The Silver Lake Murder by Gregg Matthews (read novel full txt) 📗

dug it by hand. He looks at the small sign about the size of a piece of notebook paper stapled to a piece of wood. He moves the light closer to the sign and reads the name, Cindy Flynn.

This is where Cindy will be put to rest in a few days. Chills run up and down his spine at the thought of Cindy being put in the grave. His emotions are all over the place, and he is frustrated trying to absorb the events of the last few days; he is too tired to react. He is angry. He is emotionally drained from the trip back, opening the shop, losing Rose, and the murder of Cindy. He needs to get some rest; he slowly walks back to the car and drives back to Shady Lane. He goes inside the shop and lays down in the temporary bed in the back of the shop and quickly falls asleep.

CHAPTER 6

The next day he is working early, with a backlog of customers. The buzzing noise of the tattoo needle stops. Blake wipes the blood and ink off the shoulder of the young man.

“We’re finished,” Blake says.

“Great!” The man says excitedly.

Holding the hand mirror so the man can see the new ink, he still enjoys seeing the excitement in his customers' eyes when they receive their new tattoo. Wrapping the fresh tattooed shoulder with a gauze and tape, he seals the tattoo. He hands the man a piece of paper with instructions on how to take care of his new tattoo. He and the man walk over to the register at the front of the store, quickly settling the bill.

“Thanks, awesome, man.”

“You’re welcome.”

Another young man enters the shop as the customer is leaving. He makes eye contact with him. Billy is in the back of the tattoo shop, painting the walls.

“Hey.”

“Hey, I am supposed to meet Billy here,” the man says with a slight stutter.

“Hey Billy,” Blake turns and yells to the back of the shop.

Looking at the man in front of him, Blake can tell something is wrong. The man cannot look Blake in the eyes, he’s looking straight to the floor. The man is shaken and quiet. He has the same disheveled look in his eyes but is physically bigger and stronger than Billy. He can hear Billy shuffling around in the back of the shop, trying to get to the front. He looks at the man again and wonders if he is OK.

“Lester,” Billy shouts.

“Billy,” Lester whispers.

“Blake, this is my friend Lester. He’s in the program. He also works for Luke.”

“Hey, Lester,” Blake says.

“Hey, Blake.”

He, Billy, and Lester are standing in the doorway. Blake hopes Billy has told Lester he wants him to show Blake around and try to help him understand what’s going on here in Silver Lake.

“Let’s take a walk. I will show you around,” Lester says quietly.

“Great!” Blake says.

He, Billy, and Lester step out the front door of Rivers Tattoo shop. Blake flips the sign on the back of the door from Open to Closed, and locks the door. The three men walk across the crushed stone parking lot.

“Let’s go down to the water,” Lester says.

“Okay,” Blake says.

The three men walk closer to the water’s edge.

 Lester begins to explain, pointing his right index finger to the lake.

“Across the back of the lake by Cripple Cove, there is a place called the Starlight Trailer Park. You can get there by taking Backside Lane, a dirt road. The Starlight Trailer Park is Luke’s compound. There are several mobile homes on the property, but the park is not open to the public. Luke bought the trailer park years ago and runs his business from there. There are guard dogs roaming the grounds. There is a large doghouse in the middle of the grounds, the rumor is, he keeps his money under the doghouse. Who knows if it’s true or not?” Lester says.

Blake looks at Billy and nods his head; Billy looks the other way. Lester continues to explain.

“The park is surrounded and enclosed by chain link fencing. He has people who work for him during the day. Some of the people who work for him are locals and live there in the trailers. Some of the men who work there are cheap Chinese labor, supplied by Lu Xu, the owner of Sun Luck. There is a van delivering and picking up the men a couple of times a day. He also has several Chinese women he hires from Lu. The women are there to cook and clean the trailers. There is a van delivering the women a few hours before supper time every night. The women have to cook enough food to feed the men working in the trailer park. The cooking is part of the deal. There has been a lot of talk about the women being prostitutes, but I am not sure.”

On the perimeter of the lake, Lester points out several cottages to the right and several more to the left.

“Luke owns most of the cottages and rents them out to people who work for him at the Lakeview Lounge. I live in the one over there,” he points to one of the older run-down cottages on the water’s edge.

“Let’s go over to the commercial building,” Lester says pointing to Rivers Tattoo shop, K-9 Academy, Sun Luck, and Lakeview Lounge.

“The building, housing the storefronts, is owned by Luke. The large building sort of behind and to the right of the commercial building is also Luke’s. I am the maintenance man. I work for Luke. I have access to all the buildings. Let’s go a little deeper into the operation over by the storefronts and the other building.” Lester says.

The three men walk over to the storefronts.

“There is your new shop, Rivers Tattoo, next to K-9 Academy, which is owned by Kevin. Sun Luck is owned by Lu Xu. Lakeview Lounge is owned by Luke. The second floor of the Lakeview Lounge storefront is called The Devil’s Den.