Trapped
continuing this thread with @imxthexhandler
Amelia was exhausted, in more ways than one. She’d been chasing after this serial killer for the past two years. She felt she was this close to catching the bastard, and she wanted to before there was another victim added to the list. She was physically tired, and mentally, her patience was wearing thin. First, her car broke down after arriving in town, and by the mechanic’s estimation, it would be at least a week before the needed parts came to even get it fixed, and the only inn in town was completely booked up. It was a good five miles to the next town, which wasn’t too far driving, but it would be a pain to walk.
She was in the middle of interviewing one of the locals–the doctor named Seth Hendricks–when there was a sudden beep on her phone, sending her an emergency alert.
She looked to him sheepishly. “I’m sorry,” she apologized before pulling out her cell phone and checking the message, scowling once she read it. “Well, that’s great…” Amelia grumbled under her breath.
Flash thunderstorms scheduled for tonight. In two hours. Okay, time to cut the interview.
“I am sorry, Dr. Hendricks, but I am going to have to leave now, but can we–”
The FBI agent was cut-off by a sudden loud clap of thunder before the loud thudding of heavy rain could be heard on the roof of Seth’s practice. Amelia groaned. She just couldn’t catch a break today, it seemed.
Originally Seth had moved to this town because of its low crime rate. After living in New York for so long, it was a drastic change of pace but the move had been made for the sake of his son, Joshua. After Joshua’s death, Seth didn’t have the heart to leave town. He also didn’t have the heart to do much else either. It had been locals rallying around him, supporting him, uplifting him through his grief, that had saved Seth. As such, he believed he owed it to the town to be one of the best doctors they could ask for. It was what he had trained for so long to do and it was following the example he had tried to set for Joshua before his death.
So the recent murders had hit the town, and Seth, hard. And it wasn’t long until the murders had hit the national media, bringing in a whole bunch of out-of-towners. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem, because people coming into town was good for business. But a lot of these tourists, let’s call them that, were here for the spectacle of the murders. True crime enthusiasts thinking they were on the trail of the latest serial killer or something.
But at least some of the “tourists” had genuine reasons for being here. Take Agent Davidson of the FBI as example. She was here because she wanted to stop the murderer and bring justice. Seth could respect that.
Because he was the closest thing this town to a coroner, he had been the one to perform the initial autopsies on the victims and had delivered the preliminary assessments on cause of death to the authorities when they arrived. Hence why Agent Davidson was one of the many detectives who had sought him out to question him about the case. As with all the ones before her who genuinely worked for the authorities, Seth answered her questions to the best of his abilities.
They were still in the midst of their interview when Agent Davidson’s phone beeped, giving the Agent an alert of some kind. Before the Agent could explain what was happening, a thunder crash erupted across the sky outside.
“Uh, yeah, that happens sometimes,” Seth said as rain started to pour down from the heavens. Seth looked out of the window and saw the storm had come in quickly and had effectively shut everything down. No one was going anywhere anytime soon. Storms like this came in occasionally over this town and the surrounding areas. He was used to it by now and saw no reason to be concerned about it yet.
“You’re more than welcome to wait out the storm here,” Seth offered. While his practice took up the lower levels of the building they were currently in, the upper two levels was Seth’s home. “If needs be, I even have a spare room upstairs, in case the storm doesn’t clear up before nightfall. You’re more than welcome to it.” He wouldn’t have made this offer to just anyone. Seth was a private person who didn’t invite strangers into his personal space on a regular basis. But these were special circumstances.