Deputy Newsome brings his Ford pickup to a grinding halt. Climbing down from the cab, Dave hitches up the crotch of his pants. A quick shower at a well-known truck stop, some spare clothes, and a few tic-tacs later; Dave is sure all traces of his time with Hazel have been erased. He strolls confidently toward his superior, whose back is turned while talking to a female officer.

  "What's going on, Sir?" Dave inquires.

  He eyes the pretty officer from his peripheral vision. She must be from one of the neighboring towns. Castleton maybe. Yeah. Castleton. Duh, Dave. It says so right there on her sleeve.

  Sheriff Northrop gives Dave a thorough looking over. The experienced law man curls his mouth into a knowing sneer, his grayish-blue eyes narrowing dangerously.

  "Glad you've finally decided to grace us with your presence, Dave!"

  "Uh...Yeah. Like I said, Sir..."

  "Cut the crap, Dave! I don't even want to hear it. A man doesn't get that out of breath unless he's competing in a marathon...Has just run up a flight of stairs...Or is in the middle of screwing an extremely...Extremely gorgeous woman. And you're not exactly the running type, Dave. That leaves only one possibility."

  Dave's mouth falls open and the woman police officer shifts her weight from one foot to the other. She lowers her head and bites one corner of her lip, pitting the sheriff's assessment against the tall pudgy man standing in front of her. Leave it to Sheriff Northrop to put his love life on blast. Along with being a gun enthusiast, Jeffrey Northrop is not a man known to mince words.

  "I wasn't born yesterday," Sheriff Northrop quips, his sneer becoming a full-blown smirk. "And I'm just as much a man as you are, Dave."

  "Yep. Can't put one over on you, Sir," Dave says sarcastically.

  "That's right. Now, as you can see...They're taking the body to the morgue now. We won't be able to positively ID her for...Quite a bit. We'll have to draw blood and comb through missing persons reports. The perp did a number on her. Destroyed pretty much anything else. Shaved her hair...Literally everywhere. Even her eyelashes are gone. He just...Plucked 'em out. I guess. Took her fingerprints. Damn near took the tips of her fingers off doing it. Smashed her teeth out of her mouth. So we can't even use dental records. And he scrubbed her completely clean. You can smell residue from the chemicals on her. I haven't seen anything this bad since...Well, since ever. This fella... He's a bad one. I can feel it."

  Dave glances over at the woman officer, as she moves off in the direction of a crowd of reporters threatening to invade the police tape. Intertwining the fingers of his hands, Dave presses both index fingers against his mouth. Oh boy. And he was so close to a clean retirement.

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  Sometime later

  Climbing back inside his Ford pickup, Dave tries his best not to hurl. Against his better judgment, he had insisted on viewing what was left of the poor woman's body. It hadn't been a pretty sight. Oh man. That was someone's daughter. Maybe even a girlfriend or mother. How does one look at another human being and do such horrible things?

  Dave's personal phone buzzes and he yanks open the glove compartment. Hazel. He glances at the somewhat risque message and smirks, his mind temporarily on better things. Hazel, beautiful Hazel. Dave secretly wonders if the young lady they have just discovered, lying naked in the grass, was once beautiful too. Did she have someone who loved her, and who was loved by her? Who will be sleeping in a half-empty bed tonight? Will they miss her warmth? Do they even realize she is gone? The victim of a madmen's crazed sex game.

  A knock on Dave's window brings him back to reality. It is the pretty woman officer who witnessed his embarrassing scene with Sheriff Northrop. She smiles uncomfortably as he lowers the driver's side window of his truck.

  "Are you okay, Deputy?"

  "Huh? Who, me? Uh...Yeah," Dave says, grateful that the screen on his burner phone has darkened.

  "It's just that...You looked like you were gonna be sick back there. I was worried about you," the attractive lady cop says.

  "Oh no. I'm fine. Really," Dave insists. "It just caught me by surprise. The brutality of what that psycho did to that poor girl. Sometimes, I wonder if these perps are even human. Know what I mean?"

  "I sure do," the officer says, a dimple forming in her left cheek.

  She extends her hand forward and smiles thinly.

  "Names Blake. Officer Emily Blake. I was the officer who first responded to the call."

  Dave reaches out of the window and awkwardly shakes Officer Blake's hand.

  "Miss. Blake...I am so sorry you had to be the one. That couldn't have been easy...Seeing a young lady like that."

  "It wasn't. But I'm told...It gets easier with time. The public counts on us to be...Strong in the face of such tragedies. We can't afford to let people see us crack under pressure. Especially, guys like this. It'll get easier...I hope. I guess. Then, you just don't feel it anymore. You can go about your job, and answer these types of calls, and still sleep comfortably at night. That's what I tell myself. That's how I get through...Every day."

  Dave's eyes narrow and he briefly stares through the windshield of his truck. Heaving a long deep sigh, Dave peers at Officer Blake from the side of his eye.

  "I hate to say it, Emily. But, I've been doing this job for over twenty years. It doesn't get that much easier. You just...Learn ways to hide it....Deep down inside. But that's where it really gets ya. You can't just brush it off. Or it will eat you up inside. You've gotta deal with it. In your own way. Nobody can tell you what that is."

  Dave nods his head politely at Officer Blake and places his finger over the window button, signalling his desire to leave. Officer Blake looks down at Dave's large hand and then back up to his reddening face. Her eyes search for meaning, but find only a blank stare.

  "I've gotta get back to the station or Sheriff Northrop will have my badge and my hide. It was nice meeting you, Emily. I'm just sorry we had to meet under this sort of circumstance."

  "Sure," Officer Blake says softly. "It was nice meeting you too, Dave."

  Deputy Newsome sighs heavily and allows Officer Blake to back up before raising the window. He peels out in a cloud of dust, tears threatening to spill from his moistening eyes.