Spirit Ch. 08

Some shoe prints, which he had taken the same procedure for as the tire marks, even though he knew one set to be the deputy's. Even a sample of the deputy's vomit was taken, which he had moved around with a stick just to make sure that the deputy didn't throw up on an important piece of evidence. He didn't think the rookie deputy was covering up anything, but there were reported cases of it in the past, and the detective didn't want to take any chances.

As for the evidence on the body itself the city morgue would take care of that, and he would compare notes with them later. Other than these few things there wasn't much to go on. There was no sign of a struggle at the crime scene, so the detective felt that the body had been brought there from somewhere else, and was probably already dead when carelessly discarded, and the car ran over the body.

One thing bothered him though, why leave the body in the open to be found eventually, why not at least attempt to hide it by pushing it a little farther from the roadside? He guessed common sense tended to leave the common murderer, and that murder in itself made no sense. Maybe he was about to hide the body when he realized he was about to be discovered. He dropped the body and sped after the eye witness to his grizzly crime, hence explaining the next crime scene. He then either forgot about the body, or realized he couldn't hide the next crime scene so didn't worry about it. Either that or the killer was daring people to find him. He would definitely test out his theories at the next crime scene.

He quickly found the other set of flashing police lights, and pulled onto the side of the road behind the other squad car. Pulling out his instant Polariod camera and evidence collector's bag, along with the photo of the tire prints, he walked up to the wrecked car and compared the picture of the tire tracks to that of the tires on the car.

"Nope. This isn't the same car that ran that other lady over." He said to the deputy who was now walking over to him. "But..."

The detective was now staring over at the skid marks in the road. He walked over and compared one set to the picture.

"Yes, sir! We have a winner! This one is the same car. These two murders are related." The detective said as he began taking pictures of the skid marks, then the car, the man's body, and then followed the body's drag trail taking pictures of it all the way to where it ended, and the grizzly place where the young man back there was actually killed.

Foot prints were everywhere and the detective followed them around, snapping pictures, until he got the basic idea of exactly what happened. He also made several casts of the foot prints, which thanks to the light rain last night and the muddy, but now dried imprints, was extremely easy to do.

He found a strip of cloth on a branch, presumably the male killer's, though there was actually two, and the other was a female.

In the road he found part of the driver's side mirror, shattered glass from a car window, and scratched paint marks from a car, which had apparently been flipped on it's side and then forced back up right again. The color of the paint was the same as the paint marks in the side of the car in front of the tree. He took a picture of where the stuff laid and then collected what was left of the mirror, the shattered front windshield remains, and a sample of the paint, and placed them in plastic evidence bags.

The police had lots of evidence here to work with. There were even signs of another ghastly murder that took place beside the car, though there was no body just blood, which he also took a sample of, and put it in a small glass vial. Soon the meat wagon arrived there to pick up the other body. A tow truck also arrived shortly after for retrieval of the car, to be towed to the police impound lot, where a forensics team would go over every inch of it.

The detective found he had gathered all the evidence he could for now, and that there was nothing left for him to do, but wait for the forensic's and the morgue's reports to return before making his assessments.

The detective told the deputy that after he crime scene taped the area off a little better going towards the woods, just in case the detective had to return to validate evidence, he would be free to go. The deputy tried to question him about what he thought had happened here, but the detective told him that he wouldn't know anything for sure until the lab reports returned, so he could make his evaluation. The detective then left the deputy alone to finish his work, but before he could leave, the deputy stopped him long enough to ask, "Who do you think probably done this?"

"Well," the detective replied, "We only have one known suspected killer in the area, Jason Chambers, but we still have to collect enough evidence to convict him, and we have to catch the lady helping him too, if it is even him."

Deputy Mockery watched as Detective Jones pulled away. He was now eager to get his work done and leave, after all he had already been here for way more than an hour. As he finished setting up the crime scene tape, he thought to himself that even though he couldn't play a game of chess, that he could still visit his friend Alex for a wee bit and drink a glass of lemonade. He could already taste the lemonade now in his parched throat.

The meat wagon had long finished and left already, and the tow truck was just finished and was taking off as well, just as he was finishing up. He jumped into his squad car and continued on towards his friend's house, which lead him farther down the road, as everyone else had turned around and gone back the other way.

