The Kerosene Killer

April 18th (7:30 - 11:00 AM)

7:30 AM

Hazel Falls Police Department

Myers sat at his desk eating a candy bar, eyes fixed on his sports magazine. Shepard walked in with two boys, Jack and Danny, Jack, who was roughly 12 years old and had a small frame, very skinny with dark hair, and also wearing dirty clothes. He too wore a similar rock band shirt, this one did not have a tour date on it, the shirt was red with the same bull skull and unreadable words across the chest of the shirt. 

"Hey Myers, Did you get word on missing persons yet?" Shepard said as Myers looked up from his sports magazine, eyeing the two boys in confusion and then looking at Shepard.

"Nope, still nothing, you look like you've had a busy morning though" Myers replied

"Alright, Get a med kit for him and some food, Also you're going to need to call family services" Shepard said

"What, no mister you can't send us back to him!" Jack cried out

"Family services isn't going to send you back to him, they are going to investigate and get you two a warmer place to sleep while everything gets sorted." Shepard said to Jack

Myers dropped his magazine and began walking the boys down to the break room. Shepard grabbed his shoulder stopping him from walking, he leaned in to speak low enough for the boys to not hear him. "Try to find out what they know about the fire before we get family services over here. We need to help these boys, but they might know something and right now we have nothing."

"Sure thing Shep, Where are you going?"

"I have to go meet Syd" Shepard

8:15 AM

Detective Henry Shepard's Home

Shepard's car sat idle in the driveway of his 1970s model home. The long diagonal sloped roofs with the brick framed pillars mixed with diagonal wood paneling. The house had barely any windows in the front of it. Shepard wasn't fond of windows, it felt too exposed for him to let his guard down after years of working homicide. He waited in his car looking at the house thinking about when they moved here just over a year ago now. He thought about how he'd wanted a nice and quiet town for his daughter to grow up in. One where she could feel safe, he would never have to worry about her being with friends or walking to school.

Just the little things that everyone would want to do in their life, she would have been free to do without a father constantly worrying that something bad would happen. I guess it's just collateral damage to the mind when you work in homicide for so long. The nagging worry about your family's safety. He thought back to how he left Atlanta, I told Syd things would be different here; we were going to build something new. You promised her things would be better than homicide. Shepard thought to himself as he dragged the final puff of his cigarette. He put it out in the ashtray that was overflowing just under his cassette player. He exhaled sharply and exited the car.

Inside his house, Sydney Shepard was in the kitchen dressed in a robe with her braided hair loosely fitted into a bun. Carmel skin glistened from the light that peered through the kitchen window. The sound of bacon sizzling echoed throughout the house as she was scrambling eggs. She was humming a song to herself. The aroma of biscuits, eggs, and bacon drifted through the house. Shepard entered the home, and Sydney turned toward him, their eyes met one another.

"Hey baby, you are getting back late from that call, everything okay?" Sydney

"Yeah, everything is okay." Shepard said eyes veering off down the hall towards his daughter's room. A sense of fear washed over him, churning his stomach. His eyes widened. He began lying about his mental state again. White lies are okay if it's protecting your family, he thought to himself, not wanting to spread his concern and fear to his family.