Where Men Fear To Tread

By Christopher-Michael Snyder

Welcome to Woodhaven! A sleepy little town where nothing ever happens. That is until a developer sets his sights on the town to create the Beverly Hills of Colorado. With millions of dollars invested in this abitious plan, a huge wrench is thrown into the gears when a resident is brutally murdered in public. Enter Robert Walters, a big city detective who moved his family to Woodhaven to connect with them, as he steps in as the town's first Police Chief. With pressure from the developer, his investors and the safety of the residents of the town weighing heavily on them can Robert and the four rookie Officers that make up the fledging Police Department find whomever or whatever the killer is that stalks Where Men Fear To Tread?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher-Michael Snyder
• Release date: Apr 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311262653

Christopher-Michael Snyder

I tend to be a creative person. From songwriting, web design/development to novel writing. I love "true story" works and may make a foray into that genre at some point in the future but currently my mind devises too much fiction that I find entertaining to pass it up. I enjoy reading material in many different genres and I write the same way. While the primary 'topic' of a novel may be set in one genre, there will be plenty of touches of other genres all wound together as seamlessly as is possible. I tend to find the resulting stories to be quite entertaining and I hope that many others do as well.

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Dedications

Linda L. Stout:

To my mother who raised me to believe that through hard work and perseverance I could achieve any goal I set for myself. This novel is another example of just how correct she was. I wish that you were here to read it for yourself. I miss you. Thank you!

Candace Herber:

Thank you for your love and support. For putting up with the uncountable number of hours spent editing, formatting and designing the cover for this novel. And for constantly making me feel that the publication of this novel was as important to you as it was to me!

All of the Readers:

Thank you for purchasing, borrowing or stealing this novel! However it came into your possession, you play the most important part. I worked to create fictional characters who live some interesting lives.

Every time this novel is read, each character gets yet another change to live (and in some cases die) all over again. I can't thank you enough for that.

Wednesday May 28th 2008

9:18PM

The trees lining the road seemed to blur in the darkness giving him the impression that he was maintaining a good pace. His mp3 player was set to a playlist full of songs with faster tempos to help set the pace as he wanted it. He went jogging nearly every night and his stamina was improving rapidly and the reason for doing so was two-fold: to stop his wife's nagging about the weight that he had gained in the past couple years and to get away when she was nagging about everything else in general.

The air was redolent with the scent of the pine trees that surrounded him and through which the dirt road had been cut. He felt badly that much of it would be gone soon as the area underwent massive development projects. But such was the way many areas were changing everywhere these days.

At this time of night it was still rather chilly out for late May but he'd worked up a good sweat as he trudged on. He wanted to enjoy the isolation that this path provided until it was overrun by large houses filled with outrageously wealthy people who held late-night parties rather than wake up early for work like he, himself, did.

His senses were more-or-less impaired. He could hear nothing but the music being pumped directly into his ears and his vision was captivated by the scintillating stars that started at the top of the tree line and filled the immense sky with warm light.

These combined with the isolation that the road provided to make him feel completely sealed off from humanity. From everything.

He saw something like a blurred flash of movement amongst the trees on the left side of the road barely within range of his peripheral vision. He consciously dismissed it but his subconscious mind must have interpreted something his waking mind did not as his heart rate increased and jogging pace quickened.

While he couldn't hear what was coming nor did he see it beforehand he could most definitely feel the bone jarring blow into his back and the rib shattering impact of his body with the hard-packed dirt of the path. The air was driven forcefully from his lungs as his mind spun and his eyes threatened to fly out of their sockets.

His last conscious thoughts were flashbacks to childhood when he played a game of sorts where he tried to imagine what different wounds would feel like. The snap of a bone in the body. Accidental spill of caustic acid on skin. The hot pain of a bullet passing through one's body. The impact of someone who'd fallen from a tenth story window. This feeling was another that he could cross off of his imaginary list due to personal experience: being torn limb-from-limb.

Game over.

