Episode Notes
On Thanksgiving a police officer discovers a horrible secret about a family dinner...
Thanksgiving Dinner by Rachael Redolfi (A Weekly Spooky Original)
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Music by Ray Mattis
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Produced by Daniel Wilder
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Transcript:****
Monticello, Indiana - just an hour and a half from the infamous Gary, and still less than three hours from Chicago. It was a small town, with a population that barely scratched 5,000 men, women, and children. Most residents grew up together, worked together, went to school together, hell… Most of them even frequented the same five churches. 
That’s why, when Sophia got the chance to move she chose Monticello. Just close enough to home that she could visit her family if she chose to, but usually she chose not to. She loved her family but… they were a thorn in her side. 
Chicago just wasn’t quite her speed; there was too much going on all the time and she just couldn’t cope with all of that, not anymore. Aside from being constantly high-strung from all the work she had to do for the city, she also found herself increasingly depressed dealing with the less-than-responsible members of her precinct..
With the recommendation of her chief, and with a little bit of fenagiling when a position opened up, Sophia got herself a cushy job in Monticello, Indiana. She considered it cushy because she really didn’t have to do much or deal with much, aside from the odd noise complaint or writing your standard parking tickets. Sure, in the summer she would have to work a little harder to control traffic or stave off the common drunken tourist, but for the most part she really didn’t have to work that hard. 
It really felt like the only time she was working was May through August - once the chilly September air hit, everything quieted down and she got a chance to relax. 
Sitting in her cruiser, she got a text on her phone. 
“Are you coming, or not?” the text message from her brother bellowed.
Sophia grimaced at her phone, sighed, and stretched out. It had been a long shift already, she really didn’t feel like dealing with her family. She glanced at a picture on her dashboard before opening up her phone and responding. 
“No. I’m not coming. The drive is too long,” she tapped back.
Three dots. 
Someone honked across the street and she glanced up. One elderly driver was taking too long to make a left turn at a light. She decided to ignore it. 
The response finally chimed, “Dinner starts at 6. Just say you don’t want to see us.”
“Ok fine I don’t want to see you,” she hastily pounded back then hit send. She was working a double anyway. Chief Lewis called off sick and she’d taken his shift; even if she wanted to see her family she couldn’t. 
Her black coffee bellowed up puffs of heat-vapor. She took a huge, scalding gulp and hissed, “fucker” at her phone before glancing back up at traffic. The picture on her dashboard glowered at her in monochromatic tones. 
The elderly driver had figured out the problem and traffic was moving along fine. 
It was never busy during noon, anyway, but during the holiday season it was so slow she could almost take a nap. 
Another ding. She glanced at the home-screen of her phone which had the banner of, “But grandma really misses you. Her and mom…”
She honestly debated opening up that message - it had been a whole year since her brother had attempted an honest-to-god conversation with her, she was curious to see what he would try to pull this time. 
“Officer Cortez please report, please,” a familiar and friendly voice chimed. 
Nancy was always too polite, if she didn’t end a call with “please”, Sophia would be suspicious. 
“Officer Cortez, reporting,” Sophia said back.
“We have a request for a welfare check at 1911 East Davidson, please,” Nancy said. 
Sophia plugged it into her GPS, it was less than three miles away. 
“Now, this one here is a doozy,” Nancy continued. “Probably should have just called animal control… um, if you please.”
Officer Cortez talked back through the receiver, “If you needed animal control you just should have called them. Why am I going there?”
“Well, to be honest,” Nancy droned. If she wasn’t droning, something was wrong. “Perfectly honest, mind you, the animal isn’t of the utmost concern.”
“Alright then, so what is?”
“Norman Roberts. He ain’t been in contact with his neighbor and his dog is still outside, if you please. Abigail White called and said he hasn’t been seen in over twelve days.” 
Sophia started her car and the engine of her cruiser grumbled to life when she followed the directions on her GPS. 
“Oh good! You are going! I’ll let Chief Lewis know he don’t need to go all the way down there,” Nancy said. 
Sophia paused. Furrowed her brows. Hissed into the radio, “You didn’t disturb him, did you?”
“Oh I’ve been keeping him updated on all activity in the town!” Nancy chortled back cheerily.
