The Lost Cowboy

The Lost Cowboy
WGA: # 1084936

The controversial FBI agent Dice Crawford is known for his no non-sense style. He is a bit rough around the edges. He is a hard working cowboy from Texas that has earned his way up the FBI ladder by solving some pretty tough cases. He got transferred to New York a couple years ago against his wishes to help out the most overburdened division. He is still complaining about the transfer. He hates the rude people, the traffic, the taxis, the foreigners, the high prices, his small apartment, and the fact that there is no grass anywhere. He only has one more year left until he is eligible to transfer back to Texas. Pablo is his long time partner who also got transferred. Pablo is a small-framed Mexican with big fists and an even bigger heart. The two work well together, but they don’t always get along. Dice has a bad habit of picking on everyone, especially Pablo. Dice’s sarcasm has landed him a few too many citations from his superiors. He has seen his name in the New York Times a few times, not all of them were good press. He doesn’t understand the New York way of doing things. He is the actual analogy of a bull in a china cabinet.

There have been a series of murders the state police have been investigating for a few months. So far, three confirmed murders, all linked together. The media has now labeled him a “Serial Killer”. It is now time the FBI get involved before the public panic anymore then they already are. Dice gets assigned to the case. The file confirms the three killings were from the same guy. All had numbers, four digits, carved into their fingernails; all had additional clues left on the scene. But the trail dead-ends there. No other patterns. They were different races, different sexes, had different jobs; they never knew each other or had anything in common. Forensics made no connections either. The victims were Josephine March, Henry Fleming, and Lucy Manette all from different parts of New York State all of varying ages.



One night the FBI got a call from New York City police. The police had interrupted someone attempting to plant a dead body in Central Park. The police chased and shot at the suspect. They think they hit him, but he dropped the body and ran off. The police could not catch him. Victim # 4 is found. Fred Henry. He was a 38-year-old white male. The body was in the park behind some trees. Like clockwork, the numbers “0924” were carved into the fingernails. His ears were packed full of dirt. They ran the scene and tried to keep press off the grounds. They sent the dirt from the ears off to the lab. They found a few partial footprints around the body. The killer was obviously interrupted before his work was done. The police could only tell he was a male with a large build. They could see no other features because it was too dark.

As the newspapers and reporters have a field day with all this, the FBI team working every angle. The calls and witnesses are coming out in droves now claiming to be the killer or know the killer. The team try’s to go through all the crap. A few possible suspects are proved to be phonies when they mess up on scene details when meeting with Dice.

The lab called in the next day and the dirt in the Fred Henry’s ears was actually potting soil. There also appeared to be small trace amounts of Polypodiophyta, which is plant. Commonly known as a type of Fern. Dice compares it to the other evidence or clues found. He can make no link. Victim 1, Ms. March had red paint shoved under her toenails and fingernails. Victim 2, Mr. Fleming had a bloody piece of cow tail in his pocket. Victim 3, Mrs. Manette is the most violent murder so far, the killer put her in the under carriage compartments of Greyhound bus. Her body in one compartment, and her arms in another. Dice and his team continue to come up with theories but none seem to work. Even the numbers carved in the fingernails are like a calling card, but they make no sense. The team is feeling the frustration.



[ December 16th ]

Time passes for a few months. Snow covers the ground. Christmas cheer is everywhere. They are still working on the case but not making huge progress. They now know he is a fairly large male with a size 11 shoe. Not really much more. Some of the FBI think the police that shot him may have killed him or scared him off. Dice thinks he is just trying to heal from a gunshot wound. By this time the Serial Killer is not front-page news anymore. That was about to change.

Another body is found. Victim #5 is Bill Colman age 51 found in his Queens apartment. He has a mouse trap on top his pants pinching his penis. He has the numbers “0227” carved into his fingernails. This is getting ridiculous; they have to catch this guy. They work the scene as they have done too many times before. The chief calls in a special task force. Dice asks for 24 hours more. The chief denies it. But lets him continue to work the case from his angle while the task force works their angle.

[ December 17th ]

The next day Dice is reviewing the file on Bill Colman and notices an elderly lady living next door, heard banging noises from his apartment the night he was killed. Dice visits the lady and she is upset that her neighbor little Billy is dead. They try to figure what the banging was. Dice demonstrates a few things next door to try to figure it out. But no luck, meanwhile back at the office his team is still struggling with the case. Dice gets mad and sends his entire team home.

[ December 18th ]

The task force wants all the files on the case. Dice gives them a copy of everything. While the task force is being briefed, Dice is bothered by something. He flips though the elderly lady’s statement. He looks confused, so he calls her. He says he noticed in her statement she refers to Mr. Colman as ‘Little Billy’ and then yesterday while he was there with her, she kept calling Mr. Colman ‘Little Billy’. The guy is about 6’ tall, why do you call him little? She giggles, “You see Mr. Colman has the same name as the character in my favorite book I would read as a kid.” Intrigued Dice asks, “Really, what book is that” She says “Where the Red Fern Grows. You see the little boy in the story is named Billy Colman….” Dice is stunned. He drops the phone. “Fern…. God Damn fern… He is using books”. He remembers the potting soil with traces of fern leaves. There is his link. He calls him team back in the office. Dice offers apologies and the team is back in full swing.


