Lake Eufaula
an excerpt

Lake Eufaula

By
Kurt J. Welte

Lake Eufaula

In fall, dawn breaks early on the Alabama side of Lake Eufaula. The lake's official name is Lake Walter F. George, named for the Georgia Senator who had championed the development of the lake prior to his death in 1957, but everyone around these parts call it Lake Eufaula. The lake straddles the border between Alabama and Georgia along the Chattahoochee River. Lake Eufaula is roughly eighty-five miles long, and has over six hundred forty miles of shore line. There are countless inlets and bays that offer a peaceful solitude to those who come to enjoy the lake.

The most prominent town along Lake Eufaula is the town of Eufaula. With its restored antebellum mansions and Pre-Civil war period structures at the center of the town, it is a charming place to get away from the high power daily grind of places like Atlanta or the Northern economic power centers. A couple times a year, downtown streets are closed down for craft fairs where residents try to sell hand made quilts, Peanut and Pecan candies, as well as any number of other items from antiques to wooden rockers and wooden pen sets. Tourists pay a good price for these to bring back to their friends to prove that they did go to the Old South. These craft fairs are manned by those that truly exhibit Southern charm and grace.

Lake Eufaula is most notable for it's fishing, primarily the Southern big three Bass-(largemouth and smallmouth), Catfish and Bream. Since the inception of the lake in the late 1950's a cottage industry for fishing and fishing related activities had sprung up. The tourism industry especially that around Big Bass fishing brought large numbers of people to the lake to fish and to hobnob with the celebrities there for the various fishing tournaments. Apart from the tourism industry little else keeps this area of the two states solvent. Rental cabins, private lake lodges of the wealthy and boat docks bring in substantial revenue to the local community, as well as substantial resentment. Quite a number of locals did not like being treated as servants of the new wealthy visitors.

The people of the area around the lake are split between those that have lived there all their lives and are the children of long time residents, and those people who have amassed a sizable net worth elsewhere, and have either moved to the lake for the quiet Southern charm, or just maintain a seasonal residence, either in the Summer due to the heat where they live, or in the Winter to get away from the cold up north. Southern hospitality is still alive here, but it has its limits and it does not take too much for a Northerner to get under the skin of a local who does not appreciate being treated like a backwoods bumpkin.

In October, the fall colors begin to creep into the cypress and Oak trees making for a beautiful picturesque view around the lake. The mornings in early October were unseasonably warm this year and the water level of the lake was down nearly six feet. Many of the quiet backwater bays were mud pits with water lilies drying up on the surface. A few coyotes hunt the mud flats looking for dead or dying fish stranded by the dropping water levels. But occasionally they find other things

* * *

Miller's Slough

Jeremy Morgan was a typical 22 year old boy from a moderately successful family. He was living in the family's summer house at the lake while he was attending the Auburn University Veterinary School of Medicine. The house was on the upper end of Lake Eufaula just north of the town of Eufaula Alabama. From the house it was a forty-five minute drive to school, but that was okay, he could get away from the pressure of classes and enjoy the lake every day. Plus on the week-end, he had a large place to bring friends. In order to have more spending money than his family allowance, he was working a couple days a week at the video store in town. This not only gave him extra pocket money, but exposed him to quite a number of beautiful girls in the area. For a young college student that is the best benefit of all.

Jeremy liked to put in an hour or two of fishing before heading in to work at the Video store whenever possible. Most of the time that was not a big deal, living at his parents Summer house on Lake Eufaula he would just go down to the dock and either cast off the dock, or take the smaller of the three boats out a hundred feet to an old pine tree that had fallen down at the point and fish for big "Lunker" Bass that would hide in the old storm twisted pine waiting for something to come close.

This year however, with the lake down so far due to a drought, he would have to get in the boat and go down to the main channel a little over two hundred yards away in order to get into any good fishing beds. The family dock was just sitting on the muddy bottom of the slough with the three boats the family owned just barely able to float on the little bit of water still under the end of the dock. The night before, Jeremy had seen a large fish jump out of the water in the main channel, and he wanted a crack at bringing in a good one for the mantle. His Dad would be impressed by that.

Once he was clear of the dock Jeremy quietly lead the small boat down the quiet slough looking for signs of a large fish feeding in the slough in case that big fish he had seen was moving to a new spot. As the small boat rounded a bend in the waterway, Jeremy spotted a coyote tugging on a root cluster sticking out of the mud a short distance ahead. As the boat closed the distance, the coyote finally gave up on his prize when the boat was about 15 yards away. It scampered out of the mud flat to the low grass and bushes nearby and watched from safety as Jeremy came within five feet of the prized root. Jeremy noticed a glint in the sunlight coming off the angled root. Turning to investigate Jeremy first noticed a gold ring with a large diamond, and then horrifyingly he realized that the root sticking out of the mud was the bones of an arm with a hand.

This revelation was a tremendous shock to 22 year old Jeremy, instantly he tried to jump back away from the gruesome object. In doing so, Jeremy upset the small craft and backward he fell into the water. In a nearly instantaneous movement Jeremy burst out of the shallow water and back into his small boat. He revved up the small electric motor at the back of the boat as high as it would go while turning the boat around, heading back to the family dock. Once he was back safely on the dock, Jeremy ran back to the house to call 911 for help. He could not believe that something like this could be virtually in his parent's back yard.

"911 are you reporting an emergency?" the woman's voice on the phone asked.
Jeremy hesitated for a second and then realized that a body probably is an emergency. "Yes ma'am… sort of, there is a body in the slough behind my parent's house." He said in a trembling tentative voice.

"Can you tell for sure if the person is alive?" asked the emergency operator. "No ma'am it's not. It's sticking out of the mud and it is mostly bones showing."
Reading the address of the 911 screen, the emergency operator repeated the address back to Jeremy to confirm the location and recorded his name then told him to wait there for the sheriff to arrive. She then asked if he was okay before hanging up.

"Yes ma'am, I just fell into the water with her and it scared me a bit."

"You say that the victim is a female? Do you know her?" the dispatcher asks.

"No Ma'am, there is a ring on her finger that looks like a woman's wedding ring." Jeremy hung up the phone and then looked around for a towel to dry off with while waiting for the Sheriff to arrive. He started thinking about who he should call to tell about this. His parents would want to know and he would really like for someone else to be there now. He also thought about work. He was not due at the video store for four hours, but this might take awhile to do whatever was needed.

Jeremy did not want to frighten his mother about this so he called his father's office to let him know first. His father could tell his mother. The phone rings twice, then it is answered. "Morgan investments, Marshall Morgan speaking, can we help you plan your future?" The voice was deep, strong and self-assured. Just hearing his father calmed Jeremy down a bit.

"Dad, its Jerry. I took the skiff out to do some fishing on the main channel and found a body in the mud. I think it's some lady."
There was a brief silence then "Jerry what exactly did you see? And where exactly did you see it?" His father's voice sounded tight and a bit irritated, much like it had when the Panama City Beach police caught him drinking during Spring Break two years earlier.

"I was down near the mouth of the slough, near the fallen pine tree when I saw a coyote pulling on a root, only when I got close it wasn't a root it was a lady's arm." Jeremy's voice was nearly panicked at this point "There was a big diamond ring on the hand that was sticking out of the mud."

"Did you call the police yet?" his father asked.

"Yes sir, as soon as I could get back to the house I called 911. They said the Sheriff is on the way now." "I thought you & Mom should know, and that you might need to come up here just in case?"
"Don't call your mother, I'll do that." "We should be up there just after lunch time." "Don't talk to anyone else. I'll have my lawyer call you so you know what to say and what not to say."
Jeremy was surprised by his father's last statement. "Why dad, I didn't do anything? Besides I need to call in to work. I do not think I will be able to make it today."

"Don't call the store until after you talk to the lawyer. At this point we do not know what happened to that woman, if the police are looking to make this an easy case, they will stick it on the first person they can." "Don't let it be you!"

Jeremy could see the sense in that, "Dad, I think the Sheriff's Deputy just arrived."

"Just tell them the truth at this point, but do not offer any extra information that what they directly ask for, the lawyers will be contacting you soon." With that Jeremy's father hung up and Jeremy went to the front of the house to meet the sheriff's deputy.

Marshall Morgan put down the phone and walked over to the window over looking downtown Dothan Alabama and stared out into the distance for several minutes without speaking or saying a word. Just a long cold stare. Finally there was a gentle knock at the office door. Turning in a half startled jerk there was his assistant Martha sticking her head in the door and saying "Marsh, it's almost time to go pick up your wife for her doctor's appointment."
Avoiding eye contact with her he replied "Thanks Martha, call the doctor and cancel the appointment and clear my schedule for the rest of the day." "Something has come up and we will be leaving for Eufaula immediately. I'll call you before you leave to let you know about tomorrow."

"There's nothing wrong is there Marsh?" Martha asked.

Marshall looked up at her and said "I think they found Tammi."

*First Victim*

Deputy Sheriff

Chief Deputy Sheriff Karl Watts had been with the Barbour County Sheriff's department for close to fifteen years. He was known as a good solid investigator who stayed with a case, finding leads that others did not see. The other deputies thought he seemed to have a sixth sense about suspects knowing which ones to follow up on, and which ones to quit wasting time on. Most of the rank and file officers respected his knowledge of the Law and law enforcement and experience. Management in the sheriff's department, at least those that had political ambitions was less impressed with him as Karl's steadfast mannerism did not play along with political gamesmanship.

Karl had been married to the first twelve years he was in the department, but that ended in a quiet divorce when they realized that they had grown apart as the years passed. They remained on friendly terms; you pretty much have to in a small community. She worked in the District attorney's office as the deputy District Attorney. Following the divorce, she went back to her maiden name Ashton Scott.

Karl had been paroling the North Eastern section of the county along the Lake when dispatch called to report that a resident had found a body along the edge of the lake shore. Karl turned on the patrol cars emergency lights and sped up heading towards the address relayed by the dispatcher.

When he pulled into the driveway of the lakeshore home, turned off the cruiser and sat there for a few minutes taking things in. This house looked like most of the other "Lake Estates" of the well off crowd. From the looks of this house the owner was one of the more powerful of the group.
The house was huge; there was a tennis court, a pool with a pool guest house and a rather grand dock complete with a waterside bar for entertaining. There was a rather expensive looking houseboat, a speed boat for waterskiing, and nearly run up under the dock a small skiff. These types generally would try and control everything around them, including investigations. Karl spotted a young male coming from the back of the house towards his cruiser at a fast walk. It's time for the dog and pony show to begin.

Karl opened the door of the patrol car and stepped out to meet with the scared looking young man. His initial gut feeling was that this one was not involved in whatever was going on.

"Officer, the body is back this way" Jeremy said turning and pointing back towards the dock visible back behind the luxurious house.

"Okay son, let's go take a look".

The two men walked down a wide cobblestone pathway that lead from the driveway at the front of the house back around the house to the steps of the boat dock. Karl began the interview process.

"My name is Deputy Sheriff Karl Watts. What is your name son?"

"I'm Jeremy Morgan officer."

"Is this your house?" Karl asked looking at the younger man's face for clues.

"No Sir, It is my parent's lake house, they live in Dothan. I am staying up here while I go to Auburn."
Karl did not see any evasiveness or see any signs that the young man was being deceptive. "Do you know anything about the body you found?" Karl looked closely at the face of the young man to see if he flinched or tried to look away.

