Episode # 12
Epilogue
How Fast Can You Run
Inspector Normandy and I set out to find Charla Bay, determined to bring her to justice. The clues had led us to the abandoned mine on the outskirts of town. The air was thick with tension as we approached the entrance. Two men had been killed there and no one could prove who murdered them. With our flashlights cutting through the darkness we went in.
“Stay close,” Normandy whispered, her eyes scanning the surroundings. “We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
As we ventured deeper into the mine, the sound of footsteps echoed ahead of us. We quickened our pace, our hearts pounding in unison. Suddenly, we saw her – Charla Bay, clutching a briefcase tightly to her chest. Her eyes widened in panic as she spotted us.
“Stop right there, Charla!” Normandy commanded, her voice firm.
But Charla had other plans. She turned and bolted, her footsteps echoing through the narrow passageways. We gave chase, the beams of our flashlights bouncing off the walls. The ground beneath us was uneven, and I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.
“She’s heading towards the old shaft!” I shouted, pointing ahead.
We rounded a corner just in time to see Charla stumble. The briefcase flew from her grasp, scattering diamonds across the ground. She teetered on the edge of the mine shaft, her arms flailing as she tried to regain her balance. With a scream, she fell into the darkness below.
We rushed to the edge, our flashlights illuminating the depths. But there was no sign of her. The shaft seemed to swallow her whole, leaving nothing but an eerie silence in its wake.
“Do you think she’s gone?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
Normandy’s expression was grim. “It’s hard to say. Without a
body, we can’t be sure. But for now, it seems the threat has been neutralized.”
We gathered the scattered diamonds and made our way back to the surface. The weight of the events hung heavy in the air, but there was also a sense of closure. The mystery of Charla Bay and Stanton Lagrow had been solved, and justice was on its way.
Later that evening, I sat at my desk, finishing my newspaper article. The story of Charla Bay’s deception and her dramatic fall into the mine shaft would make headlines. But as I typed the final words, my thoughts drifted to Inspector Normandy.
“Care to join me for dinner?” I asked, looking up from my desk.
Normandy smiled, a hint of warmth in her eyes. “I’d like that, Len.”
As we left the office together, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of hope. The darkness had been pushed back, and perhaps, in the midst of it all, something new was beginning to bloom.
The next day we took the Tome of Poems to the library where it would live out its days, probably collecting dust but since we never found Charla Bay’s body there was a feeling in the air that she just might show up again. But like Normandy said while we talked over dinner, “Even if we do find her we still don’t have proof she committed any crimes and get this Len, she owns that mine and I wouldn’t be surprized if one of these days it gets opened up again.”
After we left the library Normandy got a call that took her off to Timmins. I wandered around town looking for a new headline but not much caught my interest so I wrote about the filler, Boy Saves Cat From Tree.
