Roman's eyes kept bouncing side to side. He eyed the soldiers' reactions and how Jonathan spoke regarding the situation. A sense of relief did overcome Roman once the sheriff commanded his own men to pipe down. Maybe he acknowledged that they were incompetent as well? Roman honestly did not feel safe when they came barging in while yelling slurs and accusations. If anything, the moment felt like police harassment. Roman wouldn't know much about it but he has heard a few stories from several ethnic individuals.
Roman clenched his teeth and hoped everyone believed Jonathan's words. There was a feeling of paranoia; however, there would be no other reason for the masked man to lie, right? All of the evidence matched up with what was said. Even then, the young teenager stuck his finger up. He tried getting the attention of whoever was listening.
"I can piggyback on that. I was here with him," Roman spat as he his finger shook. He flashed an awkward smile; he was trying too hard not to show his paranoia. Chucking, he kept talking without thinking. "You know, shit was gross. I threw up lasagna. Yeah."
Nunchucks crossed his arms when the masked man began speaking; his gaze did not become interrupted. Despite the mask, Nunchucks could give perfect eye contact to Jonathan. When he stopped explaining what had occurred, the sheriff scanned the room and matched it with the given testimony. The woman mentioned was still crouched on the floor; she sobbed and held onto her bite. Nunchucks then directed his attention to the kitchen.
The zombie was the easiest to spot. He snickered, finding it a bit ironic how this entire ordeal was started because of one possible undead. Nunchucks jerked his head over to the two bodies; he signaled to some nearby soldiers to discover if Jonathan spoke the truth. Nunchucks scratched his chin, part of him hoped the masked man lied. The incident of murder within a small town would only rise panic and suspicion.
Unfortunately, one of the soldiers clarified that the two individuals did die, not from a zombie bite, but of malicious intent. Nunchucks tipped his cowboy hat down. He took a few seconds to process the situation. Numbers began taking laps around his mind. Two dead bodies, one infected person, and four witnesses. Nunchucks heard the young teenager began mumbling. He calmly put his finger to his lip. "Quiet down, kid." The man scoffed and kneeled down to the woman. With a calm manner, he put a hand on her shoulder.
"It smarts, huh?" He gave a little chuckle that came off as innocent yet inappropriate. His tone showed sympathy for the woman. "I know it sucks; I promise that it will only get better. I'm sure of it. I won't let anything happen to you." The waitress looked up, her tear ducts began running out. A twinkle formed in her eye as she begun to see hope in the eyes of the sheriff.
"I will protect you, but I need you to tell me who did this to you. I need your help," Nunchucks pleaded. He grabbed onto one of the lady's hands with both of his. "Do you have any information? The woman wiped her tears with her arm.
"Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you. I-I don't recall anything. I wasn't in the kitchen at the time when-. When I came to the kitchen. they were already dead. Then IT came toward me and I-," The woman started sobbing again when trying to recollect what transpired. Nunchucks did his best to console the woman. He went step by step on what she tried to say.
Nunchucks stood up when he got the information he needed. Clearly, the men were murdered without the woman in the room. She didn't see anything. The sheriff patted the woman again on the shoulder. "Men take her to the infirmary. I want her to receive the best damn hospital care we got," he said as he put two fingers to his forehead.
The woman held her hands together as if she was praying. "Thank you! Thank you so much! You are too good for us! You are too good for-" Her sentence came to stop. Like that, she flopped onto the wooden floorboard. Her panicked voice was replaced by the crack of a firearm. Behind her, a soldier withdrew a pistol and put a bullet at the back of her head. Blood sprayed on impact and started to pool around her head.
Nunchucks breathed out of his nose and stared at the fallen waitress. He twirled his finger around in the air and sent a third of his men outside the restaurant. The sheriff then put his attention on the party of four. "Alright, now I know what you are thinking. Damn, this guy is an asshole!" He started waving his hands in the air toward their possible surprised reactions.
"You cannot tell me that you thought there was a chance of saving her. The salvia from that ugly mug over there already done spread throughout her bloodstream. Ain't no helping that," the sheriff shook his head. He then jerked his head to the side. The man made certain to give everyone eye contact. "Give me some credit before everyone calls me a monster. I gave her some hope to grab on and made sure she didn't know the Reaper came knocking."
"Now before anything is... "revealed" to the townsfolk, you guys need to know the story. See what I'm thinking is just giving them the "ol' zombie came up and got them" story. It's the best I got. I say we leave out the part about the slit throats and such. I don't want them running around knowing a crazy murdering lunatic is out there. Now that's scary!"
One of the men examined the dead woman's body. He placed the pistol into the woman's hand and forced her corpse to grip it tight. "Speaking of, this woman committed suicide. She very well could not live her life knowing she might become an undead walking cannibal. Taking one of the guns of my men, she put that bullet in herself. I know for a fact everyone will eat that shit up and no one will begin panicking. We don't want that.
The sheriff clapped his hands together and started making friction. "So I got some real good news for you guys. Now then, I can't really say I 100% believe your story. I just made up "my story" in a matter of seconds which gives me the suspicion that you might have made up "your story" in a matter of minutes or something. Is "my story" faker than "your story?" I don't know. But you guys look like honest faces."
"That's why I'm going to give you guys a little secret of mine. There have already been a few murders committed in this town. My men and I done a pretty great job at covering it up. So when I heard another murder came up, what do I find but four individuals? I been trying to catch the murderers red-handed and just when I think I did, they gave me a convincing explanation. A bit coincidental, right?"
"That is why I am hiring you guys as my personal Scooby-Doo crime solvers. I cannot have my men looking around for serial killers. Townsfolk will definitely jump on that shit. I'll also have my men keep a close eye on you while you party try to find me my murderer. And if it so happens if another murder is not made..." Nunchucks took off his ten-gallon hat. He snickered and flashed them a smile.
"...I reckon you guys are my murderers, huh? Nunchucks then directly spoke to Sophia. "You just got here so I doubt you're the murderer, but you could still be a murderer. It makes sense that eyes are already kept on you." He gave her a quick wink. "So does anyone have any disagreements or suggestions? My men and I just love hearing criticism."