The Silver Lake Murder

by Gregg Matthews

  When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she was surprised to see the size of the Punchbowl. The rock foundation and dirt floor were eroding. There was a crew of several men reinforcing the foundation by adding rocks and cement. Another smaller crew of men were adding cement to different areas of the floor. They were trying to keep the barn together as best they could. The basement was at least ten thousand square feet.

  A dumbwaiter was loaded with the prepared customer orders for Jackal drugs and alcohol. Once the orders were raised into the barn. The orders were loaded onto the delivery trucks. The operation was much bigger than she expected.

  There were three groups of Chinese men working. A quick count told her there was at least thirty men working. There were local men who worked for Luke, mixed in with the Chinese men. The local men were telling the Chinese men what to do. To the right side of the barn, there was the moonshine workstation. On the left side, there was a workstation for brewing beer. More towards the center, there were multiple tables with different types of drugs on them. Punchbowl.

  Reading the paperwork in her hand, the first workstation she needed to go to was for the Jackal Moonshine. She could see the ten moonshine stills, up and running. There were ten old wooden tables with Chinese men standing one per table. On top of the ten tables, there was a ten-gallon stainless steel pot. The pot had a few tubes coming out of the sides and the bottom. One of the tubes has a pump. The tube went in one side of the pump and out the other side. There is a white six-gallon bucket on the top of each table. Next to each workstation, there was a pallet with several white buckets on them. The buckets were used many times for different flavored Moonshine. Next to each table, there was a pile of apple cores and peach pits. There was one garden hose for water being passed around the ten tables. There was a local man walking around with a shovel and an old metal barrel shoveling the cores and pits into the barrel as fast as he could. The remains attract fruit flies and other insects, so the quick cleanup goes on all day and night. The Chinese men working the Moonshine workstations were all talking loudly in Chinese. The Chinese workers try to help each other as best they can. The whole scene was loud and confusing.

  Needing to get to each of the ten pallets to do a quick inventory on what Moonshine will be available and when she stepped in between each workstation and read the side of each bucket, notating the flavor and date written on the side of the bucket. Each bucket also had more writing on the side of it in black Sharpie: the word Jackal. The word apple and peach were written and crossed out many times. There were crates next to the buckets. Each crate had twelve twenty-four-ounce mason jars, with tin screw on tops. There was a piece of masking tape with the words, Jackal Moonshine Peach, or Jackal Moonshine Apple written on the jars.

  The crates were going onto the dumbwaiter next. It is very important she recorded the numbers right. She wrote the numbers down in her notebook. This process took a while and was not easy for her to do. There was not much room for her to maneuver in between the pallets and workstation. She didn’t want to get too close to the workers. In an hour or so, she completed the task. She could hear the Chinese men commenting and laughing at her, but there was nothing she could do about it. Noticing the piece of paper on top of each workstation, she picked one of them up and read it:

  Ingredients: Corn whiskey Moonshine mash, 8.5 pounds of flaked maze corn, 2 pounds of crushed malted barley.

  Equipment: A 10.5-gallon, stainless steel, electrical digital, brewing system, 6.0 gallons plastic buckets.

  Steps:

  1.0 Heat to 165 degrees.

  2.0 Heat and mix the corn in.

  3.0 Add the barley.

  4.0 Add the yeast.

  5.0 Lid and airlock, shake the white 6-gallon bucket.

  6.0 Add apples or peaches depending on the order and what fruit is on sale.

  7.0 Use the Sharpie to write today's date on the side of the bucket, let the bucket sit

  for 1 week. This will produce five gallons of moonshine per white bucket.

  Flipping the piece of paper over, she could see the instructions for moonshine were also written in Chinese, to make it easier for the workers:

  配料： 玉米威士忌月光泥， 8.5 磅片状迷宫玉米， 2 磅

  粉碎麦芽大麦。

  设备：10.5 加仑不锈钢、电动数字、酿造系统、6.0 加仑

  塑料桶。

  步骤：

  1.0 加热至 165 度。

  2.0 加热并混合玉米。

  3.0 加入大麦。

  4.0 加入酵母。

  5.0 盖和气锁，摇动白色 6 加仑铲斗。

  6.0 根据订单和出售水果添加苹果或桃子。

  7.0 使用夏皮在桶边上写下今天的日期， 让水桶坐下

  1 周。这将产生五加仑的月光每个白色桶。

  Again, she could see and hear the workers talking about her and looking at her. This made her want to move on from the area. She recorded all the information she needed for the inventory. The sound of the dumbwaiter moving up to the barn went on all day. She needed to move on to the next work area.

  The second group of workstations she needed to go to was the Jackal Beer. She walked to the left side of the barn. The Jackal Beer area was setup similar to the Jackal Moonshine area.

  There were also ten old wooden tables used as workstations. With a Chinese man working at each station. The volume of the ten workers working was as loud as the last ten men. The confusion in the process was also prevalent. She did the best she could to get to the pallets next to each workstation and did the inventory on the amount of Jackal Beer available. On the pallets, the beer was stacked in crates with twelve twenty-four-ounce mason jars, with tin screw on tops. Each mason jar had a piece of masking tape with the words Jackal Beer written on it with a black Sharpie. She did the count on each pallet and took the same amount of time. The Chinese workers were talking in Chinese but looking at her when they spoke. She needed to move on to the next work area, where they were processing Jackal drugs.