[ December 19th ]

After the team has been working well over 24 hours they think they are on to the killer. Dice goes to explains it to the chief: The bastard is a book reader. Hint #1: The carved numbers are the birthdates of famous authors. Hint #2: The clues he leaves on the scene is meant to direct us to a specific famous novel the author wrote. Then comes the hard part. We need to find who the main character in the novel is, so we can protect everyone in the state that shares that same name.

“WHAT? How in the Hell can we do that? We don’t have nearly the manpower,” exclaims the chief. “We don’t even know how long to protect them for, or even that he won’t go out state”.

Dice explains that he knows the killer will stick to his game. New York State only. Then he explains that he knows the dates the killing will take place. On the anniversary date of death of the famous author, the murder will happen. The killer will slay someone with the main characters name. It’s a sick history lesson. The author, and the main character all die the same day…. It’s like he is trying to kill the book. He is making us read the books to figure the clues, and then we have to know the author and his or her birth date and also the date of death.

Dice then explains this wicked web.

First Josephine March is a character from the novel “Little Women” written by Louisa May Alcott. On her nails she had ‘1101’ and red paint under her toes and fingernails. That hint was for the next murder. “The Red badge of Courage” the main character was Henry Fleming. Stephen Crane who was born on November 1, hence the ‘1101’ wrote it. He died on June 5th, which is when our Mr. Fleming was killed.

Some of them look confused. Dice urges them to pay attention because it is somewhat difficult to follow. He kills a character, then put clues on them to hint to us who the next victim will be. Then he kills that character, and put the next novels clues.

Mr. Henry Fleming’s body contained clues to the next murder. A cow tail and the number ‘0207’ The famous Charles Dickens was born on February 7 again hence the ‘0207’ the cow tail was the clue. You see Mr. Dickens wrote “A tale of two cities”. Mr. Dickens died on June 9th. As did the novel’s present day main character Lucie Manette.

Dice was talking really fast. He was excited.

Ms Manette’s gruesome crime scene contained her dismembered arms on a bus. The book “A Farewell to Arms” was written by non other the Ernest Hemingway. He was born on July 21 so she had ‘0721’ carved into her nails. He died on July 2nd, as did his character Fredric Henry, or Fred Henry as ours was called.

And the last one Mr. Fred Henry contained soil and fern we know it is “Where the Red Fern Grows” written by Wilson Rawls born on September 24. Died on December 16, as did Little Billy Colman.

Now, while Dice was explaining this to the chief his crew is working on the current one. Mr. Colman has the numbers ‘0227’. He is the clue to our next victim. He also had a mousetrap on his genital. So we need a book with penis, zipper, pants, trap, mouse, cheese, rat, jeans, pinch… hell I don’t know. Let get on it. An author born on February 27.

Only twenty minutes later they had it. “Of Mice and Men” Mice= mouse trap and Men= penis. John Steinbeck wrote the book, but there is a huge problem. He died on December 20th. That’s tomorrow! The main character in this novel is George Milton. This seems impossible it is 11:30 pm and they need to find every George Milton in New York State to warn them. Pronto. Most people are sleeping right now. Dice did not know how to warn them.

[ December 20th ]

All the warnings go out to the media the FBI hates so much. Radio, TV, signs, however they can get it out to the streets. They warn any George Milton’s to contact local police for instructions on what to do. The general public is in a panic. Dice knows the killer loves the attention.

At 10:20 am a call comes into the chief. Dice puts his head down; he knows it’s happened. Sure enough. George Milton in Albany, New York has been murdered. He is an elderly man in a nursing home. His daughter is semi-famous singer Anita Milton living in LA. She is on the news sobbing within the hour. The press can’t help find a potential victim in six hours but they sure can find a weeping relative within 30 minutes. The pressure on the FBI is overwhelming. When Dice and his crew get on the scene of the murder they notice all the same patterns. He had a magic wand under his pillow wrapped in a $5.00 bill as a clue. The numbers “0924” carved into his nails. Dice actually got excited because ‘0924’ was already used on another victim. The author was Wilson Rawls born on September 24. They looked for books by Mr. Rawls but could not link them to a wand or money.

They drive back to the lab and work on the case as they had before. As tension continues to mount they figure it out. Someone will die again tomorrow. The novel “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald who died on December 21st was the next novel. This guy was really speeding things up on them. He knows they are close. He must be some sort of sick Liberian or something. They have not slept in two days. Someone named Jay Gatsby was going to die tomorrow. They surely cannot sleep now. It is 4:00 pm they have time to get it in the papers, news, radio, etc. Same drill as before. Dice has the task force pull up all Jay Gatsby in New York State. There are a total of 4 potential victims. 2 of them are Jay Gatsby. 1 is Jake Gatsby. The last one was listed as J. Gatsby. The Honorable J. Gatsby was a city judge in Sommer, New York. Her real name was Jill Gatsby she was a female. Probably the last two were in no danger but the team was not taking any chances.