"No Sir. There is just the arm sticking out of the mud so I really could not tell much about the person other than that ring that looked like a woman's ring. "

At that point they had reached the end of he dock and Jeremy began pointing towards the bend in the slough and the Pine tree lying on the mud.

"It's between the point and that tree in the mud. You can't see it from here, but if you take the boat, you'll see it. It's right next to the waterline."

"I'll need you to go on the boat with me so you can show me exactly where it is, and where you were when you first noticed the body." Karl could tell that the boy was afraid to go back out to the body; most people are like that with the first one they have seen. "For now we will not be getting too close to it. I just need to have the exact spot where you saw the body."

"Okay, the skiff is a bit small for two people, so let's take the ski boat." I would prefer not to fall into the water with it again."

The two climbed aboard the Morgan family ski boat and Jeremy started the engine. As the boat backed up and turned around. Jeremy explained what he had been doing and pointed out where he was when he first saw the coyote, and then where the skiff was when he noticed what it really was.

When the ski boat got to about twenty yards from the spot Jeremy found the arm, he stopped the boat and pointed. "There is the body. You can see the sparkle of the ring". Jeremy pointed to the spot and indeed, Karl could see the sparkle on what looked like a tree root sticking out of the mud at a 45 degree angle.

"I see some wet spots near the arm. Did you go near it?"

"No Sir, I was startled when I realized what it was and fell out of the skiff. I must have splashed it then or when I was fighting to get back in the boat. After that I headed straight to the house and called 911."

"You called 911 first?" Karl Asked.

"Yes Sir." Jeremy said.

"Did you call anyone else?" Karl felt that this could be important. "Yes Sir, I called my Father, I didn't know what else to do so I called him. He is getting my mother and the two of them are headed up here."

The boat drifted the remaining distance to the spot and Karl could see the twisted remains of an arm sticking out of the mud with some sort of material on it that looked almost like bark for the rough texture. There was indeed a ring on one of the bony remains of a finger that had what appeared to be a rather sizeable diamond. If it was real, then two things were obvious. The motive was not robbery, and that the person was one tied to one of the wealthy lake residents. That would spell trouble.

Karl pulled his cell phone out and called back to dispatch. "Dispatch, this is Deputy Watts. I need a patrol boat out here at Miller's slough." Karl paused a second, then added, "Dispatch, send the coroner as well. I confirm there is a body at this location."

"Alright Jeremy Lets go back to the dock and see if there is anything else you can think of that would be important".

"Okay, but I'm not sure what if anything I can help with. Until today I didn't know there was anything there?"
Karl believed that the younger man was probably right, but sometimes by going through the steps, you stumble onto the truth.

Once back at the dock, Jeremy tied the boat to the dock making sure to tie both the front and the rear lines very secure. Then, once Karl had stepped o the boat, Jeremy took a towel out from under a seat in the boat and began wiping everything down and polishing the chrome fixtures. The list thing he did was wipe down the deck of the boat cleaning up a couple footprints that Karl's boot had made.

"Your rather thorough about cleaning up that boat" Karl said " My father insists on making sure that it is as clean when you are done as it was before you started. He will most likely inspect the boat when he gets here to see if it is clean."

As the two made their way back to the front of the house, the Coroner's vehicle pulled into the driveway of the house. Right behind the coroner's as the vehicle of the Sheriff, Gary Hay. The Sheriff was a politician through and through. With his dapper appearance, sparkling eyes and his constant smile he could charm anyone into going along with him. He was the youngest Sheriff in the state of Alabama and had made it known that he was shooting for the Governors office. A body in one of the Prestigious neighborhoods with a large expensive looking ring was bound to draw media attention and he would be here to make sure that he got credit if any was due, and to place blame if anything turned out bad. This case was getting tougher by the minute and Karl was not getting a good feeling about this one.

The Grinning Sheriff went to each person of the small group that was beginning to assemble and shook their hand and patted them on the shoulder. Once he had greeted the neighbors that were assembling and the members of the forensic team he turned his attention to Karl and briskly walked in his direction.

"Karl, what do you have so far?" The sheriff was looking over his shoulder towards the slough and the boat carrying the coroner that was approaching on of the banks. "Is that where the body is?"

"Yes, that's it. Only one arm and possibly a knee are sticking out of the mud." At this point there is nothing to identify the body except a lady's ring with s good sized diamond on it."

"Any idea how long it has been there?" the Sheriff asked.

"judging by the water level, it's probably been sticking out of the water for three or four weeks, most of the body below the mud line is still under the water lever, My guess is that it has only been there a few months at most I don't think it would have been there much longer than that. The accretion of mud on the body is thin so I do not think it was submerged for an extremely long period of time. There appears to have been a thin coating of the mud and the Coyote smelled the decay under it and was trying to feed on it. Otherwise it might have been a while longer before it was found or noticed."

"That's disgusting, those things will eat anything."

"Yes Sir, just like a buzzard"

"One other thing Sir, the owner of this house said that his assistant from his business in Dothan disappeared back during Memorial Day weekend. The last place that she was seen was here."

"I'd say that It looks like you have the victims name and a suspect tied together don't you?" The Sheriff smiled and winked.

"That's possible, but it's too early to say for sure." Karl was a little annoyed that the Sheriff was trying to write if off so quickly. "Forensics is nearly finished pulling the body from the mud. She is trying to maintain as much trace evidence as possible."

"Tell Leann I want a report as soon as possible. And make sure I get your report on this before the end of today. Has anyone from the newspaper showed up yet?"
Not yet, but they will probably be here soon."

"When they do show up, send them over to me for the Department's comment."

Karl had to work and not rolling his eyes at that last comment. Sheriff Gary Hay was determined to make it to the Governors office in Montgomery, and any opportunity to get his name in the Paper, or his face on television, and he will step all over your case.

"Sir, here comes the reporter for the Tribune now."

Angela Snapp was a young and ambitious reporter that had a knack for keeping at you until you slipped and revealed one too many clues. Sheriff Hay checked his hair in the side mirror of his vehicle, and straightened his suit and tie before putting on his trademark smile and striding over to the camera toting reporter.

"Good Afternoon Angela, We're glad to see you."

"It's good to see you as well Sheriff. What can you tell us about the murder?"

"Well at this point we have not confirmed that it was a murder, we have a body that was found submerged in the mud, and until forensics has completed their work, we really do not have any facts to pass on."
Is there an identification of the body yet?" Angela was reaching for her camera to take a picture of the forensic team removing the body from the slough. She started to step around Sheriff Hay. Placing a blocking arm in front of her the Sheriff stepped back into her path.

"Why don't we wait back here out of the way and let forensics finish their work. The sooner they are finished, the sooner we can give you information so you can earn that Pulitzer." Sheriff Hay's face took on an ironic smile and then he winked at the reporter.

Karl was surprised to see a slight smile on Angela's face and what looked like her discretely blowing him a kiss and giving him a sassy wink in return.

Karl was surprised about this new turn, but that would explain why the Sheriff was getting so much good press for the Tribune lately. And why she seemed to know where to show up for everything. It also meant that he would have to be careful what he let the Sheriff know since it would very likely be spoon fed to Angela and the Tribune.

Angela did not fight being held back from the removal of the body. "Can I at least take a few pictures to go with the lead story for the morning paper?

The Sheriff smiled and lightly brushed his hair with his hand. "Why certainly, my left side is the best. With the afternoon light it will look terrific." They both started laughing at that remark

"Okay Sheriff, I'll get one of you if I can get one of the crew working over there in the slough."
Puffing up his chest and sticking out his chin the Sheriff said. "Be my guest."

Angela took a couple quick photos of the grinning man and then turned to get some shots of the forensic crew setting a black plastic back on the boat.

"Deputy Watts, Can I get a couple photos of the house as well."

"I do not think that would be a good idea, It will just encourage people to come around and snoop."

Angela finished taking photos of the area and then rushed back to her car. Karl was trying to figure out if she was rushing back to the tribune, or to meet with Gary? Either way she was out of his hair for now. Hopefully she would just go to Gary for information and stay out of his hair. Karl turned his attention back to the forensic team and headed down to the dock to talk to Leann to see what she had found.
Karl believed that the younger man was probably right, but sometimes by going through the steps, you stumble onto the truth.

Once back at the dock, Jeremy tied the boat to the dock making sure to tie both the front and the rear lines very secure. Then, once Karl had stepped o the boat, Jeremy took a towel out from under a seat in the boat and began wiping everything down and polishing the chrome fixtures. The list thing he did was wipe down the deck of the boat cleaning up a couple footprints that Karl's boot had made.

"Your rather thorough about cleaning up that boat" Karl said " My father insists on making sure that it is as clean when you are done as it was before you started. He will most likely inspect the boat when he gets here to see if it is clean."

As the two made their way back to the front of the house. The Coroner's vehicle pulled into the driveway of the house. Right behind it as the vehicle of the Sheriff, Gary Hay. The Sheriff was a politician through and through. With his dapper appearance, sparkling eyes and his constant smile he could charm anyone into going along with him. He was the youngest Sheriff in the state of Alabama and had made it known that he was shooting for the Governors office. A body in one of the Prestigious neighborhoods with a large expensive looking ring was bound to draw media attention and he would be here to make sure that he got credit if any was due, and to place blame if anything turned out bad. This case was getting tougher by the minute and Karl was not getting a good feeling about this one.

The Grinning Sheriff went to each person of the small group that was beginning to assemble and shook their hand and patted them on the shoulder. Once he had greeted the neighbors that were assembling and the members of the forensic team he turned his attention to Karl and briskly walked in his direction.

"Karl, what do you have so far?" The sheriff was looking over his shoulder towards the slough and the boat carrying the coroner that was approaching on of the banks. "Is that where the body is?"

"Yes, that's it. Only one arm and possibly a knee sticking out of the mud." At this point there is nothing to identify the body except a lady's ring with s good sized diamond on it."

"Any idea how long it has been there?" the Sheriff asked.

"judging by the water level, it's probably been sticking out of the water for three or four weeks, most of the body below the mud line is still under the water lever, My guess is that it has only been there a few months at most I don't think it would have been there much longer than that. The accretion of mud on the body is thin so I do not think it was submerged for an extremely long period of time. There appears to have been a thin coating of the mud and the Coyote smelled the decay under it and was trying to feed on it. Otherwise it might have been a while longer before it was found or noticed."

"That's disgusting, those things will eat anything."

"Yes Sir, just like a buzzard"

"One other thing Sir, the owner of this house said that his assistant from his business in Dothan disappeared back during Memorial Day weekend. The last place that she was seen was here."

"I'd say that It looks like you have the victims name and a suspect tied together don't you?" The Sheriff smiled and winked.

"That's possible, but it's too early to say for sure." Karl was a little annoyed that the Sheriff was trying to write if off so quickly. "Forensics is nearly finished pulling the body from the mud. She is trying to maintain as much trace evidence as possible."

"Tell Leann I want a report as soon as possible. And make sure I get your report on this before the end of today. Has anyone from the newspaper showed up yet?"
Not yet, but they will probably be here soon."

"When they do show up, send them over to me for the Department's comment."
Karl had to work and not rolling his eyes at that last comment. Sheriff Gary Hay was determined to make it to the Governors office in Montgomery, and any opportunity to get his name in the Paper, or his face on television, and he will step all over your case.

