Underneath

[Atrice]

Modern Day AU
set in a so far unnamed fictional town in England

Marcus Bagshaw was new in town – and it was a small town too, but he thought it just perfect. The trees gave the town an interesting look in the fall and everything was clean and neat, at least on the surface. Marcus however was sure, that there was more lurking underneath. And he would learn eventually, what that was. He could be safe here though, right? Another country, another name, another town where no one knew him. It really was perfect.

He settled down in a small house near the outskirts of the town, near the forest leading down to the sea and near a road leading away from the town and to the fields and meadows around it. And downtown he got himself a shop, where he could open up his new hairdresser and barber shop. He catered to both men and women. The shop was minimalistic, it had just what it needed. A sign outside for Barber Bagshaw. A few mirrors and chairs and all the required tools. Kept in simple colors, white, black and Bordeaux. Of course he offered coffee or tea to anyone coming in to have their hair done. In the beginning or on special occasions there were even biscuits. The official opening had flags and balloons and cakes and people quickly took a liking to the new hairdresser in town.

It was about a month after he arrived in town that he read the odd and macabre story in the local newspaper – a hiker from a nearby town had found the body of a woman in the forest. She’d been half-buried, but some animal had found the corpse and dug enough in the grave for parts of the body to be exposed. The woman had bruises on her wrists and there was a long cut across her chest. And then her throat, which had been the death of her. Besides her shirt on the front having been ripped open to the chest cut, she was fully dressed and there had been no other violation of her body. It was all very odd.

The entire town was mortified by this sudden murder. Some people knew her. And Marcus’ shop almost became a place where people gathered to gossip about it. Who did it? Why? And Marcus offered coffee and biscuits and haircuts, seeming as worried as everyone else.