Boosht Hollow

After a series of murders have been carried out at the small village of Sleepy Hollow, constable Howard Crane has been called out to investigate them. Can he slove the mystery with his new friend Naboo and his new love interest, the mysterious Vince Van Tassel?

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Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next morning, Howard rides out across the farmlands with Lance Doir, Victoria Van Tassel, Dixon Van Tassel, Fossil and a large man on horseback, Howard was having problems riding his horse “First the Van Garretts die, a father and his son, then the widow Windsor next…”

“And now Bollo” Lance finished, keeping his eyes directly on the road in front of him, leading to the forest.

“Why would he run this way? There’s too mush over ground for him to cross before he was safe under cover” Howard poundered, looking back along the road at their surroundings. Nothing but empty, dry fields around them, birds sometimes landing on the barren soil to occationally peck for seeds.

“He would not have gone in the western woods, no sane man would have” Lance replied, taking a swig from a silver whiskey flask he bought with him. He sees Howard watching him and offers the constable some, who declined “Now you see, Kodiak Jack in front of us found the body this morning. Do you believe us now?”

“What do you mean ‘believe’?” Howard asked confused.

“Well, you said youself ‘What mere man could knock down the belltower?’“ Dixon sneered.

Howard ignored him “It’s all a matter of a test of science, Lance. Just because something improbable happens, dosen’t mean you should thinks it was something magicial that caused it”

“You need some more common sense really” Lance replied, fingering an iron key tailsman he wears around his neck.

“Is that what you wear?” Howard asked, curiously.

“It will protect me againest the horseman if I show a brave face. If I run away in fear, it will be worthless” The magistrate replied, before moving further on.

“Well, so much for common sense…” Howard muttered to himself, ordering his horse to catch up with the rest. As they got further by the forest, Fossil and Victoria got off their horses to stand by another horses corpse amongst jagged boulders. Its flesh had been stripped from its body, its lifeless eyes staring up at them as flies gathered around it. The others dismount and join them.

“Was this Bollos?” Howard asked, a little disgusted at the sight.

“Yes, but it seems it ran off in a panic and broke two of its legs” Dixon said coldly.

“What happened to the meat of the poor beast?” Howard asked again.

“Must have been the Spirit of Jazz, he lives in the western woods” Victoria answered.

“Those woods must be a bit full, what with this spirit, witches and ghosts there” Howard joked, earning a cold look from Fossil.

“There’s only one of him. He comes out only to small fluffy creatures and naughty children. Maybe he even eats the occational nosy constables too” Fossil replied, getting on his horse and riding off. Howard shook his head and turned back to the dead horse, kneeling down to get a thin iron tool from his pocket and pried off a horseshoe.

Everyone then hears a whistle and looks up to where Kodiak Jack had ridden to, pointing to where the doctor was. Doctor Bryan Ferry stood with several armed men, a large coffin was on top a a larger cart, covered by a blanket. Howard crouched to the ground nearby “Why did you move the body?”

“I had to place it within the coffin” Bryan defended himself. Howard was annoyed by this answered, but nodded anyway as he places the horseshoe into an ident in the dirt, seeing how well it fitted. He raises and walks about, studying the ground and kicking up the leaves as Fossil, Victoria, Dixon and Lance watch him, confused.

Howard then finds a deeped hoofprint in the dirt and compares it to the horseshoe in his hand, finding the print was much larger. He pulls his brown satchel off his shoulder and takes out a bowl, a bottle of water and a bag of borwn powder. He starts mixing them all together with a frok to make some plaster. The other watch on amazed and confused at the sight, unil Fossil had enough and stood over Howard “What the hell are you doing?”

Howard ignores his question “You’re the resident dumb blacksmith, ever seen hooves this big?”

“Actually no, I would somewhat remember” Fossil answered.

Howard starts to fill the print with his now ready plaster “Jack, can you show me where the body lay?”

Jack agreed and got off his horse, Howard raising up to follow him “Right over here, in front of this oak tree…”

Howard then takes out a bottle of white powder and cautiously pours it on the dirt in a small ‘x’. The powder then bubbles from the chemical reaction “There was not much blood here, was there?”

