The Rainwater Story
Written By Lawrence Roth
The Rainwater Story is a short story that I am in the process of writing.
I am actually in the pre-planning stage. I am still thinking about chacters and
events. The title, "The Rainwater Story" is temporary becuase I have
not decided on a title yet. However, the name of the main character is Lamar Rainwater.
Lamar Rainwater is the protagonist who will attempt to solve a mystery. The story
open with the segement that follows.
One Missing Corpse
Bradley Hogan sipped freshly made hot tea from a glass mug.
"Perfect," he told his Personal Assistant, Daisy Jensen.
"Will there be anything else?" Daisy asked.
"No. I believe that is all for tonight." Hogan placed the mug on the end table next
to him.
"I will lock the door behind me as I leave," Daisy informed.
"Thank you, dear. Have a good evening and I will see you in the morning." Hogan
removed a rubber band from his newspaper. Hogan read the newspaper every evening.
He was fifty-five years old and had been reading a newspaper daily for over thirty-five
years. He was not going to give it up for some new technology known as the Internet.
"Goodnight, Sir." Daisy exited the room, walked through the hall, and out the front
door. Removing a key from her purse, she inserted it into the dead bolt and locked
it.
Hogan folded his newspaper so he could start reading the front page. He took another
sip of tea and noticed a black spot on a beige wall in his den. This struck him
as odd because he had never noticed this spot before.
He stood up, dropped the newspaper in his chair and walked closer to the wall. Sure
enough there was a black spot there. I will have my handy man fix that tomorrow
he thought to himself. He picked up his paper and sat back down.
He took another sip of hot tea before starting to read. Two black spots were present
on the wall. Hogan tossed his newspaper on the end table and stood up. He stared.
The spots moved and multiplied. Ten spots, twenty spots, more!
"What the hell?" Hogan moved closer to the wall. These were not spots. These were
spiders and nearly a hundred of them. Hogan glanced at the other walls. They all
had spiders, hundreds, maybe thousands. He could hear their legs clicking against
the wall as they crawled, walked and ran.
"An infestation. This is an outrage," he roared.
The spiders leaped from the walls on to the furniture and the floor. Hogan ran to
exit the room but it was too late. The spiders, millions of them, crawled up his
legs to his body and his head. They entered his clothing prickling his skin as they
crawled.
Hogan screamed. He slapped against his body, legs and head trying to kill the invading
insects but it was too late. The spiders crawled into his nose, ears and throat.
Hogan tried to scream but he could not. He choked on the spiders. He could not breathe.
He scratched and clawed around his ears, nose and mouth to get the spiders out.
Falling on his back and unable to breathe he watched as more spiders leaped from
the ceiling on to his head and body. More aggressively he scratched and clawed to
get the pests off and out.
Calvin Hathaway worked in Forensics nearly twelve years. He carried his equipment
through the front door, past the uniformed officers, through the hall and into the
den.
His partner, Bailee Gordon, was already in the den examining the body.
"No face," Calvin commented and then asked, "Did he do that to himself?"
"It appears so," Bailee Gordon answered. "He ripped his own face off."
"Must have been a bad drug induced trip," Calvin commented.
"That would be my guess," Bailee agreed. "We will find out soon enough. After you
take your photos, we will have the body transported to the Examiner's office." Bailee
stepped out of the den, removed her latex gloves. She placed the gloves in a red
plastic bag marked hazard. She removed a mobile phone from her pocket and called
the Chief Medical Examiner.
"This is Felix," Felix Kaufman, Chief Medical Examiner, answered.
"Felix, this is Bailee. We have a body to bring to in," Bailee informed and then
explained the details.
Dennis James and Cadence Holden also worked for the Forensics team. Their job was
to transport bodies. They loaded the body of Bradley Hogan into a city van. Their
next destination was the office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Southwest Tulsa.
It was less than ten minutes from their current location.
Two hours later Chief Medical Examiner, Felix Kaufman, called Bailee Gordon. Bailee
Gordon was in downtown Tulsa completing her report at the Tulsa Police Department
when her cell phone rang.
"Where is the body that was being transported?" Felix asked.
"It should be there by now," Bailee answered. "It's not here," Felix informed.
"I will find out and call you back," Bailee informed.
Bailee called dispatch. Dispatch attempted to contact Dennis James and Cadence Holden.
There was no answer. Dispatch informed Bailee that Dennis and Cadence did not respond.
Bailee Gordon returned a call to Felix.
"What did you find out?" he asked.
"Well," she said not believing it herself because there had to be a more logical
explanation. "We have two missing forensic specialists and one missing corpse."
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