They came to the lake, which looked like a bath that had being left on too long, and began to over flow.
The lake was brown and filled with junk, which had floated down stream from the previous town.
There in front of them, on the oozing riverbank, half sunken in mud laid the body, it seemed to be intact except a few cuts and bruises. When the vicar looked at the corpse he got the most peculiar feeling, it was as if a ghost walked through him. He seemed to recognise the body as some one he used to know, but something looked different. Like an older version.
John didn’t intend to stick around any longer. So john and Craig went up with the local police to the station, where they told the police officers all they knew.
The next morning the whole town was gossiping of the last night’s encounters. No one stopped to think how the parents might feel when they were informed that their daughter was dead.
This case was far too complicated for the police so they called a detective in for help. The detective was called Paul. Paul was tall and broad like a tree. He had extremely curly hair, and to go with the hair he had a big bushy moustache. His skin had a healthy glowing complexion. He always seemed to be wearing an old, tatty grey coat.
The police were making inquiries to whom the body was, but they weren’t having much luck. Until on Tuesday morning a late middle-aged couple walked in.
The couple, Mr and Mrs Hoffman, informed the police that almost ten years ago their daughter Susan had gone missing. They thought the body looked familiar and thought it was best to come down and sewe if it was her.
The case had been closed, as they could not find the body or the culprit.
“But could this be her?” the Hoffman’s wondered.
The police took the Hoffman’s the laboratory where the body was being held.
Mrs Hoffman wasn’t sure if she wanted to see the body, she didn’t want to bring all the upset back, but she also wanted to know if it was.
Mr and Mrs Hoffman took one last look at each other as the cover was peeled back to revel the body.
Mrs Hoffman let out a loud gasp and turned as white as milk. It was Susan! She didn’t know if this was a good or bad thing. Finally she had found her daughter’s body, but it just brought back all the upset and distress.
It did make sense for this body to be her, all the pictures matched! It was her, but a Susan which had aged a little. Just to be certain they did D.N.A tests and they were positive.
As the detective was examining the body he found a vital clue. Underneath the index finger nail was a spec of blood. The scientists did a test to see if it was Susan’s but it came back negative.
The news spread round the village like a house on fire. When John heard the news he hastily decided to go and see some old classmates of his, who lived in Selby. This was very peculiar, as he had not mentioned of any past friends recently.
It was now drawing up to Christmas and there was still no evidence of who the killer was. By now the gossip had died down and most people had forgot about what had happened as they were so hooked on the up coming event of Christmas.
The detective thought he had, had a breakthrough when two villages up a man had confessed to murdering a woman! Paul drove all the way up to the village to find out that, further investigations proved that he was innocent of the killing of Susan.
Winter arrived and thick layers of glistening snow swept the streets. It was so peaceful. The slowly drifting snowflakes making the air look white gave the village a snow dome effect.
But the snow was against one person. The snowflakes had stopped, but one person was unaware that this was going to happen, so one morning when the police returned back to the spot where the body was found they noticed faint footmarks pressed into the snow.
They took a mould of these footsteps and the base on the shoe turned out to be those of one particular pair of boots. Only two people in the village owned a pain of these boots, John, the vicar and a woman called Jane.
Jane was a quiet woman who lived by her self on the out skirts of the town. No body knew much about her as she kept her self to her self.
No one in the right mind would of suspected her of being able to kill some one, but you know what they say, it’s always the quiet ones.
Craig had reacted badly to his discovery of the body and was not his usual self. He tried not to talk about the matter. Then he had a brainwave, why doesn’t he help the police as the only witness left, plus this may free his mind of guilt.
As no one had volunteered to give D.N.A samples, Paul devised a cunning plan. He was to inform the villagers that they were going to have a free flu jab, but at the same time he would take a blood sample.
The people fell into the trap and so he had a blood sample of every person who lived in the village. He was bound to catch them now, there was no escape of him.
