Bones of Brayer
“Breaking news, on the Southside Bridge, witnesses say they saw a bus full of skeletons drive off the bridge and fall into the Yalle River. Here’s a video a passenger in a nearby car took,” the newswoman says.
Hours later, the police closed off the bridge. They used a crane to pull the bus out of the water to find a bus full of skeletons. Police search the bus and find nothing but seats and skeletons with clothes on. They have no idea who would do this or how the bus was driving on its own.
Weeks later, the police scanned the part of the river near the bridge for anything to help them solve this case. They found a brick, which could have been used to hold down the gas pedal. But who or what could have turned the steering off the bridge. Maybe someone turned it and jumped off the bus before it was too late. But then there would have been a body near the bus. They tried to check the camera on the bus, but it was waterlogged.
With a closer examination of the skeletons, they found a woman holding a purse with her ID in it. They went to the address on the license and talked to the resident of the house and the neighbors. At the house, her husband answered the door. He told the police his wife went out for groceries a few weeks ago.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Herbert, but we found the skeleton of your wife in the Yalle River,” one policeman told him.
“But how did she turn into a skeleton so fast?” Mr. Herbert asked the police.
“We don’t know,” the other policeman said.
“There has been an update to the fallen bus full skeletons story. The police have identified one of the victims. Her name was Mary Alice Herbert,” the newswoman said.
The police continued to search the bus and found a gold necklace on the floor of the bus. They checked the local pawn shops and jewelry stores and found information at a pawn shop named “Till Death Do Us Pawn”. Which specialized in items pawned after divorces and then reselling them to husbands.
The officer walked into the pawnshop and asked the owner, “Brayer PD, do you know who bought this gold necklace?”
“A cop?” Alright, let me the records sheet. It looks like it was bought by Pete Sargogh,” the owner said.
“Pete Sargogh, that name sounds familiar…” Officer Brenton said. He remembers an interrogation from a few months ago.
Another officer said, “He’s all yours, all we could get out of him was his name, Pete Sargogh. He won’t admit to the crime. Here’s his file.”
Officer Brenton entered the interrogation room and said, “Pete Sargogh, three counts of arson, robbery, and now a suspect of murder.”
He put his hands on the table, leaned in, and said, “I know you did it, guilty is written all over your face. Here’s how it happened. The robber broke into and entered this woman’s home, thinking she wasn’t home. They rummaged through her drawers and closet and stole her jewelry. And when she came home, they got scared she would call the cops, so they murdered her in cold blood. No witnesses.” He clenched the edge of the table and shook it, scaring the suspect.
“It wasn’t me I swear,” Pete said.
“Do you have an alibi?” Officer Brenton asked
“Yeah, I was sleeping in bed with my girlfriend that night. It wasn’t me,” Pete replied.
“Really? What’s her name?” Officer Brenton questioned.
“Jasmine Brooks,” Pete replied.
I don’t know who that is, Brenton thought.
“That name sounds fake,” Officer Brenton said.
“It’s not, check your records,” Pete replied.
“You can keep saying you’re innocent, but you’re wasting my time,” Officer Brenton said.
“I get why you did it, you were scared and everyone else will understand too,” Officer Brenton said as he switched to a good cop tone.
“I didn’t do it,” Pete repeated.
“Alright, won’t fess up, huh? If you do you will feel better. I will even lessen the charge. But if you don’t fess up, we’ll keep you in custody,” Officer Brenton said.
“What if everybody thinks I’m a wuss?” Pete blurted out.
“Ha, so you admit it,” Officer Brenton said, switching back to his regular tone.
“Fine, I needed money to get my girlfriend an anniversary present, so I robbed this woman’s house. But when she got home, I was scared she would call the cops and have me arrested. So, I shot her,” Pete admitted.
Officer Brenton signaled the cops watching the door to come in. “Take him away, he confessed.”
I think Pete Sargogh had something to do with the bus full of skeletons, but how? I need to see if his girlfriend is still alive, Officer Brenton thought.