Thursday May 29th 2008

1:15AM

Robert Walters thought that he had heard the phone ring a few times but the first couple seemed as if they had been the last remnant of a dream that he had been having. His family hadn't been in the town but for a few days and therefore weren't in a phone book. Not that the town was currently large enough to warrant having one published anyway. So there was only possibility of whom the caller could be at this time of night. His first day technically didn't start until 8am that morning but it still counted to him so he considered himself to be obligated to take the call.

The ringing phone hadn't woken up his wife, Mary, who was still fast asleep in the bed next to him. She'd gotten all too used to middle of the night calls that would pull him out of bed and back to work at any time. His hand fumbled around the unfamiliar nightstand next to the bed and worked its way around a glass of water, the alarm clock and other various items until it closed around the cordless phone's handset. He correctly guessed which button would answer the call.

Hello?

Sir?

Ayuh.

I'm sorry to wake you. I know that you're not on until the morning but Mrs. Clarke, Eugene Clarke's wife, just called the station and informed me that her husband hasn't returned from his nightly jog and normally he would have been home over 3 hours ago. She wants to report him missing.

Wait? Who?

Eugene Clarke. Lives with his wife Betty a block from the town square.

Everyone lives a block from the town square. I know that I haven't been able to explain protocol yet but a person isn't considered missing for 24 hours after they were last seen.

I know Sir but she was raving on the phone as he goes jogging every night, takes the same route and returns at the same time. And there's really no place where he could have gone for a while instead of going straight home.

Alright. Put a call through to the officer patrolling the streets and inform him. Tell him to keep his eyes peeled for Mr. Clarke, especially when he gets around the area where he frequently jogged since he took the same route every night. If he isn't found by the time I come in we can put off the meeting and I'll gather some of the good 'ole boys from town and go looking for him.

Yes sir.

The phone clicked softly in his ear and he instantaneously dropped back off to sleep.

3:25AM

The phone rang again. Deep down he had expected another call from the station. While it hadn't been long enough to be officially a missing persons case, this is just an incredibly small town and people do not just go missing during their daily routines.

He figured that the call was to tell him that Mr. Clarke had been found and the officer on duty had given him a ride home after which he would spent hours apologizing to his wife for making her worry so much. He'd get the updates on his desk blotter at the station when he got to work.

Officer Amy Kerringer was new to the police work as were the other four officers currently under his command. He needed to tread water very carefully with them. He'd read their dossiers and knew that with time that they could be great police officers but this was the time to put a stop to certain things before they grew into unbreakable habits.

Officer Kerringer.

Sir.

He could sense a great deal of unease in even just that one word on the other end of the line. He had a strong feeling that his lecture may be unwarranted.

Yes? Go ahead

We've found Eugene Clarke.

That sounded like it should be good news. Nothing that should cause her the unease he still heard in that statement.

Well, the majority of him.

Oh shit.

Oh shit.

4:00AM

The dark night yielded unwillingly to the headlights of Robert's personal car. He didn't want to waste time driving to the station to pick up one of the fledgling department's three marked police cruisers.

He took red gumball from his glove compartment and plugged it into the cigarette lighter and placed it on the roof. It was in there for such emergencies where he didn't have the opportunity to get an official vehicle or if he was summoned to an emergency while running personal errands when he was off-duty. Time was of the essence as he could only imagine how his rookies were handling this particular crime scene. He was worried about how they were holding up.

His fears were mostly allayed when the deep-space darkness of the wilderness gave way to the lights atop the two cruisers which were parked sideways to block the road on either end of the scene. At this time there was very little chance that someone would come along but it was good to see that they'd secured the scene as well as they had because in due time it would be all the more necessary.

He could see that Officer Williams had called in Officer Patterson to help with securing the scene. And given the evidence at the scene, more for his own protection.

He could also see that they had roped off the area using police tape which was stowed away in each cruiser's trunk along with the flares which they'd set up in a small perimeter around the body at the middle of the scene. Normally these flares wouldn't provide much light but they, along with his headlights lit up the relative pitch darkness that surrounded them.

