The Suitcase

by T V Scribner

  Paisley Ingles lived in the small town of Carpenteria, California. After graduating from the Carpenteria Police Academy the previous year, she was hired by the local police department. Six months later, she was promoted to the position of detective, in the small precinct. However, instead of fighting crime and solving murders, her work consisted of overseeing office chores, such as handling stacks of paperwork, typing computer reports, doing some computer forensic work and taking part in uneventful stake-outs.

  Paisley’s duties at the Carpenteria Precinct, did not reflect her detective status, so she made a decision to move to Minnesota, in the spring, of 2017, when the Pinecrest Police Department (PPD), in Minnesota, hired her to fill the position, of Forensic Computer Specialist. Also offered, was the opportunity to move into a detective position after three months on the job. She accepted, knowing her status as a detective would enable her to assist in investigating murder cases, which is what she really wanted to do.

  Although she was part-time, she intended to gain enough experience in the field, to fulfill her plans, down the line, and maybe even open her own private detective agency, in the future! However, for the time being, computer forensics remained her ticket into the department and would do for now. She settled into her great Aunt's house, in Brainerd, a small city next to Pinecrest. This would be temporary until she had time to find her own place. Her Aunt was somehow related to someone on her mother’s side of the family.

  As a young girl, Paisley dreamed of being a detective—ala Nancy Drew. She also loved Archaeology, which led her to take classes at a nearby University, until she deciding she needed a more practical profession. Wasn’t detective work a lot like archaeology? Both were involved in investigating and uncovering mysteries new and old. Someday she would continue her archaeology classes again, but right now, she needed to earn money and support herself.

  A distant cousin on her father's side of the family, Mandy Dillard, had moved to Pinecrest, the previous year, from Iowa, enrolling in classes at Pinecrest College, and Mandy contacted Paisley, as soon as she arrived in Minnesota. They met over lunch to get acquainted, establishing a close friendship, and discovering both had a passion for running.

  Monday, May 15, 2017 Brainerd Over the weekend, Mandy informed Paisley her finals had been moved to Monday from mid-morning, until late afternoon, which meant Paisley would have to run solo. Their usual route began near the college along a wooded trail, which after a mile or two, turned towards town and residential streets, finishing at Ben's Burger's, in Pinecrest. So Sunday evening, Mandy followed Paisley in her car, to the parking area at Ben's, so she'd have a car to drive home, after her run.

  Monday’s early morning weather, was the usual clouds-disappear-sun-comes-out type of morning, typical of upper Minnesota. Paisley forced herself out of bed, and began her morning routine. Not every day was good for running in Minnesota, because the weather varied so much. People warned her that fall was too cold to run much past September, and too cold in March and April, to begin. However, since Paisley’s arrival in Brainerd, she’d been lucky, because nice weather arrived earlier than usual.

  Shutting off her alarm, Paisley stretched her arms towards the ceiling, yawned, and stood for a moment, before walking to the closet to claim her running attire. She chose a raggedy pair of gray sweats, her favorite well-worn T-shirt, with her old college logo on its front, and her comfortable faded-blue, zip-up sweatshirt, with its small tear on the side pocket, and dressed quickly.

  She stepped into mud-spattered running shoes and headed for the mirror on the back of the bedroom door. Standing in front of it for a moment, she stared, then gathered her bronze, unruly curls, and pulled them away from her face, into a pony tail, and wrapped it with an elastic band. An old ball cap was added to protect her fair skin. Giving herself a last look in the mirror, she hurried out the door, into Aunt Olga's car, who planned to drop her off at the starting point of her run.

  "Thanks Aunt Olga, I appreciate the lift."

  Aunt Olga smiled at Paisley, “No trouble my child, I go see Vlad at hospital for hour or two, he has small operation today. It starts early."

  Paisley smiled, as she adored her little Aunt with the Russian accent, but was scared to death to drive with her. Aunt Olga was up there in age, and Paisley wasn’t sure how far up! "Please say hello to Uncle Vlad, and tell him I hope his procedure goes well. See you later," and she waved goodbye, as she stepped out of the car, glad to have made it, without incident.

