Bardstown Mystery

For the September 2016 "The Bard's Hall Contest" 

Introduction: It's the Bardstown's 16th decade, birthday celebration! The whole town is invited to the events. Detective Hall, was just about to "close shop" for the day and leave a skeleton crew on to answer phones and 911 him if an emergency arrives, then, suddenly his phone rings ...

Prompt: "Yes, this is Detective Hall, speaking. What! You found a gun buried under Elmer's sycamore tree? How did you think to look there? Oh, his neighbor's dog dug it up. Yes, we've had complaints of that dog digging in yards all over Bardstown. Wait, what's that you say? There was a metal box with lots of cash buried with the gun?"

Detective Hall and Sergeant Carroll, two of the town’s best officers, sped to the scene of what sounded like it might be a crime scene cover up. Just as the caller had described, there was a gun and a metal box of cash. Sergeant Carroll took pictures of the scene and, using gloves, collected the items, treating them like evidence, just in case. Detective Hall questioned the caller and nearby neighbors as well as Elmer who claimed he had no idea who might have put a gun and box of money in his backyard, but that it certainly wasn’t him as he rarely went back there. After gathering all the information and evidence they could, Sergeant Carroll and Detective Hall returned to headquarters to sort out what they had gathered and to think things through.

This was the closest thing Bardstown had had to a crime since they caught that peeping tom a few years ago and the officers weren’t about to let this mystery slip through their fingers. Using all their police training, those on duty began working the case, starting a file, and writing what they knew on the giant dry erase board that was normally used for writing lunch orders and phone messages. They weren’t getting anywhere so finally, scratching his nine-o-clock shadow, Detective Hall decided to call it a night and suggested the others who had chosen to stay late do the same. After all, there was a town birthday celebration going on and he’d promised his wife he’d take her out for a romantic evening of barbeque and fireworks. That night Detective Hall tossed and turned, struggling with the feeling that they were missing something…but perhaps the lab would be able to shed some light on what they’d found.

When he arrived at work, Detective Hall found the whole station abuzz and Sergeant Carroll ran up to him excitedly.

“Sir, I think I’ve solved the case! Old Blue has been digging up things all over town and at first it didn’t make any sense, but now…remember, he’s also dug up a set of keys belonging to a Chevy and a set of black clothes, including a ski mask; but remember he’s also been scratching and digging at Jake’s place, up on the porch, like he’s trying to get in…”

Jake was the local good-for-nothing whose only contribution to the town was making irregular visits to the elderly to do poor quality yard work.

“The serial numbers on those bills match up to a bank robbery over in Charlotte a few months ago—what if those keys are for the getaway car and the clothes are from the robber…and what if Old Blue knows who that robber is?!”

“Hmmm…Jake did drive a Chevy Malibu until a few months ago—call the lab and see if they’ve got anything else for us, like some fingerprints, and I’ll call the judge 'cause I think we’re going to need a warrant.”