Chapter 4

Life fell into a boring routine quickly. It had been a bore since the first month and it stayed that way for eight months. It was out of the blue. when something really exciting happened. It was sad, but that didn't change the fact that it brought excitement to the Sheriff's department.

Some hikers found a child's body wrapped in a tarp. Since she was wrapped in a tarp everyone jumped right to murder as a cause of death. It took the Medical Examiner three hours to rule that it was indeed the cause of death. Once that happened, we began to work trying even harder to identify her. Since the cause of death was blunt force trauma, we had a violent offender on our hands.

When my shift ended we still didn't know who she was. The tarp wasn't any help it was one of those cheap blue painter type drop cloths. She was about seven years old, so she was too young to be a Jane Doe and too old to be Baby Doe, so we called her schoolgirl Doe for the press. "If you want help, you have to be media friendly," the Sheriff said. He should know, he was the biggest media whore I knew. He was always campaigning.

"So who is that little girl you found?" Ada asked. Ada was the sixty year old night manager of the motel. That made her my landlady.

"We don't have a clue just yet. They always identify them, especially these days," I explained. "It just might take a few days."

"There are some families here who have more kids than they can afford. I hope it wasn't one of those kinds of things," she said.

"Ada, what do you hope it was honey. I can't for the life of me think of anything good that could have happened to that little girl." I said.

"I guess you are right. Still a parent killing their child for no good reason is the worst thing I can imagine," she said.

"It's right up there, I grant you," I said in agreement. "It's been a long shift, I'm going to bed. If anyone comes send them up. I'm also going to turn my cell phone off, but if the office calls ring the room please." That last message was why I went into the office in the first place. Ada usually didn't ring my room while I slept.

I had a white bag with a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit in it. Ada had let me have a coffee maker, so I made a fresh pot of coffee before I ate the biscuit. Ada had somehow managed one of those dorm refrigerators, a tiny microwave, and the coffee maker for me, so I had a half ass kitchen.

While the coffee cooked, I sat at the small low table and even though I didn't want to, I remembered what the little girl had looking like in the blue plastic tarp. It made me queasy but I worked through it. After breakfast I was exhausted enough to sleep. I stripped to my panties and the men's tee shirt I wore to help insulate my body from the cold night air, then I fell into bed.

The very next thing I knew it was five in the afternoon. I didn't feel very rested, but I managed to drag my ass out of bed. I speed dialed the station's duty number. "Warren Country Sheriff's office," the voice said. I thought I recognized every voice in the department but I didn't know that chick's voice.

"This is Deputy Porter could you put me through to whoever is coordinating the Schoolgirl Doe investigation?" I said into the phone.

"No need, I have your assignment for tonight. The Chief Deputy wants you on the midnight tour. You will be working with Deputy Letter. He is pulling the other patrol car to aid in the investigation of the body, so you two will have to cover the calls for the whole county." she said.

We often covered the country with two cars, so it wasn't a big deal, except that we all wanted to work on the Schoolgirl Doe case. "Fair enough, I'll be in at eleven tell the Deputy Chief." I demanded.

There was just too much distance to cover with too few people to do it for me to be a anything but a regular deputy. I half thought I would end up dealing exclusively with the women of the country, but that was just impossible. There was just too much distance and crime for me to be anything but a run of the mill deputy.

As I passed the front desk at 10PM Ada's niece said, "It is terrible about that little girl. I don't guess you can talk about it."

"I might could, if I knew anything. I just don't know a thing yet." I said it as I passed through the lobby of the old style motel. I almost took a moment to walk through the lounge, but decided I might get tied up explaining that I knew nothing. That being the case I drove the Toyota to the Sheriff's Department instead.

The place was empty except for the county's 911 operator. "Lois, I see you are hard ad it," I said to the 300 lb woman. She was probably ideal as a 911 operator. Jobs would be hard for her to find, so she would be dependable and grateful for the job.

"Yes I am, have you heard anything?" she asked.

"No, I haven't talked to anyone all day. They pretty much ignore the new girl," I said smiling.

"Yeah, they pretty much ignore me as well. All I know for sure is there are no kids reported missing, so they are widening the search area, The State Bureau or Investigation has joined in," she said.

"Good they have the best lab. I know they can pull more from the body than we can." I said it hoping our lab guy wouldn't hear me talking smack about him. I left Lois looking at her recipe book. It was how she spent her down time. I could only hope that kind of thing wasn't in store for me. I struggled with my weight, but I did keep up the fight. I watched what I ate, and I ran every other day. I realized that it was my day to run so I would have to find time to do it before I collapsed into bed after my shift.