Burrows Park


It was quarter past seven when the police officer knocked on the front door of 45 Treacle Lane, Burrows Park Illinois. There was a fierce storm coming and already the wind had reached near gale force. The officer had to hold his hat firmly to keep it from flying off down the street. The man answered the door on the third knock. It was almost as though he had been sitting at the door waiting. ‘Yes?’ he was curt. The somber officer didn’t reply, just took of his hat and bowed his head. ‘Yes?’ the man became impatient. ‘I’m afraid there’s bad news sir.’ ‘Well, get it out then!’ the officer could see the man was irritated as he leaned back on the doorframe. ‘There’s been an accident. Out on the Old Mill Road.’ The man began to get angry. ‘Are we going to be here a long time? Should I put the kettle on? Toast maybe?’ he asked, tapping his foot and crossing his arms. ‘Your wife, Sarah Wellington, has been found on the side of the road. Apparently she was a hit and run victim.’ The man’s face registered no change of emotion. Finally he spoke. ‘Well, if that’s all…..’ he started to shut the door. The officer was stunned. He moved his foot to block the door. ‘We need you to identify the body…..’ ‘Her sister lives across town, Valerie Hall. Ask her.’ With that, he slammed the door. The officer stood stunned on the doorstep for a few minutes before heading back to his car shaking his head. ‘Wooah.’ He jumped in radioed HQ. Burrows Park was not a large town and it did not take him long to track down Valerie. ‘13 Maple drive….I repeat, Hall, Valerie, 13 Maple drive. Over.’ ‘Great part of town.’ He mumbled and shifted the car into drive.

Sarah Wellington tried to force the door of the car open. ‘You can’t do this to me!’ she screamed. ‘Shut up!’ her assailant reached over and smacked her across the face. The blow stunned her.

The officer pulled up into the drive of a small, rundown weather-board house. ‘Charming dump.’ He groaned. ‘Let’s hope Sarah gets a more compassionate farewell from her sister.’ He knocked on the weathered door and it was answered on the second knock. A small framed, but rather large middle aged woman peered out. ‘Officer. How can I help you?’ The officer explained the situation. ‘I’ll get my coat.’ The woman walked back into the house and the officer heard her holler. ‘Darl! I’m just going out for a moment, shouldn’t be long.’ The officer stepped back in utter amazement. First, the poor girl’s husband couldn’t care less about his wife’s death, then her own flesh and blood, her sister, tells her husband she ‘shouldn’t be long’! What the hell was happening here? ‘What hope do we have?’ he muttered, utterly shocked by the past twenty minutes.

Sarah was stunned momentarily, but soon was thrashing around again. She again tried in vain to wrench open the door. ‘Sit still or I’ll hit you again!’ the driver roared. ‘NO! You can’t do this to me!’ ‘I can and I am!’ came the reply.

Valerie accompanied the officer to his car and then the station. The whole way she chatted merrily about her week and her family. She did not express any outward emotion at the task she was about to carry out. It seemed identifying her sister’s body was less of a priority than her weekly bowling and son’s achievements. The officer began to realize why Burrows Park had lost so many officers in the past ten years. He was the thirty-second lieutenant the station had had in that time. ‘They must have been crazy to stay as long as they did. This town is full of nutso’s.’ He muttered under his breath. ‘Sorry officer, did you say something?’ Valerie asked. ‘No, madam, go on.’ ‘Ok, well, as I was saying. My son, Jonathan, recently won a scholarship to Yale! Can you believe it? My son in Yale? I couldn’t to start…………….’ The officer shook his head.

‘You stupid woman! You are making too much noise!’ The driver stopped the car and forced Sarah out. He thumped her and pushed her to her knees. ‘Stop your pathetic whining and stand up!’ Sarah tried, but she couldn’t. ‘I……can’t!’ she sobbed. Her attacker didn’t like this and started to beat her. Sarah didn’t have a chance to protect herself, within seconds she was unconscious.

