Media Circus: Part 3

From the short fictional mystery series, Body in Cold Rock Creek   

When the TBI got to the crime scene and found out who the victim was they immediately called the Governor.  He notified the FBI and asked them for assistance.  They had Sheriff Stephens set up a perimeter that ran for ten miles up and down Cold Rock Creek Road—five miles in both directions from the Childers’ farm.  The Governor came and gave a press conference in front of Naomi and Edgar’s one hundred and six year old barn.  TTN Worldwide told him that it made for a great setting to announce the unfortunate event.   

Every form of media arrived from all corners of the world.  It was a media circus and an economic boon for all of Cold Creek County including the adjoining towns and cities in the immediate three state area.  There just weren’t that many motel rooms in the overall area so even all the cabins and camp grounds filled up with news related people and gawkers.  The restaurants owners and managers were shouting "Hallelujah!  What recession?”   

The small town of Cold Rock Creek had so much traffic that its ten member police force had to direct traffic down Main Street.  The citizens were all abuzz and many of them had been interviewed on television answering some of the most stupid questions.  Naomi and Edgar were hounded, but neither of them would answer a single question or consent to being interviewed.  That seemed to make them all the more interesting to the people of the world.   

It looked as if the notoriety was going to catapult Sheriff Matt Stephens into any political office or law enforcement office of his choosing.  He was very handsome, tall with blue eyes and black hair, very photogenic and his deep southern drawl made him an instant cult hero.  It was just crazy.   

Corporate moguls in their companies’ private jets flew into the small airport down the road from the farm.  They wanted to get face-time that was being broadcast to the far ends of the earth telling how much Gilbert Mac Waycastle was going to be missed.  It seemed that the only person missing from the media frenzy was the killer.  They couldn’t find Mr. Waycastle’s killer; although, there were numerous persons who claimed they killed him—people wanting their few minutes of fame—but their confessions proved false.   

Turns out Gilbert Mac Waycastle had been hiking the Appalachian Trail.  By himself.  His cohorts said that he liked to go to remote places where he could be alone with nature to think and to rejuvenate himself.  They said it grounded him and he got some of his best ideas on these treks.   

His body got released and the mammoth media followed his remains to a small town in northern Michigan where he was from and where he was laid to rest.  The investigation continued but turned cold.  There just weren’t any leads.  All parties left with instructions to Sheriff Stephens to contact them if he got any new information and they implied that they might let him know if they learned anything new.   

The outside law enforcement agencies were mainly investigating Waycastle’s friends, family and co-workers.  They were looking at major stockholders in his companies to see who had the most to gain from his death.  They particularly honed in on his competitors.   

Life went on and Sheriff Stephens easily won his write-in election.  He just kept plodding on trying to find out who killed the tycoon.  He dug into as much of the man’s past as could be gotten.  Many things pertaining to Mr. Waycastle’s life were part of public record since nearly everything the man did for many years had been recorded as is the case with many celebrities.  He was a philanthropist and environmentalist.  He seemed to have many friends even among folk one would expect to be his enemies.   

“Well,” Sheriff Stephens told Naomi and Edgar as he was having supper with them one evening between bites of Naomi’s fried chicken, “somebody sure as hell wanted him dead.”   

“They did,” Edgar replied to both the Sheriff and Naomi.  “They had, however, the grave misfortune of dumping his body in exactly the wrong place.  They dumped him in your jurisdiction Sheriff and he ended up in the creek on our farm.  I have the privilege of knowing what the killer did not know and that is that neither you nor Naomi will ever rest until you find out who killed Gilbert Mac Waycastle.  The killer does not know that both of you are coming for them.”   

To be continued ….   

©Patty F. Cooper, Elizabethton, Tennessee August, 2, 2014

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