Spare the Lambs

SPARE THE
LAMBS

Eric Zanne

Spare the Lambs

Copyright © 2016 by Michael J. Stokes

Cover art designed by Consuelo Parra Pérez

This novel is a work of fiction.  The names, characters, and incidents are all works of the author’s imagination.  Any resemblance to persons, alive or dead, events and locations are entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.

Part One

All
entries
and supporting data have been gathered and placed in chronological order.

The Charlesville Times,
page
4.

April 16,1995

Brutalized
Body
Discovered
On
Beach

Early yesterday morning, this
city
’s lovely
beach
was closed to tourists and locals alike.  At approximately 5 a.m, George King a 35-
year old
man from Ohio, came across a large,
black
garbage bag during a walk on the
beach
.

“I saw that bag and it pissed me off.  Ya know, I paid to come all the way out here to see the
beach
and there was some damn trash right out in the open.  I grabbed the bag to throw it in a dumpster but it felt wrong, too heavy.  Ya know what I mean?  So I opened it up to have a look,” said King.

The bag contained the dismembered remains of a young white girl.  The
body
has been
identified
this morning by the Charlesville Police Department as 10-y
ear old
Lauren Dokes.

Mr. Dokes, Lauren’s father, is a partner in the law offices of York & Hobs.  Mrs. Dokes, Lauren’s mother, is a
stay-at-home
mom.  Both have been unavailable for comment.  Police Chief John Jones assigned this case to
Detective
James
Pearson.

This
city
has been plagued by violent
murders
and other horrors as the number of drifters have increased over the years.  Is this another crime committed by these individuals, tourists in our town for the
beach
and some vicious murdering?  Or could it be one of our depraved citizens that has done this?

The Charlesville Times,
page
4.                                                                                April 7, 1996

Body on the
Beach

A
body
was found on the northern part of the
beach
early yesterday morning.  A jogger, Liz Howard, a 22-
year old
local woman, came across a large plastic bag, much like the type that is used to clean up leaves in fall.  According to Howard, the bag was ripped open fifteen feet from the high tide line.  Howard was able to notice a dismembered
body
and called the police. 

The bag contained the dismembered
body
of Joe
Smith
, a 10-
year old
African-American boy from a
middle class
family.  Could the
murderer
have torn it during disposal, or did some uncaring citizen find the bag, open it, and then simply walk away? 

Anthony
Smith
, Joe’s father, said, “I can’
t
believe that anyone could do this to my little
angel
.  He was such a good boy.”  Mr.
Smith
is a 32-years old banker and loan director at a local UNbank.  He is a mentor and role model in the
Black
community.  Terra
Smith
, Joe’s mother, is a 30-years old
stay-at-home
mom.  She has been
hospitalized
due to shock and was unavailable for comment.

Joe
Smith
’s
murder
case has been given to
Detective
James
Pearson.

The Charlesville Times,
cover
page.

March 30,1997

Horror Strikes Again

For the third year in a row, a child has been found brutally murdered and desecrated on Charlesville’s lovely
beach
.  The
victim
, Michele Hardy, a 10-
year old
white female, was found early yesterday morning chopped into eight pieces and stuffed in a heavy duty trash bag.

The mangled
body
was
discovered
by a 15-
year old
boy who found the body while walking his dog along the beach at sunrise. The boy’s parents have refused to let him be
identified
in the
press
.  The Victim’s parents, CEO and GM of a chain of hardware store servicing four cities, couldn’
t
be reached for comment.

All the victims of these terrible crimes; Michele Hardy, age 10, 1997; Joe
Smith
, age 10, 1996; and Lauren Dokes, age 10, 1995; went
missing
on the Friday before the Christian Easter holiday and found the following morning on the
beach
.  The exact locations of their disappearances is unknown, as the children were playing around or heading to an area that was considered to be safe by their parents. 

These kids were taken and murdered due to a false sense of safety held by their parents.  A sense that is created and maintained by the police and the
mayor
.  During a
press
conference, Police Chief John Jones responded to these accusations with comments that it’s not possible to watch every
street
every moment of the day.  When asked if Charlesville had a serial killer, Jones replied that the evidence did not point in that direction.  “While the abduction, manner of death, and disposal are similar, the
murderers
have been different in each case,” said Jones.

When asked what evidence lead them to believe that, he claimed to not be able to release that information at this stage of the investigation.  After three years there has been zero arrests, suspects, or clues.

