Mancini
The body was found floating facedown at 7:15 this morning.
Sheriff Hunter and Deputy Mancini stood on the edge of the large pond located due east of the abandoned brick factory site and looked down into the murky water.
The festivities had taken a definite nosedive for one fan…
It was just past noon now, the sun high and hot in the cloudless sky.
Hunter
I leave town to visit my family and all hell breaks loose.
Mancini
Who knew so many fans would show up for the event?
Hunter
Science fiction fans are an obsessive lot.
Hunter
I should’ve anticipated they’d show up in droves –
Hunter
even if just to catch a brief glimpse of some has-been actor being ‘honored’ for the fact that the town happens to have the same name of a character he once played on a long-cancelled TV show.
Mancini
How is your family?
Hunter
Good. They’re moving here next weekend.
Hunter
It’s been a long three months not having them around.
Hunter
But I wanted to get settled in the new job, and city, first.
She got back to business.
Hunter
The victim was from out of town?
Mancini
Yeah. Sam Trusco.
Mancini
The little guy lived on a farm a hundred miles south of here.
Mancini
Doc Stenrude says one blow to the nose killed him – drove a bone back into his brain.
Mancini
He was killed in Room 203 of the Harvester Hotel, then carried out here and dumped – there’s a trail of blood all the way.
Mancini
Doc says time of death was between three and four in the morning.
Mancini
We’ve got the other three occupants of the room detained at the hotel.
The officers drove north on the road that separated the factory from the pond and a residential section beyond, then west on the road that skirted the northern edge of the vast plant site.
Hunter
Whoever killed Trusco must have plenty of stamina – to lug a body all the way from the hotel, around the factory, and out to the pond back there.
Hunter
It has to be a good mile all told.
The Harvester Hotel was situated directly west of the main gate of the old brick factory.
A high fence bordered the entire factory site.
Mancini
You’re still not fully acclimatized yet, Sheriff.
Mancini
There’s a shortcut that runs directly through the factory site –
Mancini
a small open section on opposite sides of the fence that townspeople use.
Mancini
Cuts down the distance considerably.
Mancini
We found traces of blood on that path.
Hunter grimaced, and nodded.
Three men were seated in a small meeting room in the Harvester Hotel.
They were Travis Penner, Kerwin Connors, and Les Huggins.
They were all in their late-forties. Penner and Connors were short and overweight, Huggins tall and thin.
Hunter
Now, the four of you – including Mr. Trusco – had been at the festivities during the day, then came back to the hotel in the evening. Then what?
Huggins
Yeah, we toured around town during the morning, then went to the event in the afternoon, then came back here and sat around talking and watching old TV episodes.
Huggins
And … we had a few drinks.
Huggins
Then we all fell asleep, I guess. Some time after midnight, maybe.
Hunter
Nobody heard anything after that – like a fight?
The men shook their heads, all looking the worse for wear.
Penner
We had more than a ‘few’ drinks, Sheriff. But there was only some good-natured kidding and arguing.
Hunter
How come four of you were sharing one room?
Connors
We had to triple up because of the lack of accommodations in town.
Connors
Les and I are from the same area about three hundred miles north of here, and we hooked up with Sam online.
Connors
He was looking for a room. And-
Penner
I live here, Sheriff. On Ashland Street.
Penner
I met the guys at the event and they invited me back to their hotel room.
Penner
And then I guess I kind of…
Sheriff Hunter turned to her deputy.
Hunter
Okay, I think we have enough to make an arrest.
Hunter
As a local, he would’ve known about the shortcut through the brick factory site to the pond...
Hunter
and been able to carry a body that distance, at least.
