Still farming the very fertile land that was the long list of titles Tigs gave me last month.
Minor Murder
We begin at a crime scene. A man lies dead on the ground, shot several times in the chest. Two young cops are putting up tape and talking about what an asshole Tyler Elroy, the deceased, was. The camera pulls back to an EMT truck nearby where the EMTs are saying how glad they are that they didn’t get here in time because they aren’t sure if they’d try to save him or not. We back up further to some on lookers as the news spreads about who it is and they all seem happy. Detective Jane Heron cuts through the crowd and approaches the body, she sighs deeply and mutters “this fucking guy.”
Heron starts to interview the residents and workers of the buildings by the murder site. No one seems to give a shit about Tyler’s death. They frankly all seem happy. She gets the feeling that people know more than they are letting on. Everyone claims they were sleeping and that they didn’t hear anything. She tells them that it’s summer and everyone sleeps with their windows open and doesn’t see how that is possible. They just shack their heads.
She finally tracks down his last known whereabouts to a local bar. The bartender tells her that he was doing what he does most nights, hassle everyone. He’s an asshole to the people playing pool, yells about the jukebox, and gets too drunk and tries to start fights. He claims that they kicked him out around 1am and that he was fighting with everyone so no one sticks out in particular.
She heads to the police station where the local sheriff doesn’t seem to care. He says not to worry too much about it. There’s not a lot of public outcry about the murder so why work it too hard, seems like everyone got what they wanted. Jane gets mad and heads out.
She finds the mayor and is shocked that he seems to agree with the sheriff. He tells Jane to drop it. She’s put the work in and that no one can fault her for not solving it. He tells her as well that he ordered no autopsy and that they aren’t looking at the crime scene too closely for clues. Jane leaves angered saying that no murder is justified. If they let this go what else will people let go?
She is fired and begins working it on her own. She starts to talk to everyone and presses them about what they would allow. She interrupts a town celebration the mayor was speaking at to try and convince the people that they can’t turn away from this. No one seems to care. People begin to boo her. Someone even throws a bottle her way. She gets angrier and begins to insult the crowd and the town.
She steps down from the stage and begins pushing people out of the way until she finds herself in the middle of a circle of people. The sheriff stands opposite her and shoots her in the chest. She falls down dead.
The people of the town just turn away and begin to walk home. We hear grumbling from some of them about how they are glad she’s dead and that someone needed to do it. We focus in on one man as he walks away and bumps into someone and spills their drink. He apologizes but the other person stands in silent anger. People around stare as the man looking scared, shuffles away.