Mystery on the Bayou

                                                                                        Chapter 3

                                                              Good Eats, Treats and Running Feet                                                                           

     Pete Starky, the handsome green-eyed artist who Sheriff Matthews had hired to do the drawings of the victim and the man Essie saw arguing with him on the bridge were done by Friday the next week.  As promised, the sheriff drove over to Jessie's house at around nine o'clock that morning.

     Jessie and Essie were up and going.  Neither of them slept later than eight o'clock unless they were ill.  Jessie showed Sheriff Matthews in and invited him to have breakfast with the two of them.  "Much obliged," the sheriff said, taking the chair he usually sat in.  While the three of them were happily eating their biscuits and gravy and Jessie and Frank were drinking their coffee, Sheriff Matthews told Jessie and Esther why he'd come by.

     "I came over to tell you that Pete got the drawings of the victim and the other guy done.  And here they are," he said, Pulling two handfuls of flyers out of a brief case that neither Jessie or Essie had seen until that point; for he had hid the case under the table.  The sheriff had a flair for the dramatic.

     He laid a drawing of each of the two men on a clear spot on the table where Esther and Jessie could see them and then give their opinion of how well Pete had done his job.  "These are wonderful!" Essie squealed.  "They sure are?" Jessie agreed.  I had Pete put, 'Do You Know This Man' in bold type at the top of the flyer.  As you can see the suspect's flyer reads, 'Wanted for Questioning in the Murder of 'John Doe.'  I promised you could help me hand them out Essie.  Do you still want to do that?" the sheriff asked her.

     "You bet," Essie said.  "One thing though," Sheriff Matthews started, "I think we're just going to  hang up the flyers with the victim's face on them, not the other guy."  "Why?" Essie asked in a confused voice.  "Well, I got to thinking that if the other guy here," he said, pointing to a flyer, "knows we're looking for him, he just might get out of town."

     "That's true," Jessie put in and then looking over at Essie.  "Yeah.  I get it," Essie said, after swallowing a bite of gravy coated biscuit.  "What I'm going to do is hand out the suspects pic," and he held up that flyer, "over to people we know in town and they can keep a look out for him.  Sound good?" he asked, looking at Esther and Jessie.

     They both agreed it was a good idea.  So after breakfast Sheriff Matthews and Essie begin hanging the flyers of the victim on telephone poles and putting them up in store and restaurant windows all over town.  Esther took one side of the street and the sheriff took the other side.  That task took them about an hour; mostly because people wanted to stop and talk.

     When that job was done, the two of them went house to house together contacting people they knew  and handing out flyers with the suspect's face on them.  Sheriff Mathews told them, should they see this man to get in touch with the Sheriff's dept right away, but not to show the flyers to anyone else.  Then he explained the reason why. 

     After another hour Essie and the sheriff's work was done.  He dropped Esther back at Jessie and thanked her for the help she'd given him.  "Now we just wait and see if anyone comes forward to identify our 'John Doe' or if anyone can give us a name and address for the man you saw on the bridge."  "Yep," Essie agreed, getting out of the car.  "See ya!" she called as Sheriff Mathews pulled away, waving as he did so.