28. The Shrimper

In 1969, with­in the rus­tic ambiance of the Dog-Gone beer hall, where the glow of beer signs cast a warm light over the patrons, Sher­iff Ed and his com­pan­ion Joe min­gled among locals. Amid the clat­ter of bil­liard balls and the siz­zle of fry­ing seafood, they stood at the bar carved from a lengthy pine, engag­ing in the com­mu­nal pas­time of exchang­ing gos­sip and spec­u­la­tions. On this par­tic­u­lar evening, the buzz was all about a puz­zling inci­dent devoid of fin­ger­prints, with locals toss­ing around the­o­ries and pon­der­ing the involve­ment of eccen­tric indi­vid­u­als like old man Han­son.

As ques­tions and the­o­ries swirled around them, Ed and Joe, accus­tomed to such inter­ro­ga­tions, nav­i­gat­ed the con­ver­sa­tion with ease until a dis­tinct voice cut through the din. Hal Miller, a shrimper employed by Tim O’Neal, approached with a request for a pri­vate word with the sher­iff. Mov­ing to a qui­eter spot, Hal con­fessed his unease about some­thing he’d wit­nessed, a weighty secret that he could­n’t car­ry any longer.

With a mix­ture of reluc­tance and urgency, Hal relayed his account of the night Chase Andrews died. While return­ing to the bay with his crew­mate Allen Hunt, way past mid­night, they had spot­ted the infa­mous Marsh Girl near the bay’s entrance. Hal’s rev­e­la­tions hint­ed at a poten­tial­ly cru­cial piece of the puz­zle sur­round­ing Chase Andrews’s mys­te­ri­ous death, stir­ring a blend of intrigue and con­cern in the sher­iff. This con­ver­sa­tion in the dim­ly lit cor­ner of the Dog-Gone was­n’t just an exchange of words; it was the unveil­ing of a sig­nif­i­cant clue, embed­ded in the tight-knit fab­ric of the com­mu­ni­ty’s dai­ly life.