“They haven’t found the body yet, Ron,” Jim Morrisey told his partner, Ron Hayden. “Until they do, we have no jurisdiction. It’s only a suspected homicide.”
“I know,” said Hayden. “But they found her clothing laid out on that bench over there. Unless she went skinny dipping, the likelihood is that foul play is involved.”
“We’re homicide detectives, Ron,” Morrissey said. “All we have at this point is a missing persons case. They’ve taken her clothing to the lab and they’re going to start dragging the pond within an hour. We can check again for any evidence that the uniforms might have missed, but that’s just busywork, I’m afraid.”
“Dammit, Jim, we can’t just do nothing,” Hayden argued. “We’re detectives, for crissake, so let’s detect.”
“There’s no point in chasing our tails if the alleged vic was so high on something that she stripped and ran naked into the woods.”
“C’mon, Jim,” Hayden said, “what does your gut tell you?”
“They’ll find her body soon,” Morrisey admitted.
(167 words)
Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers from Priceless Joy. Photo credit: wildverbs.
This, That, and the Other 
I think the butler did it.
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It’s always the butler.
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I get that feeling when I read the headlines and they report a person missing…
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You haven’t killed them yet, why?
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They’re my go-to detectives.
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Currently, I’m reading a book called “Death Unmasked” by Rick Sulik. Imagine a man solving his wife’s murder…in the next life. It’s more complicated than that, but a Houston Police Detective near the end of retirement starts remembering his past life where his wife was brutally raped and murdered during a war. Now he’s hunting a serial killer, convinced that his reincarnated wife is the next victim. It helps that the author both is a retired police officer and believes in reincarnation. Your story reminded me of some of the book’s “cop conversations.”
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I may just have to read that book. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but I do like detective stories and it sounds like an interesting premise.
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It is. Got mixed reviews on Amazon. The author actually reached out to me and asked me to review it. He’s read some of my other reviews and appreciated my honest and even-handed approach. As I’m sure you know, I don’t believe in reincarnation either, but I like to entertain different possibilities.
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So sad! He even admitted he thought she has been killed. Great story!
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Yes, it is sad. I can’t imagine being a detective and having to deal with things like this day in and day out.
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Yes, I understand. I couldn’t imagine it either.
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Garry was sometimes a very depressed reporter because he and his camera crew often got there before the cops. They had a police scanner. Drinking made it feel better. Cops drink too. So do fire fighters. Sometimes, they do it together.
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I can understand how an alcohol buzz might help blur the horrendous things they must experience day in and day out.
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Kind of hard to read this one while we have a young woman from the town of Brooklyn Iowa been missing 3 weeks now I think it is. She just vanished after an evening run. It has been on some of the national newscasts, you may have seen it. Good write anyway.
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I didn’t read or hear about it. Sorry if my post triggered you.
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I just feel so bad for the family… that not knowing has to be so painful as a parent.
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I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like.
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Interesting piece of dialogue, I am not usually a reader of crime stories, but I was hooked on this.
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Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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