Small Town Murder

The events of this story are entirely fictional, any resemblance to real life events or people is coincidental.

Small Towns are usually nice places to live. The population is sparse and people are much nicer than the city folk, who are so busy and stressed they don't have time to say hello, they find anyone who does to be strange. For example; London is infamous for having an unfriendly and rude population, but I can't even blame them. I hate cities to be frank. Sure, the many different shops are exciting to visit and the nightlife is excellent. I've had so many friends who went to university in the big British cities, like Liverpool and Manchester (I'm from the north of England). They made so many friends it was unreal, they honestly had the time of their lives meeting so many different and unique characters. So it's not all bad living in the city, but I personally find it stressful, and that's putting it lightly! When you're crammed into a tiny train, tram or bus like tuna fish, with the most obnoxious, drunk and aggressive people, it is a nightmare. You get so washed up in all this madness, you end up going insane a little bit too. Along with all this frustration, of rushing around trying to get from point A to B, alongside being overwhelmed by crowds of people, it's no wonder so many city boys go crazy and are so loud. Crime is rampant in the city, the many crime thrillers set in New York or Chicago aren't entirely fictional, it's all based on real terror. That's why when a murder happens in a metropolis, it's never talked about (unless it's particularly horrific) because it is in these concrete jungles where the scum tends to hide.

So when the body of Elizabeth Blake, was found beheaded in the centre of Runcorn High Street (a small town to the north of England), it made national news. Never before had such a horrible crime been committed within a humble town like this one, where the biggest news story was a lost puppy, this murder shook the hearts of so many Englanders. It was unbelievable, like something only a sick and twisted author would lie about for attention, nobody had heard such a thing before until now. Suddenly it was worldwide news and everyone spoke about it, social media influencers in California were making videos about it, a few disturbed individuals even made memes about it; saying the British had brought back medieval executions, which certainly caused a frenzy online. The press was despicable, they blamed Elizabeth's parents and even conspiracy books were self-published about the murder, saying it was the British government striking out at the lower class. The police ignored the paparazzi and internet gossiping. They soon opened an investigation, looking into this bizarre, horrific murder.

Unfortunately, the killer knew too well the police were hunting them, so they hid and covered their tracks. CCTV footage revealed a hooded figure, shaped quite tall and masculine, stalking poor Elizabeth outside the local nightclub in town. She fled the moment he brandished a machete from his coat pocket, but the maniac raced after her and swung the blade down upon her neck, sending the decapitated head flying! The killer vanished into a dark alleyway and never came back out, at least according to the footage. The criminal must've known of a blind spot and changed his clothes, so anyone on the town's CCTV footage could've been the killer. Frustratingly, the night she died was a busy Saturday, so there were hundreds of people out and about town, stumbling home drunk. The killer's mannerisms were generic, so Detectives had a hard time matching the killer's walk with the many men and women who walked around town. The murder weapon was nowhere to be found, but a Runcorn butchery reported a machete of his was missing, some time after Elizabeth's body was discovered. The employees here were all interrogated and investigated, there were alibis for everyone. The butcher had no idea when the machete went missing, it seemed he'd have never noticed, if it wasn't for the murder. Detectives believed he may have been the killer, but he was an elderly gentleman that was short and obese, nothing like the killer they spotted on CCTV. There was no footage of any strange figures in hoods, attempting to break into the butchery at night. So this proved to be a dead lead. They thought the weapon may have been ordered online, so they searched for recent deliveries of machetes to Runcorn. Nobody had ordered any since the year before. The person who bought one though, the police visited their residence with a warrant. It belonged to a fifty year old father, who was slim and tall, but too frail and sloth like to be the killer. His son however, he had recently left England to go "travelling". It seemed the detectives had a match, the father revealed his son was named Harry Kent, and that he had arrived in the Spanish town of Madrid, the same morning Elizabeth's body was found. So British police let the Spanish authorities know, that a potential killer was on the loose in one of their greatest cities. The investigation is still ongoing, but there was recently another beheading over in Spain, only that too was also in an obscure town, not too far from Madrid itself.