The Purging of Bridges Valley

Chapter 7

The farm was a complete disaster. Junk was piled high across the yard, three or four vehicles sat rusted on the driveway, and the grass had grown out of hand to several feet in length.  The house was not much better-- the paint was faded and a splotchy brown, the roof was missing quite a few shingles, and the whole structure had an overall lean to it that made it look as if it were sinking into the ground.

Behind it in the back yard an old barn sat and it was packed so tightly that you couldn't see inside.  The main property was open and filled with crap strewn about the weeds. They found the Orourke pickup parked in front of the house off to the side, the driver door hanging open. It was then that the Bridges Valley Police Department gave the all clear to search the Morse farm-- now there were missing persons involved.

Diana had a bad feeling that something had happened there, the feeling only worsening when no one answered the door. In fact, the second she stepped onto the farm she felt a sense of unease, as if someone were watching her.

There was a large hole in the back yard, about five feet wide and six and a half feet deep. It was partially collapsed on one side. One of the officers made an offhand comment that it looked like a grave as they began roping off the opening and conducting evidence collection of the area. Several units were sent to search the barn but they couldn't enter the home just yet.

Diana pulled on her latex gloves and combed the property with Gilbert, sticking little flags into the ground next to footprints and various items scattered around the property. Moments into the investigation a wheelbarrow located next to the hole had been found with dried blood in the bed-- and quite a bit of it. A few yards further and investigators found a shovel, its blade covered in yet more blood.  This was now a potential homicide scene with a possible murder weapon, though as of yet no bodies had been found. Police quickly obtained a warrant and entered the Morse household. The case of the woman who had attacked Arlin Miller was promptly set aside for the time being.

The main house was a hoarder's dream-- stacks of papers and files were crammed on every shelfspace and table, mounds of clothing clean and dirty alike lay in hampers and draped over armchairs-- the whole place was stuffed full of things. Clocks, telephones, old radios and VCRs, all manner of technology from the 40's onward could be found clumped in boxes or stuffed in drawers. The man was a packrat, it was certain-- just like the old barn, the house was tightly packed save for  a definite path that wound its way through the foyer and into the kitchen, living room, stairs and all throughout.

Growing up, Diana's mother had a problem with keeping the house clean. One of her earliest memories was walking through piles of garbage strewn about the house as a toddler, the smell of ripe cat piss and cigarettes filling her nostrils. It had been like that ever since she could remember-- suffering from postpartum depression after giving birth to Diana and having struggled with a mild case of obsessive compulsion, her mother lived in a prison of her own possessions until her death when Diana was twenty-six. This place brought back those claustrophobic memories of being surrounded on all sides by nothing but filth. Her skin tingled as if cockroaches were skittering up her body and she shivered. She banished the thought and tried to focus on the search.

Diana stepped inside and immediately felt an oppressive aura assail her. The place smelled of urine, sweat and something else, something musty and old. The decor that could be seen through the clutter was drearily untasteful and drab-- the carpets were a dark foreboding burgundy and the wallpaper an ugly, faded pink floral pattern, torn in some places and bubbling out due to poor workmanship in others. A couch straight from the 1800s sat piled high with old books whose spines were so worn she couldn't make one from the other.

Diana had been tasked with a preliminary search of the house. It took a few hours to pick through the junk because that's what ninety percent of it was-- junk. After a couple of very tedious hours, in the upstairs bedroom, she found a stack of spiral-bound notebooks filled with what she believed to be the ramblings of an insane person.

The first book was scrawled in tight script and was hard to make out but it detailed loneliness and paranoia. Joseph Morse she knew only by name-- she'd never met the man himself-- but he'd worked up quite the reputation as an antisocial. This notebook was testament to the belief. It was filled with incoherent ramblings and dates, numbers without accompanying information, and sloppy, ugly stick figure drawings. It was creepy, like something you'd find in a serial killer's house in the movies. One entry began with a list of names: Bael, Agares, Vassago, Samigina... 72 names in all. On the next page, what seemed to be a recipe for fertilizer, except it contained ground rodent bones and pig's blood. A note next to it read, "Best used before full moon."

"So, he's certifiable," Diana said. "Check this out."

Detective Gary Brussoe, who had been in and out of the house and property all day, stopped his analysis of a stack of ledgers and took the notebook from Diana. He raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"No kidding," he exhaled a low whistle. He snatched a paper bag from his equipment bin and plopped it in, sealing it tightly. "The guy sure was odd, everyone knew it, but I didn't think he was this out there."

"Most of the stuff I've been through today was mundane," Diana grabbed the rest of the notebooks and casually flipped through them. Yet more ramblings and several hastily scribbled doodles, some of which were particularly labelled with footnotes. "But these notebooks don't seem to indicate he was all there."

Diana couldn't make sense of it. While creepy, nothing immediately pointed to Morse as a murderer. Strange he was, but without the bodies they couldn't be certain. The only thing that they could depend upon were the blood samples.

Later that day Diana was finally relieved and went straight home to think about the circumstances surrounding the farm. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong and that this wouldn't be a normal investigation. Considering the strange call at the Miller residence, it was likely the two incidents were connected.

As she sat down for dinner that night, she tuned in to the local news station and was not surprised to see footage of the Morse farm playing on loop.

Word spread quickly in Bridges Valley about Arlin's arrest, but once evidence of a possible murder had broken, the townsfolk were stirred into a panic. The local news team had driven two hours into Bridges county in order to do a report that night about the situation. At six o'clock, just as Diana began to eat a microwave meatloaf,  the people of Bridges Valley and the surrounding area watched as reporters commented on the scene--  a ripped shawl believed to belong to the now missing Marilyn Orourke and her husband had been found on the Morse property, as well as a wheelbarrow full of blood next to what appeared to be an empty grave. Reporters failed, however, to comment on the two most important and perhaps the most deadly items found at the scene in the bottom of the hole-- a book bound in cracked black leather and a bronze medallion.