"Fishermen and their stories."
Detective Gray Cooper's vacation turns into a case, when a local fisherman turns up dead, and the main suspect, has a monstrous appetite.
Special Episode Directed By Amanda Troop!
Find her on Twitter @Amanda_Troop and on Instagram @amanda_troop.
Link to her website below.
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00;00;05;01 - 00;00;33;16
Gray Cooper
I'm Gray Cooper, private detective. According to the Department of Homeland Security, my business doesn't exist. But according to the blockchain, a government address pays my bills. The following are the recordings of my case log for insurance purposes. You understand? See, I deal in the strange. The place where monsters and conspiracies dance. The kind of strange you're not quite sure is real or unreal.
00;00;34;12 - 00;01;12;07
Gray Cooper
Officially, the following case did not happen. I told you nothing. Welcome to The Strange Chronicles case log. 938 August 8th Year 2053. This wasn't supposed to be a case. This is supposed to be my vacation. Each year I travel out to Cape Cod to stay at a friend's beach house alone. This year I was supposed to see my father, with whom I had recently reconciled.
00;01;12;13 - 00;01;29;15
Gray Cooper
A longer story for another day. The plan was to lounge at the beach, read a few books, and decidedly keep away from anything resembling work. No missing people. No aliens. No mutant disasters or government operatives. Just me and the beach.
00;01;33;06 - 00;01;53;18
Gray Cooper
It was dusk as I pulled off the main road and down the small dirt path where my friend's cottage sits. I found it blocked. Ambulances and police tape stood in my way. I pulled over and an officer came and knocked on my window. It was Clark. Mitchell Clark and I had a thing a few summers ago and he knows my line of work.
00;01;54;07 - 00;02;18;07
Gray Cooper
He told me an old fisherman had died. Pretty brutal scene. That's all I'd say. But he let me pass through and go down to the cottage. I invited him over for a beer after they finished up. The old fisherman was Ralph Hamilton. According to Clark, the man was found on the side of the road and appeared to be hacked to death, almost as if a bird attacked him.
00;02;18;17 - 00;02;39;21
Gray Cooper
But apparently the wounds were too large for any bird known to Cape Cod or any other coastal towns. My mind immediately wandered to imagining what sort of thing could have caused those injuries. But I was on vacation, so we finished our beer and I shifted my attention to more pressing matters.
00;02;42;25 - 00;03;04;00
Gray Cooper
I woke up to Clark handing me a cup of coffee. He asked me if I'd accompany him to interview Ralph's fishing buddy, Ed Majors. Apparently, Clark's dad and Mr. Majors weren't on good terms, and he thought I might be a good distraction. Besides, Clark said it would be fun. I'm on vacation. I told him. He said, Perfect at majors.
00;03;04;00 - 00;03;35;00
Gray Cooper
Lives on the beach. I could bring my book and stay after the interview. I'm the one in need of a diversion. But I agreed to play along with the small town drama. Ed Majors lived in a tiny clapboard house, just steps from the beach. Buckets and fishing poles crowded the front yard. A plump man with a dirty bucket cap greeted us and asked us if we wanted tea.
00;03;35;09 - 00;03;55;13
Gray Cooper
We accepted, but as he turned on the kettle, he immediately started in on a diatribe about Clark Stad. I interrupted with a question about Ralph. Did he have any enemies? And he looked at me as if he'd just noticed that I was in the room. Ed looked back to Clark and returned the look with a shrug. No, of course not, he said.
00;03;56;01 - 00;04;07;11
Gray Cooper
Ralph was the kind of guy who would give the shirt off his back if someone needed it. Unfortunately for Ralph Hamilton, never have words been more literal.
00;04;10;26 - 00;04;31;18
Gray Cooper
Ed went on to tell us that there were rumors of a giant gull in the area. The fishermen were staying away from the big section of dune brambles on the beach because rumor was a giant creature had a nest there, a bird big enough to eat a man hole and spit out the bones. Fishermen in their stories. Was Mr. Hamilton married?