The two officers approached their new commander with an air about them which informed him that they knew that this was one hundred percent business and that they'd get right down to it.

Robert had already scheduled a meeting for all staff in the morning for them to get to know him and vice versa. He could tell that they'd hold personal judgments aside given the circumstances.

He had planned out the next half hour or so in his head on the way to the scene knowing that they had at least that long before backup arrived.

The department in Colorado Springs had forged an agreement to offer assistance when necessary until the department in Woodhaven had the equipment and skill necessary to police the town on its own which would come as the town grew.

Of course such offers of assistance were handed out in the hopes that there would never be an actual need for it. As the population increased Woodhaven would have its very own forensics unit which would send samples to the labs Colorado Springs. But as it stood now, Colorado Springs had to come take the samples themselves.

Due to the incredibly early hour of the day and the length of the trek, he knew that they had a wait ahead of them before the forensics team would arrive. He decided to make the best of the opportunity and go over preliminary tasks that they could perform without ruining possible forensic evidence.

Both officers nodded to him when the three had reached conversation distance and he returned them.

Chief. Almost in unison.

Morning, Officers.

He gave the crime scene another once-over before continuing.

Let's get me briefed.

Officer Williams took a deep breath in preparation to give a full rundown which also gave Robert a moment to prepare the paper he had readied on the clipboard he held. An incident report.

Which was one of the worst parts of police work. Paperwork.

Every call to which they responded required paperwork which meant a good deal of typing to be done at the station before an officer left at the end of their shift.

I received a radio call from Officer Kerringer at the station at approximately 1:35am informing me of Mrs. Clarke's call, the call to you and your decision to have me keep my eyes open for Mr. Clarke. I knew that it had been too early to consider it as an actual missing persons report...

Robert was pleased to hear this as it showed Williams' understanding of the protocols which would be very important as the population around them skyrocketed.

I knew that my usual route would bring me up this way if I kept going and this was a part of his jogging route. But I was pretty sure that we'd have to posse up in the morning and comb the woods. But as that thought entered my head I could see the body lying right where it is now.

I radioed back to office to inform Officer Kerringer of my find and to ask Patch here to come in and help me secure the scene. And quite frankly I was freaking out and didn't want to leave my cruiser until he arrived.

Taking a look at what could best be described as a mess in the middle of the glorified dirt path he felt that it had been a very good idea.

Thank you for responding so quickly Officer Patterson. Not having made their acquaintance yet and because of the nature of the situation he wanted to refer to them only as Officers.

Not a problem Sir. When we signed on they had warned us that we'd have to expect to be on-call nearly twenty-four-seven until we were fully staffed.

"Okay boys, we've got time to kill before the forensics team gets here so let's put it to good use. It should go without saying that they will be very displeased to be here and I know the games they like to play.

They will ask you pointless questions to which they already know the answers in an attempt to prove their superiority over us country bumpkins. I want to have you prepared to answer anything that they throw at you which will also give you a crash course in assessing a crime scene. Plus it won't hurt to have our own written report on what happened here.

See if we can compare notes when the forensics and coroner's reports make their way back to my desk."

The trio walked over to the remains laying in the middle of the road. It was truly a gruesome sight. Despite all of his years of Big City police work this scene was particularly disturbing to him.

They knelt down around the body of Eugene Clarke.

What can you tell me about the victim? Did you ID the body?

Not yet. I recognized the jogging suit and knew that it really couldn't be anyone else. In the future I definitely would but I didn't want to disturb anything until you got here.

Good enough. So we'll pretend that you're just coming onto the scene and work our way from there.

Officer Williams began to reach for the wallet bulge in the right pocket of the jogging pants when Robert cleared his throat. Looking at the rubber gloves in the officer's left breast pocket of his uniform he nodded.

Williams hoped that, in the dark, neither were able to notice the sheepish look on his face.

He was glad, however, that he'd had the presence of mind to pull them from the box in his cruiser's trunk and put them in the pocket while getting the police tape ready. He cursed himself for not recalling the very basic concept of not touching anything involved with a crime scene with bare hands.

