12 Hours of Murder

10:25 AM

10:25 am

Hector panted as he handed Sheriff Brown the clipboard to sign, the beads of sweat visible on his enormous forehead.

“You should cut down on the fried chicken Hector; you’re sweating like a holiday ham.” Brown scanned over the papers, noting the time.

“Sorry Sheriff. Normally I do my work out in the mornings, but I jumped in the car the moment I got the call from Meredith.”

Brown peered up from his initialing to stare at the three hundred plus bear of a man that stood at his six foot eye level. Hector ran his plump stubby fingers all around his face, wiping rivers of perspiration off, giving Brown the impression that sweat was a new concept to his oversize body.

“So how long is it going to take you to process all this?” Brown resumed signing the papers

“Taking it down to the lab now, should have some semblance of an answer in a few hours I guess.” Hector’s gaze lingered over Brown’s shoulder.

“Any idea on time of death?”

“I’d say disembowelment.” Hector’s voice trailed off as Meredith came up behind them.

The Sheriff raised his eyebrow in confusion as he passed the clipboard back to the Medical Examiner. “I said time of death Hector.”

Hector’s eyes slowly changed shape with realization, the dirt slicked face radiating with embarrassment.  “Oh, I thought you said cause of death Sheriff.” He ran his stubby hands down his pant leg avoiding both the Sheriff and Meredith’s confused gaze.

“Well I figured losing their organs had something to do with it Hector.”

Meredith pushed a stray brown tendril from her face and smiled at the Medical Examiner, whose dark skin blazed in return.   Brown caught the brief exchange before Hector waddled off to his truck.

“I’ll process this as quickly as I can Sheriff. Don’t know if it will get us closer to the identity of the owner, but I’ll do my best.”  Hector slammed the van door and sped off with a limp wave out the window for a goodbye.

Brown turned back to Meredith for confirmation of the odd scene, but the tech had simply gone back to work photographing the surrounding area.

“Why do you need pictures of the brush Meredith?”

“Analyze for anything I might miss Sheriff. No worries though, I am almost done.” She walked around the edge of the bridge base, aiming her camera lens into the dense woods around them.

The sound of the deputy’s sirens broke the still air as James hit his brake two feet from where Brown was standing, kicking up a whirlwind of dry dirt.

“Sheriff, we have a problem!” The deputy panted as he leapt from his car, nearly forgetting to turn the vehicle off in his haste to get to Brown.  

Meredith looked away from her still snapping camera as Brown made his way over to the hysterical Deputy.

“Did they find the body deputy?”

James held his knees as he regained his breath, “No Sheriff, a little worse than that.”