by Nicholas A. Levack

Created on: April 21, 2008   Last Updated: June 11, 2008

A Laborious Labor Day

Section I: The Suspects

- Bill Franklin
- Thomas Nate
- Ryan O'Neil
- James Arnold

Section II: The Body

The group stood around a forgotten picnic blanket, watching the police officer nervously as sweat rolled down their brows as a result of the stifling heat. The family of one of the men, Bill Franklin, looked on anxiously from the shade of a nearby tree. It was their picnic that they had planned to celebrate Labor Day with, which had been ruined. One would assume that when the family woke up in the morning to take full advantage of their day off, they hadn't the slightest idea that the father would soon become a suspect in a murder.

The body of John Lamar had been concealed underneath a tarp the police officer brought along with him to keep it from disturbing the family before the ambulance arrived to obtain the corpse. The police officer ran his eyes over the four suspects, each looking anxious to be out of the heat, both literal and metaphorical: the afore mentioned Bill Franklin; James Arnold who had allegedly been jogging around the area with John Lamar at the time, and rested with him at the scene of the crime; Ryan O'Neil who had been hunting ("that's at least one crime he'll have pay for," thought the officer, thinking of how the area was illegal to hunt in); and Thomas Nate, who, according to the other witnesses, had actually been following Thomas and John.

Though Bill had already gone over the story with the other witnesses, he soon found himself repeating it to the officer: "Well officer, my family and I were here having a picnic to celebrate Labor Day; we like to come up here as it's usually so secluded. We were at the top of the hill and heard a pair of footsteps down below, but we could not see them over the hill. But suddenly, we heard two gunshots. We came down the hill to find that man, dead, with the other man who had been running with him yelling at Thomas Nate who had been following him. Ryan O'Neil here came down from afar and started arguing with the others. Apparently, John's running partner had recognized both men, so he accused them and managed to get them to stay here until you arrived."

Unsurprising, thought the officer, since all of them had been carrying guns, this would not be the easiest case to solve. Not only had they been carrying guns, but Bill Franklin had, as well, so though it did not seem very likely he had committed the crime, the officer could not rule the possibility.

"I was hunting!" Reminded Ryan O'Neil.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>