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Aug. 16th, 2005 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seymoure“Wrapped Up In a Bloody Bow”
The shots had not been the light ripping sound of the rifle bullets, but more like the heavy thunder of side arms. The shots probably came from Police guns.
The reporters crowded past him into the window area, trying vainly to see anything. It would be ten minutes before there would be anything to see.
Every theory you could imagine flew around the room.
“Maybe he had another gun and was laying in wait for the cops.”
“Maybe one of the parents found him while he was shooting at us.”
“They may have lost him and shot each other by mistake.”
“Maybe the rifleman was a copycat and the real killer caught him.”
It was amazing to Hannibal how much energy people were able to expend on rehashing possibilities that might or might not ever come into the realm of actual investigation.
Then, at the top of the hill, came a sight that was greeted with an urge to applaud that was, thankfully, quelled.
Porter Gates was carrying a body over his shoulder. Other police officers were following him, they all seemed to be smiling and joking among themselves.
Just from the man’s clothes Pappy made an identity connection. The outfit was a janitor’s uniform that was normal uniform for the local school custodians.
He believed the deceased was Wiley Earl. The man had been a suspect in the early killings, but then most everybody had been at one time or another, and nothing was every really concrete in the case.
As Gates drew closer it was obvious that at least two of the shots they had heard had impacted on the man’s head. The man’s face was barely recognizable as such.
As the State Trooper got to the door of the hospital he did not, as one might expect, enter. Instead he dropped the body of the man he had carried down onto the ground. He might have been presenting a fish for cleaning.
His shoulder was covered with the dead man’s blood, but he did not move to wipe it off. He wore it. He wore it as a badge of success. He beamed as the reporters exited the hospital and began taking pictures and asking questions. They had a lot to say to the man who had killed the monster who perpetrated the “Setonville Summer Murders.”
