'Til Death Do Us Part - Part 21

Buck squeezed into the last of the four seats which were positioned around the break room table. He rested his arm on the table and ran his fingers over an inch long gouge in the surface of the table.

“What's the scoop?” Sarah asked.

Buck listened as Shirley Sue relayed their encounter with Ben and Patty.

Sarah tapped her pen against her notebook as Shirley Sue talked, scribbling down the occasional note. “Hmm, I’m surprised that wasn’t mentioned in Brady’s police report. Did anything else catch your eye?”

Buck looked down at the table and ran his finger along the scratch. “I'm sure we will meet again,” echoed through his mind.

“No, that was about it,” Shirley Sue said.

Buck looked back up as Sarah flipped to a page in her notepad. “I'm not exactly sure what if anything we found,” she said, sighing. “We did stumble upon three homicides in neighboring counties who's victims died from having their throats slit. In each of these cases, the principal suspect is a scorned lover. The men were all mostly if not entirely naked and appeared to have engaged in intercourse immediately before their deaths. It was the exact same scenario again and again, except there was one major inconsistency in Jack's murder. His wallet and watch were stolen from the crime scene, whereas in the other instances, including Johnson's murder, nothing appeared to be missing.”

“So what are you saying?” Shirley Sue asked.

“I’m not sure. These could all just be coincidences, but I feel like there's a connection here...” She gazed into her notepad as though its pages contained another world. She shook her head, breaking herself free from the trance. “In the meantime, why don’t you two go home and get dried off,” she said looking at Buck and Shirley Sue. “Roger and I will stay here and search for a little longer. I feel like the answer is right under our noses.” She returned he attention to the notepad and flipped between a couple of pages.

Buck made a kissing face a Roger and Shirley Sue giggled. Buck felt a sharp pain sear through his leg as Roger's steel toe rammed into his shin. His leg jerked back by reflex. “Son of a gun!” he shouted as his knee bumped against the table. The table bounced and jiggled back to the ground.

“Will you two quit horsing around?” Sarah said, briefly breaking her gaze from the notepad. “Oh, one last thing before you go. We got a call from Patty's mother earlier. Jack's wake is at Patty's house tonight at six.”