"Sir, here comes the reporter for the Tribune now."
Angela Snapp was a young and ambitious reporter that had a knack for keeping at you until you slipped and revealed one too many clues. Sheriff Hay checked his hair in the side mirror of his vehicle, and straightened his suit and tie before putting on his trademark smile and striding over to the camera toting reporter.

"Good Afternoon Angela, Glad to see you."

"It's good to see you as well Sheriff. What can you tell us about the murder."

"Well at this point we have not confirmed that it was a murder, we have a body that was found submerged in the mud, and until forensics has completed their work, we really do not have any facts to pass on. "
Is there an identification of the body yet?" Angela was reaching for her camera to take a picture of the forensic team removing the body from the slough. She started to step around Sheriff Hay. Placing a blocking arm in front of her the Sheriff stepped back into her path.

"Why don't we wait back here out of the way and let forensics finish their work. The sooner they are finished, the sooner we can give you information so you can earn that Pulitzer." Sheriff Hay's face took on an ironic smile and then he winked at the reporter.

Karl was surprised to see a slight smile on Angela's face and what looked like her discretely blowing him a kiss and giving him a sassy wink in return.

Karl was surprised about this new turn, but that would explain why the Sheriff was getting so much good press for the Tribune lately. And why she seemed to know where to show up for everything. It also meant that he would have to be careful what he let the Sheriff know since it would very likely be spoon fed to Angela and the Tribune.

Angela did not fight being held back from the removal of the body. "Can I at least take a few pictures to go with the lead story for the morning paper?

The Sheriff smiled and lightly brushed his hair with his hand. "Why certainly, my left side is the best. With the afternoon light it will look terrific." They both started laughing at that remark

"Okay Sheriff, I'll get one of you if I can get one of the crew working over there in the slough."
Puffing up his chest and sticking out his chin the Sheriff said. "Be my guest."

Angela took a couple quick photos of the grinning man and then turned to get some shots of the forensic crew setting a black plastic back on the boat.

"Deputy Watts, Can I get a couple photos of the house as well."

"I do not think that would be a good idea, It will just encourage people to come around and snoop."

Angela finished taking photos of the area and then rushed back to her car. Karl was trying to figure out if she was rushing back to the tribune, or to meet with Gary? Either way she was out of his hair for now. Hopefully she would just go to Gary for information and stay out of his hair. Karl turned his attention back to the forensic team and headed down to the dock to talk to Leann to see what she had found.

* * *

In the Mud

One of the largest problems of recovering a body buried in the mud is trying to maintain all the forensic evidence while washing away enough material to lift the remains as intact as possible. For instance, if the body was strangled with a rope, fibers around the neck will disappear as easily as the silt that you are trying to remove. If the body is in an advance stage of decomposition, as this one was, then any evidence of poisoning, or knife cuts to the soft tissue would be washed away with the silt. That is where the crime scene experts come into play. The extraction of the body has to be handled very delicately and deliberately so that evidence is maintained and so that the evidentiary chain of custody is maintained.

Karl had several deputies put crime scene tape about 50 feet back from the body and the muddy bottom so that any debris that had washed away from the body before the water level dropped would still be protected. Divers would be searching the channel in what was left of the slough to look for anything that was still under water.

Leann Lang, the Deputy Coroner for the county was starting about 10 feet from the body and working her way toward the body looking for the slightest item that did not look like it belonged in the mud. Each item found was first photographed in its original location, then numbered and cataloged , then carefully put into an evidence container to ensure that there was no cross contamination.
"Leann, are there any clues as to who this is?" Karl asked hopefully.

"I do not see anything that jumps out immediately, but once I get to the body hopefully there is some sort of ID there" "If nothing else, that ring may be noticeable enough to get us an ID."

Karl was hoping that there would be some way to identify who this was quickly so that he could get some momentum on the investigation.

"Karl, One thing that is unusual is what the body is wrapped in." She paused for effect then said "Most bodies these days are wrapped in a sheet, blanket or plastic bags or tarps. This one is wrapped in burlap, and tied with a hemp type twine of some sort."

"What is so unusual about that, there are farms around here?" Karl asked.

"Burlap is not used much any more. Other materials are cheaper to use." Karl looked at Leann trying to figure out the importance of that piece of information, and then asked

"What would be the difference between using burlap and some other material?"

"The larger openings in the burlap would allow decay to occur much faster by allowing greater water flow through the material, while allowing gases to escape and allowing micro organisms in to help digest things. I can't say it was on purpose at this point, but it is unusual to see this material in use."

Karl took down notes on what Leann had said. He would include this in the report. There is no telling what facts would prove to be the most important in the end.

Over Leann's shoulder Karl could see young Jeremy and an older gentleman that was most likely his father approaching the crime scene tape along the bank. Karl began making his way over to the pair.

"Please hold it right there sir. I'm Deputy Watts of the Barbour County Sheriff's office and who are you sir?"

Looking a bit indignant the man replied "I'm Marshall Morgan, this is my property your on." "Have you identified who she is yet?"

Karl Perked up. "That's interesting that you referred to the body as SHE. We have not received confirmation on the gender of the body. Do you know something that would help us here?" The color instantly left Marshall's face as he realized his mistake. "N-NO, my son had said something about there being a woman in the slough earlier and I assumed he was correct. Let me correct that; is there any idea who that person is yet?"

Karl stood there looking at the well dressed man for a few seconds to see if he would start squirming and maybe give up any more information. It sure seemed like this guy knew more that he was saying. "No sir, we are about to remove the body from the mud now and hopefully the coroner will be able to make an identification shortly." "Do you know of anyone that is missing that it could be?"

This time it was Marshall that hesitated before answering. Did this officer know anything about his missing assistant, was the man looking to trip him up in his statements? "My personal assistant in Dothan, Tammi Cramer disappeared five months ago and no one has heard from her since." "The Dothan Police Department have the Missing persons case and are working on it." "That is an amazing coincidence that there is a body right behind your house then. Would you care to speculate about whether or not this is her?" Marshall's face went stiff and he answered "I seriously doubt this would be her. This unfortunate person must have floated into this part of the lake from the main channel."

The Forensic technician, Leann, on hearing this exchange turned over her shoulder and replied; "I doubt she floated too far with three cinder blocks tied to her. I think she pretty much sank where she was dropped"

Marshall Morgan suddenly started to feel cornered and even though he was outside, he felt like the walls were closing in on him. Karl could see that the gentleman was obviously struggling to maintain his calm. There had to be something more here, even though this guy seemed too smart to hide someone in his back yard. Karl knew he had to keep the pressure on this guy, something would come of it.

Karl stepped over the yellow Police line tape and stood next to the two men. "Why don't we walk back over to the house and let the forensic team finish hunting down the evidence here while we talk about any possible victims or possible motives."

Marshall was feeling the pressure from the deputy grow. This guy was going to squeeze him until he talked about Tammi. "Deputy, my son has a job in town to go to, can you finish up with him so he can get to work on time?" "He is a working college student and I would hate for him to lose his job."

Karl could see that the man was stalling at least until his son was out of here. "No problem, we'll finish interviewing him, and then we will concentrate on you." Karl's stern look towards Marshall Morgan was fully understood by the older man. Marshall could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Karl turned his attention the Jeremy Morgan, but kept his father in sight in order to see what things would be sensitive to the man. "Besides what you have told me already, is there anything else that you think could help figure out who did this or who this person could be?" Jeremy responded "Not really, I covered everything earlier when we were talking." Marshall Morgan clearly looked concerned about that last statement. He definitely seemed worried about what his son had said before he had arrived. "Okay, I will be in touch later if we need anything else." "I would ask that you not discuss any of the details of the investigation with anyone around town." "Okay Deputy Watts, I'll keep quiet" Jeremy looked at Karl, and then at his father's stern look and flinched before continuing. "I'll be at work until nine if anything comes up" Karl nodded at him and the young man turned and headed back to the house.

Karl could see the father take a deep breath and set his shoulders. "Deputy Watts, thank you for not bringing up the subject of my assistant around my son." "If that is her, he knows nothing about it." Now it was Karl's turn to take a deep breath and dig in. "Do you think that it is your assistant, and if it is, why would she be up here if your business is in Dothan?" The corner of the man's mouth started to quiver. "I don't know if it is her. She would occasionally bring important documents from the office up here to be signed." "The last time I saw her she had been here to drop off some documents for an upcoming property development project and then left." I did not see her after that, and the documents I signed disappeared with her, she really did disappear without a word." Karl was getting the feeling that that was exactly who this was.

"When was that exactly when she disappeared?" "The forensic tests will most likely be able to pinpoint when the body was left there." Marshall's face seemed to relax a bit. "It was the Friday before Memorial Day. I had come up here early to get the house ready for a party that week-end for business partners Wednesday of that week, and Thursday Tammi came up with a stack of proposals for a land development project that needed to be filled out and taken back to Dothan by close of business Friday to be filed with the probate judge." Marshall turned and looked out over the water. "Tammi stayed over Thursday night and Friday morning we finished up the last document and she headed back to Dothan." "She should have been back in the office by noon. In fact she had a lunch date with the other girls in the office at twelve." "When the girls returned from lunch and she was still not back, they tried to call her. There was no answer so they called up here to see if she had left yet." "How long had she been gone at that point?" Karl asked. "She had been gone about four hours at that point.

It normally only takes two hours to go back to Dothan so I knew something must have been wrong." "What did you do at that point? You said that you had documents that had to be filed with the probate judge that day." Marshall turned slightly and gave a dismissive wave. "I was more concerned that Tammi had not made it back and had not called. That was totally against her nature to do that." "I called a buddy in Dothan and had him check with the Alabama State Troopers office in Dothan for any reports of accidents on highway 431 coming down from Eufaula. Then I started driving down towards Dothan to see if I could find her." "I didn't, not any sign of an accident." "I even found a State trooper at a gas station in Abbeville and asked about any vehicle problems along highway 431 and he said that there were none. That it was a quiet day. I got to the office about three forty-five and she had still not arrived. We looked until about six that night and then I went to my house in Dothan." "The next morning I went to the police department and filed a missing persons report with the Dothan Police Department. They have all this on file if you want to check with them."

"I think I will." "They may have some more information that they have not released yet."

"Was your son here in Eufaula that day?"

"No, he was at home in Dothan with his mother that day." He had finished his finals on Tuesday and had come back to Dothan to spend some time with his friends from high school." "He had plans to stay there for the holiday week-end doing his own celebrating. We had our friends and business associates coming up here to the long week-end." “Right after I reported Tammi's disappearance to the Police, I picked up my wife and we headed back up to Eufaula for the Week-end. We arrived back here just minutes before our guests arrived."

Karl walked around until he could see the man's face and asked "From the look on your face it seems that Tammi was more than just an employee." "Were you involved with her…, romantically?" Marshall's eyes shot up to meet Karl's eyes directly they looked Sad and angry at the same time.

"Why would you think that?"

