When Mike climbed out of the well with Henry and handed him over to the nurse, the rescuer had then walked over to Stanton.
With a look of dismay on his face, he spoke to him softly, “There’s a body down there, Officer Conner. It’s been down there for a long time.”
A chill ran through the policeman. He could guess who it was. Looking over at his brother, he couldn’t hide his distress as he realized that his brother would have to face what he had done so long ago, no matter what happiness he had just found.
Braxton wondered at the strange look on his face and hobbled over, asking, “What is it, Stan? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Stanton remained silent as Braxton tried to read him, looking into his eyes. Suddenly, out of nowhere he guessed and it frightened him.
No, it can’t be, he reasoned. He hasn’t said anything! You’re nuts!
He wanted to ask if someone was down there, if it was the missing pastor, but he was frightened to put it into words, to make it real.
Abruptly, Stanton did make it real by saying, “There’s a body down there Brax. I think we both know who it is and it’s got to be dealt with.”
Braxton couldn’t say a thing. He quietly turned and went to find Fred, asking him to take him home.
Braxton stared out the window of the rig, thinking, Found after all this time... It was probably an accident. But who’s going to believe it? No one wants to believe it! Everyone’s going to think I killed him. I was crazy mad that day. But the worst of it is… I don’t know what I did. I just can’t remember. I was so drunk and angry.
As the truck rumbled down the road, he grew afraid of what was to come and tried to remember.
Stanton felt too close to the situation and with a conflict of interest possible, he talked with his chief and the case was handed over to the State Patrol for investigation.
Stringing up the yellow crime tape around the old well, the forensic investigators descended, taking pictures, and documenting what little evidence remained, which wasn’t much after all that time.
They risked their own lives in the unstable well, determined to document the facts.
Eventually the remains were removed and the victim was transported to the county coroner for positive identification and the official coroner’s report, stating the cause of death.
It was indeed Pastor Andrew Brown and it appeared that he had died from either the blunt force trauma to the back of his head, or his broken neck. Either would have been fatal. Both could have been received from an accidental fall into the well.
Local and state newspapers picked up the story and Brandon Creek was in the news again.
His cold case was reopened and a team of investigators went over the evidence, reading all the old depositions, taking new ones and reconstructing the scene of Sam’s accident.
By retrieving all the wood from the well, the criminologists were able to reconstruct the wooden cover from the current event. But there wasn’t any debris from a previous incident, and there should have been.
There should have been something lying around and under the body of the pastor who had tried to teach God’s love.
Was the previous cover missing for some reason? Interviewing the town residents, it was determined there had always been a cover over that well and no one had ever seen it without one. Too many witnesses could testify to that fact.
So, what happened to it? The plausible explanation was that someone had removed it and replaced it after hiding his body down there, someone who knew about his presence in the well and had hid that fact from the police.
Abruptly, the case transformed into a homicide investigation. All physical evidence was sent off to the state crime lab for evaluation.
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A Tale Of True Love Page 35
