𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 : 4.2k
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𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐘, 𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐌𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 into the police station after school on Halloween. She still had to sort through the other half of those police reports, which made that party at Tina's seem all the more interesting. The most exciting thing that had happened at the station since Owen arrived was a man by the name of Eugene McCorkle demanding to see Hopper. But get this – and this is the exciting part – Hopper hadn't come in for work yet, which meant that Mr. McCorkle was going to sit in the station and wait until he did.
If it wasn't clear yet, the Hawkins Police Department didn't even come close to the hefty, interesting cases that Owen saw on television from time to time. She had even seen some news story about a police chase gone wrong in Philadelphia recently. To be fair, a police chase through Hawkins wouldn't take very long before the criminal got out of Hawkins city limits. But still... that would be more interesting than the pumpkin patch sabotage that Mr. McCorkle was reporting.
At some point, Chief Hopper finally strolled into the building, a cigarette dangling from his lips as usual. Once he removed his coat and hat, he sat down with Mr. McCorkle just within earshot of Owen. She couldn't exactly stop herself from eavesdropping on their conversation, nor would she deny herself the pleasure of hearing the town's latest gossip. After all, she was only human.
"So. you're telling me that Merrill poisoned your farm, because he thinks you poisoned his, which, of course, you didn't?" Hopper repeated, just making sure that he was getting the details right.
"No, sir. And I got me an albi the night he accuses me," Mr. McCorkle replied indignantly. "My Jenny and her boys were in town. I was with them all night."
"Did you actually see Merrill?" Hopper questioned.
"No need. That man done lost his mind. Went around slandering me, threatening all sorts of madness," Mr. McCorkle sighed, causing Owen's ears to perk up. Threatening? Well, that sounded awfully incriminating on Merrill's side of things.
"A pumpkin conspiracy, chief..." Officer Powell commented, causing chuckles to erupt from him and his partner. Of course he and Callahan were listening in, too. Truly, since she started her job, Owen had yet to see either of those idiots make themselves useful around the office.
"Hawkins' very own Chinatown," Callahan's nasally voice chimed in next. However, their sorry attempts at jokes seemed to have no effect on Chief Hopper.
"Listen, Merrill threatening to do something and him actually doing something are two very different things," Hopper pointed out in that no-nonsense voice of his. Owen's eyebrow cocked questionably despite having not looked up from her work. Merrill threatening to pull some shit with Mr. McCorkle's pumpkins and then the pumpkins turning up poisoned soon after seemed pretty suspicious in her eyes. Or at least something worth looking into.
"You got a better explanation?" Mr. McCorkle retorted.
"Cold weather," Hopper said, as if it were obvious.
"It's October," he huffed.
"Yeah, it's a cold one," the Chief replied defensively. A moment of silence stretched through the air, likely due to Hopper's willful ignorance.
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𝐙𝐄𝐑𝐎 ★ steve harrington²
Fanficthe events that took place in the fall of 1983 made it very clear that hawkins is not a typical town. but owen webb and her friends were tricked into thinking that they were part of a one-time fluke. as the one-year anniversary of will byers' disapp...