Karl sensed a bit of evasiveness in the man's gestures and his voice. "The way you talk about her sounds like she was more than an employee. Also, she spent the night here with you alone away from your family, and the fact that you wanted to wait to discuss this until after your son had left." "

Marshall realized that being evasive was not doing him any good. This man was going to keep coming back to it. "Tammi had worked for me for eight years, since I started my investment firm. She has been my right arm the whole time. Three years ago she was the one that talked me into branching into real estate investments, that has proved to be extremely profitable for me." "If I have one person that has helped me more than anyone else, it was her." "To answer your question directly," Marshall's voice faltered as he searched for the words. "Yes, we were involved. It started two years ago during an investment conference. We were in Las Vegas and there was a social mixer the first night. I had a few too many drinks, we started dancing, and I woke up in her room in the morning. By the end of the week, we were becoming an item."
"Did she make demands for you to leave your wife?"
"No, she understood I could not get a divorce, and she said she did not want me to. We carried on when we returned to Dothan. I started finding reasons to work out of town, mostly buying and selling properties up here in Eufaula. She would come up to take care of paperwork and stay over."
"And she was happy just being your mistress?"
"Everything was great for about a year, I bought her clothes, jewelry, and took her places and then she started making demands about a larger roll in the company. I made her my office manager, which did not satisfy her for long. Soon she wanted me to make her a partner in the business. The day that I last saw her she had come up here to try and force me to name her a partner. I told her I would consider it for this fall. She said I should consider it carefully and then left. It was the last I saw her." Marshall looked both relieved and sad now that he had revealed his involvement with his assistant.
"You said you bought her jewelry, were there any distinctive pieces, especially any that she was wearing the last time you saw her?" Karl was thinking about the distinctive ring that was on the body.
"She was wearing a large cocktail ring. The central stone was quite large; almost gaudy it was so big. She was extremely proud of that ring. I gave it to her on the one year anniversary of the Vegas trip. She never took it off."
So you have a picture of the ring or a description that we could use to match it to one we may have?"
"I bought it from Hamilton's Jewelry in downtown Atlanta. They have a photo of it on file under Cramer". Deputy, I've been straight forward with you. Can this be held in confidence? I do not see any reason to upset my wife. Her condition is very delicate, and that kind of stress would not be good for her."

Britney Morgan was sitting in the den of the house looking out on the water and the activity going on there. She was a stunningly beautiful woman, but looked like she had recently been very ill. She had that frail look of someone being treated for Cancer. Karl decided he would tread carefully with this woman.
"Mrs. Morgan, I want to thank you for coming up here today. If there is anything you can think of that we should know about the person that was found in the slough please let us know."
"What has been figured out so far? Do they know who the person is yet?"
"No Ma'am, At this point the members of the forensic team are trying to recover the body as carefully as possible to preserve and much evidence as possible. We should be getting some identifying information shortly."
"My husband says that it looks like the body is just on the back corner of our lot. Is there any idea how they got in to put it there?" the woman was already starting to look tired.
"Yes ma'am, it is just on the edge of your property here. It seems very likely that the body was put there several months ago, before the water level started dropping this year. So far we have not determined if the body was brought in by water or by land and put in the water from your property. That is part of what we are hoping to find in the forensic data."
"I hope you can find a quick answer to all this Deputy Watts, I just want to know that my family is safe in our own home."
"I don't believe that there is anything to worry about for your family. If there was foul play in the placing of the body out there, it was just an attempt to find a quiet place where the body would not be found any time soon. The drought this year just brought it out early."
"That's heartening to know. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I feel much better now."
Karl felt like he had just been handled by the frail woman. She was not an emotionally frail woman despite what her physical condition was.

Britney Morgan had grown up in a wealthy environment. Her family was a large farming corporation. She had attended Auburn University where she was the head cheerleader her junior and senior years before graduating with her degree in agronomics. While she was at Auburn she won Ms Opelika title, and then was first runner-up when she ran for Miss Alabama. Once she had finished College, she returned to the family business just Northeast of Dothan Alabama. While looking for areas to improve in the family agribusiness, she met her father's financial consultant Marshall Morgan. Marshall Morgan was charming and seemed to light up the room when he entered. He swept her off her feet and less than a year later, they married in a Large gone with the Wind style wedding. Even the Governor attended this wedding. A short-time later, their only son Jeremy was born. Britney made raising Jeremy her main goal and doted on him through out his youth.

A month before the end of his junior year ended, she went for a checkup at her gynecologist and he found a mass. That was a little over three years ago. Since then a hysterectomy and several rounds of chemo-therapy had killed off the cancer, but had left her emaciated and left her with an irritated intestine that would leave her bed-ridden for days on end.
Through it all, Marshall had been her rock, always there for her, no matter what had to be faced, or how much help or support she needed, he was there cheering her on, being her shoulder to cry on, convincing her to keep fighting one more day. Without him she would have given up and let the disease run its course a long time ago. She felt that she owed him her life and more then ever, her love and devotion. She would do whatever she had to do to protect him and her family.

*First Investigation*

Deputy Coroner

Deputy Coroner Leann Lang had worked for the county for as long as Karl had been there. She had started right after the completion of her medical training and residence in Atlanta. Of all the people in the Sheriffs department, Leann felt the closest to Karl Watts. He had always supported her and if she asked for help or a favor, Karl was there for her. Three years ago he was there for her when her divorce took an ugly turn. He stayed outside her house at night watching for her ex for two weeks until he tried to make good on a threat to hurt her. She did not know what she would have done if Karl had not been there. She wondered how much of his support for her had been behind his divorce that happened the next year. There had not been anything romantic or physical between them over the years, but she was certain that he cared for her and maybe someday things would change. She knew that she could be happy with him; she just didn't know for sure how he felt.
As Karl walked down the path to the dock, He watched Leann systematically going about her job. He admired her determination and ability to get to the find the cause of death very quickly. He had worked with her since he joined the department. He had felt closer to her than any one else at the county.
"Leann, have you found anything out about the body yet?"
"It is a woman, and that ring the boy saw is a cocktail ring. It must have cost quite a bit from the size of the main stone." Leann held up an evidence bag containing the ring that had caught Jeremy's attention earlier in the day.
Karl looked close and spotted something inside the ring's band. "is that an inscription on the inside?"
"Hang on, it says To Tammi with love MM."
"Well, that fits with the missing assistant to Marshall Morgan, Tammi Cramer. It's not official, but it's pretty certain at this point that it is her."
"He was involved with his assistant? I wonder if his wife knew about it. And if she did, did she do something about it?"
"She is in the house now. I talked to her briefly before walking down here. If she did know about it she is ignoring it. She is too frail to be a suspect unless she had help from someone else, but I don't see her as being involved. Her family is her world. She is much more loyal than he is, she is also stronger than he is despite her health." Karl looked back towards the house. Britney Morgan was standing in the center of the large plate glass window watching the progress of the investigation on her dock.
"She has been watching us like a hawk since they pulled up a half hour ago." Leann turned her attention back to the body in front of her. She was finishing up the tagging process and putting the few items of evidence into the proper bags.
Karl helped her load up the last few bags in the carrying cases and the two of them started moving the equipment to the coroners van where the Body had been placed. "Can you give me a call later and let me know what you have found out. Just about everyone in the county will be calling me every half hour wanting to be updated on our progress."
"Sure thing Karl, Hopefully they are not calling me all the time or I will not get any thing done. Where are you going to be?"

"I'm going to go over to Jack's and get a bite to eat and hopefully be able to go over my notes looking for anything that doesn't fit. Would you like me to bring you anything back to the office?"
"Bring me an order of fried green tomatoes after you eat. And tell Jack I said hello." Leann climbed into the vehicle and started the ignition.
"Alright, I won't be too long."
Leann started down the drive to the main road turning on the vehicles flashing lights and turned onto the road then accelerated going out of sight around the hedgerow of the property.
Marshall and Britney Morgan were on the back deck of the house and were waiting for word that the deputies were finished for the night. Karl Walked around the house to the back deck.
"I want to thank you for your assistance today. The coroner's office and the Sheriff's department is finished for the time being, we may possibly be coming back to follow-up on any evidence that was collected today. If you see anyone going near the Police line tapes out there on the slough please contact the sheriff's department by calling 911. They will be able to get a hold of me very quickly. If you think of anything that you feel may have a bearing on the investigation, please call me at this number." Karl handed his business card to both Marshall and Britney.
Britney Morgan spoke first. "Thank You Deputy Watts. We appreciate you effort to be as delicate as possible today. We will be here for the next two days before returning to Dothan; If you need us after that you can contact us through my husbands business. We have an answering service for after hours that can find us no matter where we are." She stepped forward and handed Karl a business card for Marshall Morgan.
Karl looked at the card to confirm that the numbers matched the ones he had obtained from Jeremy Morgan earlier. "Thank you and have a good evening".
Karl turned to head towards his patrol vehicle and Marshall Morgan followed. "Thank you for not bringing up what I told you about Tammi Deputy."
Karl reached the vehicle and turned as he was opening the door. "I did not think that causing her pain would have served anyone. She seems to be a very good woman that cares deeply about her family." Karl knew his last remark would be emotionally cutting to the man who had betrayed his wife.
"Yes she does, and I'm learning to appreciate her more each day. Good day sir" He genuinely looked remorseful for his indiscretion with his employee.
Karl sat in his vehicle and started his vehicle while the man walked back to his wife and put his arm around her. The pair turned and headed back into the house. Karl pulled out of the driveway and turned the opposite direction that Leann had gone. He was headed to the Miller cafe to grab a bite to eat and to sift through his notes.

* * *

Miller's Cafe

Karl pulled into Millers cafe for a quick bit to eat and for a place to review what he had learned in the last few hours to see where his next move would be. His oldest fried Jack Miller was the owner of the cafe. The Miller family had owned the land around the slough for the last hundred years. When the lake was built they lost about a third of their land, but the remaining two-thirds was worth much more since it was now lake front property. Early on his father had sold some of the land on the South side of the slough to developers for a good price and invested that money into the cafe.
The cafe had provided a good living for the family; he had gone to work in the cafe during high school and continued on after high school as the manager of the cafe when his father became ill. His brother and two sisters were able to go to college on the profits from the restaurant. Jack would have liked to have gone to college but once his brother and sisters finished they moved away, Atlanta, Chicago and New York. He was left to continue on at the restaurant. Sometimes he was bitter about that, especially when one of his siblings would call and go on about life in the big cities.

Karl Liked coming to Millers cafe to eat, the food was always good, it filled you up and the price was low. He always sat where he could look out the window at the lake. Even this year with the water nearly gone from view, it was a peaceful view that allowed him to relax and look at things differently. Karl headed for the table closest to the door to the deck. His friend Jack saw him coming in and grabbed a pitcher of Ice tea and a couple glasses before heading over to join Karl near the window.

"Hey Karl, how's it going today?" Jack set down the pitcher of ice tea and the two glasses of ice on the table.

"It's going slowly today. I just started a new case."

"I noticed the commotion over there on the other side of the slough earlier. What happened?" Jack poured the tea into the two glasses.

"There was a body found out in the mud near the mouth of the slough. It looks like it was there since late spring." Karl looked down at the menu for something light to eat.

"That is terrible a body in the water this close to here and to the homes in the area. Is it anyone we know?" Jack looked out the window towards the down pine tree at the mouth of the slough.

"We are still trying to determine who it is at this point." The waitress had come up to the table and was waiting to take Karl's order. "I'll have a Chicken Fried steak with the fried tomatoes and butter beans." The waitress gathered the menu and then said.

"Anything else for you sugar?"

"Not right now, but thanks."

Karl turned his attention back to Jack and said, "Leann will give us a report as soon as she finished examining the body."

