sign for a town called Robert flew by the passenger window, Nathan adjusted the visor to block out the sun. An old photograph of his son was clipped to the inside. It was taken on his tenth birthday, and Nathan swore that he could still smell the scent of burgers and freshly cut grass hanging in the air.

 October 19th – 6:52 PM 

Officer Wilson knocked on the front door of the Cooper residence. He had spent all afternoon trying to track down the security guard who had been on call the previous night. From the sluggish way he talked and breathed over the phone, Officer Wilson had assumed that the man had been smoking the day away.

“Hello Officer Wilson. Please, do come in,” a woman said as she cracked open the front door.

He stepped over the threshold after wiping his shoes on the ‘a spoiled black lab lives here’ doormat.

“Good evening, ma’am. You must be Mrs. Cooper. I apologize for taking up your time so late this evening. It took us a while to talk to the security guard that you contacted last night.”

“Oh, I can imagine. I could smell the pot on him when he checked up on me last night.”

Officer Wilson would have normally acted on something like this, but a dead girl in a lake was of higher priority at this moment.

“So, I understand that you called security because of a suspicious individual standing in the lot next door?”

“That’s correct,” Mrs. Cooper said while shuffling towards the stairs. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you.”

For a woman her age, she made easy work of the steps. Officer Wilson kept pace with her as they reached the second story. She turned a corner and he followed.

“I woke up around two o’clock this morning because my back started to give me problems. It does this every so often, but it had never happened in the middle of the night. So, I got up to get some pain relievers.”

They entered a bedroom at the end of the hallway. One wall was lined with windows that stretched and took up much of the ceiling height. As the orange glow of the sunset filtered through the glass, Officer Wilson glanced at the lot below.

“I looked out the window and noticed something in the lot. If there had been any clouds obstructing the moonlight, I would’ve missed it. At first, I thought it was a garbage bag. Then it moved, and I-”

Officer Wilson cocked an eyebrow before cutting her off.

“I apologize, but why are you referring to the individual as ‘it’? Am I to believe that what you saw last night may not have been a person, but an animal of some sort?”

Mrs. Cooper blinked a few times before turning her attention back out the window.

“I honestly don’t know what to call what I saw last night. This thing stayed motionless for a few moments. When it began to move, the body seemed to elongate and stretch like a rubber toy. It scurried across the lot and vanished into the ditch at the back of the property.”

Officer Wilson turned and looked at the thin line of trees that separated the lot from the golf course on the other side of the ditch. As he attempted to picture this creature in his mind’s eye, Mrs. Cooper turned to leave the room.

“If it may help with your investigation, you can go search the lot.”

As they walked back downstairs and towards the back door, Officer Wilson continued with his questions.

“Why exactly is the property next door vacant? This subdivision is prime real estate, and I could only imagine what a lot that size with a golf course view would go for.”

“There was a house there at one time. The issues began when the subdivision expanded this street. There’s a large drain pipe that runs underground between this house and the lot and feeds out into the ditch. Whenever there was a heavy rain, the expanded end of this street would drain down here and into that ditch. This proved to be too much, so the ditch would overflow into their backyard.”

She opened the backdoor and pointed towards the lot.

“The property sits low, so it flooded quite a few times. Long story short, FEMA bought the property and the homeowners were compensated. The house was torn down and now we have this wide-open green space.”

Officer Wilson stepped down from the flagstone patio and walked onto the lot.

“Where did you say that this thing was when you saw it?”

“About fifteen feet forward and seven feet to your right.”

Officer Wilson waved a sign of thanks before turning his back to her and rolling his eyes. He had hoped to spend his evening tracing down actual clues, but was now standing in a lot, tracing the path of some old woman’s halocinations. As he scanned the ground for anything that could prove to be useful, Mrs. Cooper called to him.

“Nick!”

Officer Wilson was somewhat startled at the use of his first name. He had introduced himself by his last name over the phone before coming here but had failed to give his first name. Slowly, he turned to face the woman.

“A girl was pulled from the lake right down this street, and that’s not even the worst of my concerns at this moment. I can see the look of doubt in your eyes, no matter how well you think you’re hiding it. What I saw last night was real, and I trust that you think the same thing.”

Without another word, she vanished inside. Officer Wilson continued to scan the lot. However, the sense of doubt he had felt just moments before had dwindled dramatically. Inside the home, Mrs. Cooper cut the final details in her jack-o-lantern. With a smile spreading on her aged face, she carried it to the front of the house and placed it looking out a window. The triangular eyes watched the street, catching the occasional eye of a passing driver.

 October 20th – 7:34 AM 

Nathan sat at a table inside the Country Kitchen restaurant. Although the B&B he was staying at served breakfast, he had read one too many reviews complaining about how it was nothing more than a pre-packaged pastry and day-old coffee. He did not have any exquisite taste when it came to food, but his standards were still higher than that.

“Here you go, hun.”

The waitress dropped a plate of pancakes in front of him, along with a side of ham and a steaming cup of black coffee.

“Is there anything else I can get you?”

“If you can bring me some extra syrup, I’d truly appreciate it. Nothing beats the taste sensation when maple syrup collides with ham.”

The woman nodded before turning and vanishing back into the kitchen. Nathan emptied three packets of sugar into his coffee as the door to the restaurant opened. Officer Wilson stepped inside and glanced around. Nathan motioned to him and the man sat in the opposing seat.

