The Investigation: Part 2

From the short fictional mystery series Body in Cold Rock Creek   

A week into the investigation the coroner ruled the death a homicide.  The still unnamed male victim died from blunt force trauma.  It looked like he had been hit squarely in his left eyeball socket.  He had no water in his lungs which ruled out drowning.  Bloodhounds nosed up the creek and found where he went in the water.  There were no signs of a struggle leading the investigators to decide that it was a body dump.   

No one who knew the man came forward; although, his description had been shown area wide on all the television stations and in the newspapers.  No leads.  The sheriff, Matt Stephens, kept coming back to the farm tracing the man’s float back up the creek to see if any piece of evidence had made its way off the subject’s body onto the shore.  No such luck.   

Finally, things died down and Naomi and Edgar got back into their routines.  Naomi had been avoiding the creek, but it was such a beautiful summer morning that she went out early walking along the path on the bank when there right above the big rock many hundreds of feet downstream from where the man’s body had been found she saw something just under the water lodged against a root.   

It had been dry for the past few weeks and the creek was low.  Naomi always used a hoe as a walking stick.  It provided good support and was also helpful to remove snakes from the path and she was happy she had never had to use it to discourage a black bear.  She, however, didn’t feel too secure in the possibility that it would help to scare off a bear, but at least it seemed to make more sense than the sage advice of making oneself appear larger than one was and making lots of noise.   

She got to the edge of the water and stuck the hoe under the strap of what appeared to be a backpack and yanked.  It was quite large and heavy, but it came up dripping cold water.  Naomi thought, I’ll bet that was his.  She bent to look at what she recognized was an expensive piece of gear.   

Naomi had Sheriff Stephen’s cell phone number as they had gotten friendly, because she sometimes walked the creek route with him.  He answered on the second ring, “Sheriff Matt Stephens.”   

“Hello, Sheriff.  It’s Naomi Childers.  I found something.  I think it is his backpack.  It was downstream stuck under some roots.  The water is low.  I fished it out, but I didn’t touch anything.”   

“I’ll be right there Naomi.  Where are you?”   

“Right near the big rock.”  The sheriff knew exactly where the big rock was, because right below it was a good fishing hole where he, and most of the fishermen in Cold Creek County, fished often.   
        

"I’m on my way, Naomi.  Will you stay there with it?”   

“Sure,” Naomi replied.   

When the Sheriff and his deputy arrived he put on rubber gloves and carefully unbuckled the leather closures.  “Nice backpack,” he mused then he let out a long low whistle when he opened the wallet that he found in a compartment inside the pack.   

Deputy Martin asked, “What Sheriff?”   

“I can’t believe we never got a missing person’s report on him, Red.”  Naomi and Red Martin looked at each other and waited until the Sheriff stood up holding the still dripping billfold.   

“It seems that our victim was none other than Gilbert Mac Waycastle.”   

“You don’t mean the Gilbert Mac Waycastle owner of,” Naomi hesitated, “well owner of Gargantuan Technology Systems--GTS?”   

“That and nearly everything else technology related.  One of the richest men in the world.  Wonder why we or no one else recognized him?”   

“Well he was real bloated and part of his face was shattered and had to be reconstructed, besides I don’t guess people who run in his circles watch our local news or read newspapers from our area.  It does seem strange, though, that there was nothing in the national news about his disappearance.”   

“It does indeed,” Matt Stephens replied.  “I guess we are in for it now.”  He pulled out his phone and called the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.  He asked them to send a crime scene investigative unit and gave them the address and directions to the farm after telling them that this was possibly a crime that required more equipment than he had at his disposal.   

“You didn’t tell them who the victim was, Sheriff,” Red Martin said.   

“No I didn’t, Red.  I didn’t want this matter to leak out the way things sometimes do.  We will tell them when they get here.  I bet he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.  If we determine that he had crossed the border into Virginia or was last seen in North Carolina, then I guess that we can expect that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be called in.   

 

The Sheriff asked Naomi to show him exactly where she found the backpack.  He didn’t see anything else in the spot.  He told Red to go back out to his car and move down and set up at the lower bridge that crossed the creek.  He knew that there would be officers combing the creek from where the body had been put in all the way to where the creek entered the river if not farther.   

“Well, Naomi before this is all over with you may even get your creek dredged out.  I know they will leave no stone unturned on this one.  I guess you’d better go back up to the house and warn Edgar that he won’t be having any peace around here for quite some time.   

To be continued ….   

©Patty F. Cooper, Elizabethton, Tennessee July 26, 2014   

All Rights Reserved