00;04;31;19 - 00;04;52;27
Gray Cooper
I asked, cutting in on his fabled tale. He scratched his grizzled beard and told us that he had a girlfriend, Trudy. But Trudy and Ralph recently broke up. Ralph said it was bad, so bad that apparently Trudy threatened him with a bait knife. Sounded to me like a standard Sunday night around these parts. But Ralph was heartbroken.
00;04;56;00 - 00;05;20;23
Gray Cooper
Why did Clark have to pull me into this? After our chat with Mr. Majors, I did go out to the beach. Finally, I laid there on my blanket, wishing I could focus on the book I brought along. And then I realized that I had read the first sentence six times and still had no idea what it said. Just as I closed the book, a shadow appeared on my blanket like a plane had flown right over just feet above me.
00;05;21;01 - 00;05;43;23
Gray Cooper
But when I turned over to see what it was, the sun hit my eyes in a blinding way. And all I could see was a seagull far in the distance. There is no such thing as an airplane sized seagull. Curiosity got the better of me. And I looked it up and I found that the average large seagull is about £3 and has a three inch build that is a decent sized bird.
00;05;44;00 - 00;06;08;08
Gray Cooper
But some pterosaurs from the late Cretaceous period could get up to £200 with a bill the size of a medium pizza. I wanted to call Joe my business partner. He'd get a kick out of a giant bird rumor. But Joe has been out of touch. I guess he was going through something personal. I admit that it stung, but I had to let Joe go and try and enjoy my vacation.
00;06;10;19 - 00;06;30;10
Gray Cooper
The next morning, I decided to take a walk down near the dirt road I'd driven in on. I saw Clark speaking to a woman outside the house near where Ralph Hamilton was found. There were large white spots all over the ground near her house. I hoped she was a painter pulling my hat down low. I tried to speed walk past them, but then I heard my name.
00;06;30;20 - 00;06;55;01
Gray Cooper
Gray Cooper. Clark introduced me to Trudy. Ralph Hamilton's girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend, actually. Apparently, she left him due to his penchant for gambling. He'd lost their rent money at the racetrack. And that was the last straw. Was that the reason for his death, too? And then Clark mentioned Ed Majors was no longer returning his calls.
00;06;57;03 - 00;07;14;16
Gray Cooper
I was planning to meet up with my father on this trip, but when I called him, he told me Joe had called him and told him he should stay away. Joe and my dad have a love hate sort of relationship. It's a long story, but has something to do with Joe helping me rescue Dad and getting him back into the private dick business.
00;07;14;23 - 00;07;42;18
Gray Cooper
Still, it has me surprised that Joe called my dad leaving me in the lurch. I could do without their drama, so hopefully Joe will get back to me and Dad will turn up. For now. Vacation. I had to focus on vacation. But then Ed Majors turned up dead. Torn up? Just like Ralph. And this time there were breadcrumbs found at the scene.
00;07;42;25 - 00;08;00;03
Gray Cooper
Now, Clark had to deal with a group of local fishermen going out to hunt down the giant seagull they suspected had killed their comrades. I recalled that giant shadow from the beach. No, it couldn't have been a bird. Someone would have seen one that big. There would be a photo somewhere.
00;08;02;18 - 00;08;30;04
Gray Cooper
I was supposed to meet Dad at our favorite ice cream parlor today, but he didn't show. I left him a message and tried not to worry about where he was. As I grabbed a scoop, my thoughts swirled around my dad. Zeek Clark, this giant bird. Joe the fisherman crew killed a giant bird. Not an airplane sized bird, but a girl who weighed in at £8.
00;08;30;11 - 00;08;52;26
Gray Cooper
He was huge. Sure, but I still didn't buy it as the killer. It's not much bigger than a house cat, and I could see a flock of them attacking someone. Hitchcock's style might do it. However, in this case, we have no evidence of a menacing flock. Only rumors of one monstrous bird. Then again, it could be a monster human as well.
00;08;53;16 - 00;09;07;21
Gray Cooper
The harbor veterinarian was giving it an autopsy, according to Clark. Let me know how it turns out. I told him as I poured myself some lemonade and tried to relax in the hammock tied to the trees in the yard.