After pulling on the snug-fitting gloves he reached into the pocket and removed the brown leather wallet and opened it up to view a driver's license or other document that would allow him to ID the body.

It's Eugene Clarke alright.

Robert wrote the victim's name on the report sheet.

Any open spots where a credit card may have been? Any money in the billfold?

There doesn't seem to be any cards missing. And not only is there about three hundred dollars in cash in here but there's a slip of paper with the PIN for his bank card which is also in the wallet.

Incredibly easy access to money. Officer Patterson offered.

So what can we infer from this?

Before Williams' pause went on too long his friend Patch came to his aide.

This wasn't a monetary motivated crime. No robbery.

Correct. Good job. He also has a gold chain around his neck. Looking at it I would say that it wouldn't be worth very much but these things definitely would have been removed if robbery had been the motivation for his murder.

Looking over the body Robert wished that his department had a camera like the one that the forensics unit would be bringing.

Not that it really mattered since forensic team was technically in charge of handling the scene while Woodhaven's officers were only to secure the scene.

They would have to settle for what they could see without moving the body. Since he was already in wishing mode he might as well throw in a Medical Examiner because even he wasn't exactly sure what he was seeing.

I don't know if it goes without saying for you guys yet or not but be careful that you don't step in the blood. Although they'd eliminate your prints from the equation, we shouldn't go making their job any more difficult by adding superficial evidence.

Both officers looked at the ground immediately below them in hopes that they hadn't already marred the scene. The path's dirt immediately around the body was puddled with Mr. Clarke's blood but miraculously they had managed to avoid it.

Overall state of the body? Wounds?

Williams took over again as the first responding officer.

42 year-old male, which we know from the ID on the deceased, large quantity of blood surrounding the body, both arms and the left leg have been removed. We haven't yet located the missing limbs.

Robert jotted down some additional notes of his own: 'the right arm and left leg have no visible bone as skin surrounding the wound hangs down and they appeared to be torn out of their shoulder and hip sockets. The left arm was sheared off in a different manner as a small protrusion of bone is sticking out from the socket within the shoulder and the bone appears to be broken off."

As he had his head bowed down to write on the report he noticed both of his officers glancing around the woods.

He understood this action clearly as his own spine was tinging. The body may have been laying there for hours but he was aware of what Williams must have been feeling when he was alone in his patrol cruiser waiting for Patterson to arrive.

Alright. Of course we'll have to wait for the M.E.'s report to reach my desk but my money is on Mr. Clarke here having bled to death.

What about the missing limbs though?

"That of course lead to the cause of death but arms and legs are mostly for maneuvering and of course they can be amputated and a person can continue to live as long as it is done as part of a proper medical procedure where the wounds are closed up afterwards.

But these are three large wounds and the heart continued to pump the blood to the removed limbs until it stopped beating."

What...could have...done this?

Again, I'll have to wait for the report to get back to me but the skin around the wounds look stretched and twisted. A knife or cutting tool would have left a 'cleaner' wound. And I'm not sure but there's something about the fact that the one arm and the leg were displaced from the socket.

The three officers let silence fall in around them while they pondered possible meanings of this evidence only to have it shattered; by the engine sounds of the forensic team's vehicles and the Coroner's van that would take the body to be examined by the county when the forensics were concluded at the scene.

8:30AM

Robert walked down the stairs from the bedroom to the kitchen after waking from a three hour nap. It was a luxury he didn't want to afford himself but it was undoubtedly going to be a long day and knew he'd need whatever sleep he was able to get. After what he saw at the scene he was amazed upon waking that he had been able to fall asleep. Much less without horrible nightmares.

He had called Woodhaven's acting Mayor Harry K. Shaw from the phone in the kitchen to brief him on the situation as soon as he'd gotten home. He felt badly for calling him at that hour and informed Harry that he'd spare him most of the details for now but they set up a meeting at what serves as the Town Hall for shortly after the meeting with his officers at the station should end.