  Her run dragged without Mandy’s company, however, forty minutes later, she rounded the last corner, and sweating profusely, finally caught sight, of Ben's Burgers. Located on the main street, in front of the Pinecrest Mall parking lot, Ben’s had a large, red neon arrow pointing to a giant sign, which read, Ben's Burgers. She jogged a little faster, her thirst spurring her across the parking lot, until she arrived at the entrance, a few minutes before the place officially opened.

  Pinecrest With time to cool down and stretch for a minute or two, she was ready when the doors opened promptly at seven, and strolled over to the counter, ready to order. Ben's Burgers, was a popular fast food place in Pinecrest, especially with the college crowd. The decor was pseudo-fifties, with bright red Formica counters and matching Naugahyde seat covers. Formica topped tables sat on chrome legs, with red chair seats, which added a cheerful touch.

  Eclectic framed prints consisting of old fifties' celebrity caricatures, such as Elvis, Sal Mineo and James Dean, adorned the walls, along with a poster of Jackie Gleason and Alice, with a banner that read, "To The Moon". Red plastic baskets, lined with wax paper, held burgers and fries, with condiments on each table. Ben's Burgers wasn't the newest or biggest place in Pinecrest, but certainly the busiest. Customers chose to eat inside, because of Ben, who created a welcoming atmosphere, treating each person, like a neighbor.

  "Morning, Julia, I’ll have the usual," Paisley said, as she took a seat at the counter. She glanced around, as the customers filed in, and it looked like another busy morning.

  "Coming right up," Julia called out, her ponytail bouncing, as she headed to the fountain to get a Diet Coke, for Paisley. Julia was familiar with Paisley’s and Mandy's penchant for stopping at Ben's after their twice-a-week run, and was always ready for them, with a friendly smile and their favorite beverage.

  "Does Mandy have classes this morning?" She set the Diet Coke down in front of Paisley and handed her a straw.

  "Yep, the semester is almost over, so she has finals today."

  "Hey, you want anything else this morning? We have..." but Julia never finished her sentence.

  "Help!" A piercing cry was coming from the back room, startling everyone in the place. Paisley jumped up, running towards the kitchen, to see what happened.

  Julia followed close behind, when Jerry, one of the cooks, nearly knocked them both down, as he raced around the corner from the back room into the kitchen, still yelling for help.

  As they adroitly avoided a collision, Paisley and Julia simultaneously said, "What happened?" Jerry struggled to speak, silently moving his lips and waving his hands, as if her were a mime, pointing and gesturing, to make himself understood. His oval face was ashen, and his brown eyes registered shock, at whatever-it-was, he’d encountered. Looking unsteady on his feet, Paisley rushed forward stabilizing him, and gently shaking his shoulders to help him focus.

  "It's...the freezer! It's...!" he stared blankly at her for a moment, finally mumbling his words again, as she endeavored to decipher what had happened, to cause such agitation. It was useless, he continued to stutter incoherently.

  Paisley didn't wait for him to say more, but instead, asked Julia to take him up front where he could sit down, and she could call the store's owner. Taking Jerry's arm, Julia led him away, while Paisley turned, raced through the kitchen, around the corner and down the hall, past the manager's office. She paused to get her bearings, before turning right, towards the cooler, which led to the freezer.

  The morning manager
, Steve, heard the commotion and fell in behind her. Once inside the cooler, she noticed the freezer door standing slightly ajar and motioned Steve to stay behind her. Not knowing what to expect, she slowly crept further until she reached the heavy, metal freezer door. Steve stood watching, as she used her foot to tug the unwieldy door open several more inches, in order to peek further into its interior.

  The freezer was a large room, approximately ten feet wide, by twelve feet deep. The ceiling was low, with two light bulbs, one towards the front of the freezer and one at the back, both encased in metal cages. When the door opened, they turned on, flooding the freezer with light. The electric circuitry was encased in metal pipes which traveled up one of the walls to a metal fan, with two vents. Paisley stepped forward on the cement floor, and noticed a dark, reddish-brown trail leading towards the back wall of the freezer, and avoided stepping on this trail, as it resembled dried blood.