What could this mean for the people of our fair city? 
Copycat killers
or some group of depraved devil worshipers?  All three victims came from good
middle-class
families; Lauren’s father is a lawyer, Joe’s father is a banker, and Michele’s parents run a small business franchise. Could these crimes be aimed at the
city
’s well-to-do? Will the police ever catch these killers?

The Charlesville Times,
cover
page.

April 11, 1998

Easter
Murders
Claim
Another
Victim

The
city
mourns another lost child today as a fourth Easter
Murder
victim
is
discovered
.  At two a.m. this morning, Police
Officer
Ohairon called in the discovery of the dismembered
body
of a young child on the
beach
.  The
body
was
identified
as Mick Leon, a
10-year old
Hispanic American.  Ohairon was patrolling the
beach
in accordance with the
city
’s attempts to stop these horrible crimes.

The
mayor
has ordered increased patrols all over the
city
on and around the Easter holiday.  The order requests that almost every police
officer
be put on duty during the weekend, costing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money in overtime.  When asked why he would order such a costly failure, the
mayor
said that the idea had been presented by Chief John Jones with assurances that it would net the criminal(s).

When asked about his idea’s failure, the chief claimed to be saddened that they couldn’
t
prevent this
murder
. However, the number of arrests made over the weekend in unrelated crimes and the crimes prevented by the office being so visible during that time, needed to be added into the calculation whenever we “ran the numbers.”  He also stated that he “didn’
t
think it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money to try to save the life of a child.”  The
mayor
is said to be looking into the chief’s decisions over shift changes and patrolling routes to see if a failure in
judgement
lead to the boy’s death as well as the escape of the
murderer
(s).

The chief’s good intentions and positive attitude aside, it is long past due for the
mayor
, police
force
, and taxpayers to rethink the individuals placed in charge of this investigation.  It has been three years since these
murders
began and Chief Jones and
Detective
Pearson have not found a single suspect.  However, there might be a light at the end of this dark tunnel for the victims’ families.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is getting involved in the case.  The FBI does not normally get involved with
murder
cases, but this case has drawn their attention.  The FBI normally only deals with cases that relate to groups (such as cults), kidnappings, serial
murders
, and crimes that cross state lines.  Could their involvement in the case signify that these murders are not identical
copycat
killings, but a group? 

The
victim
, Mick Leon, was found in the trademark
black
trash bag on the southern portion of the
beach
.  The boy had been cut into ten pieces and the
medical
examiner
determined that he had been alive through the first half of the attack.  The
examiner
also
noted
that the blows showed signs of being made by a
left-handed
perpetrator. 

Like the other Easter Murder
victims
, Mike Leon is from a
middle-class
family.  His father and mother run the noted Leon Landscaping Company that serves the city’s green spaces and wealthy homeowners’ properties throughout the greater Charlesville area.  They were unwilling to make any comments on their loss.

The Charlesville Times,
cover page.

April 4,1999

Easter
Murderers
Strike
Again

For years, the
city
has been plagued by the vicious
murders
of ten-
year old
children surrounding the time of the Christian holiday of Easter.  From the pre-Easter Thursday until the post-Easter
Monday
, parents are watching their children closely and the police are out in
force
to catch the
murderer
(s).  Many people have been saved from being hurt and
victimized
, but there are still no clues as to the identity of the
murderer
(s).  With all this, how can another Easter
Murder
have been committed?  Is the
murderer
a mastermind, or is it dumb luck?  Or could it be that the
mayor
’s and police
force
’s efforts are simply not enough?

Jill Carry, a
10-year old
Asian American, was found stuffed in a trash bag early this morning by police on the shores of our haunted
beach
.  When asked how, with all the additional patrols, the
murderer
was able to get the large and heavy bag onto the
beach
and get away without being noticed,
Officer
Smith
said, “there is a lot of
beach
and only so many officers to patrol it.” 

The
Medical
Examiner
stated that the wounds revealed, like Mike Leon a year before, that the
murderer
was
left handed
.  However, the wounds show that the
victim
was killed by a different
murderer
than the previous victims.  While wound patterns are not as distinctive as fingerprints or gun-barrel markings, the
examiner
promises that every
victim
was killed by different
perpetrators.

Possibly the worst part of these crimes is that after five years and five victims, the police haven’
t
been able to deliver any justice.  Police Chief Jones’s
judgement
should be taken into account.  The chief’s promises have wasted the
city
’s money with overtime and have little to show for it.  The
mayor
is said to be investigating the chief’s ability to do the job he has held for the last nine years.