Sophia sighed, pinched her brow at a stop-sign and groaned, “Let him know I’m handling it and then… just… stop. Please. He needs his rest.”
“Oh, sure!” Nancy chirped. 
Sophia headed forward and followed the directions on her phone. 
“I guess chemo ain’t easy, afterall,” the dispatcher noted. 
“No, it is not,” Sophia reassured, trying not to look at the picture of her father. 
Sophia took a turn, waited at a traffic light, and took another sip of her coffee. Well-paved roads gave way to gravel as she headed toward the trailer-park. The soy fields were barren and empty, a copse of oak trees with vibrant orange leaves towered near a fence line, and a few crows glowered at her from their perched on the phone lines. 
The road was bumpy and her cruiser had a rough time hopping over all the potholes. Monticelllo was doing well, but not well enough to buy new SUV’s for the police, or repave all the roads; and even as well as the city was doing, it still had its rough areas, just like any city around the world. Sophia just counted herself lucky that this particular city didn’t have many of the other issues as elsewhere in the country. 
While driving past a barren grove of trees her phone chimed again. Another message from her brother, this time insisting, “Dad would want you here.” 
That almost set her off. Feeling the blood pounding hard in her arms and the burning sense of rage in her chest she paused, took a deep breath and counted. 
One.
Two.
Three. 
Four.
Five. 
She released the breath glanced at the picture of her father in uniform she kept in the car and scowled, grumbling to herself, “Now he’s trying to use you against me.” She wouldn’t dignify her brother’s harassment with a response. 
She turned a corner at the entrance of the trailer park and followed each left-hand turn until she came to the address she was looking for.
An elderly woman, definitely past her seventies, rushed out of a trailer and swarmed Sophia’s SUV. 
“Are you here for Norm?” the woman asked.
Sophia nodded, stepped out from the car with hardly a glance at the photo, and considered leaving her phone in the car but then thought better of it. If this was an emergency she would want her phone - and if it wasn’t… Well, it was still set on vibrate and wouldn’t disturb her. 
The woman, Abigail, bombarded Sophia with a tirade of information, “I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever! It’s Thanksgiving now and Norm promised to have dinner with me… He always promises but rarely keeps them. Almost two weeks ago, though, I made him swear on his momma’s grave he’d have Thanksgiving dinner with me and he ain’t said a word!”
Sophia nodded, took out her notepad and wrote down any pertinent information she could discern - there was none. 
“So the last time you spoke to Norman was twelve days ago?” she asked.
“Yes, twelve days ago,” Abigail confirmed with a nod. “He’d just got home from a long haul and promised me a visit today!” 
Sophia closed the door of her car with a slam, and immediately a cacophony of barks sounded from behind the trailer. Within a few moments the entire park was filled with the warning howls of dogs. 
“He does that when anyone comes over,” Abigail explained, pointing at the small yard behind the trailer. “He’s been chained up this whole time.” 
“For almost two weeks?” 
“Yeah, I just been giving him food and water,” Abigail explained, looking rather sheepish. 
Sophia grimaced before the yelping died down, and only the baying of Norman’s hound remained. 
“Have you tried contacting Norman directly?” she pried. 
Abigail nodded. “I banged on the door - both front and back! - and he hasn’t said anything,” she explained. “I called him last week but it went straight to voicemail.” 
Sophia nodded, and glanced over Norman’s trailer; none of the other trailers were in the best of shape, but his was the most worn-down. The paint had peeled off of practically every inch, all of the windows had been broken and replaced with plywood, the front door itself was held in place with a patchwork of duct-tape and bungee-cords… the trailer sat at nearly a forty-five degree angle at the left corner because the foundation had settled unevenly.
She noted a security camera duct-taped just above the front door and she assumed on instinct there was a twin on the other side of the house. She didn’t mention this to Abigail. 
Officer Cortez took a step forward and asked, “So when was the last time you spoke to him directly?”  
Abigail’s answer finally raised enough alarm that Sophia had to write down the answer, “Just about three weeks ago, right before he went on the road.” 
Noting it, and raising an eyebrow, Sophia took another step forward and the dog in the backyard began to growl again. Another noise - like a dog growling but very muffled - cau