Sunshine Valley

Corners report

     Dillon liked the feel; the smell of paper reports. He liked to make notes on them. Highlight areas of importance. He knew the final report from the corner concerning the explosion in Coal Town would be a bear. And he was right. There was at least 2 pages per person. Some had 3. 

     John Doe number 5 got his attention. Gunshot wound to the left leg. Believe it or not, the bullet was still in his leg. This would need to have ballistics testing done. Was it possible John Doe number 5 was the same man that he shot in Evie’s house? His mind started filling with questions. He flipped John Doe number 5 over and started writing. Was this the man that broke into Evie’s house? Who was he? Why was he in Sunshine Valley? Who or what brought him here? Money? From whom? Was he the same person that tried to run Evie off the road? That suv was so clean you could eat out of it. The only thing forensics found was traces of cleaning supplies. Stuff you could buy anywhere. It ended up being stolen from London. Random theft from random people. Did Calvin know this man? Through Connie? In Coal Town? Was he a drug smuggler? Just a random homeless man trying to make a fast buck? No connection at all? 

     Report number 93: female remains. Dental records sent to Frankfort. His heart fell to his feet reading the corners notes; possible victim Connie Marie Sutton. ‘Dear God, no.’ He hung his head. Delivering this news to her grandma and mother would be gut wrenching. No one had filed a missing persons report. It was common for her not to have contact with her family for months at a time. Calvin was already on 24 hour suicide watch. 

     The fire marshal had called in help from D.C. via Frankfort. The explosion had been a number of bad things happening all at once. There wasn’t one single cause. The people of Sunshine Valley wanted someone to blame. Someone to point a finger at. Right now, that finger was being pointed at his office, gross mishandling. Had it been? Was his thinkin’ that the homeless needed a place to be. Even if it had been abandoned? He knew there were drugs in Coal Town. Should he have done a giant sweep? He knew that if he had, they would be other places. The average citizen of Sunshine Valley didn’t want to share their streets with drug addicts, prostitutes, or the homeless. Out of sight out of mind in Coal Town. Until they needed a scapegoat for their own guilt. His guilt?

     Maybe this was his call to retire? Maybe this was God’s way of saying he’d been doin’ this job way too long? Porter was trying to get him to buy him out. Maybe this was his dream come true? And Evie. His beautiful Evie. Retire from being a sheriff and be Mr. Evie. She was doin’ amazin’ things with the farm. From Hillbilly Yoga to FFA. The art club from high school was holding random classes on the farm. He glanced at the bottle of goat milk lotion on his desk. Sarah wasn’t able to leave teaching yet but he figured it wouldn’t be much longer. Bradley was so happy that his baby wouldn’t be driving that road 5 days a week soon. He had already told the whole department “cookout at my house”, when it was official. As it turned out Chris’s wife Kim had ran a similar business before Covid and was, on occasion, working with Sarah. Dillon felt in his heart, this was going places. Evie was one hell of a woman. He gave a brief smile at that. He still couldn’t believe she had agreed to marry him. He patted the pile of papers, even with this, he was still the luckiest man in Sunshine Valley. He was truly learning what it meant to ‘let go and let God’.