Liam Malcolme was used to getting a certain kind of attention.
He'd been working out like a fiend, and he'd been rewarded with a sleek, athletic and muscular build that made all the women around town swoon whenever he walked or drove past. He always buttoned up his shirt whenever he was with his girlfriend Cindy. She was a different kind of woman, and with how religious her family was, he didn't much want to offend. Especially because her dad was his boss, the sheriff. The man sure had no chill whatsoever. Even though they'd been going out for the better part of a year, the guy treated their relationship like it was old fashioned courtship!
Guy was a great, well meaning boss. But damn if he wasn't a pain in the neck when it came to his relationship.
When he was on the road however? Liam very readily opened his shirt up all the way to the middle button or lower. His broad, powerful pecs naturally pushed the shirt open, giving a teasing look at his abs. A curated, light bush of brown hair at his chest gave him just that right, rakish look. His dorky light brown curls were styled up in a perm, which he quite liked. And women loved his baby blue eyes. Standing at six foot two inches tall, he cut a very impressive look.
The vain cop was used to the job not exactly being the most exciting one. He'd prefer it that way. Sure there was an allure to the kind of high speed and high stakes jobs that came with city life, but he appreciated the ability to get away from it all. Hence why he was here in the town of Elliston, Maine. Just far enough off that he didn't have to deal with the nonstop calls, but not so far he'd need to deal with deranged hillbillies.
Thus, today at roughly the afternoon hours, Liam prowled the streets in his police car, enjoying the quiet and the readily available gawking looks of the town people. Surely, he thought to himself with a satisfied grin, it wasn't cheating if he just let them look - and maybe touch his muscles a little bit. After all, why else would he be as good looking as he was if not for the appreciation of others?
Town was a pretty peculiar place.
There seemed to be an internally agreed upon division. The upper side of town, further up the hill, seemed to be high class homes and McMansions. Usually, these were occupied by the rich, bored and (sons / daughters of) the famous. People other than Liam came here for the sake of getting away from the hustle and bustle. The lower side of town, further down the hill, seemed to be people who'd always lived here. None really breached middle class.
The most exciting stuff to happen around here usually came of that division. The "lower side" folks didn't really care for their rich neighbors. And while some of the older folks up there liked being respectable, their children were another story. Quite a number of the preppy teens up there weren't exactly shy about their feelings for the "dumb hicks" living in the area. If the teens had it their way, they'd gentrify the SHIT outta this place.
Keeping the peace, Liam thought as he subtly flexed his arm with his hand behind his neck, while enjoying the attention...ah, what a job.
As if this jinxed it, Liam jolted from his lazy flexing for his mirror and any observing citizens when his police radio came on; "Officer Malcolme, Officer Malcolme, do you read?" And there was the deep and mellifluous voice of the chief. "We have a bit of a situation in Hillside. 415 at Anatolio Drive. We need you to get up there and resolve an issue."
415. Great. So it might just be that some preppy kid probably partied a little too hardy in mommy's mansion, and made the neighbors all pissy. Liam didn't even bother buttoning his shirt back up. He bit his lip. Fuck, and he was just about to get some "on foot patrolling" done too. "I'll be right on it, chief."
Once the communication was over, Liam got his car moving - faster - and turned around to go back up the hill. Almost immediately he could notice the difference in the buildings and construction. Pretty clear who had the bucks to spread around to get better property. Once he was a good way up, he started up his siren, deciding to give the kids a good bit of warning before he came running in. Anatolio... that was a repeat offender.
The family there were involved in real estate and rent elsewhere, and their clueless blond son Charles was best known around town for throwing money around and hoping it made him friends. The guy was buff, not quite as rippling as Liam, but he could recognize when some effort was put in. Guy mostly preferred tennis when it came to sports, getting his real exercise in at the local gym. Charles was very pale - indicating his fitness was not derived from any sort of outdoor activity.
Liam remembered a few times when the raucous parties Charles threw got out of control.
And just as well when he and his equally clueless rich boy friends went cruising in his sixteenth birthday Ferrari down in the Lower Side area. Whooping, catcalling, apparently at some point Charles ran over some signs or something. But as usual, any sort of trouble got smoothed over by Charles' pushover of a father. So going into this, Liam had no illusions of making anything stick. He just hoped that he could quiet things down and go back to fun times.
As he drove up Anatolio Drive and saw the house in question, Liam rolled his eyes and shrugged.
As usual, it was a tremendous banger of a party, and equally as usual, it looked like Charles had been trashy. His friends were out front, drinking what Liam guessed was beer plundered from daddy's closet. There was some damage already out front - looked like some drinking games had happened. Liam parked the car and watched with a grin as the guys finally reacted to the siren and the sight of a cop approaching.
They beat feet back inside. Liam chuckled, "Make way, boys," and with that he approached the front door. And of course the two guys hadn't bothered to lock it. Though as he slid it open a bit, it sounded like the party was going strong inside. Thrumming music, probably what incited the complaint. And an odd stench coming from in there. It almost smelled like some sort of animal. That made Liam's eyebrow raise. What the hell were these guys doing in there...?
He opened the door and wound up seeing a large number of the spawn of the rich and famous sprawled about. Many shot glasses and such laying about. Two boomboxes on the floor playing whatever passed for popular pop music right now. Liam sighed, "Alright kids, show's over. Let's get this disorderly conduct resolved as quick as possible. Where's Charlie? You guys gotta get the music down and stop wrecking shit."
Liam's eyes widened when someone stepped out from the throngs of people, looking...different. This was certainly Charlie Halford alright. But not the Charlie Liam remembered...