Officer Brenton checked the city records, he found her file, and opened it. He found a death certificate from a few weeks ago and her last place of residence. Blackberry Lane in Brayer, which was where Pete lived.
Did Pete murder his girlfriend and the other woman? Does Pete know his girlfriend is dead? And what about the other people on the bus? Why and how did he do it? Officer Brenton thought these unanswered questions.
He visited Pete in his cell at the local prison.
“Pete, I have one more question to ask you,” Officer Brenton said.
“I ain’t tell you nothing else. I confessed, what more do you want from me?” Pete asked.
“Did you know your girlfriend is dead?”
“No, I’ve been in this cell for weeks,” Pete said, then got on his knees in sadness.
“Well, she was one of the skeletons on the bus,” Officer Brenton revealed.
“How did she turn into a skeleton so fast?” Pete asked.
“I don’t know,” Officer Brenton replied.
The chief of police called Officer Carter into his office, “The bus full of skeletons case may go deeper than I previously thought, so I’m gonna need you on the case.”
“It would be my pleasure, Chief,” Office Carter responded.
He left the police station and drove to the Southside Bridge. He drove past the now repaired part of the bridge, where the bus fell. He took a hard right turn and stopped near where the bus had been pulled out of the water. He walked onto the bus, with a few skeletons missing as they had been identified and put in the ground. He searched the pockets of the clothed skeletons. He found a button, some change, and a comb. A comb with the inscription “Locks of Love Hair Salon”. With the address below those words. Officer Carter drove to the Salon and stopped inside.
The woman at the front desk said, “Welcome to Locks of Love, Hair Salon, do you have an appointment?” She looked up from her computer and said, “Oh.”
“Brayer PD, do you sell combs?” Officer Carter said with his badge pulled out.
“No, but sometimes we let the stylists take home unused combs at the end of the month,” the manager said.
“Because I found this,” Officer Carter said as he held out the comb.
“Oh, where’d you find it?” the manager asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Officer Carter.
“Okay, well, I haven’t seen Britney at work in a few weeks,” Cindy, the manager said.
Office Carter stared at Cindy and smirked at her.
“Oh my god, you don’t think, Britney — -”
“I do, ma’am, I do,” Officer Carter said.
Carter walked out of the salon and heard Cindy, “Guys, Britney is dead!”
Carter drove back to the bus and found the woman who had the comb. The woman with dyed hair and a half afro.
“I pick you,” he said as he put the comb in the afro side of her hair.
The four policemen put together the puzzle pieces of the case. They had a suspect, who could have murdered, Mary Alice Herbert, Jasmine Brooks, Britney Davis, all women. There were men on the bus. They pinned the photos of these people on a board and connected them with string.
“I know it’s only the beginning, but why did he do it?” Officer Brenton asked.
“I did find footage before the bus fell, it’s fast but you can see a man jumping out of the bus,” Officer Carter said.
“Is it Pete Sargogh?” Office Brenton asked.
“See for yourself,” Officer Carter said. He pulled out an old VCR player and put in the tape.
The video was blurry, but they clearly saw a man jump out the door of the bus before it fell. It looked like he fell onto the road and got into a friend’s car.
“How did he survive the fall?” Brenton asked.
“I don’t know, maybe he had some sort of protective suit on,” Carter said.
“Yeah, right,” Brenton responded.
They couldn’t find any other evidence in the bus to connect to any other victims. They checked the clothes for fingerprints, which connected them to a few people. But only one person didn’t match the people on the bus, David Jones. They brought him in for questioning.
“Where were you at 11:30 am on March thirtieth?” Officer Brenton said.
“I was at work. What is this about?” David said.
“We have video evidence that shows you jumping off the bus full of skeletons,” Officer Carter said.
“Is that all?” David asked as he got up from his chair.
Officer Carter pushed him back in his seat, “Here’s the video.”
They show him the video.
“That could be any man,” David said.
“We also found your fingerprints on the steering wheel and on the clothes of the victims,” Officer Brenton said.
