Murder in a Small Town: Mainstreet Gym

Mainstreet Gym

The Mainstreet Gym was her home away from home growing up in Cairo. Here she would wait for her dad after school, do her homework, and watch people workout. The Gym was run by a friend of Jessica’s dad, Tom Danski, and this is also where Jessica met Diane Hopper. Jessica was just ten years old at the time and Diane was a police detective in a rural city just over the border in Ohio. Diane was the surrogate mother Jessica needed at a time in her life when things were not going so well.

Diane was instrumental in getting Jessica into the Ohio police academy and a huge advocate for her professional development. “I really need to call her”, thinks Jessica. “I haven’t talked with her in ages”.

She scans the one stop-light intersection and notices the more modern conveniences that are inherent in many small towns - the fast food restaurants. McDonalds, Kentucky fried Chicken, and Arby’s were located on the south side of main highway running through town.

She smiles with kind of a sad grin and shakes her head. “The hotel is just a few blocks away”, she thinks. She is tired.

A faint smell of barbeque wafts through the air and immediately catches Jessica’s attention. She glances in the opposite direction down the street and spots a sign outside an establishment, “Allie’s Pub”. The unmistakable red and blue neon buzzes and blinks above the entrance.