As soon as the patrol car pulled into the station car park, Val, as she preferred to be called, was out of the car and striding inside. The officer was a bit astonished but hurried to catch up. The Sargent on duty was a big burly man who ‘didn’t take any crap’ from anyone. He saw Val waltzing down the hall and stopped her. ‘Can I help you?’ he asked in his ‘no nonsense’ manner. ‘Just the usual Sargent.’ She answered and continued on her way. The officer was in total shock now. ‘I need to sit down.’ he sighed. ‘And psychiatric help.’ What was up with this whole town? There was definitely something screwy happening. Something in the water perhaps? Sarah Wellington was dead and neither her husband nor her only sibling seemed the least upset, or even mildly put out. ‘Lieutenant!’ the Sargent bellowed. ‘Get up! Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere?’ The officer got up without another word and shuffled toward the room where Sarah’s body would be on show.

Sarah was unconscious, but not quite dead. ‘I’ll have to finish her off.’ He mused. ‘But how? I need to make it look like an accident. Hmmm.’ He thought for a moment before deciding. He picked up her feet and dragged her onto the road. The fog would prevent any oncoming cars from seeing her and they would be over her before they realized. It was perfect. A typical hit and run. The man laughed, it was so easy it was almost hysterical. An unsuspecting driver would ‘kill’ her without actually killing her. Oh what joy! The man jumped in his car and drove away from his wife’s body, grinning from ear to ear. He didn’t look back.

The officer experienced a strange wave of nausea as he reached the door to the room where Sarah was. For some reason he knew he was not going to like what he was about to see. Oh, it wasn’t the body that he was afraid of. No, he has seen many dead bodies in his life. That was not a problem. Then what was it that was gnawing at his stomach? Shaking the feeling away, he turned the handle and walked into the room. He was right. He did not like what he saw. The cold hard slab where Sarah’s body should have been was empty and the blanket which had covered her cold body was folded and placed to one end. It shouldn’t have worried him though. I mean, her body could simply be in another room. But it did worry him, a lot. Valerie was standing in a corner talking to a young female detective who was at the station investigating another crime. The officer could vaguely make out there conversation. ‘……yeah. Every year. Makes you feel kinda sad really. I mean she is obviously trying to tell us something. It so hard on Jack too. Police turning up at his door, the same time every year, reminding him of her once again. It must be so hard to put it all behind you when it keeps coming up again and again.’ ‘Of course. I can’t imagine what it must do to him. The pain subsides for awhile then it is brought all back up again. It’s terrible for new cops too, to find it out the way they do.’ ‘Yeah, they certainly learn the hard way don’t they?’ ‘Yeah….no wonder we lose so many.’ The officer didn’t hear anymore. He blocked it out of his mind. What were they saying? Every year? What? Sarah Wellington dies every year? He didn’t understand. He tried to recall every thing that had happened that night. He was driving along Old Mill road when he’d spotted her. Just a strange lump on the side of the road. He’d put her in the car and radioed the station. An ambulance had come, only to pronounce her dead. They had taken the body to the station and told him to contact her husband. He had and the rest was history. He tried to see anywhere he could have missed some important detail where Val and the detective’s conversation might fit in. He couldn’t. Just then, Val made her way over to him. ‘You ok love?’ she asked. ‘Where’s Sarah? What where you talking about just now?’ he managed to ask. ‘Sarah is in peace love, don’t worry about her. She’s safe now.’ ‘Yeah, but where is her body? Have they taken it for tests or something? And what where you talking about?’ he started to get aggravated. ‘Shhh, honey! Calm down. Sarah is gone. Her body is long gone.’ ‘I do not understand! Bodies just can’t disappear! Why isn’t anyone upset? You? Her husband?’ ‘It’s ok! It’s all over now! Shhhh!’ Valerie tried to comfort him. The officer pulled free from her grasp and ran out of the room. He needed someone sane to talk to. And he needed to find Sarah. He ran from room to room, looking for her body but it didn’t appear to be anywhere. The morgue was in the station, and so was the forensic lab, so there was no reason her body would be anywhere else. He ran into the Sargent coming out of the examination room. ‘Where have they taken Sarah Wellington’s body?’ he demanded. ‘Where have they taken her?’ ‘Son! Calm down! you won’t find her body anywhere in here! She lies peacefully in Burrows Park cemetery. But I don’t s’pose you’ll find much of her there either. Sarah Wellington has been dead for ten years. To the day.’ Peta Nobelius 11.2
PLEASE, people I write ALL my poetry and stories and all you read here is ONLY here. PLEASE, these ARE all mine! I had someone telling me that they have read some of these somewhere else and maybe implying I didn't write them, but PLEASE know I did.<

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