Body Is "Probably" Missing Student/Down The Laundry Hole

From Foxnews.com:

" Investigators suspect a corpse discovered in a meadow Monday is that of a university student who went missing last month in Madison, where she was last seen subsequent to a night out at the bars."

"Authorities combing an area roughly 10 miles south of Madison came upon the body on private property in a wooded area littered with laundromats and dry cleaners.

Dane County Coroner John Stanley said it was tentatively identified as probably 22-year-old Kelly Nolan."

Probably? Who else could it be?

"Investigators have yet to get a 'detailed, up-close' look at the body, which was dressed in a track suit and covered up in a densely laundered area, starch everywhere, but preliminary evidence suggests it is Nolan, Stanley said."

What is officer Stanley doing in this laundromat?

"Police spokesman Joel DeSpain declined to describe the condition of the body but said it was obvious to detectives that the person had been killed.

Authorities were led to the scene via Nolan's most recent cell phone call to a nearby laundromat."

Running across state lines, I drove my Chevy just south of Madison. I arrived around 7 pm, stopped into the local Mobile station. Bought coffee. Had a late lunch of Snickers and Snapple. Raspberry Iced Tea.

I sauntered through the town, did a little window shopping, and then carved my way to the meat of it. Dead center of this little town was a four block radius of dry cleaners, laundromats and car washes. It must be the cleanest town in America.

I shuffled from one to the other, opening dryers and peaking over shoulders into washing machines.

And then I smelled it: fish.

It was coming from a dryer just to the left of a Russian woman breastfeeding a child while she folded her unmentionables. I scooted past her, opened the dryer door, took a quick look around, and slipped in.

Following the scent, the dryer opened up into a larger tunnel, dark and damp with snails and salamanders all about. I guided myself along the walls, blind but determined.

Deeper into the dryer, a dim light from far above shown down from the street, the distant sound of cars like birds in the trees. The light illuminated a figure slumped across the rock. Upon inspection, I found it to be dead, a track suit wrapped tightly around its throat and sea weed stuffed in its bloated mouth.

I moved onward into the darkness, the smell of fish growing stronger. Something scratched my face and then tugged hard on it. Struggling, I flailed my arms and swatted the air, hitting strong nylon strings that dangled from above. They were lines -- lines with baited hooks waiting in the dark. I got low to the ground and crawled forward.

The tunnels became too cavernous and confusing for me to investigate fully. I had to turn back. On my way out, I found these two pictures underneath a slug:












As I crawled out of the dryer, I placed the pictures in my breast pocket -- but there was something else in there.

I pulled it out: halibut.

Had I been following my own scent? And if so, who slipped me the fish?

Everyone is a suspect.