The Canyon Creek Murders

*Chapter 10*

"Wow, is that your stomach rumbling?" Luke asked just moments after Sam had gotten into the passenger seat.

"Urgh, yeah sorry," Sam blushed. "I'm absolutely starving. Really didn't pick a good day to skip breakfast huh?"

"Oh my.... no," the Sheriff cringed. "You should have said something. We could have picked something up on the way in this morning."

Sam closed his eyes and nodded "Yeah I should have done that," he admitted. "I didn’t know how long we'd be and well it's done now," he added somewhat regretfully.

"I guess we better stop off at the diner then," Luke added, causing both himself and Barry to laugh out loud.

"I could do with a drink actually," Barry spoke up. Which made Sam smile a little, at least he wasn’t the only one looking for a break. Once they had all been refueled and refreshed, they finally headed back to the station. Barry was happy for the rest but for Sam, no matter how tired or achy he felt, he couldn't wait to unravel the secrets of what they had found earlier that morning.

So as soon as they got inside, he immediately headed for the interview room to set about unwrapping the parcel, leaving Barry with the task of familiarizing himself with the case files. Not that he minded that in the slightest, the chance to take a seat for a while was very inviting right now.

The zip ties were no trouble at all for Sam; one snip with a pair of wire cutters on each of them and they were gone. The tape, however, was an entirely different matter. The sheer amount of it alone was going to make things rather tricky but whoever had put it there had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that every bit of the package was not only covered and sealed but also disguised. So, it was going to take even more time and effort to remove it all without damaging the contents.

Which once again left Sam pondering what could have happened to the hand that he and Barry had been originally searching for. Not that much care would have been taken in that instance but judging by the images on the film and the still images that were taken from it, the hand didn't seem to be too badly damaged.

Unless..... Sams's blood ran cold for a moment as he contemplated the possibility that it could have been deliberately put there to fool them or to waste their time even. Could someone have placed a fake hand somewhere relatively accessible knowing it would be spotted? Or maybe even forged a film and reported it themselves? Everyone around here seemed to know what was going on. Maybe the gossip had reached one or two tourists. One of which possibly held a grudge against the force?

It was certainly possible. It wouldn't be the first time and he was confident that it wouldn't be the last either, even on a case like this. He switched his attention back to the task at hand and suddenly started chuckling to himself. 'We have the last laugh though' he thought. Real or not, if he and Barry hadn't gone searching for that hand, they would never have found this package.

One that he was convinced of was real, especially after Sheriff Shanahan had confirmed strong similarities between this one and one of the previous packages that had been found. Surely if this had been an attempted prank, it had just backfired on whoever had tried it on. From there on in, the rest of the afternoon had flown by. In fact, Sam had gotten so engrossed in what he was doing he barely noticed the time at all.

Hey, how's it going?" Luke Shanahan asked as his head peered around the door.

"Slow progress I'm afraid," Sam answered. "But progress nonetheless," he added rather cheerfully, raising his index finger as he did.

"Ah yes, I feel your pain there. It took me a few hours to unravel the last one," Luke sympathized with him. "And the wildlife had given me a head start on that one."

"Speaking of which...," Sam added, intently raising his head before explaining his thoughts regarding the hand on the video.

"Yeah, I see exactly where you're coming from," the Sheriff began, nodding his head after hearing Sam’s thoughts. "Probably not going to help you much but yes they are both very possible." He then gave out a short sigh before continuing his explanation. "Could it be fake? Yes, of course, it could. Unfortunately, you know as well as I do that these things do happen. So, you certainly can't rule that out.

“But yes, it could just as easily be genuine as well. Wildlife wise, without even thinking too much, you have your coyotes or a mountain lion even." Sam’s eyes widened as he said that. Although the Sheriff continued without stopping. "Possibly several others maybe that I would expect could potentially make short work of something like that or at least have a really good go at it anyway. And then once it's started being uncovered there are several other creatures that would be more than happy to finish it off. Especially if there is a small amount of flesh showing." The Sheriff tilted his head forward and raised his eyebrows at the last sentence. "So, yeah, I’m afraid it could just as easily be real."

Sam felt a little uncomfortable at that answer. He wasn't sure if he should be excited, relieved, or just plain nervous over what was out there.

"Well, I guess we need to leave that behind us now and focus on what we do have," Sam attempted to summarize, highlighting the package in front of him.

"On that note, what time are you planning on staying until?" Luke asked. "Thing is, Harrison is about to leave I think and to be honest, Barry and I were hoping to wrap things up now also." Sam looked shocked as he lifted his sleeve and looked down at his watch.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was so late. I was kind of hoping to get away tonight anyway," Sam answered. "I want to pick up some groceries for the trailer before I head back."

Luke gave a little chuckle at that. "You better get a move on then," he told him. "That will have to wait until the morning," his eyes pointed to the half-unwrapped package in front of Sam.