[ December 21st ]

They assigned several agents to each of the Gatsby’s. Dice and Pablo took the long shot female J. Gatsby. Dice knew the killer enough to know that he would get more press with his play on words and also the fact that it was a judge and a out of character female not a male like the novels character. Anything he could do to cause public panic and instill fear, he would.

The tension continues to mount as teams communicate any possible problem people. A few false alarms on other Gatsby’s elevate the tension even more. Time seems to drag on.

The judge refused to call off any of her cases. She was a fussy little broad who felt it was our job to protect her. She refused to hide from anyone. She really felt safe in the courthouse with other guards. While Dice agreed to her terms he was not amused with her lack of public safety. Finally at 5:00 she calls it a day and goes into her chambers. After a few minutes she follows Dice down the courthouse halls. The killer was hiding behind a column. When she passes him he sneaks up behind her and grabs her around the throat, and holds a gun to her head. The Judge elbows the killer in stomach and flips him over. It was Pablo disguised as the judge! In the action the killer fires a shot hits Dice in the shoulder. The killer still has them pinned because he has a gun pointed on Pablo from on the floor. Dice can’t make any moves. The killer then grabs Pablo and makes his way down the halls of the courthouse with Pablo at gunpoint. Dice manages to keep blocking him from existing but he can’t get a clear shoot at the suspect. The stand off lasts for about 10 minutes and the news media have already arrived on the scene. They can smell blood from a mile away.

Once the killer enters the 3rd floor parking tower entrance he can see lights and hear the media on the ground floor level as he tries to lure Dice to the ledge so the cameras can see him. Dice knows if he goes to the edge the killer will shoot him once the cameras are on him. Dice also knows if he bails or runs the killer will shoot Pablo on camera. In a split second decision Dice shoots Pablo in the arm so he falls. Dice dives under a nearby car and begins shooting at the killer. The killer flees to a police car, steals it and speeds off through the barricade.

Dice runs to another police car picks up Pablo and takes off to catch him. Once on the street there is a brief chase through the town but Dice loses control of the car and has to stop. Nobody can find the killer or the stolen police car. Pablo has choice words for his partner Dice shooting him. After a few minutes looking for the killer they realize they are only 15-20 from one of the other Gatsby’s. They put out an all points bulletin on the new target. They know the killer has plenty of time to make it there.

About five minutes into the journey to the other Gatsby - Dice whips the car around in the middle of the road. He tells Pablo that the son of a bitch will still hit his original target. The Judge. They let the other units handle the other Gatsby’s. They speed off to the judges’ house informing the chief of the change. The chief warns them off the judge. Dice does not heed the warning and continues to the judges’ house. When they arrive they see a running shadow in the back yard. Pablo rushes after it to the back yard. Dice sneaks in the front door. Once upstairs he sees the killer just as the killer grabs the judge. Immediately Dice shoots the hostage. The Judge takes a bullet to the leg and falls in sheer panic and pain. Immediately Dice begins shooting at killer before he can fire on the judge. Dice walks over to the judge and picks her up. She slaps him, and cusses him out. Dice still trying to stay focused on killer movements. Dice sends the hardheaded Judge hobbling down the stairs to Pablo. The gunfight continues. Dice runs out of bullets. Pablo tosses a gun up over the rail to him. Dice fires about three shots from Pablo’s gun then he is out of bullets again. He yells to Pablo “Great. I knew I couldn’t trust a Mexican. Remember the damn Alamo.” Dice makes a run for it, and leaps over the rail falling to the first floor crashing on a table and sofa. Pablo helps him move out of the way, as they continue to stalk the killer. Pablo has his last gun with only a few shots left and heads for the door with the judge. Dice hides in kitchen pantry. He hears killer passing by and he pops out and clotheslines him. A fight breaks out. Dice beats him pretty good and once more puts his boot heel to his throat and says “Looks like the chapter ends here. Next chapter is Bubba in the shower

The next day there was a big picture of Dice on the front page of the New York Times. He had his boot on the suspects’ throat. The caption said, “Cowboy saves New York”. The paper explained the killer was a struggling author from New York City who could never manage to get any book published by a decent publishing company. He just was not that good. It upset him that most of the general public never read. Much less read any classic novels. They don’t know any authors or even that they died. Now they do. They know names, dates and stories thanks to our friends in the media. The article had an interview with Dice that was done in his classic sarcasm.

Dice got suspended for shooting the Judge. Everyone on the force knows he really saved her life. The judge pressured the FBI to fire Dice. Instead they just moved him and Pablo back to Texas a few months earlier than planned. Dice told the Judge he wishes he’d shot her sooner knowing that would be his ticket out back