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

Getting close to the front of the lake, he can see blue and red flashing lights. Like something you would see from a police cruiser. He wonders if an accident might be the root cause of the backup. The car creeps forward. The front of the lake is coming intoview. He notices a new sign sticking up over the cars in the front of the lake. The sign is large and white, with blue letters spelling out, Welcome to Silver Lake. The signhas something colored red sprayed viciously across the front. Vandalism? As his car creeps closer to the sign, he can see a large group of pedestrians gathering around the sign. The police officer’s cruiser is off to the side.

The car he is slowly driving is now parallel with the sign. The traffic has stopped him right in front of the sign. He looks out the rolled-down window of his car and takes in the scene. He can hear people screaming.

“Oh my God!” one woman screams.

“Hey officer, what happened?” a man shouts!

The pedestrians are crouched over, looking at the ground under the sign. He looks under the sign as well, he can see what everyone is looking at. There is a white sheet about six feet long on the ground. The word Human is written in black letters on the side of the sheet. As he is looking over at the white sheet, chills run up his spine, and down his arms and legs, his whole body goes numb. As if in slow motion, he can see the hair on the top of everyone’s head all going in the same direction. A warm summer breeze comes across the top of the lake. The wind blows the white sheet up in the air exposing what is under the sheet. He can hear the crowd of pedestrians scream in unison.

“Oh my God!” the crown of pedestrians screams.

Before the sheet floats back down, he sees what is under the sheet; he cannot believe his eyes. There is a young, golden blond-haired woman lying under the sheet. Her face and body are bruised and battered, her clothes are ripped, torn, and she is covered in blood.

Her face and eyes are looking right at him. He thinks if she was alive, she would tell him what happened.

Shifting his focus, he makes eye contact with the police officer, who he recognizes from when they were kids. His name comes to mind, Ray McCrery. Ray is wearing a policeman’s hat. His hair is short and cannot be seen under the hat. He is wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses. He has a toothpick in his mouth. He is healthy and in good physical shape. His uniform is clean and tight-fitting. Parts of his uniform are darker in color under the arms, back, and chest. He is walking around the crime scene calmly.

Ray waves his hand, getting Blake’s attention. Pulling his car over to the right shoulder of Route 38, he quickly exits the vehicle. Taking a minute to get through the traffic, he walks hurriedly across the street to Ray.

“Ray?” Blake shouts.

“Blake?” Ray says, turning his head from the crime scene.

He and Ray walk around to the front of the car. Ray is standing in front of him unfolding a black heavy-duty body bag. Ray is a little taller in height than Blake.

“Blake, I can talk to you for a quick minute. You are not supposed to be here.”

“Right.”

“Blake, It's Cindy Flynn,” Ray says calmly.

“Cindy Flynn,” Blake says in slow motion, holding back a flood of emotions.

“What are you doing here, Blake? I haven’t seen you in a few years.”

“Ah, there was a hurricane. Me and Rose were separated. I thought she may havecome back here. Have you seen her?” Blake says with a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Negative. I haven’t seen her since the two of you left for New Orleans.”

“Right.”

“Listen, you have to get back into your car. We can talk later.”

“Thanks, Ray.”

Working his way through the traffic and back to his car, he watches as the police officer points to the woman under the sheet, trying to keep the crowd of people back. The traffic clears up a little as he passes the sign. He tries to process everything he saw. He soon realizes he is being pulled back into his old life and problems of Silver Lake.

Looking in the rearview mirror at the fading image of the crowd of people, the police officer, the new sign, and Cindy Flynn lying dead in the street. He is going to have to find out what happened, and who he is going to make pay for what they did to Cindy. Welcome home, Blake.

CHAPTER 2

Blake gets a late start on the day. He slept in his car last night on a dirt road by the water. Glancing at the clock on the dashboard he reads 12:00 noon. He is behind the wheel of his car. Before he turns the ignition key to start the engine. He takes a minute to try to process everything he saw yesterday. The sight of Cindy Flynn lying dead in the street is not the way he wants to remember her. His mind is having trouble digesting what he saw.

He is angry and at the same time relieved. Angry he saw his childhood friend dead in the streets of Silver Lake. Relieved from the brief thought the young woman dead in the streets was Rose. Chills run up and down his spine at the last thought. Does this make me a bad person?

Flashes of a young beautiful Cindy Flynn dance across his mind. Her long golden blond hair flows through the air from the warm summer breeze. The sun is shining and Silver Lake is in the background. Cindy is laughing and smiling. That is how he wants to remember her. He holds on to the memory of Cindy as hard as he can.

Shaking off the last thought he needs to continue his search for Rose. He wants to go to