"it's probably a vacationer we didn't have much crime around here before this place got popular." Jack did not think all that highly of the vacationers. He had tried to fit in with them for years, but finally stopped trying when one that he had been dating up and dropped him for another of the vacationers. He had taken that hard especially since they would come into the diner and flaunt their involvement in front of him. After that she just stopped coming back for the summer, probably found a new in spot to play. Since then Jack had gone out on a few dates, but was never as serious as he been when he was with her. Jack was probably right about the body being someone who was not local; a missing local would have been on the Sheriff's department case log.

"You are probably right, I don't have any recent reported them missing long before now. Even someone from out of town should have had someone looking for them by now."

"Well if anyone is going to find it I'm sure it is you Karl. Here comes your food, take a break and eat. I always do better at solving problems after I've eaten." The waitress had returned with Karl's food fragrant and steaming.

Karl arranged his silverware, took a sip of his tea and then cut a bite of the Chicken Fried steak. "Jack, I thing your new cook is possible even a better cook than you are."

"That Lettie is a much better cook than I am. She picked up how I was doing things in a few days and even improved a couple of my recipes. Take a bit of the fried green tomatoes."

Karl turned his attention to the golden brown rounds and cut a wedge exposing the slice of a green tomato. Karl noticed that the batter covering was thicker than normal. As Karl chewed the first bite he noticed some subtle spices that he had not tasted on Jack's tomatoes. "I hate to admit it, but this is better. I didn't think that was possible, what does she do differently?"

"First she soaks the tomatoes in a vinegar and spice solution, that soaks in the extra favors right into the tomato and then after she batters them the first time, she dusts them with the same spices missed with flour before putting the second batter coat on. It takes a few extra seconds to prepare, but you see how much it helps. I'm starting to get even more requests for the fried green tomatoes than ever. I am starting to get more people coming in here more often since word has been getting out about the changes to the menu and recipes. If she keeps this up I'll be able to start vacationing somewhere else."

An interesting thing about people that live their whole lives in a resort community. When the do get to take vacations, they often head to the cities and experience the rat race as a get away. Watching the people racing about grabbing cabs and fast walking from meeting to meeting is sort of like watching the ducks circling around a landing on the lake or a water-skier practice the slalom course. The hustle and bustle of a big city can be a fascinating change of pace for someone who lives in a bucolic place like Eufaula.

" I know I will be eating a lot more of the fried green tomatoes. I may be funding a few days in the city for you! Are you still putting a booth up for the Fall arts festival in town?" If you serve these fried green tomatoes, you had better stock up. There will be huge crowds at your booth."

"I had not really thought about it but your right. That booth normally does a lot of business, and the fried green tomatoes usually sell out first. I guess I had better double my order of tomatoes. It should help pick up business as well once that many people try Lettie's cooking. How's the chicken fried steak?

"It's the best I've ever had. If you have the chicken fried steak fingers along with the tomatoes, you'll have a line a mile long."

"Lettie has improved just about everything that we serve. I think I'm going to kick up my order on everything for the festival in order to keep from running out before it is over."

"Well I can guarantee that Leann and I will be stopping by and eating there. "

"So when are you going to get serious with Leann, you know you are interested in her, and she has wanted you since the divorce."

"Leann and I are friends, and I don't think she is interested in anything more than being friends."

"Are you nuts or just the only one who doesn't see it? She lights up when you show up. Everyone thought you two would start dating right after your divorce. We actually thought that was the reason that you and Ashton got divorced at first, until Ashton straitened us out and said that it wasn't."

"Terrific, my friends are discussing my divorce with my ex behind my back and creating an affair with another friend. That's great!"

"Don't worry; we stopped that a long time ago. Leann pretty much made us stop. She said that if you were interested you would eventually make a move. She's just been content so far with those buddy dates you take her on, but eventually she will give up and move on, and it will not take her long to find someone else."

"But she has never said anything about wanting to get involved. I thought she wasn't interested in anything more."

"No, you were afraid to get involved and it was safe to just be friends. She saw that and asked us to back off. She thought that you would eventually realize what was right in front of you. So don't tell her that I spilled my guts about how she feels. I did tell her that I thought you felt that way and that once you got over hurting about the divorce you would come around. Any chance you are finally getting over it?"

"I didn't realize I hadn't gotten over it. I guess I just started hiding from feeling anything. I was so sure that everything was going perfectly with Ash that the divorce took me by surprise. I still don't know what really caused it. It wasn't that I was messing around, or that she was messing around, I know she wasn't. But out of nowhere she did not want to be married again. But somehow i think that she still cares. I just don't know where things went wrong?"

"Man Karl, you have to let it go. Sometimes it's not that anyone did anything wrong, or that you didn't do enough. Sometimes it just happens that people just drift apart. It's time to move on. Ashton has moved on; and right now Leann is sitting around waiting to help you move on if you would let her."

"I'm not sure where to begin, she is my best friend and I don't want to lose that because I tried to have more."

"Nothing stays the same, either things grow or they die, don't let that relationship die, she needs it, and so do you. Your going to have to move forward or you will end up wishing you had when it is too late. If you do none of your friends will forgive you."

Karl knew that Jack was right, it was time to stop being afraid of having his heart broken again, and he did care for Leann very much. She was the type of woman that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. If Jack was right, that she had already been waiting on him, then his reasoning for not moving for forward were pretty lame, he would lose her if she got tired of waiting.

"Okay, I'll talk to her about it. I don't want to lose her, or my friends. Thanks for finally breaking your silence Jack."

"No problem here comes Leann's fried green tomatoes and I through in some of the new steak fingers as well. Now go over there and start making both of you happy. It's time Karl.

Karl grabbed the food and headed over to the register to pay. "Thanks Jack, you're right it’s time to move on and start living again. Wish me luck."

"You don't need luck, just the nerve to go through with it. She's waiting for you to begin."

Karl pocketed his change from the waitress and gathered up the package of food for Leann. Now he would have to figure out how to bring this up to Leann without looking totally foolish.

* * *

Breaking the Ice

Karl arrived at the Coroner's office and carried the sac of food inside to the office. He set the food on Leann's desk and then headed back the examination room in the back to let Leann know he was there. He stopped outside the exam room and looked in through the large plate glass window. Since it was after hours and no one was in the office, Leann had left the blinds of the room open to allow her to see if any one was in the outer office area. During the daytime, the blinds were normally closed to maintain the privacy of the person being examined. Leann saw Karl come up to the window and motion her to come on out. She signaled that she would be out in five minutes. He gave her the Okay sign and headed to the front office area. Leann covered up the body that she was evaluating and washed up, putting her exam apron and face shield on a hook near the door.

"Thank goodness you remembered me. I was really starting to get weak. What did you bring me?" Leann sat at her desk and cleared off several files freeing up her desktop for the food that Karl had brought.

"Well you said to bring you some of the fried green tomatoes so there is a large order of those and Jack threw in some of his steak fingers when he heard it was for you. I think he likes you nearly as much as I do!" Karl was testing her response about his caring for her.

Leann took a bite of one the fried tomato slices. "Wow, these taste better than usual. He must really like me. So where does that leave you? How much do you like me?" She had a devilish smile as she tested the rest of the meal. She hoped Karl would answer that last question.

"His new cook Lettie has upgraded most of his recipes and they are fantastic. I knew you would like them. As for the question of where that leaves me, working real hard to stay ahead of Jack apparently. I am realizing that what I've been looking for has been right in front of me." Karl could feel his knees shaking and hoped it did not show.

Leann was stunned. What she had been hoping would happen for the last two years had just happened; Karl was noticing that she was available and cared about him. She wanted to jump up and give him a hug, and she also wanted to jump up and slap him up the side of the head for taking so long to show interest. She had nearly consigned herself to just being a friend for ever. She had started to think that Karl just did not care for her in a romantic way. That thought had hurt, but apparently all that was about to change.

"I was beginning to think you never would think about me as more than a friend. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks." With that she did jump up and hug Karl's neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Now help me eat these. There are way more than I can finish all this and I still have to finish gathering the lab samples to get them sent off first thing in the morning.

"Sure, I would love to help you with those. So are you interested in me?"

"Yes Karl, since right after my divorce, but I knew it was not possible with you being married. Then out of the blue you and Ashton got divorced, suddenly it was seeming like it was a possibility. I just wanted to wait until you were over being divorced before letting you know how I feel. Unfortunately you needed space for longer than I thought. And honestly, I was about to give up on us ever being together. I'm glad to see it was not for nothing.

"I apologize for not noticing that you were interested."

"It is ironic that the departments lead investigator did not notice that someone right next to him is interested in him." Leann was smiling at Karl as he gradually turned red.

"In my defense I will point out that you were trying to hide it. Jack said you threatened everyone to be quiet about it. You were just too cleaver for me to catch."

"Okay, I'll let you get away with that for now. So where does that put us now? Where do you see this going?

"I'm not really sure where it is going? You have been my best friend for the last couple years, we go out to eat together, we talk about what is happening in our lives, but we, or at least I have been avoiding how much we mean to each other. It was safer to not say anything, no risk of losing my best friend. But now I'm worried that if I don't move on I could lose her anyway."

"If you are just speaking up because you think you will lose me, then this will not go far and that could end badly. I will always be your best friend for as long as you want me to be. But Yes I would like to see us move to something else, more than just buddies, but not out of fear of losing you, but because I believe that there is much more between us than just buddies. Hopefully we will stay best friends and develop something more along with it. I don't want to lose my best friend either." Just then the front door of the Coroner's office opens and in walks the Coroner and the District attorney.

"Well good evening deputy Watts. I see you brought Leann something to eat. She has a tendency to keep working without stopping for trivial activities like food or sleep. I trust you are going to help take care of her then?"

"Yes Sir Dr Jacobson, as much as she will let me." Karl smiled over at Leann.

"Good it's about time; I mean it's about time that someone was watching out for her." Leann raised an eyebrow at her boss and a crooked smile before nodding her head slightly towards his office.

"I guess the DA and I will let you to get back to discussing the case." The DA and the Coroner both chuckled on their way into Bradford Jacobson's office where Bradford took one last look and then shut the door.

Karl shook his head in disbelief. "Am I really the only one that did not know? Even the DA seemed to know about it. Maybe I should just retire and sell fishing bait for a living."

"If you do, Bradford will probably run you off. He is planning on doing that in about a year or two when he retires. He will not want the competition. But yes I think that most people that have seen us together could figure out how we feel."

"Now I had better get back to working up the cause of death and see what I can find in the muck around the body so you can go out and arrest someone or the DA will be giving us all a hard time."

"I see tired of me already. Okay I'll go. We'll finish talking tomorrow. By the way, your boss keeps peaking through the blinds at us."

"I know, but I like him a lot. He's a good man." Leann waved at the window blinds and they suddenly jiggled as Bradford jumped back trying not to be seen.

Karl clutched Leann's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before heading out the door back to the sheriff's department to finish up the reports for the Sheriff. Sheriff Hay would want them first thing in the morning. Heading back to the car he thought about what this change between Leann and him meant.

*Politics*

Sheriff Hay

One full day into the investigation and Karl did not have much that he thought would help solve the case. While the Morgan's were at the center of every part of this case, it really did not feel like either of the two parents would be involved, and the son, Jeremy really did not seem likely from the start. He would have to get down to old fashioned detective work for this one. And at the same time try keep everyone out of his way long enough to figure out what happened.

