Writing Prompt: The drought stretched on.

Morning all and Happy Monday. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I managed to check off a lot of the indoor chores I have been putting off. I know, not the most exciting thing, but having that list completed did make me a little giddy. But it is a brand new week and a brand new month. Let’s set those timers to fifteen minutes and see what it is that comes out.

Okay this s a set up I like and one I am going to be working with. I am very pleased with how August is beginning.

Monday, August 3^rd: The drought stretched on.

The drought stretched on.  Rivers dropped, revealing more of the land than had been seen in generations.  Trash and discarded debris were left exposed to the light as fish that couldn’t make it to the center were gasping and left to rot along the sides.  It became too much and clean up was organized.  No one could stop the drought but they could clear away the filth it exposed. 

Community teams were organized, recycling and trash bis were organized and despite growing concerns about the weather, everyone agreed that something good had come of it.

‘The river will be cleaner when the rains come,’ was a common thought expressed by many satisfied with their volunteer efforts.  But the river ran the length of the town and some eyed the dropping water levels and cleanup efforts with growing unease. 

It was the third week after clean up began that one of those secrets came to light. 

Bones settled in what had formerly been silt, now dry baked dust exposed on the shore.  The skull was found first leaving no doubt that this wasn’t someone’s missing dog.  The police were called, although truth be told they weren’t far. 

Once clean up began all law enforcement guessed there would be at least a few unpleasant things dragged into the light.  They added patrols, officially to make certain that things progressed in an orderly fashion and so that trouble could be dealt with immediately.  In the rougher sections of town there were more policemen, the wealthier sections having a token representative to show the rest of the city there were no biases being made.

Yet the first body didn’t sow in the rougher neighborhoods and two hours before the burning sun started it’s final descent towards the horizon Detective Gary Douglas found himself heading to one of the older, wealthier neighborhoods in the city.  To have a house here you didn’t just need to be wealthy.  Your five times great grandparents needed to be wealthy and you needed to either have increased the wealthy or at least not manage to lose what you were given.

Houses passed from generation to generation.  Houses were old and many had at least part of their current form dating back to the beginning of town.  The river was once the main highway and all of these houses had their own small ports.  They could receive goods and travel without needing to go to the main docks. Over time some disappeared.  Some were later revived for various reasons, some legitimate some not.

The house where he was ordered to was 10 River Road. It was one of the first of the homes.  Had it’s own well maintained dock and was owned by a family that collectively owned at least twenty-five percent of the town.