  The freezer held cases of frozen food and a small dolly used to wheel the cases in and out, but no light switches. Because the lights were wired to go on automatically when the door opened, she surmised, they probably automatically turned off, when the door closed. The door, itself, was almost ten inches thick, with rubber gaskets to seal the freezer when it closed. Although surprised to see no internal handle, she did notice a temperature gauge, on the wall closest to the door. It was also imprisoned in a wire cage, presumably to keep it from being hit, as cartons of frozen foods were rolled in and out on the dolly. The gauge registered zero degrees.

  The drastic drop in temperature assaulted her, as she haltingly edged deeper into the freezer to investigate, and she kept her eyes on the rusty-brown line, trailing across the floor. Her body involuntary shuddered, as she traveled further into the freezer's depths, where metal shelves reached almost to the top of the low ceiling. The shelves were stacked with cardboard boxes of all sizes, containing foods needed to run the burger place. There were large bags of frozen French fries and onion rings, boxes of frozen hamburger patties, bags of fish fillets, chicken strips and chicken nuggets, five gallon containers of ice cream, and smaller boxes full of dessert pies and ice cream treats.

  Shelves extended to her left and right, almost eight feet into the freezer, with a large shelving unit across the back wall, opposite the entrance. Pausing for a moment, she gazed at the shelves lining the freezer's walls, and there it was! Paisley covered her mouth with her hand and uttered a low gasp, stopping briefly to steel herself, before moving forward.

  A voice from further behind her said, "What is it? Do you see something?" It was Steve, sounding impatient, as he stood at the freezer entrance. He was middle-aged, a little on the short side, with a crew cut, a weak chin and a slight paunch. He craned his neck from the freezer doorway to see what she'd spotted. Tending to be on the bossy side, he said, in an authoritative voice, ”I’ll be careful, but I'm coming in too...I want to have a look!"

  Paisley held up her hand, signaling him to wait for a moment. Her attention was riveted on the toe of what looked to be a boot, partially protruding from a space between the two shelving units. There was a small alcove created by the shelving, which didn't quite meet the wall in the left-hand corner. Boxes of frozen foods blocked the alcove, causing her to move forward and peer around them to see if it was a boot. Despite her request, Steve pushed forward, into the freezer, carefully following the path she took.

  As she stared into the recess, he came up behind her, peered over her shoulder, then let out a yell, "Oh no! The legs—it's one of our employees! Is he...dead?"

  Chapter 3

  “Stay right there! Don’t come any closer, I’ll find out.” She moved forward into the alcove, stared a moment, then said quietly, “I think you’d better call the police.”

  Steve needed no further urging. He turned, running from the freezer into the cooler area yelling, “Make way!” And shoved past several employees, who had just arrived for their shift and were crowded at the cooler’s door, wondering what had happened.

  Carefully, Paisley stepped closer into the recess of the alcove, and couldn’t help but recoil, as she viewed the grotesque tableau before her. The body sat on a cardboard carton, labeled hamburger patties, perched on it, as if he were a discarded rag doll. His face was a sickening whitish-blue, while his head lolled against the back wall. The sight was horrifying. The right arm, bent at the elbow, rested atop a carton of fish patties. Wide-open eyes, bulged and stared at her, while a swollen blue tongue protruded from the side of the corpse’s mouth. The left arm hung limply to the side, with its hand seeming to clutch a discarded burlap bag, as if in a feeble attempt, to draw some warmth from it.

  Even though it seemed obvious this poor soul was dead, she stepped even closer, carefully putting two fingers on the side of his neck, to determine if there was a pulse—just in case. Of course, there was none. At first, she thought it must have been some horrible accident. However, when she checked his neck for a pulse, she also noticed bruising, confirming that it might be a homicide. She knew the investigators and Medical Examiner would have to make that determination. She quickly backtracked through the freezer door, into the cooler where it was marginally warmer, where she encountered a few workers still hovering in the cooler.