Mary was standing at the stove and his place was set at the table minus the plate she had with her as she used a spatula to remove a hearty Western Omelet from the pan.

Honey, I'm not sure I have time for breakfast.

I'm not sending you out there on you first day working here without a good breakfast. And besides it won't take you long to get to the station, it's only ten minutes from the house.

In this town, what isn't ten minutes away?

She smiled that radiant, prize-winning smile that had seemed to melt his heart all those years ago. To this day he still couldn't look at her enough.

She pushed a lock of her blonde hair, which hadn't change shades in the 20 years that he'd known her, out of her face so she could see where the plate was to put the bacon next to the omelet.

She walked over to the table, sat his plate in front of him and stooped down to kiss the top of his head but even though he was seated she did not have to stoop down very far.

Aren't Josh and Jennifer going to eat?

It's 8:30 dear, they ate and left for school an hour ago.

Oh yeah. My perception of time is a little off. Still not sure that we should have rushed them right into their new school here since there's only a couple of weeks or so to go before Summer Vacation begins.

I know, but we'd decided to start off our lives here immediately and it's not so bad, with a town this size it's not like they have a lot of children to get to know. Heck you've seen the school, it's like the schoolhouse on The Little House on the Prairie!

Yeah, it's way too small.

I think it's adorable. But you know as well as I do that the new school they'll be building will be enormous.

She brought his coffee over to him and placed it directly into his hand so that he'd have more time for it to kick in before his officers' meeting. He blew on it several times to try to get it to a drinkable temperature.

All I can say is, what a way to start off my career here.

I know that you don't have time now to go over it but I'm curious about this morning.

The phone calls didn't wake you up did they?

Heavens no. Wife of a police officer for 15 years while 7 were as the top dog in a city precinct one learns to sleep through phone calls. It would take at least three or four rings before I'd even be roused from sleep. And after that I'd be elbowing you in the back until you answered it.

There was that smile again.

I promise I'll tell you what went on. It might become important to do so very soon but hopefully not.

9:30AM

A half hour into the meeting and it was already drawing to a close. Even the officers hadn't really known each other so it was a time for everyone to get to know everyone else. He had gotten to meet Officer Michael Nonnemann who had remained to be the only one he hadn't at least talked with over the phone.

He felt that he had a good crew and that they should be able to learn quickly the ways of the job. He wasn't worried about the long-term future and had minimal concerns for the immediate future.

The respect of each officer for their Chief was very evident. They knew where he came from and a good deal of what he'd done over the years in the line of duty and those things were enough to command respect even more than being their Chief would, alone.

Each officer seemed excited to learn what they'd have to know and Robert could feel that each one took a very serious stance about their responsibilities towards the citizens that they are paid to protect. But it was more than just the money that had gotten them to sign up and go to the academy and that was of immense importance.

Monetary compensation would get you only so far as many of the things that they'd have to do day in and day out would hardly seem to be worth just the money. But it was obvious that they would take far more away from the work that they did than just their paychecks.

Well now that we know each other fairly well we shall discuss the happenings of last night, at least what little there is to discuss at this point. And then I will wrap up this party so that I can go talk with the Mayor.

Each officer seemed to shift into their seats but luckily not because of the prospect that the meeting would go longer than intended.

"Before I start I want to thank those of you who were on duty for the work that you did. I want to thank Officer Patterson for responding to the call in the middle of the night but also for being here promptly this morning. And Officer Nonnemann for coming in early for this meeting.

Now to discuss what little we know. A citizen of our town was killed. We have been able to rule out a few possible motives but by looking at the wounds we can't figure out who...or...what murdered him.

It was definitely a surprise and the victim was caught completely off-guard. From what we can tell he had no enemies, at least none that would commit such an atrocious crime. From the physical evidence we cannot tell how this was done beyond mere speculations. I should receive the M.E.'s report within a day or two depending upon how backed up they are at their county offices and perhaps that will shed some light on the subject.

We currently have a few state troopers investigating the area to see if there are any signs of wildlife that may have been able to do