At the Edge of Tomorrow

At the Edge of Tomorrow

By

Frank Zenau

This SMASHWORDS EDITION

Is Published by Frank Zenau

Copyright February 14, 2012. By Frank Zenau

Revised January 30, 2015

ISBN 978-1-4661-6093-4

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All characters and events are purely fictional and do not represent anyone living or dead. Opinions and views are expressed herein are solely those of the author / publisher.

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Chapter one

Rape is a violation of a woman’s or even a man’s body and the scars have deep long lasting mental fears and emotions a burglary or a robbery can leave you with a sense of violation. The two men that we later arrested did such utter destruction to my home and personal memories that I no longer wanted to live in it. But Erin, once she wanted us to be together again, loved the house. But Erin convinced me otherwise so we did get it cleaned up to make it our home. After living in it now for several months I’m glad she helped me change my mind.

We arrested two college students for the break in. Even under heavy interrogation they refused to tell us who put them up to it. But I knew it had to be Harry King, because they had some of the best Lawyers to represent them. They asked for a plea deal if they would make full restitution while they did over twenty thousand dollars in damage to my home, I told them to fuck off and they could rot in jail. It was Harry King that I wanted and I didn’t give a shit how long it was going to take.

After he fired his sexy reporters his Gainesville television station tanked but within in month he had a new crew of sexy girls in sexy Sport Illustrated string bikinis reporting the news, weather and sports.

I figured he would make a big stink about me going on television and revealing his exploits on the St. John’s River and his parties with women that could be his granddaughters, instead he up and vanished and his lovely wife refused all attempts to be interviewed by the press.

Harry may have dropped out of sight, but his money was still around. With the election only a few weeks away, his money was at work in the form of Marvin Cooper who was running for Sherriff against Higgins. Marvin was well known around the County and tried for years to get seat on the County Commission, he never won; but we knew Harry was backing him for Sherriff when the attack ads started appearing from Harry’s station in Gainesville.

We don’t have much crime in Blair County but when we do it’s always a big deal to the community and recently crime spree seemed to be coming spades. One was a string of convenient store robberies and one was a break in at one of our Pharmacies that netted thousands of dollars worth of prescription drugs.

While this was a big deal and a serious crime the fact that Marvin owned the pharmacy made it worse and very embarrassing. It didn’t help that he reminded the people and us everyday with attack ads. I wasn’t only concerned about the crime but the impact of the drugs in the streets.

I could see why Sherriff Higgins though about retiring, between doing your job, meeting with your constituents, campaigning, and going to fundraisers, it made for a very long day. I didn’t want him to resign, we made a deal and it made my day even longer.

I just stepped in my cruiser when I got a 911 call on my radio. Don a couple of hikers just found a body at Ford Lake.

I called Jack Danvers at the Station to meet me at Ford Lake. Jack was by far my best cop, a ten-year-old veteran and while he was never flashy, he was always thorough.

We met the elderly couple about a hundred yards from the lake. The woman in her mid-sixties looked pale after I got their name and asked them a few questions I told them they could go home. It wasn’t a pretty sight. We found her tied naked to post on the small dock. My guess it was late last night or early this morning. Jack said while carefully examining her with latex gloves on his hands. I think I’ve seen her around town before. I think she was staying somewhere on Second Street. Looks like whoever did this flogged her or whipped her.

Examining her carefully I replied. I don’t see any defensive wounds. It takes a lot of physical force to get a woman naked and tied up. And it’s obvious that who ever did it wasn’t in a hurry. Except for the rope marks there is no bruising on her wrist and face. Her makeup isn’t even smudged and I don’t see any sign of trauma.

Jack stood up scratching his head. Unbelievable, it’s like she just went to sleep all peaceful like.

We’ll find out how peaceful she was and if she was sexually assaulted once the ME has her.

We took pictures of her just as she was before taking her down when we saw she had two white patches attached to her. One patch was between her breasts and the other on her shaved vagina. Don’t touch it, until we know what the hell it is.

Jack moved her ever so slowly. I’m thinking it isn’t a nicotine patch. He said.

We roped everything off and did a thorough search looking for any clues. We found her clothes neatly folded along with her driver’s license about twenty-five feet in the woods. And about seventy-five feet along the shoreline we found the first package clearly marked ‘Fentanyl transdermal system 25 mcg/hr and the second empty package a few feet from there.

Do you reckon that’s what killed her? Jack asked.

What do you think? Look at her, it’s obvious she was whipped, but there are no signs or other injuries that would be fatal. Let me look this stuff up on my laptop.

Jack pointed the dirt trail and I saw the EMS truck pull, Just ask them.

I did. This shit is bad. George the young driver said.

Could it have killed her? I asked.

Hell yes, it can kill her especially if like you say she’s wearing two of them.

Do you know if Coopers would have sold these?

Sure, as long as she had a prescription. This is a generic brand but by tracing the lot number and code it should be able to be traced back to Coopers.

Her driver license said her name was Alice Holt and she had an Orange Park address. We ran her through the system but she had no local address, but a City search came up with a Holt at the same address.

We were just getting ready to leave when news crew showed up I gave them a brief statement and feeling like shit I drove to Orange Park to talk to the Holt’s. There’s nothing worse than telling a parent that their son or daughter is dead and this wasn’t any easier. They told me that had not seen for several months, but that it wasn’t unusual for her to be gone for long periods of time. On parting they said that they would meet at the ME’s office in Jacksonville to ID the body. I didn’t tell them how we found her.

The parents took it pretty hard and they were a little upset when they couldn’t make the arrangement with a funeral home to take the body back to Orange Park. I had to explain to them that we had to wait for a toxicology report to come back to find out what killed her. Like most parents they refused to believe that their daughter would even think about taking drugs.

Chapter two

Our Sherriff’s building is a few years old and it has more space than we have Deputies. Sherriff Higgins had it built with growth in mind including an unused command and control center. I just returned from Jacksonville and when I started to walk past Aria Thomas our receptionist, a beautiful thirty-six year old African American divorcee who was fighting for custody of her two children, called out. Don, Jack left a message for you. She handed me the note. It read. "Canvassed four block square block area along Second Street. She was seen there but no one thinks she lived around there.’

I started to