“The evidence is stacked against you, we know you did it,” Officer Carter said.
“I wasn’t me, I have an alibi,” David said.
“Really, who?” Officer Carter asked.
“My manager at Shake Shack,” David said.
“What’s their name?” Officer Carter asked.
“Jessica Robbs,” David said.
“We’ll check on that,” Officer Carter said.
“Here’s what happened. The suspect killed all of these people and didn’t want to get caught. So, he put them all on a bus and drove off the Southside Bridge. You jumped out of the bus right before it fell and your cushioned clothes let you escape without a bruise or broken bone,” Officer Carter explained.
“Do you know how stupid that sounds? Why would anybody kill that many people?” David asked.
“I don’t know, why would they? You’re wasting our time with all these questions,” Officer Carter said.
“No, you’re wasting my time. Can I leave now?” David asked.
“No, but we also found that you rented a bus downtown from Mr. Evans,” Officer Carter added.
David started to sweat, “Who’s that?”
“We know you did, you can keep saying you’re innocent, but it won’t work. Now, I get why you did it and everyone else will too. If you confess, there might a shorter jail sentence. If you don’t confess we’ll keep you in custody,” Officer Brenton said.
“All of this could my twin brother, Daniel, I haven’t talked or seen him in years. Who knows how psychotic he’s become,” David suggested.
“We looked into that, you both are D. Jones and look alike, but he was one of the skeletons in the bus accident,” Office Brenton.
“Daniel’s dead? Oh my god. Why would I kill my brother?” David asked.
“I don’t know, why would you, he owed you money? Officer Brenton asked back.
“No, once again, I haven’t seen him in years,” David said.
“Get outta here, we have everything we need,” Officer Carter shouted.
The officers reconvened in the board room.
“Do you think Pete and David worked together?” Office Brenton asked.
“Maybe, one did the killing and the other the driving,” Officer Carter replied.
“Probably or one did a few killings and the other did some and one of them also did the driving,” Officer Brenton suggested.
“Maybe there was a third person who did some killing. We don’t know yet, we don’t have all the evidence,” Officer Carter said.
They got a report back from forensics and anthropology, which stated the victims were undressed and dipped in acid. The acid dissolved their skin and tissue until they were all skeletons. They were then reclothed.
“That means they were then put on a bus and driven off the bridge,” Officer Brenton theorized.
“But we still don’t their motive for killing all those people,” Officer Carter said.
“What if they didn’t have a reason, just killing to kill,” Officer Brenton said.
“I don’t know, but did the acid kill the victims?” Officer Carter asked.
“It depends on the type of acid,” Officer Brenton said.
“How would you know?” Officer Carter asked.
“I had a minor in forensics in college,” Officer Brenton said.
“There has to be a reason behind these killings,” Carter said.
“We won’t know anything else until we find the place the victims were turned into skeletons,” Brenton said.
They searched every abandoned warehouse and shack in town until they smelled something pungent in the outskirts of town. They walked inside the warehouse and the smell got stronger. They spotted huge empty vats.
“Looks like these were emptied recently,” Officer Brenton said after he climbed the ladder and looked into the vat.
“Maybe if we find the acid, we’ll be closer to finding the killer,” Officer Carter said.
Carter dusted the vats for fingerprints. “Looks like David Jones’ fingerprints and ones I don’t recognize. Do you think they’re Pete Sargogh’s fingerprints?”
“Maybe, I haven’t seen his fingerprints in a while,” Brenton replied.
“We’ll check them back at the station,” Carter said as he took a picture of the fingerprints.
They drove back to the police station in their cop cars. Carter compared the photo of the fingerprints on his phone to the ones they had on file. They were a match, Pete Sargogh was guilty, along with David Jones.
The killers were jailed. Pete later confessed to killing his girlfriend and David confessed to killing his brother. It turns out they were in a drug ring and they were clients of theirs. When these clients stopped paying or couldn’t pay anymore, they killed them.
Carter and Brenton made a great team and were assigned to work together in the future.
Works Cited
