Will Baker is Dead - "Prologue"

Jules Baker, a lovely young woman of 25, stood outside the house with her friend Rob. Rob tried to comfort Jules as best he could on the front lawn of the two-bedroom home on the strip. Kids on bikes watched from the street corner three houses down. Veronica Davis sat on the front porch with her grandson, watching the house across the street. The first news crew stood watching the house from the curb, safely outside the police line. With the news crew, most of metro-Atlanta watched from wherever there was a TV. That aside, the world outside the house was moving on as so. But inside. Inside the house lay the mauled body that had been identified as Will Baker.



Jules and Will had been married for a little over three years now, having married right out of college, and had lived on the Main Strip of Horizon for almost the whole time. The strip was set-up like this. Everything East of the church was storefronts and little shops. Everything West of the church was houses, ever since they built the pastorum back in 1974. Most of these houses were small one-levels for old retirees or newlywed couples just getting started. A new “neighborhood,” most simply a section of houses, was added about every five years. By now, the neighborhoods on the strip stretched almost three miles out of town, only interrupted by the occasional school or gas-station that went up in-between phases, with one large section devoted to Horizon High School, built well out of town at first to avoid traffic complaints. But in all those years, through all these changes, there had never been a murder on the strip, especially not one that elicited terms like, “gross disfigurement,” from the police and media. The horrific murder of Will Baker was something the people of this town never expected to see. After the strange disappearance of Melissa Laurence, an old friend of the Baker’s, a month or so back, the people were on edge. But now, faced with the unimaginable murder of Will baker, they were terrified.


Will and Jules had a great life here. She taught at the elementary school when it was in session. Will was also a real academic type, working down at the new bank in town. He studied Physics and Finance in college, graduating in the top percent in both classes. They kept a clean house and, to everyone’s knowledge, had planned on having a baby soon. When Jules had time, she worked with her husband in the garden. For two straight years now, they’d won the Memorial Day Parade Garden of the Year. As the parade route wound through “downtown” Horizon and on through the strip, an inspector would ride one of the floats and judge each numbered garden along the way. Twice now, they’d come out on top. Jules had planted her rosemary and pansies, behind them fennel and columbines. The array of colors, as splendid as it was, spoke poetry as it craftily surrounded a single daisy. Jules could look now on all of these flowers in her garden, but could now only think of the ones that would adorn her husband’s grave.


As Jules ran her mind through all of her future worries and now ever current problems, she though on the most difficult one. Who could have killed her husband? Jules had trouble thinking of anyone who would want her husband dead. He’d had his problems, and had seemed worried about something that morning, but it couldn’t have lead to this. And she thought of the one possibility, but how could he have done it? It was impossible that he did it, because…well he just couldn’t have. But she couldn’t tell anyone. If anyone asked, especially the police, how could she tell them he was innocent without making him look even worse? All that Jules knew right now was that she could never let anyone know about her affair with Rob. She had just lost her husband, she couldn’t bear to lose the most important person in her life. But as afraid as she was to lose Rob, she was even more afraid to think he could have been involved with her husband’s murder.


She had known Rob her whole life. They were good friends, all throughout school, but only friends. That’s all they’d ever been. It wasn’t even really an affair to her. It had only happened twice. Will had been obviously troubled in the last month, spending more and more late nights at the bank or travelling for them. The new bank had some big clients out of town, and it was his job to keep them happy. With him gone, she felt vulnerable and in need.


Strange how she’d never seen Rob as anything more than her friend until her husband began distancing himself. In high school, they would spend afternoons together walking down the street, him to the grocery store for work and her to tutor at the elementary school where she now taught. They talked about the future and college, and when that future arrived, they would call each other on the weekends, seeing each other when they could. Rob even came up for a football game once, but the visits stopped when Will and Jules started dating. He said it didn’t seem right, though she never could tell why. Even after everything that had happened with them, and everything that Rob had said just that afternoon, there was no way that he’d killed Will Baker. How could he have when she was with him?


Jules asked Rob to leave, fearing the appearance of evil. Even the hint of that word, evil, convicted Jules of her complicit role in Will Baker’s death. Perhaps her straying from the path is what caused someone to kill her husband. As absurd as it is, she believed it. All around her, the world fell apart. The news crews filming her house, the police moving in and out the front door, all the neighbors politely avoiding her gaze. Jules Baker stood alone on the lawn, forgetting herself and her past, focused only on the fear at hand.


“Mrs. Walker?” No answer.


“Mrs. Walker?”


“It’s Baker, officer. Mrs. Will Baker.”


“My apologies, ma’am. Could you come with me? We need you to come down to the station to identify your husband’s body conclusively.”


The summer sun cast that dark blue and sky orange that only comes when it is light even late into the evening, as the evening turns to night and the fireflies come out. She followed Officer Rodriguez to the car, and as she glared back once more at the house, she saw them bringing out the covered stretcher. As the Coroner’s people carried him away, the evident truth pained Mrs. Baker. Her husband was gone, and she was obviously to blame. It was all because of her that Will Baker is dead.

Next Friday, Episode 2 featuring Jules Baker. 

If you enjoyed this story, please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section.  It's a little early for theories, but if you must, go right ahead.  I hope y'all enjoy this, and I look forward to releasing episode 2 next week.  Thanks!