00;09;10;00 - 00;09;34;23
Gray Cooper
Clark came by, interrupting my slumber, said he'd give me a lift to the beach. He wanted to show me something. Okay. Beach sounds great. However, when we arrived, he pointed out the little sand island and there was a car on it all smashed in holes in the windows. Trudy's car, Clark told me. But how in the heck did it get way out there?
00;09;35;01 - 00;09;59;13
Gray Cooper
The water was at least eight feet deep surrounding the island. Maybe it was dropped there. Clark wondered. We stopped at Trudy's house, but she wasn't home. So Clark and I decided to grab dinner at Sells, the Italian place in town. They have great garlic breadsticks, places, small plastic chairs. But the food is amazing. Clark gets a call from the harbor vet.
00;09;59;24 - 00;10;19;21
Gray Cooper
Results from the bird the fishermen caught eliminated as a suspect. All he found in that stomach were crab guts. A lovely visual when you're out for dinner. Now that the case is back on my mind and because we're in a small town, I asked the waitress if she knows Trudy. No, her. I'm covering her shift right now. She told us.
00;10;20;00 - 00;10;43;24
Gray Cooper
Trudy was a waitress there and didn't show up. We grabbed our check. We head out to the island to check out Trudy's car, even though it's raining. Clark and I use one of the police boats. We want to make sure there aren't any traces of her still inside it. When we get to it, the rain picks up. The car is really smashed up.
00;10;44;08 - 00;11;03;13
Gray Cooper
Giant holes in the roof like someone took an ax to it. And the windshield is shattered into pieces. We can see inside that there is no sign of trouble. The storm is picking up and we should get back. But we have to check the trunk. Clark jams it open, and I braced myself for what we might discover.
00;11;05;14 - 00;11;45;12
Gray Cooper
Turns out it wasn't so bad. The trunk was full of clear bags. Bags of breadsticks. Sal's famous breadsticks. Just as we laughed and relaxed, we were suddenly attacked from behind. I was knocked down to the ground, and when I looked back at Clark, he had two gashes across his face. We hurry back to the boat, and in a flash of lightning I saw the shadow of what could only be described as a giant with wings.
00;11;46;05 - 00;12;05;12
Gray Cooper
The next morning, the car was no longer on the island. The storm must have washed it into the ocean. Clark called from the air and said as soon as he was patched up, he'd be heading out to see if the car could be recovered. I declined and joining him as I was still nauseous are sea escapades from the evening before had left me green.
00;12;07;06 - 00;12;29;18
Gray Cooper
Clark called and told me. The coroner confirmed that Ralph had leftovers from cells in his stomach and Ed had breadstick crumbs under his fingernails. Sal confirmed that he allowed his staff to take home leftover food, but also that he'd had a large amount of breadsticks disappear from the freezer. When Clark and his guys raided Trudy's house, I watched from the window of my cottage.
00;12;29;27 - 00;12;54;17
Gray Cooper
Trudy had fled. It seems that she had been food training. Some sort of giant gull, attracting it with the breadsticks. Then she let Ralph be the bigger meal in her garage. The police found an incubator holding three giant eggs. Wonder what they might hatch into. Clark and I spent the final day of my vacation, and I say that without irony.
00;12;54;28 - 00;13;19;11
Gray Cooper
Walking the beach, we happened upon the thick hatch of dune bramble where people had feared the gull had made a nest. I wonder how such a giant beast of a bird could live here without notice for so long? Clark said. Sometimes people only see what they want to. There are likely many creatures that roam this earth, undiscovered out in the places where men find it difficult to survive.
00;13;19;25 - 00;14;08;01
Gray Cooper
We have such great interest in the beasts. Never found Nessie, Bigfoot, the two macabre and many, many more. Perhaps they are best left unknown. These great monsters of the imagination. If we were to discover them, what would they tell us about ourselves? Stop! This has been an episode of the Strange Chronicles of Fiction podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at the Strange Chronicles podcast or email us at.
00;14;08;12 - 00;14;25;10
Gray Cooper
Info at the Strange Chronicles. Com. This has been a kings of content production. Thank you for listening and.