And so the D.N.A tests began but none of them proved positive. Paul was baffled, how could this be? The only person who hadn’t been checked was John.
And so the clues began to add up, John thought he recognised the body, when the police identified the body and began D.N.A samples he quickly fled. It had to be him. But how could a religious vicar like him do something like this.
When the police heard this information they quickly went to Selby where John said he was going but he was not there, in fact he couldn’t be found anywhere. He had done a runner!
The police began to send out search parties all over the United Kingdom and all the airports to see if he had flown out of the country.
“I can’t believe that our own vicar could have murdered,” said a nosy towns person.
“Yeh, I know, he was a good friend to me, I hope nothing bad happens to him” Craig said in a relieved manner.
“Well I hope that sick twisted man gets what’s coming to him” in a bisque manor replied the person.
Two weeks later John was spotted backpacking across the Australian out backs. The private detectives immediately went out to Australia and arrested him. They brought him back to England, and took him to court.
As he walked through the village people booed and hissed and threw large objects at him.
When John was taken to court, he pleaded innocent as no evidence proved it was him who killed Susan. As no one believed him, and for the commotion he made, made his sentence even longer.
At last the village went back to normal and everyone celebrated the capture of John. But as the villagers kept on celebrating the more Craig would get mad.
When people passed him in the streets they went quiet to show respect to him as he was very close to John
Once again autumn came, but this time the weather was bad. Storms would leave massive destruction to the town and anger Craig even more. No body would talk to him any more as he would snap at them.
On a cold winters morning Craig was seen in the D.I.Y shop, he seemed to be cheerful, and back to his normal self. His friends and family were glad to see him back this way.
He kept up this appearance for a few days and the people would once again talk to him, invite him places and go back to being his friend again.
One morning he didn’t show up at his parents house, in fact no one saw him all day. It then dragged out to a week and still no one had seen him. They thought he was going through another rough path and thought it was best to leave him.
But the weeks were becoming longer and Paul decided to call round. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He peered through the window and didn’t like what he saw. He called for some assistance.
Paul knocked the door down and ran into the room. Within the room there was festering smell to the room. He didn’t notice any thing at first and ran into the kitchen.
He heard an apprehensive voice call him back into the room. He scurried back into the room where he saw something his eyes did not wish to see.
There on the back of the door dangled, by a piece of rope, Craig’s soulless body. On the table beside him was a note, which read:
Please for give me for killing myself, but if you knew the torment I was going through you would understand. It was me who murdered poor innocent Susan; I didn’t mean to, I was only young. We were madly in love and secretly shared our time with each other.
But it all happened when one night we were walking home through the woods when we had an argument.
It all got out of proportion and she slapped me. I, without realising punched her, she fell backwards and smashed her head on a rock.
I was a coward and disposed of the body in the river. But I was surprised to see her when I was walking through the woods.
She looked just the same, but slightly older. She was beautiful, just how she used to be.
We stood talking as I was amazed to see her. On the night of our argument she didn’t die she was just unconscious. She awoke the next day further down stream. She had been living under another persons identity until the time was right to come back.
Then without any warning she came at me with a knife, I was livid, I ran towards her but fell. She came towards me with the knife held tightly in her hand. She pinned me down.
I started to panic and I felt around for something, I grabbed a rock, I had no choice but to hit her with it. I smacked her over the head several times with it. She took her last breath and fell to the ground.
I ran home in a state of panic and grabbed a bin liner and hurried back and buried her.
A few days later I dug her up and placed her in the woods. Then I deliberately cut my self and tore my clothes and ran to the vicar and told him I had found her.
When they found the speck of blood I knew I had to do something, so I ingeniously came forward to help the police. This way I would avoid any questioning and did not have to give a blood sample.
I would just like to say I’m sorry for any pain I have caused. I’m sorry for letting an innocent person go down. I’m sorry for the pain I have caused to the Hoffman’s, but most of all I am sorry for murdering Susan. Please forgive me!