“I didn’t see any at all” Jack answered, a bit confused. Howard walks back over to the cart confused, taking off the blanket to reveal Bollo’s headless corpse. Lance can’t watch and looks away as Howard takes starnge looking glasses from his satchel, wired frmaes with loads of lens attached. He leans in and examines the gross neck wound, poking at the flesh and the severed spinal cord.

“There’s no bleeding, it should have been bleeding by the the pintfuls by now. Whetever weapon was used, instantly burnt the wound shut” Everyone shurrdered and glanced at each other.
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A few hours later, the whole village congregated in the cruchyard, surrounding a large freshly dug grave with a coffin in it. The tombstone reads simply ‘Bollo-1799’ and the young man from before, Naboo stood near, not crying but was devestated, quietly brooding. The clergyman Harold Boon steps forwards to take a handful of newly dug dirt, muttering his prayers as he sprinkles it over the grave.

Howard looked up from his position by the grave and sees Vince stood between his mother and father-in-law. The younger Van Tassel looks up to him and gives him a small, shaky but sure smile, which Howard returns. Dixon notises this and elbows Vince hard in the shoulder, causing his son-in-law to look him in the eyes with fear, then bak down to the ground with a frown.

After the service, Howard went with the Van Tassels back to their manor, followed by Kodiak Jack, his wife Eleanor and their two children Ebola and Antrax for supper at the mansion. After supper, Howard is about to leave the house once more until he is confronted by Naboo “Listen, I’m not here for revenge, only for justice”

“Whatever, you still need someone to help you and tend to your things” Naboo replied with his lisp.

“I’m doing fine alone, why can’t you ge that?” Howard nearly yelled.

“I deserve to help you, don’t you see how much this means to me? Bollo, my familiar, was a great friend, a wise gorilla….” Naboo tried arguing.

“Look, I’m sorry for your loss. But I can’t be the one to look after you now!” Howard did yell this time.

Naboo’s face set hard as he yelled back “I didn’t ask you to, did I?” He stormed out of the house while Howard watches passive. After a few minutes, he walked out onto the porch and saw Dixon talking to a tallish man with a brown, round head, while Doctor Ferry looks out into the distance using a spyglass.

“Constable Crane, how are you?” Dixon asked, just notising him.

“Fine thanks, the villagers seems to know how to honor their dead” Howard answered.

“What a curious sight!” Bryan says, turning to Howard and offering him the spyglass “Have a look at the Spirit of Jazz, he spies on use every now and again”

Howard takes the spyglass and looks through it at the forest. He sees a tall man with black skin with white markings, wearing a bright white suit and a white top hat, which was on fire. The spirit then disappears back into the forest and Howard lowers the spyglass in awe.

“Excuse me Constable, but I must leave you and Hamilton Cork here. Me and the good doctor have some…financial matters to discuss” Dixon said. The two men nodding as he and Bryan went inside.

“Howard, nice to meet you. I’m sure you’ve heard all about the horseman, hey?” Hamilton introduced cheerfully.

“More then enough thanks, but please no more tonight” Howard joked tiredly.

“I reckon the murderer was the guy you saw through that spyglass, but I’m blind so I don’t rightly know” Hamilton admitted, as Howard pondered this infomation for a minute.

“What’s going to happen to Naboo now?” He asked, curiously.

“Well, Kodiak Jack said he and his wife would take him in, but the young shaman would do fine on his own in my opinion” Howard looked through the dining room window to see Jack rising up from the table, looking quite ill. Elanor seems to be questioning her husband about his health, which he promptly shook off, then threw up. Howard gave a small disgusted sigh and couldn’t agree with Hamilton more.

He waited until dusk to look for Naboo, getting infomation that he was in the orchard behind the mansion. As he rode through the dead apple trees, their branches bare and their trunks rotton, he saw Naboo sitting with his back to him, looking out into the distance as his horse was grazing. Howard rode up behind the shaman, seeing that he never looked up once “If you want to help me, then find a servent’s room and wake me before dawn. The first task will be rough”

Howard turned and rode back to the mansion, smilind as he looked back and saw Naboo riding behind him.