The Guardian is Coming...

Kody looked hard at Joey.  Joey turned and looked back at Kody and smiled.  The smile said it.  Now or Never.

Kody dropped his cigarette and gave Joey a slight nod.  It meant nothing and it meant everything.  Kody knew in the game that was now unfolding, it was best to keep his hand close.  He walked around the dumpster.  Opened the door and looked back one more time at Joey DeCarlo.  Then he walked back into the station. 

Joey's smile faded.  He shook his head an pulled out his Camel's.  He lit up as he got into the back of the car.  He cracked the window and exhaled. 

He stuck his cigarette back into his mouth.  let go of it and punch the button on the phone.  warbled rings came back from cyberspace.  

The phone picked up on the other end, but there was no voice, very slight breath, but no voice.    

Joey pulled his cigarette out of his mouth and exhaled smoke.  

"the guardian is at the gate.  I repeat, I repeat, the guardian is at the gate."

The line went dead from the other end and Joey pushed the button to make the white noise go silent.  

He took another drag of his cigarette and looked out in the corn fields they drove by.  Yes he said to himself "The Guardian is at the Gate."

Clipping from the Wander, Indiana Paper the Tribune:

A WALK TO REMEMBER.


By Alicia Kiely


The Tribune

Jennifer Welker, and her two young daughters Sharon (five) and Tracey (3) were walking along I-46 yesterday, much like they had every other morning over the last six months (with unemployment rates soaring in Wander, Jennifer has made the most of the recession by spending time with her children. One of the many things they have done is walk a mile and a half down I46 to the local Marathon station to visit Granny and then come back.) However, unlike any other morning Tracey, was out of her stroller and walking a few feet away from her mother, and that is when she spotted something out of the ordinary in the weeds just off 46.



"She took a few steps over towards the trees and then she came running over saying "Hay, hay, mama, hay." Hay is what she always says after mommy is done combing her hair and there are left over clumps of hair still in the brush" Jennifer explained to reporters later that afternoon. However Tracy was holding a long dark clump of hair out to her mother as she ran over. 



Curious after Tracey first noticed what appeared to be additional strands of black hair in the bushes. Jennifer made Sharon hold the younger daughter just off the road and she walked over to where her daughter had wondered. That is when she too saw the hair, but unlike her daughter that is not all she saw. She then push aside the bushes and revealed a decomposing body, Jennifer, immediately ran back from to her children and covered there eyes, began to push them towards home, once back at there house, she dialed 911, and reported the body. 



"It was awful, I am not sure I will ever be able to get that picture our of my head, the flies, the blood, and the stench, it was horrible it was traumatizing, I am just glad I am the one that saw it and all Tracey saw was hair, because there was so much more." Jennifer said crying as she talked with reports. "It was like rotting piece of meat, the poor dear, she was left there like a road kill, it was horrible."
 


Detective Kody Ransom, of the Wander Sheriff's department, was the first to respond to the call. He happened to be not to far from where the body was discovered. "I can defiantly tell you that whomever this young lady is, she suffered extraordinary pains, and malice, before her death." Ransom told reporters. "There are several marks on the neck." Ransom paused, and swallowed hard, as if he were fighting back down bile "Which appear to be bite marks on the neck, there is a lot of damage to the neck and throat area it looks as if pieces of flesh where just ripped away from the body. Upon first glance at the body, it does not show any signs of other damage. It does appear to us that there is any other damage, but we will know more after the autopsy." 



Detective Ransom, as told in this column before is no stranger to murder investigations.  He was a top field agent of the Violent Crimes Division of the San Francisco Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, what he saw today on Highway 46 appeared even to shake his iron belly.  

The body is the subject of much speculation as well at this time. It is believed to be the body of 19 year-old Janine Vanderlock, of Wander, the daughter of the prominent restaurateur Lucas Vanderlock. Vanderlock reported his daughter to have gone missing three days ago, after a fight with her boy friend, Dean Johnson of Mulligan, IN at Vanderlock's restaurant in downtown Wander Friday night. The couple was later seen entering his apartment on Springhill and 7th Street, around 11:00 PM. 



However, no one, even Johnson has seen Janine since that time. Johnson says she left in an uproar on late on Friday night after another argument. He says he assumed she took off in her car, and headed for her parents, however, Janine's Lexus is still in the parking lot of the complex, which Johnson responded that perhaps a friend picked her up. However, none of her friends have spoken with her since Friday afternoon. 



Johnson has to be the police's number one suspect at this time. The Sheriff's department has confirmed that he will be questioned, however not supposedly in connection with this finding. "I will not confirm who's body we have at this time, that is for the corner to do" Ransom told reporters, "At this time we have no suspects in relation to this horrible crime, however it is true Dean Johnson has been taken into our custody for questioning. Let me stress, it is not in relation to this violent act, it is in regards to another case we are working on, which as you know I am not allowed to discuss. This act of cruelty and hate, is just another in a long line of strange events which have plagued Wander, over the last few months."