“I thought they had put in the B&B over on Lafitte?”

Nathan smeared the butter over his pancakes and watched the small clumps begin to melt.

“They did, but the breakfast accommodations weren’t exactly up to my personal standard. Albeit, the room was in great condition. My bed was comfortable, and I actually got more than four hours of sleep last night.”

Officer Wilson gave the man a confused glance.

“I take it you didn’t sleep well the previous night?”

“No,” Nathan said after taking a sip of his coffee. “I typically sleep between three and four hours.”

Officer Wilson nodded but kept his thoughts to himself.

Two minutes with this guy and he’s already starting to weird me out.

The waitress returned with a small glass pitcher of syrup. Nathan thanked her and proceeded to drizzle a generous amount over the fluffy cakes and thick cut of ham. As he stuffed a bite in his mouth, Officer Wilson twiddled his fingers.

“So, Mr. Osbourne, wha-”

“Please, call me Nathan. Having someone call me ‘mister’ makes me feel old, and I’m just not ready to accept that yet. I may be forty-two, but that’s already over the hump for a lot of people.”

Officer Wilson let out a short sigh and glanced at Nathan as he stacked a piece of cut ham on his pancakes and shoveled the large bite into his mouth. Despite him consuming food at an alarming rate, the man’s coat hung somewhat loosely over his slender frame.

“Okay, Nathan, what have you been informed about regarding this case?”

“I don’t discuss business over meals. If you’d be so kind, I’d like to finish my breakfast. After that, we can discuss anything you want.”

Without waiting for any sort of confirmation, Nathan dug back into his plate. Officer Wilson continued to sit in amazement as he watched the plate quickly empty.

How long am I going to be stuck with this guy?

Nathan pushed the empty plate aside and took a large sip from his coffee cup.

“Alright, now we can talk business. Regarding your earlier question, I’ve only been informed about the name of the victim. Has the coroner been able to assess a cause of death?”

“That’s why I came to talk with you. I should be receiving a call from him sometime this afternoon regarding that.”

Nathan finished off his cup and motioned for the waitress. She refilled it, and he thanked her by sliding a dollar bill into her free hand.

“Damn, you people really move fast out here. I’d love for the Baton Rouge division to operate with even twenty percent of the efficiency that Mandeville does.”

Officer Wilson gave him a glance of slight irritation.

“Do you understand what regularly goes on in this town?”

Nathan added some sugar into the cup while shaking his head.

“If you ask anyone in the state about Mandeville, the first thing they think of is a normal, suburban area with a great school system. The murder of a teenage girl is practically unheard of around here. The last time Beau Chêne had a murder take place was in the eighties. A district attorney was stabbed while she was out for a run.”

This hardly seemed to phase Nathan as he took a sip from the cup and stared at Officer Wilson with a surprising lack of enthusiasm.

“The neighborhood now has guarded entrances that scan your drivers license. Crime in Mandeville has been limited to underage drinking on the lakefront and the occasional shooting that erupts from a domestic dispute. Even those are years between each other and typically occur in some of the… lesser quality neighborhoods.”

Nathan bit his bottom lip and looked out the window at passing vehicles for a moment.

“What point are you trying to make exactly, Nick?”

Officer Wilson didn’t like his first name being used in professional discussions, except by close colleagues.

“My point is that this town isn’t used to something like this. I can imagine that most people who woke up this morning to the title ‘Dead Girl Dragged from Lake’ on their newspaper aren’t feeling perfectly safe at this moment.”

Nathan rested the cup down on the table and pointed at Nick with a straw.

“That’s exactly the reason why I’m here. Your town isn’t used to something like this occurring. I don’t mean to make Baton Rouge sound bad, but these kinds of things aren’t exactly scarce when it comes to that city. Hell, the first case I worked on was some man named Sean Gillis who abducted, raped and butchered eight women.”

Nick kept his composure calm, but mentally cringed at the idea of such a heinous act taking place.

“I was sent to Mandeville because I was a member of the Criminal Investigations Division for the Louisiana State Police up until a couple of years ago. I’ve since become a member of the Special Investigations Divisions. I’m in no way trying to insult you or your men, but some of the boys up on top were a little worried as to how Troop L would handle this sort of situation. You’re not exactly accustomed to it, and we just wanted to make sure things stayed on track.”

“So, you’re here to baby sit us,” Nick asked. He was no longer even attempting to hide the irritation that was beginning to boil over inside him.

“No. I’m here to give you a helping hand. Should there ever be an instance where I need to step in, then I’ll be there. Don’t think of me as a babysitter, but more of an assistant to keep you in your lane.”

Nick sighed and glanced out the window. Through the thin layer of grime, he watched as a mother and daughter walked to their car. The little girl skipped through the gravel parking lot with such glee and innocence.

“Fine, Nathan. Just keep one thing in mind.”

Nathan leaned slightly forward in his chair.

“Once this is all said and done, don’t think of this case as just another number in the system or a notch in your belt. These are real people with real lives.”

“Don’t worry Nick. That’s the reason I got into this job in the first place. Family means everything to me, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect mine.”

As they stood up to leave, Nathan pictured the photo of his son clipped to the sun visor in his car. For a moment, he swore he could smell burgers and freshly-cut grass again. 