Sheriff Hay met Karl coming down the hallway. "Karl, I need to see you in my office." The Sheriff spun on his heels and stepped back into his office. Karl shook his head and followed the man into the office. "Close the door Karl".
Karl closed the door and then stood directly in front of the Sheriff's desk, it was a habit carried over from the military when you are called into your superior officer's office. "Karl, please sit down, this is informal"
Karl did as the Sheriff requested, he sat down and tried to look not quite so formal. "Is something up sir?"
"Yes there is, but not directly effecting this department. The end of November is coming and if I want to run for the next Governor's race. That means I will have to start building a campaign and means I need to have a good solid record of closing cases. That means you need to quickly come up with someone as a suspect and file charges."

"Sir, I thing it would look bad for the whole department if we end up charging the wrong person. Right now the Morgan's are as close to a suspect as we have, but I do not believe that they are involved with the death. And they do appear to have significant political clout. When the assistant disappeared in May, both Dothan Police and the Troopers were up here interviewing people and they did not notify us. It appears they were trying to keep it quiet."
"Are you sure about Dothan and the Troopers being here?"

"Jack Miller said he was interviewed by both the troopers and Dothan PD. The Cafe is the closest business to the house."

Sheriff Hay stood up and looked out the window. He visibly looked upset. "Find out who was up here and what if anything they found out. I'm not going to let them get away with running through the County without notifying me."
A knock sounded at the door. "Come in." The door opened and District Attorney Peter Logan came in.
"Good Morning Gary, Karl, Where are we on that body you found yesterday?"
"I'll let Karl answer that Pete. Please have a seat" Sherriff Hay motioned for the DA to sit across from Karl.

Karl took a deep breath to relax before beginning. "At the moment we are waiting for the forensic report from the coroner's office which is due any time now. From the initial scene we have a female, most likely a Tammi Cramer from Dothan found wrapped and bound in the mud of Miller's slough, a short distance behind the Marshall Morgan lake house."
"Do you mean Marshall Morgan, from Dothan? You don't suspect him do you?" The District Attorney seemed a bit out of sorts over that piece of information. The Marshall's had considerable clout in the state, from Britney's side of the family to Marshall's business contacts, they had an in with anyone that mattered in the political world in Alabama, Western Georgia and North Florida.
"Until we have something more substantial to go on, no we are not. It was the Morgan's son, Jeremy that found the body while heading out to go fishing, so I believe that he is very unlikely to be involved. We interviewed the family and were informed that ,Tammy Cramer his assistant, and with whom he may have been romantically involved, has been missing since roughly the time that we believe that the body was placed in the lake, and that is quite a coincidence. However, there is not any evidence to nail that theory down yet. His wife may have suspected a relationship with the assistant, but her health makes me think that she was not involved unless we find some further evidence that point to an accomplice. I'm keeping them both as suspects until I find who did do it, but I do not really believe they will be the ones that are charged at this point."
The District Attorney was relieved that Karl was not planning an eminent move to arrest one of the Morgan's. That would have been political suicide for him to be prosecuting someone that powerful unless you had a smoking gun.

"Thank you for your assessment Deputy Watts, I would appreciate your keeping my office in the loop on any new developments in this case. This type of case can be a public relations nightmare." DA Logan visibly turned in the chair back towards the Sheriff. He was essentially dismissing Karl.
"Thank you Karl, if you could check on who from Dothan and the State Troopers investigated the disappearance of the Morgan's assistant I would appreciate it." Sheriff Hay nodded towards the door.
"Okay sir, if you'll excuse me I'll start hunting that down now." Karl turned and left the office. He could see that as soon as the door closed both men started talking at once. They were going to make this case more difficult than it needed to be in order to boost their political ambitions.

Once they were certain that the door had closed, DA Pete Logan started out. "Gary, I know you are getting ready to make your run for Governor. And you know I want the Attorney general's office as well. You need to get someone indicted for this quickly so that it is not open and unsolved during the campaign. And that someone had better not be a Morgan if you want any hope of getting elected next year." DA Logan sat back in the chair and glared at Sheriff Hay.
"Pete, I know we want the same thing, to get elected in Montgomery, but are you suggesting that we just pick someone to charge and make it stick?"

"Of course not. But if there is not a person to be convicted for this, or if the wrong person is convicted, this election is down the drain."
"At this point we do not even have a positive ID on the body, or a cause of death." This may not even be a murder, but just someone hiding an accidental death."
"Accidental or not, if we can handle this right, we could gain the Morgan's and their political backing plus get quite a lot of exposure for free, right when it would do the most good for the elections next year."
Even as jaded as Gary was, there were times when his college buddy Pete Logan surprised him. Pete was so set on winning that at times it seemed that the truth was in his way.
"Pete, you are going to make one heck of an Attorney General Pete. It should be interesting."
Not knowing the thought behind the comment, Pete took his comment as a compliment. "Thank you Gary. And you will make one heck of a Governor." The DA got up and headed to the door. "Keep me informed on how your deputy is coming along. I do not want any surprises.
* * *

Missing person

Karl returned to his desk and pulled out the telephone listings for Law enforcement agencies in the state of Alabama. He went to the listings of the State trooper posts and found the entry for the Dothan post. They would most likely be the ones that had investigated Tammi Cramer's route from Eufaula to Dothan. He wrote down the number in his case notes and then found the numbers for the Dothan Police Department. Karl figured that he would get more cooperation from the Dothan Police Department so he started with them first.
"Dothan Police Department, missing persons section. Sergeant Michaels speaking how may I help you."

"Good morning, this is Deputy Karl Watts from the Barbour county Sheriff's department. I'm working a homicide case and I understand that my victim may be one of your missing person's cases. Hopefully we can help each other. I'm looking for information one Tammi Cramer."

"Well that will be one mess out of our hair. What information are you looking for?" Karl could tell from the man's tone of voice that there was some tension related to the missing woman's case.

"Any information you can share at this point. Other than a tentative identification of her body, and that she worked for Marshall Morgan, we do not have much else at this point. Can you fax over the file so we can fill in the gaps and hopefully figure out who is responsible for her death." Karl gave the officer the fax number to the office

"Sure Deputy Watts. Do you have a definite identification of her yet? Once you do, we can close this case."

"The official word from the Coroner's office will be coming over in a couple hours once they finish with the cause of death." Karl was jumping the gun a little bit, he had not heard from Leann yet, so he did not have a solid ID yet. "Would you like me to send that over as soon as I get it?"

"Yes please, I can put that in the file and report it as closed."

"Who is the lead investigator for the case?" Karl was trying to find out who had come to Barbour County investigating and not let the department know.

"I am. You'll see that when you look at the file. I'm faxing it now. It is forty pages."

"Thanks Sergeant Michaels. I'll call you when I get the Coroner's report in my hand or if I have any other questions." Karl hung up the phone and walked out of his office to the fax machine. He quickly checked the paper level in the fax machine to make sure that there was enough paper for the incoming document. The machine was slowly spitting out page after page of information on Tammi Cramer's life and known activities from her final day of life. Karl picked up the first few pages and started reading what they had found back in June.
Karl looked at the picture of the woman that was in the file. She had been an extremely attractive woman. Karl found a sheet that listed the activity of her cell phone the last forty-eight hours before she disappeared. Most people do not know that a cell phone constantly sends out a signal looking for the nearest Cell tower. Most Cellular companies record this which tracks the location of the cell phone to at least an area. In the case of this woman's phone, Karl could see where she had traveled up highway 431 to Eufaula and then the phone stayed on the same tower which was a quarter mile away from the Morgan house up to the last signal. That last signal transmitted at nine twenty four AM on the thirtieth of May. That could indicate that that was the point that the event that took her life occurred at that time. It also indicated that she most likely did not leave the area alive.
Karl grabbed the next stack of pages that came through the fax machine and found the summaries of the interviews with people around Miller's Slough. As he read Marshall Morgan's statement, it was nearly word for word with what Marshall had told him except that there was no mention of the affair between the two. Notes in the margins indicated that the whereabouts of Mrs. Morgan and the son were verified. There was a report on the interview with Jack. It indicated that he remembered seeing Marshall Morgan in the cafe that morning, but did not notice who he was with. Karl took note of that last part. At that point Karl noticed a hand written message in the margin of the next sheet of paper. It specifically told them to not contact the Morgan family any further but to only contact Marshall Morgan, per Police Chief James Wheat the Dothan Police chief. It was underlined and a big exclamation point for emphasis. "I guess having friends in high places buys you control of DPD."
Karl put all the pages into a folder and marked it DPD Missing Person's file. He walked back to his office to make the call to the State trooper's office in Dothan to see if he could find out what they had on the case. Karl did not expect as much friendly cooperation from them as he received from Sergeant Michaels. He just hoped that they shared anything useful at all.

"Good morning Alabama State Troopers office, Dothan post, trooper Alden speaking, hope may we help you today?"

"Good morning, this is Deputy Karl Watts from the Barbour County Sheriff's department. I'm working a homicide case and..."

"Just a moment sir let me forward you to the watch commander." With that the telephone was placed on hold. Karl knew they were starting the process of dolling out as little information as possible. Karl knew that traditionally larger enforcement agencies were under much more pressure to produce high profile results and as such, they would control as much information as possible so that they could ensure to have a presence when something was solved and prove their worth.

"Commander Moore speaking how we may help you." The tone of his voice did not fill Karl with hope that here would be as much help as he would like.

"Good morning, this is Deputy Karl Watts from the Barbour County Sheriff's department. I'm working a homicide case and was following up on a lead that the State troopers from the Dothan post investigated a missing person's report on a Tammi Cramer from Dothan back at the end of May of this year. I'm hoping to pick up so clues towards identifying what happened between the last reported sighting and us finding her body yesterday. Our interviews so far have indicated that Troopers from the Dothan post had been following her route back to Dothan trying to identify where and when she disappeared."

"I'll have to check the files to see if that is the case, and what if anything we have on file. You said your name was Watts from the Sheriff's department?"

"Yes sir, Chief Deputy Karl Watts. We would appreciate any information that you can provide." Karl knew that he was being dismissed by the commander of the Dothan Trooper post, but that was normal and not something you should get your shorts in a knot over. It was best to just ignore it and work around the bureaucracy.

"Oh yes, they just brought the file in to me and I see that we did send two troopers up to interview people near the Morgan home. There was Mr. Morgan, a cafe owner and his waitress. We pulled the Cellular records and it indicates that her cell phone stopped transmitting a little after nine that morning, shortly after she left Mr. Morgan's house. Her credit card indicates that she gassed up her car at the service station next door to the cafe about eight minutes before her cell phone stopped sending out signals. We felt that she just turned off her telephone and took off in a direction other than to Dothan.

"Well she is in the coroner's office here. Her body was found three hundred yards from the gas station." Karl did not want to antagonize the Commander of the post before he had any documentation that they would be willing to provide. "Is there any information from the case file that you could fax to us to help us establish the time-line of her death, and any potential suspects who have a motive?"

"Well, if you are looking at any of the Morgan's, then you are barking up the wrong tree. We checked them and they are clean." Karl was surprised that the Commander was so quick to defend the Morgan's.

"At the moment we tend to agree with you on that, that is why we need as much information as we can get to identify who else would have a reason to cause her harm." Karl did have the Morgan's as suspects, even though he personally did not think they did it. But he did not want to antagonize the Commander at this point.

"I'll look over the file and see what pertinent items should be sent over and have someone fax those along. I would also like to see what you have at this point so that I can closeout my investigation." Karl agreed and thanked the man then hung up. About thirty minutes later the fax machine outside his office started printing out documents. Twenty pages printed, including a number of pages that were only half filled. There was apparently more information available, but the trooper Commander was holding it back for the time being. What was there was a copy of the handwritten statement from Jack about that day. In it he did say he did not recall seeing Tammi that morning when Marshall Morgan was in the cafe.