More alert now from all of the excitement, to his surprise and dismay, he soon found a second car which had run off of the road. He groaned, knowing that he wasn't going to be tasting that lemonade today, and quickly got on the radio to try and bring back the meat wagon and the detective, and get a second tow truck sent this way. After making sure that they were on their way back to his location, he grabbed the crime scene tape, and stepped out of his car to investigate.

The car itself had been pushed rather far off of the road, and he probably would have even missed it totally if it wasn't for the fact of what he had seen just moments before. The car was banged up pretty good as well, as if it had been flipped over. The driver's side mirror was broken and the front windshield of the car had been completely shattered.

In the car was a mutilated woman's body behind the steering wheel. Tracks led from the car to the road, a set of foot prints led from the car to the road, but that was it really as far as the deputy could tell. He quickly crime scene taped the area off, as he waited for the others to show up.

The meat wagon showed up first, and together they waited for the detective to show up, while they traded some small talk about last baseball season, and how their favorite teams and players had done. The detective soon showed up to the scene. Having already crime scene taped the area off, the deputy suggested that he travel and investigate further up the road to double check if anything else was out here. The detective himself thought it was a brilliant idea and agreed, mentally he kicked himself for not thinking of doing this sooner.

With the deputy off on his way, the detective opened the car door and took pictures of everything. He compared the tire tracks to the car, and quickly realized that this was the car that had been at the other two crime scenes. The woman had been killed at the other crime scene, placed in the passenger seat, drove here, and then dragged to sit in the driver's seat.

Now this confused the detective somewhat. Why would the real killer even try to make it look like this woman had been on a crazy out of control drive? It didn't make any sense to him, especially since it was so sloppily done.

He let the meat wagon take the body, while he took a few pictures outside around the car. He also made an imprint of the two tracks of footsteps from the car to the road, one of which was the deputies, and the other was the killer's.

After the meat wagon had gathered up the body, and loaded it up in their vehicle along with the other two bodies, he motioned for the tow truck, that had arrived while the meat wagon was just finishing up, to come hook up to the car. After the tow truck had started hooking up to the car, Deputy Mockery returned shortly after, saying that he couldn't see anything else from the road.

Having done all that they could, they wrapped it up. The detective would have a lot to ponder over tonight as he waited for his reports, and the deputy would have to settle on a glass of soda from his fridge, for he was tired and heading home.

Next Chapter Nine "A Fresh Assignment" Steven "Shadow" MacGraw is assigned to investigate the mysterious going ons at Sitting Bull Falls, NM. Unknown to him, he is being sent to take out the spirit in control of the hoard of deadly black widow spiders.

File #: 23

Character Star Power: 3

Code Name: None

Alter Ego: Steven Mockery

Aliases: None

Nick Names: None

Legal Status: Deputy Police Officer

Allegiance: US Law Enforcement.

Sub-Groups: None.

Rank: Deputy Police Officer

Occupation: Deputy Police Officer

Known Relatives: He has a rather large family that includes a mother, father, two older brothers, and a younger sister, and several other relatives such as grand parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, but due to constant family bickering he chooses not to talk to them much.

Birth Date: July 30, 1980.

Birth Place: Gaylord, MI.

Height: 6' 2

Weight: 220 lbs.

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blond

Attitude: Is both very down to earth, but also takes his job very seriously.

Known Powers: None.

Equipment: Standard Police Issue.

Known Skills: Military and police training.

Limitations or Weaknesses: Mortal.

For More Info. See: N/A.

History: Born in Michigan, his family soon moved back to where the rest of their family was and Steven began to become friends with another boy named Alex. They became very competitive with each other always trying to out do the other. Alex usually excelled at school where Steven was good at most sports. Alex and Steven both helped lead their high school to state championships twice. Steven thought he was a shoe in for a scholarship to college, but instead his friend Alex had earned it. Disappointed, and not knowing how else to go to college, he joined the army. He excelled at it, earning the Expert Infantry Man's Badge and Airborne Ranger Status, along with going from a private E-1 to earning Corporal E-4. When his time for service was up, he decided not to reenlist because he felt that since he was serving during a peace time, he was only constantly training and not really making any sort of difference in the world. He returned home and decided that his army training would help him immensely make a difference on the police force, which he has proudly served for three years now. He moved a few towns over from his family and has his own bachelor's pad, spending his free time hanging out with his friends.