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

ground, resting on an old log. Lester is sitting on a rock. They are both miserable. Blake is standing strong, drinking beer, hoping someone will talk to him. He walks away from the fire to a patch of woods to take a piss. He takes his cooler with him. When he finishes urinating, he turns around and is surprised to see a young woman. He’s seen her before near his shop, and she is now standing in front of him.

She motions for him to follow her, and he does. She is waving him over. She is wearing light tan work boots, white socks, cut-off jeans with a wide leather belt, a wife

beater T-shirt with a blue and white checkered long sleeve flannel shirt tied around her waist. She has long dark hair, and he cannot see anything else because of the darkness. She grabs his arm and brings him to a clearing with a beautiful view of the lake. He can hear Billy and Lester walking through the woods a few feet behind him.

“Hi, my name is Kelly. I am Shannon’s sister. I work at the Lakeview Lounge and I know what happened to Cindy Flynn. I was there the night she was killed,” Kelly says.

“Can you tell us what happened?”

“Yes.”

Looking at the lake water with the moon hanging over it. The moon has brightened up the area he is standing in, he can see things more clearly. Blake sees there are some traces of fireworks struggling to be seen in the night sky. The warm summer night is calm and quiet with a fire raging in the background. He sits on the side of a small mound of sand close to the water’s edge.

Looking at Kelly, he sees she has long, straight, dark hair with dark stormy eyes. He can see she is ready to talk. When she smiles, he can see it is forced. She is small in height, about five feet tall. She is a mini version of her sister Shannon. He sees Kelly has chosen to stand. Billy and Lester have a fire going, brightening the area.

“Cindy was my friend,” Kelly says.

“I am listening,” Blake says with chills running up and down his spine.

Watching as Kelly maneuvers herself to get comfortable, he thinks he is in for a long story of what happened to Cindy. He looks over and sees Billy and Lester are getting closer and more comfortable too. The fire Billy and Lester built is burning. Kelly, Blake, Billy, and Lester are all standing around the fire. Blake, Billy, and Lester are ready to hear Kelly tell them the story of what happened to Cindy Flynn.

CHAPTER 9

Kelly’s face is glowing from the reflection of the orange and red flames in the fire. Her long dark hair and light skin makes her face stand out in the dark night.

The stars shine bright. The glowing round moon hangs over the lake, keeping an eye on everyone. A couple of falling stars race quickly across the sky. The water of the lake is dark, calm, and quiet. There are a few other bonfires showing in other parts of the island showing.

She steps in closer to the fire. Blake, Billy, and Lester do the same. She pulls her hair back and braces herself to tell her story. She changes the expressions on her face and waves her arms and hands to help tell the story.

She begins to explain, she and Cindy talked before work started every day. Cindy told her she woke up on July 1st, in her bed at #7 North Shore Drive. Her body was sore and dehydrated. There was blood on her pillow. There was a trail of dry blood along the side of her face. Her nose was sore and burning. One nostril was caked shut with dried blood. She needed to rise up out of bed. She needed to be at work to start her night shift as a waitress at the Lakeview Lounge.

She needed to be there by 4:00 p.m. She rolled over, not wanting to face another day. Her life was going down the toilet, and she knew it. The way she was behaving at the parties after work was no way to live. She knew she had to cut ties from the Lakeview Lounge but didn’t know how. Any money she made at the Lakeview Lounge has already been spent on drugs and alcohol from the previous week.

Lying in bed, her long blond hair was matted to the back of her head and pillow. She was sweating from the summertime heat and humidity consuming the air in the small cottage she lived in. Her body was on top of the covers, and she was still covered with sweat. The heat and humidity of July in Silver Lake was at an all-time high.

With the water’s edge right in her backyard, she wanted to run and jump in the lake to cool her body off. But she knew she didn’t have time for the lake that day. She had to be at work because she owed a lot of money to Luke. The pile of unpaid bills on her mother’s kitchen table was getting bigger.

The small two-bedroom cottage she was living in with her mother was in disrepair and needed a lot of money to fix it up. She needed to pay the bills if she and her mother expected to live there any longer. Neither one of them had anyplace else to go.

Raising her young, sweaty body out of bed, she walked slowly into the shower. The small bathroom had a white ceiling with stains from no ventilation and the years of neglecting to maintain it. The walls were covered from the floor, halfway to the ceiling with pink tiles and a border of seashell tiles around the top. The toilet and sink were original to the cottage. Both were barely functioning.

The plumber’s young apprentice had a crush on her. The plumbers used to come towork on the cottage to