One of the other officers on scene came up to Greg and whispered in his ear. Greg nodded and excused himself but in a few minutes he was back...with information.
"Ann?"
"Yes?"
"Seems this victim is not a local."
"What?"
"Yeh. He may be from this general area but not from here. They are waiting on forensics to come up with a match for prints or anything else that will help identify him."
"Ok, thanks," Ann responded as Greg turned to go back to the crime scene. It seemed almost beyond belief that here was a body, and for all intents and purposes not one from around here...lying there in front of them. To Ann, this was an obvious hate crime, unmistakeably so...and after what she had just been telling the boys...this was ironic to say the least. But who was this, she wondered? And why was his body dumped HERE?
No answers, at least not so far. This always aggravated her. She didn't like loose ends and as a prosecuter it was up to her to sort out and unravel them based on what law enforcement and the District Attorney's office could piece together.
The minutes dragged on and felt like days. Ann began to pace and then thought better of it. She didn't want to upset the boys any more than they were already.
"Mom?"
The question startled her as she had been somewhat lost in thought.
"Yes, honey?"
"Do you think we will know anything soon?"
"I sure hope so," and she did indeed mean that.
"These things can take time honey. Gots to be patient."
Jake sighed but added..."Yeh, ok."
She knew exactly how he felt as she felt the same way. She also knew none of them could leave until law enforcement said they could and God knows how long that might be. She looked over at the crime scene to see if she could catch Greg's eye and did. He signaled that he would be right over, and was.
"Anything?"
"Not conclusively, no. They are working on it as fast as they can."
"I know, I know," and Greg understood her exasperation.
"We should know more soon. In the meantime, I got permission for you guys to go home."
"Oh bless you my son," and they both let out a chuckle. Not appropriate for drop dead guffaws, but a chuckle was better than nothing.
"C'mon guys, let's go home."
Nobody argued that one.
Ann started dinner although she knew full well that nobody was going to feel much like eating, but a diversion would be good.
After about an hour they assembled around the big table and sat pretty quiet, looking at the food. Delicious of course, but as predicted...nobody was hungry.
"C'mon guys. Dig in," Ann urged...and slowly each began to at least pretend to eat. Laboriously and painfully slowly. Ann knew this was going to be a long and torturous night and was dreading it but knew there was no way around it. As she so often says, it is what it is...and indeed it was.
Finally, it was obvious nobody was going to eat anymore so one by one they carried the dishes back into the kitchen and offered to help and this time she let them. Not long and they began to just stand quietly and look at each other.
"C'mon guys. Let's get this over with," just as the phone rang. It was Greg who said he had news and wanted to come over and she agreed. He arrived about fifteen minutes later, and they gathered in the family room, eagerly.
"I have news," he began.
"Seems our victim was from up around Martin. He went to and graduated from Plainwell High School, and was working at Wal-Mart as a clerk. He was not overtly LGBTQ but didn't try to hide the fact either. We are notifying his family so this is all confidential for now. ok?"
They nodded.
"Obviously someone hates gays enough to kill one or maybe more, and that makes this incredibly dangerous for all LGBTQ people in the area until we catch whoever did this."
"Greg? Can you tell us who he was?"
"I will as soon as I can, Ann."
"Ok. Good."
They all thanked Greg and went off to their rooms leaving Greg and Ann to postulate.
"You got any ideas kiddo?"
Greg nodded in the negative.
"I wish I did. This was without question someone hating a LGBTQ and that is beyond doubt...but why now and why here? We have a lot of questions and very few answers, SO FAR. But we will, Ann. You know we will. I won't stop until I do. We do have some forensics hits, a few prints on the body and at the scene...so we are not without some resources."
"Good. Just please keep me posted. This is taking a horrible toll on the kids," and she looked pleadingly at him."
"I can see that, and of course I will. This is taking a horrible toll on all of us."
She nodded.
Now it was a wait and see game. The worst kind far as she was concerned.
CHAPTER XVIII: WILL I BE NEXT?
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