Fighting Harvest

Chapter Eight

It has been almost a month since the first body bag was discovered in the dumpster beside Derrell's restaurant, and there were still more questions than answers as to who was doing all of this.

The discovery of the first body led the detectives to suspect Derrell as the killer, because of his distaste for certain ethnicities, but Derrell had proven his innocence and even led the two detectives in search of two separate suspects. These two suspects were female construction workers who worked on a few plaza buildings down the road from Derrell's restaurant.

This, however, was a false lead as the two ended up only being charged with the possession of illegal substances, not murder. So the detectives were left with nothing but a body, which was untraceable due to how smashed the skull was and its burned fingerprints, unable to identify who this victim was or who was in relation with them.

A few weeks ago the two were notified of a similar body bag that washed up along the park's lake, being called in by a local fisherman who assumed the bag was full of trash and was hoping to find anything of use. This body was able to be traced and identified, now known as Darren Johnson.

Darren's whereabouts were unknown at the time of his demise, as the detectives weren't able to get in contact with whoever may know of his last sighting, besides the victim's brother, also known as Michael Johnson. Michael had requested to speak to the two detectives in hopes of solving any mystery, but all that came from it was that Darren had gotten mixed into some trouble.

He would leave the house at night and return home late into the afternoon, showing off a new bruise or cut, even new expensive items. Having bought a flashy new car and some jewelry before his passing, having been always seen with a honeycomb-patterned ring alongside a black gem ring, but when his body was recovered he wore no jewelry at all.

So for the past few days, Anthony had been searching everywhere for stores and dealers that sell or had sold rings similar to the one Darren had bought but came up empty-handed as not a single thing aligned to the case. This annoyed Anthony greatly as everything he's done amounted to nothing.

Clyde tried to help as best he could, but Anthony would push him away or send him to do meaningless tasks to get him out of his way. Clyde soon picked up on this behavior but kept it to himself, as he knew how stressful the job was, and he knew he'd only be a nuisance.

All hope didn't seem to be lost though, as just yesterday another body had been reported in, similar to the two the detectives were tasked to deal with, although this one was like all the others... pointless.

The bag was found beside the highway, having been run over by accident and left out in the heat for a while, becoming quite rotted and unbearable for the two detectives, but Anthony took it upon himself to check over the disgusting mass of flesh, of course finding nothing.

The two detectives now sat in the break room which resided at the station, Anthony holding his head in his hands as he thought about the case over and over, ignoring Clyde who was seated beside him at the rounded table, sipping on some lukewarm office coffee.

"Anthony please, could you relax for a moment?" Clyde expressed his concern, having done barely anything to help, only because Anthony wouldn't allow him to.

"Why?" Anthony glared at Clyde through his fingers, his tired eyes all the more tired as he had gotten less and less sleep ever since the case started, unable to get it out of his head.

"Because you're acting crazy! Look at you, you look terrible" Clyde argued, having to raise his voice to emphasize how bad Anthony looked. Besides the tired eyes, Anthony's hair was unkempt and messy, as he had also grown some stubble due to the lack of shaving or keeping up with his appearance.

"Maybe if you helped, things would go by a lot faster"

"Excuse me?" Clyde frowned at that since they both knew Anthony was the one pushing Clyde away. If Clyde could help he would, but Anthony believed he had to do everything all on his own.

Anthony sighed as he dropped his head on the table, letting his arms lay out in front of him, closing his eyes "I'm sorry, I just don't know how much more of this I could take" he explained "I hate being so clueless" these words were barely audible as he spoke down onto the tables surface.

Clyde shook his head as he looked down into his drink, thinking to himself that the stress was getting to him too, though not as badly as Anthony.

"It's ok, I know you don't mean that... just, unwind for a bit, ok?" Clyde smiled softly, reaching over to set his hand across Anthony's back as his body was laid over the table. Anthony hummed at this as he gave into Clyde's demands, trying his best to relax.

Clyde looked around the small room, looking for something that could help ease their minds, or distract themselves from work... and what better than watching some television! Picking up the small remote off the nearby counter, Clyde flicked on the Box TV that sat on a podium in the corner of the room, flipping through old channels of shows that had been discontinued.

Clyde soon settled on the News station, putting down the remote as he went back to enjoying his bland coffee, even Anthony tilted his head to lay it over his arm, glancing up at the TV.

The News recently talked about the weather, how the following days were expected to be sunny and somewhat cloudy, with the nights reaching cold temperatures. The next topic was some new renovations a neighborhood was getting, with upgraded streets and floral decoration, it all looked quite lovely. Then a segment about the Mayor came up.

A pre-recorded segment of the Mayor's speech that happened just yesterday, went over a few highlights of what happened and recapped all that's been said. The Mayor spoke about common things like school functions or construction around the city, but he was soon asked about the now-famous murder case.

The Mayor explained all that he could, waving his hands around to keep the attention on him, guiding people's eyes towards his face to keep them interested in all he had to say, but something seemed off. After having compared the missing person's cases to the current murder cases... how people like Darren Johnson or the oldest documented disappearance of Harold Glover could be tied into the murders across the city... the camera was zoomed into the Mayor, allowing people to see the expensive looking jewelry that occupied his fingers.

A honeycomb golden ring and a black gemmed ring.

Clyde paused when he noticed this, fumbling for the remote as he paused the TV, showing the Mayor in some unflattering pose as Clyde swiftly stood up and approached the screen.

"What are you doing?" groaned Anthony who tiredly watched his shorter partner grab an empty chair and pull it closer to the TV, standing up on it to be face to face with its screen.

"Anthony-" Clyde laughed "Anthony!" He tapped at the screen, feeling the soft static shocks on his fingertips though he couldn't care less "Look!"

Anthony pushed himself off the table and out of his seat, stepping up to stand beside his partner, and looking over what he had to show... his eyes widened.

"Holy Shhhh-" Anthony cut himself off, realizing that the rings looked identical to the ones Darren was missing, which meant that the Mayor was a suspect, possibly even a killer.

Clyde laughed as he jumped off the chair "What do we do? Do we document this, or.. or send police there right away?" He asked as Anthony tried to pull his mind together, thinking of what they should do.

"We need to investigate his home, we need to see what he's hiding" Anthony planned "Go get all the documents ready, I'll gather some officers to aid us in the search"

With that, the two ran off to accomplish their tasks. They're going to the Mayor's house.