In December of this school year, Corbin High School students participated in a writing contest.
The parameters of the contest required students to submit an original work no more than 750 words long. The prompt was for them to write a story where a character deals with a realistic situation. The prizes included a $20 gift card to Toys and Games, an Outrageous Shake from Sweeties, and one free admittance to the Pinball Museum.
The winners were Kaleigh Bruce, third place; Madelyn Lewis, second place; and Abigayle Lewis, first place. Abigayle Lewis, a sophomore, explained the reason she wrote the winning piece was “to show the frustration behind cold cases and police work in general.” Abigayle hopes to go into criminal justice or criminology after high school. Her piece titled “512” was one of many submitted in December for competition.
Below is the winning piece:
'512'
Klerpool, SD Nov. 17th, 1995
Detective Erin Waite strode down the white, banal hallway of the Town & Country Motel’s fifth floor. The decor was rustic and unassuming, nothing was out of place save for room ‘512’. As she approached, an officer was trying to console the poor room service lady who'd discovered the scene. She nodded to them, stepping through the door. The socket where the interior locks should be was busted, the bathroom door hung at an odd angle on its hinges. The shower curtain had been torn down, the rim of the sink was bloodied and cracked. Moving further into the room on her left was a petite writing desk that was overturned, the rolling chair that went with it had come to rest in the closet's bifolding door. Erin turned when she heard a camera go off. Behind her in the main portion of the room was Dr.Fisher, stepping carefully through the crime scene snapping pictures. There was a wooden nightstand that was down a leg, a broken lamp, a full size bed that was left unmade, and a simple kitchenette. Active spatter patterns and cast-off danced across the room, floor to ceiling, across the carpet, then finally where the victim laid.
As the detective approached, the examiner stepped aside giving her a clearer view of the victim. He was curled miserably between the bed and the wall, his last attempts to shield himself shown through his hands that were still cupped over his neck and head. Detective Waite took a deep breath in, grimacing, “What do we have?” she asked morosely. Dr.Fisher met the detective's eyes, “Your secondary recovered a wallet from that writing desk,” he gestured vaguely behind Erin, “The money was gone, but the ID wasn't. Here we've got twenty-two year old Theodore Brooks, varsity athlete over at MHU. looks like B&E gone wrong, our guy took the TV and alarm clock too.” he shook his head. Erin crossed her arms, “Athletes don't usually live off campus, what's he doing here?” the examiner shrugged, “Lady at the front desk said he checked in about two days ago, real upset, barely packed anything.” Erin sighed once more, “Thanks David.”
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Klerpool SD Aug. 8th, 2004
Anger welled in Detective Waite's chest. She sat seething behind her desk, well past work hours. It had been nine years since the Theodore Brooks case opened, yet the assailant managed to artfully evade her. The trail went cold years ago, but Erin refused to drop his case. She'd stopped celebrating her other solves, instead she would escape to her office and lock herself in after every case to revisit the Town & Country homicide. This night would make the seventy-fourth review. The detective leaned back in her leather office chair cursing to herself, “I've tried everything” she murmured, “I solve every case that hits my desk, so why do you get to be so special, huh?” She tilted back up, staring down at the young man's school headshot. Erin had pulled out all the stops to catch the man responsible, Multiple BOLOs, searches of every local hospital, she questioned every relative, friend, and local that so much as knew Theodore's name. They extracted blood samples, hair, epithelials, and fingerprints and ran all of it through AFIS and CODIS time after time, tested countless civilians with any association to the case.
Despite the effort, hair and fiber evidence was inconclusive, the blood evidence had no hits in any of the available databases. They were dealing with a first time offender, and a petty thief. The leg of the wooden nightstand was found in the dumpster out back, it wound up being the murder weapon, cause of death was servere blunt-force trauma, but thats as far as the detective got. She began pleading with the empty, dusty air in her office, “Come on, talk to me!” she groaned, “Show me what I missed, please! Was it Ryan? He's the one that kicked you out of your own dorm, all 'cause you wouldn't drain your bank account for him. Was that it? Cause it fit pretty good the first go around, but nothing matched! Nothing ever matches!” The detective slammed her fists down on the desk, in a rage Erin sent the papers fluttering around her work space. She gripped her nameplate and hurled it at her door, cracking its glass panel. Erin collapsed back in her chair, a pitiful sob escaping her as she drowned in frustration.