  “Please,” she requested, “return to your posts, and take care of the customers. I assure you, once the police arrive and do their work, there’ll be more information. Although I am a detective on the police force, I don’t have the authority to comment on the situation, at present.” The workers accepted this and dispersed to their stations, mumbling quietly amongst themselves about the shocking discovery.

  Jerry rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, at the same time Paisley exited the cooler, and they almost collided! He was looking for her.

  “Gregore!—It’s Gregore,” Jerry said, “because, as I entered the freezer this morning to get a box of hash browns, I saw this shoe and went closer to look—I had to look! Is he dead?” Jerry asked her. He’d obviously recovered his voice, and wasn’t stuttering this time, as he blurted out his question, his eyes wide with emotion.

  They were interrupted as Steve said, “I called the police like you asked!”

  “Great, thanks.” Paisley said, then turned to Jerry, and answered his question, “Yes, Jerry, to the best of my knowledge he’s dead, but we still need to wait for the official word from the police.”

  With Jerry’s loud comment, he had let the proverbial cat out of the bag, and the few people close by, who heard him, were stunned. They filed back to their stations in silence, with Jerry and Paisley close behind. The workers resumed serving the customers, and neither Jerry, nor Paisley, said anything else.

  Once in the dining area, she watched out the windows and waited for the police to arrive, and didn’t have long to wait. She heard the sirens, before she saw them drive up the street, and pull into the parking lot. The doors flew open and two officers hustled inside the building. Paisley stepped forward to greet them, and acting as the spokesperson, directed them towards the back of the burger place, to the freezer where the body sat.

  Officer Ryan immediately recognized her, from the precinct, and introduced her to Officer Smith as they hurried along, then asked for a quick description of what had taken place. She was relieved to have Officer Ryan present. He had helped acquaint her to the precinct when she was hired, so it was reassuring to see his familiar face.

  Arriving at the entrance to the freezer, she quickly filled in both officers, pointing to what she believed to be a dried blood trail on the floor, and they circumvented it, as they made their way further into the freezer, to the alcove. They glanced in, as she explained the circumstances of her discovery.

  “At first, I thought it was some horrible accident, but when I felt for a pulse, I noticed marks on the neck and I decided it might be a homicide.”

  Several more policemen arrived, and Steve directed them towards the back. Paisley hurried to greet them and guided them to the freezer, then stepped aside at the free
zer entrance, as they surveyed the scene. She mentioned the dried blood trail on the floor again, then stepped a little further to the left of the door to keep from blocking the doorway. As she did so, her foot stepped on something hard and she looked down, noticing a small object partially lodged under the edge of the door. Realizing her chap stick must have fallen from her pocket, she hurriedly picked it up and put it in her hoodie pocket where it belonged.

  The two new officers, greeted Officers Ryan and Smith. Officer Ryan introduced them to Paisley Ingles, as Officers Beck and Mead, and mentioned she was new to the department. They both looked at her quizzically, as she stood by the door, and nodded their heads, then turned back to look in the the alcove. Ryan briefly filled them in and directed Beck to call the Pinecrest Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (PBCA) and the Medical Examiner (ME).

  Beck turned, and noticing Paisley still standing against the freezer wall, stared at her momentarily. She could see by his face, he wasn’t sure whether he’d seen her at the station, or not. Ryan noticed also, and told Beck as he was leaving, “I want Ingles to remain, so I can question her further about what happened,” then looking directly at her said, “Ingles, I want to extend my appreciation, for the way you handled the situation until we arrived.” Paisley smiled.

  Officer Smith turned, and quickly reaffirmed the victim was deceased, then instructed Officer Mead to put up crime scene tape in areas of the dining area, to keep customers out of the way. The PBCA and photographer were next to arrive, and were hurriedly ushered into the freezer. The photographer began taking preliminary pictures of the crime scene and the body, in situ. With white attire and latex gloves, the crime scene technicians looked more like mad scientists, as they proceeded to spread a plastic sheet over the freezer floor, to protect the area. Although the paramedics had arrived, they would have to wait until the preliminary investigation was over, before they could remove the body.