Karl grabbed the documents and headed back to his office. He wanted to get his notes straight before briefing the Sheriff on where things stood. He also wanted to check with Leann to see what she had been able to discover so far about the body. Karl laid out the two sets of document and began comparing them to what he had already found out in the investigation. The key to solving any case that does not have the proverbial smoking gun pointing at the perpetrator is to look at the evidence and see which pieces do not fit, or contradict another piece of evidence, or are unusually missing from where they should be. The fact that the woman was supposed to be leaving the area headed back to Dothan, but never got past gassing up he vehicle did not fit. If she was not planning on heading out, then she would not have gassed up right then. There was s slight discrepancy between what Jack had told him yesterday, and what Jack wrote on the statement. And the Car was missing. That in itself was unusual that it had not turned up. A red BMW convertible should be very easy to spot. Karl decided to head over to the coroner's office to see what he could learn from Leann. A friendly face would be nice right about now.

* * *

Cause of Death

Once the body had been retrieved from Miller's Slough, it was taken to the Coroner's office. Dental record identification against the dental records of Tammi Cramer took a day to obtain and process for a match. Luckily she had been to the dentist only a month before her disappearance, so dental matching was quick and had a high degree of certainty. The hard part of this one was going to be identification of the cause of death to a medical certainty, and to pin point the approximate date that death occurred.

The date of death would have to have been sometime after the last time she was seen by multiple persons. Which she found out from Karl was Friday May 25th. She had been in the Miller Cafe for breakfast that day and several people saw her. So it is a confirmed sighting. She was reported to have been with Marshall Morgan and they were discussing an upcoming land purchase near the south end of the lake for development as homes. Following breakfast, they both walked back over to the Morgan's house where they finished working on the proposal. According to Marshall Morgan, she left around 10 am headed or Dothan. That was the last known report of her whereabouts.

So to determine how close her death was to the last time that she was seen, Leann would start calculating how long it would take to decay to this state of decay given the environment the body was in, the amount of exposure, and insect activity in the area. Leann followed established testing protocols in calculating the date of death as if the body had been left uncovered. The use of the burlap to secure the body to the rocks used to weigh the body down allowed the free exchange of fresh water and insects as off the body had just been uncovered.

Most likely the flesh had been consumed in the first two months given the water temperature and the level of insect activity in most areas of the lake. There were a number of insect casings from ones that had hatched out logged in the burlap. She gathered them and found a few that were not yet hatched. She placed those in Alcohol to preserve them at their current state of development. This would give her a baseline to go back to later to help with analyzing the date. Leann found a few that she recognized from previous cases and looked them up quickly to get the development cycles so they could start piecing together how long the body had to have been there. Another thing to factor in would be the amount of sedimentation that would occur during that time frame. For this she went on-line and found the reference that she needed to calculate how long it would take for a three-eighths inch layer of sediment to accrete over the body.

By the end of the afternoon she was confident that the body had been in the lake for at least four and a half months but not more that five and a half months. It had been exactly five months from the time that Tammi Cramer disappeared until her body was found in the slough. While that did not pin point it to the morning she disappeared, it did narrow it down to that week.

During the initial analysis of the body for insects to determine the approximate date of death, she had found that the hyoid bone in the neck was broken, a strong indicator that she had been strangled with some force. Speaking to herself she said, "Now who did you run into that would do this?" Leann searched over the body as burlap was removed an the clothing was removed trying to find anything that looked out of place. The earrings and a hair barrette were found in the burlap that wrapped her. That plus the ring on her finger indicated that this was not a robbery. Her clothing was all on correctly, so it indicated that she was dressed, and most likely going somewhere. As Leann searched the articles of clothing to catalog as evidence. As she was going through the blazer she found a cell phone in the hip pocket. She hoped that she would be able to get some information from the telephone records.

While she was writing down the cellular phone's information, someone knocked on the Door. "Come in please." She really did not want to be disturbed, but she would never think about yelling for them to go away.

Karl poked his head in and asked, "I hope I'm not bothering you?" Leann instantly cheered up and a large smile came to her. She completely forgot her last thought about wanting to tell the person off.

"Oh God, please come in. I need someone to talk to. She is not saying much today." It was a bit of autopsy humor that she had first heard in Medical school when they had to work on the cadavers. Karl smiled and came in. With most autopsies there was a horrific odor associated with the decaying flesh. this was no exception. But it was not the first one Karl had attended, and he knew exactly where the Putriban odor inhibitor was located and he grabbed a packet and rubbed it under the end of his nostrils to block his ability to smell. The vanilla like smell let him know it was working.

"How has it been going so far? any progress on identification or cause of death?"

"From the Dental records I was able to get from her dentist in Dothan, I have made a match so I'm fairly confident that it is her at this point. I've sent the x-ray of the teeth back to the dentist to get his concurrence as well to make sure. I also found a broken cell phone in the pocket o her blazer and have pulled the ESN number off to check against her phone's numbers once we have those. That should pretty much seal the identification, and possibly set a pretty close time of death." The ESN, or Electronic Serial Number is unique to each cellular phone and is how the system identifies which phone is calling. It is the finger print of a cell phone.

"I have her cell phone ESN data and the last forty-eight hours activity in the file I just received from Dothan PD. The cell phone was tracked from Dothan to Eufaula right when Marshall Morgan said it did, and then about nine-twenty on the morning of the 31st, it made a last signal from the gas station next to Jack's cafe. It could not have been more that 10 minutes later that the phone was broken since no further signal was transmitted by the cell phone. that means that once she gassed up for the trip to Dothan, but before she could get somewhere else, something happened to her either right at the gas station, or very near by since she did not change cell towers after she gassed up."

Leann looked puzzled. "But no one reported having seen her or any sort of a commotion in that area did they?"

"No reports here at the Sheriff's office, and nothing reported in the investigations of either the troopers office or the Dothan PD at the time. If they had involved the Sheriff's department back then maybe we could have found someone who remembered something a little out of the ordinary. So you are comfortable stating that this is in fact Tammi Cramer, so what do you feel was the cause and manner of death?"

"I'm about ninety-eight percent sure that the cause of death is asphyxiation and the manner of death is homicide. The hyoid bone in the throat was broken. The tissue is for the most part too decayed to make a complete determination about subconjunctival hemorrhages around the eyes, there are possible petechiae hemorrhages, but with this much time post mortem, it could be part of the decay process that is causing them to appear that way." There are decayed rope fibers around the neck area that I've sent to the lab for the presents of blood or even abrazed tissue as a means of corroborating my finding. That should be back in a day."

"Then can we make a preliminary finding at this point with what is available now? it will head off some of the pressure that is starting to build at this point."

"Yes, at this point we do have enough evidence to make a preliminary finding of death by asphyxiation in the manner of homicide." I'll type up the findings and bring it over to you within the next two hours." Leann smiled and pulled a coversheet over the body on the table in front of her. She pulled of the latex gloves she had been working in and grabbed Karl's arm. "Does that get me lunch in return?"

Karl blushed and smiled "Yes it does, and it's your pick. See you in two hours!" Karl winked and took of his gloves and dropped them into the waste receptacle. He grabbed a tissue to remove the Putriban once he was outside in the fresh air and turned towards the door. Leann winked in return and reached for the paperwork that she would need to fill out for the preliminary findings report.

Karl went back to the Sheriff's office to wait for the preliminary report from Leann and to update the Sheriff on what he had found out from Dothan PD and the troopers. On the way he stopped at a convenience store to grab a soft drink and a snack. As he approached the cashier with his purchases, Jack called to him. "Hey Karl, how is that case going?"

Karl motioned for Jack to be quiet about the case and then finished purchasing the soft drink & snack. Moving away from the cash register he spoke to Jack. "We have identified the victim as the woman that was in your cafe that morning. She appears to have died shortly after you saw her."

"Then it was that Morgan fellow that did it!"

"It's too early to be pointing fingers yet. Frankly I don't think he did it, but we will just have to wait until all the evidence is processed."

"What evidence do you have?" Jack's tone of voice sounded strange. "Are there any suspects at this point other than the Morgan's?"

"Well for one thing I did not say the Morgan's are suspects. We have some leads we are going to pursue that should bring in a suspect. I think that there is going to be more than enough evidence to find who did this and bring them in." Karl knew he was being optimistic about the outcome of the case, but He liked to maintain a positive mind set this early in an investigation.

"I'm glad it's you that is heading up this case. I know you will figure out who did this. If I can help just let me know." Karl knew that Jack would do anything he asked. He had always been that way, there when you needed him and no matter how difficult the request was.

* * *

District Attorney's office

Once back at the office. Karl went to his office and checked his email. Leann had already emailed over a copy of the preliminary findings for him. And let him know she would meet him at the BBQ hut on highway 431 in an hour. Karl thought that would be just about right to finish talking to the Sheriff. Printing out Leann's report he looked it over quickly for anything new that Leann had not told him about. Not finding anything new, he picked up the files from Dothan PD and the troopers as well as the email and headed out the door of his office over to the Sheriff's office.

Karl knocks on the open door to the Sheriff's office. "Sir, Leann has sent over the preliminary finding and I've got the investigation paperwork from Dothan PD and the troopers."

Sheriff Hay visibly perked up as he reached for the documents that Karl was carrying. "Is there anything that points to a suspect?" Gary wanted a quick conclusion to this case so He could use it to build momentum for filing for the Governor's office.

"No more so that what we already had. Both the Dothan PD and the Troopers reports mention that she came up from Dothan, stayed the night and then at approximately the time frame that she should have left for Dothan, She disappeared. Her cell phone stopped transmitting a tower call at that gas station next to Miller's cafe." Karl pointed to the document that had the Cell phone records.

"Then it does look like Marshall Morgan is involved in her disappearance." Gary was not looking forward to dealing with the DA over that possibility.

"It means we can't rule him out at this point due to her disappearing so soon after she left his house and so close to his house. That gas station is less than a quarter mile from the Miller's house. I think it is not likely that the attach on her happened at that station if he did it. If there was something that set off an attack by him, then it would have happened at the house, not after she left if he was the one that did it."

"I guess you are right, but this case is going to become a high profile case just due to the people involved. You know I'm about to run for Governor don't you?"

"Yes sir, I had heard that."

"I'm being advised that I do not need a major unsolved case while I'm running if I intend to use my record in my campaign. We have to get some traction on this case and at least come up with some suspects quickly."

"It's only been twenty-four hours since the body was located. We have an identification: and we have a cause and manner of death. I think we are doing okay so far. We have forensic evidence to work through. We have the victim's whereabouts for 48 hours prior to her death. We actually have a very small window of opportunity to examine. Which really surprises me that more was not discovered before." Karl was feeling very confident that they would resolve this issue successfully.

"That in itself is part of the problem. Why did they not resolve this before when it was just a missing person's case?"

"A murder case progresses much differently than a missing person's case. In the first place, unless signs of foul play are involved, it is often assumed that they will turn up. In this case, those that reported her missing were not completely interested in getting her back." Sheriff Hay was puzzled by the last statement. "Marshall Morgan just had the woman that he was having an affair with disappear. If she stayed gone, it worked in his favor. Even though he did not wish her harm, the fact that she continued to stay missing worked in his favor in regards to work and his family. So why push to have her found?"

