Emerging Writers. Three Mile Road, Sheridan, Wyoming

Three Mile Road, Sheridan, Wyoming 

Episode 12

Fire Marshall Denton was waiting for Taylor when he pulled up to Merton’s house on Three Mile Road.

“Howdy Marshall.”

“Sheriff.”

“I want to take a closer look at that window if I may.”

“Go ahead then.”

“The screen was pushed up from the outside, see the handprints on the bottom of the screen. It is so dirty and dusty that you can see the prints that were made when it was lifted. If your boys didn’t do it to get in that room, and you said the window was already open, then it seems that likely there was an intruder that night.”

“Well what do you know!”

“Did that curtain ever show up Marshall?”

“One of my boys told me they put it with the rest of the debris that was hauled away.”

“They did what? That could be evidence from a crime!” Back east Taylor would have viewed this as intentional destruction of evidence. Here he figured it could be just an oversight.

“Sorry Sheriff, they didn’t know. It was by the looks of it an ordinary house fire.”

“Not so ordinary now though, Marshall, not so ordinary now.”

Their thoughts were interrupted by the old fashioned ring of Taylor’s cell phone. It was Evans. “Hi Sheriff, sir. Guess what sir?”

“What is it Evans?”

“We found something on one fatal accident that seems to fit. On December 15, 1981, there was an accident that killed and injured several people, drunk driver, right near Rockefeller Center. He left the scene, but was found later and prosecuted. He wasn’t convicted. It seems he had connections. So the story goes, if it’s the same accident you were looking to find out about.”

After all those years of being in the business, Taylor just knew his clerks had found it. Now, what did it all mean? It was time to see Bailey again.

Read earlier episodes of Three Mile Road, Sheridan, Wyoming

Let’s Start at the Beginning, Episode 1
Putting Up With the Wait, Episode 2
Not Sitting Well, Episode 3
Not Exactly, Episode 4
More and More Curious, Episode 5
Not His Real Name, I Suppose, Episode 6
No Cakewalk, Episode 7
What the New Day Brings, Episode 8
The Case Takes on Some Life, Episode 9
A Picture’s Worth 1000 Words, Episode 10
Hitting Pay Dirt, Episode 11
Taylor Just Knew, Episode 12 (This one)