"You have a point there Karl. With her falling off the face of the planet, his wife does not find out. And I tend to agree with you. If he did it, he would not have placed the body in his backyard. That is a stunt that a thrill killer or a revenge killer does. I don't think he is either one of those."

Sheriff Hay stood up and walked over to the window before continuing. "I've called a press conference for three this afternoon to update the newspaper and television on what we have found so far. Montgomery, Columbus and Dothan television stations are sending crews over to the Courthouse where I'll brief them. Are there any more items that I need to be aware of to get ready?"

Karl took a deep breath then replied, "Everything we have is on your desk at this point. I wish we were keeping this quiet for a bit longer, but it's your call sir. Do I need to be there?"

"Yes, I would like you there to answer any questions about the investigation that come up during the briefing."

"Okay, I'm going to lunch with Leann in thirty minutes; we will go over what we know so I am ready for the press briefing." Karl had giving the sheriff copies of the files he had so he went back to his office to gather his set to look over at lunch with Leann.

Leann arrived at the Sheriff's department on schedule at one o'clock in the afternoon. She had shed the lab coat and apron and protective head cover she was wearing earlier and Karl could see that she had a new dress that he had not seen before. "That is a terrific outfit, it's new isn't it?"

Leann's face flushed as she responded. "Yes it is, do you really like it that much! I was going for something a little more dramatic than I usually wear." it felt great that Karl had actually noticed it. Everyone in the sheriff's office was noticing. When Leann usually came over it was work related and she was wearing the lab coat over jeans of a very conservative pantsuit. That she was wearing a form flattering dress was catching everyone's eye.

"Well you certainly found a terrific look! So where are we going to eat? Hopefully someplace that has lots of people so they can see who I am with!" Karl winked at Leann and she was now beet red, but she felt very happy.

"Any more flattery and it will have to be some place private." Now it was Karl's turn to blush. That idea was pretty tempting, but he had to be in the Sheriff's press conference at 3 PM. Being with Leann was not something he wanted to rush.

"Let's go to Logan's, it's my treat."

"Okay, it will be nice to be taken out someplace that does not have a drive-through and some sort of clown for a spokesman. And I would also like to be seen as well." Karl realized that he was feeling better than he had in quite some time.

Karl added, "I'll drive if that's okay with you?"

"Sure, I'm ready when you are." Leann started heading for Karl's vehicle.

On the short drive to the restaurant the two of them talked about the evidence in the case. "How can you not see Marshall Morgan as a suspect? He had plenty of motive in that he was being squeezed by a woman he was having an affair with. He had opportunity, she was here and left, after stopping for gas at the station, she had been seen, if he flagged her down after that then he could have killed her and felt safe from accusation. He then wrapped her up with the rocks that are all over the lake and then dropped her in the water at the edge of his property, right where he could keep an eye on her, and where no one would normally look. He had counted on the body being decomposed and eaten before anyone found it. Had it not been for the drought this year, it would have worked."

Leann was certain that Marshall Morgan was involved with the death of his paramour either because she was making too many demands, or because he was bored with her. Either way, he had too much to gain by the death of Tammi Cramer.

The two reached the restaurant and went in. "Karl, thanks for taking me out to lunch today. I really needed to get out and just be somewhere as a person."

"Well anytime you need to get out I would be very happy to be there for you. I also need to get out more. We've gone out a few times in the past, but I was still hurting from the divorce and was not ready to get into a relationship again. I needed to be alone and get past it."

"I thought that was how you felt, and I wanted to help you get through it, but I was afraid you might push me away. I thought that when I went with you to the Sheriff's Ball Last Christmas that maybe you were ready. I was a little disappointed when you dropped me off afterwards, but I understood. It took me a long time after my divorce from Roger before I wanted to be with anyone.

"I spent too much time being alone over the last couple years. It's time to start building a relationship again. I'm hoping that you are feeling that way as well?"

"Wow, I've actually felt that way for some time now. What made you come out and say it now?"

"Part of it is seeing how much Britney Morgan fights for her family, part of it was seeing you in that outfit I realized that I had been putting it off for too long and that it was time to move on with my life and honestly, dressed like that someone would have beat me to it if I did not do something now." Karl could see by the sparkle in Leann's eyes and the tremendous grin on her face that Leann was very happy. "Would you like to try for an official date, The Peanut Festival starts next, Friday night in Dothan, How about us going Saturday. We could go for supper and then hit the fairground; that is if you can put up with me for that long." Karl hoped she would say yes, Dothan was far enough away that they could spend some time talking and not be interrupted by work or friends.

" I'd love to go. I haven't been to the peanut festival in a couple years. Can we go a little early so we can hit the new shopping center down there? I'd like to pick up another outfit like this one.

"In that case why don't we take off a little before noon we will have plenty of time to do the shopping before dinner? I hear that they have several new restaurants there." Karl reached over and held her hand. Then he noticed someone coming up from the side.

"Good morning deputy Watts, are you and the deputy coroner enjoying your lunch?" Angela Snapp from the Eufaula Tribune had come up to her table. She had noticed Deputy Watts' cruiser in the parking lot and came in to see what he was up to, or who he was having lunch with. She had noticed that Karl was holding Leann's hand when she walked up. "Is this a date or a working lunch for the body found on the Morgan property?"

"It's a lunch date between two friends Angela, nothing to do with the case, you can quit digging. There is no new information on the case to pass along today."

"There has to be some new development that would be of interest?

"I think that the Sheriff would have more for you than I would?" Karl knew that would set her on her heels a bit.

"I spoke to him and the only thing he has requested that your ex should be appointed to the case should a suspect be named." Angela knew that would put a damper on the mood of the two of them.

"Then you know more than I do. Sorry I could not provide you any more information." Karl was trying not to sound irritated even though he was getting irritated with her. It does not pay to get mad at you boss's girlfriend. Angela smiled at the two of them then walked away.

"She just wanted to goad you into revealing something by getting you made about Ashton, you should have let her have it."

"It never pays to attack the boss's girlfriend."

Leann had a look of shock on her face. "Angela and Gary, really. How long have they been seeing each other?"

"I'm not sure, at the Morgan house the other day I saw them give each other a look that gave it away and if you look at the good press that Gary has been getting lately, it should be obvious to everyone."

"I had wondered about why everything said about the Sheriff was suddenly always good.

"I wonder why Gary wants Ashton to handle this case? Is he just trying to make it difficult for you?"

"No, he is close to filing for Governor and I don't think he wants an unresolved case. It would not look good if you are running on a law and order platform. Of coarse he also knows I will not want this case to take any longer than possible because Ashton will be the DA the case and she will be pushing it so I'll be motivated to get it solved."

* * *

Missing Car.

Following up in Leann's idea of locating Tammi Cramer's missing vehicle by using the Lo-Jack, Karl called the Dothan Police Department to see if they had tried checking if the vehicle had a Lo-Jack installed on the car. They said that they had not looked into whether or not Tammi's vehicle had the Lo-Jack installed. They did find out that the vehicle was purchased from the Mercedes dealer in Dothan. Karl thanked them for their help and then dialed the number to the dealership in Dothan.
"Mack Jackson Mercedes, we have your next car, are you ready to pick it up?"

"This is Deputy Watts from the Barbour County Sheriff's office. I'm investigating the disappearance and possible death of Tammi Cramer. I've been informed that she purchased her Mercedes 450SL from your dealership. We are trying to establish what happened to that vehicle when she disappeared. Can you tell me if that vehicle had the Lo-Jack system installed?"

"Just a minute deputy, I'll check out the file and see if that is in our records here. If the vehicle had that installed, the records here will list the activation code in case it was taken." Karl started writing down what the man was relaying. "Oh yes, here it is. Yes, that vehicle was equipped with a Lo-Jack and here is the activations code."

Karl wrote down the number as the man read it off, then the telephone number for the call to activate the tracking signal. Karl did not hold out much hope that calling in the activation code would produce any results that would help figure who killed the Cramer woman, but he did believe that if you follow the evidence to where it leads and you will solve the case. Karl would have to get the tracking unit out before calling in the code so that on the off change that there was a signal, that they could start hunting for the vehicle immediately.

"Thank you for your help with this. We really appreciate this piece of information. Do you know if either the Dothan Police Department or the State troopers requested this information?"

"No sir, they did not contact us about the vehicle. I didn't know anything had happened to her until you called. I feel bad because I had sent out a letter to her last week inviting her to come see the new models of the Mercedes on the lot. Good lord someone over there must think terrible of me."

Following the call Karl contacted the Sheriff's department operations branch and requested that they pull out the Lo-jack tracking unit so that they could follow up the signal if there was one. They said they could have it out and setup within twenty minutes. Karl took the time to go over his notes and fill in s few blanks.

Twenty minutes later the Operations department of the Sheriff's department called him back. "Karl, the unit is setup and ready to go. What are we running it for?"

"It's probably a wild goose chase, but I'm going to run the code for the Cramer woman's missing vehicle. It's worth trying even if it has been months." Karl realized he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else. "How soon can the two units get a triangulated signal set?"

"We can have general headings within five minutes if there is a signal and they fifteen minutes to reposition and get second signal heading in order to set direction and distance. We're ready when you are. The two units are three miles apart right now and waiting on word from us to track the signal."

"Okay I'm calling them now, hold on." Karl set down his cell phone and dialed the Lo-jack activation number from his desk telephone. Once the call connected the automated attendant software asked for the activation code. Karl keyed in the number on the telephone keypad. Once he was done it read back the number and asked him to press one to verify it was correct. He pressed the number one and the attendant software thanked him and then said that the signal was being activated and to hang up.
At this point the Lo-Jack signal for the unit in Tammi Cramer's car was being activated by a satellite signal that was broadcast all over North America. The unit hidden in the car picks up it's activation code and it begins pinging away until the unit is reset following it's recovery. At least that is the theory. In reality, the unit has to remain hidden in the vehicle and there has to be battery power. If the Cramer car was not found in six months, then most likely it had been dropped off at a chop shop and is in a million pieces scattered around the south-east. But at least Karl could say he tried everything.
Karl picked up his cell phone to talk to the operations sergeant. "Okay it should be transmitting now, keep your fingers crossed that it's still intact somewhere."

The Deputy in the operations section called the two units at opposite ends of town and told them to start tracking and get a heading. Within five minutes, both units were tracking a signal that was fairly strong indicating that it was not far away from them. They both got compass headings from those positions one on the east side of town, one on the west side of town. Then they moved one north of town, one south of town. This would give then compass intersect points that should be right over the vehicle. As long as it was not near a large metal structure, a large concentration of metal near one of the units could deflect the signal making it appear up to a couple miles away.

"Karl, they are moving to the secondary position now. They got a strong signal from east and west of town. That means that it is no more than twenty-five miles from here at most."

Karl was stunned. This had been a fool's errand, but it had turned up a hit on the missing vehicle after nearly six months. Maybe there will be something in the vehicle to point to the killer. "I'm on my way over to operations. Start mapping so we are ready to search. Also notify the sheriff that we may have located the Cramer woman's vehicle." Karl scooped up his hat as he was running for the door. The Sheriff's department Operations room was at the other end of the building, right next to the parking lot. Once they had a location he would be leaving as quickly as possible.

Karl hustled over to Operations and they were just starting to triangulate the second location signals and plot them on the map. The point where all four lines intersected was 8 miles away from the point that