  There were five workstations in the Jackal drug area. She noticed each workstation had a different type of drug. One of the workstations had a pile of plastic bags on top of it. A couple of the workstations had a stack of magazines on them. The first workstation she was in front of had a Chinese man working at it. The man was cutting with a razor what looked like glass to her. But it couldn’t have been glass. She looked at the piece of paper on top of the table, the directions and read the words, Crystal Methamphetamine. She watched as he chopped the drugs up and put them into pieces of paper, cut from pages of magazines. Each piece of paper had the words, Jackal Meth stamped on it. The scale on the table was used at every step in the process. She did a quick inventory, wrote the numbers down in her notebook, and moved on to the next workstation.

  The second workstation had a Chinese man working at it. The man was cutting small piles of white powder with a razor. He has a box of baking soda; he is mixing it with the white powder. She looks at the piece of paper on top of the table, the directions, and read the word, Cocaine. She watches as he chops the drugs up and puts them into pieces of paper, pages from a magazine. Each piece of paper has the words Jackal Cocaine stamped on them. The scale on the table is used at every step in the process. She does a quick inventory, writes the numbers down in her notebook, and moves on to the next work area.

  The third workstation also had a Chinese man working at it. The man is breaking up marijuana with his fingers. She looks at the piece of paper on top of the table with the word, Marijuana written on it. She watches as he breaks up the marijuana and put it into plastic bags. Each plastic bag had the word Jackal Marijuana stamped on them. The scale on the table was used at every step in the process. She did a quick inventory, wrote the numbers in her notebook, and moved on to the next workstation

  There were two more workstations doing the same thing. They had a large amount of pharmaceutical pills and bottles on top of the table. The two men were em
ptying the pills from the bottles to a cardboard box on the table. Each box had a different kind of pill in it. She did a quick inventory and wrote the numbers down in her notebook.

  The inventory was completed. She had been down in the Punchbowl for the better part of the day and was tired. She slowly walked up the long flight of stairs triggering an uptick in the number of Chinese workers saying things to each other about her and laughing amongst themselves. She walked up the stairs as fast as she could. She could imagine what the workers were saying about her.

  She walked back to Luke’s office in The Devil’s Den. She needed to give him the latest numbers. She knocked on the door marked The Devil’s Den.

  “Come in.”

  She stepped into the office to a smiling Luke, something she has never seen.

  “Hey, look who’s back. I didn’t think I was going to see you again,” Luke says laughing.

  “Very funny, here are the latest numbers,” Cindy said, handing Luke the notebook.

  “Thanks for working today. I will take some money off your tab. I have to look at the numbers.”

  “Thanks Luke.”

  Turning quickly before he changed his mind and gave her more work to do, she exited The Devil’s Den. Quickly making her way down the stairs, out the front door of the Lakeview Lounge.

  Walking down Shady Lane slowly, she was trying to process everything she had seen in the Punchbowl. She also noted the name, Punchbowl was a good fit. The Punchbowl was a mixture of a lot of different things that are all bad. If someone ever mixes the Punchbowl with The Devil’s Den, bad things will happen.

  Shady Lane is a dirt road intersecting with Route 38. The commercial buildings were on her right, and the crushed stone parking lot was on her left. She noticed the cars in the parking lot all had flyers on their windshields. She pulled one of them off a windshield and read it.

  Giant July 4th fireworks display at Silver Lake. As soon as the sun sets, the fireworks will start. There were a couple of pictures of bursting fireworks over a lake.

  The local residents of Silver Lake collect a small amount of donated money all year long in anticipation of the July 4th celebration. Most of the residents don’t know what the July 4th celebration is in reference to. The residents use the celebration as an excuse to drink more alcohol. They do the same thing every year. She let the flyer drop to the ground and watched the wind take it down the street. Tomorrow night is July 4th.

  Walking down Shady Lane until she reached Route 38, she walked to the left. She walked along the edge of the lake water in front of Route 38 like she has many times before. Looking at the water, she realized how clean it was. There were breaks in the water with fish swimming to the surface trying to catch the insects on top of the water. She was not sure if the fish were largemouth bass or trout. She has heard the customers talking about the town stocking the lake with fish every spring. There are lots of frogs trilling, and crickets chirping. She watched a turtle reach the surface and take in the sunshine. The turtle goes back underwater to hunt for food with the other creatures in the lake.

  The glimmer and shine of the sun reflecting off the water made her eyes squint. She opened her eyes and could see there were some rocks and dirt before the water, some green grass before, a wide cement sidewalk, and Route 38 next.

  Up ahead, she saw a local town worker digging two holes in the green grass area right in front of the lake closer to Route 38. The sign was upright, being held in place by the man who dug the holes. Both hands were holding the sign up. With his right foot he was kicking dirt, and rocks back into the hole. The dirt and rocks were keeping the sign upright and in place.

  “Hey Cindy,” the older man wearing, untied, tan, work boots, dirty jeans, a green with white lettering Lakeview Lounge T-shirt, long gray hair, and leathery skin said.

  “Hey Rick,” Cindy said cheerfully.

  Walking around the front of the white sign with blue lettering, she read, “Welcome to Silver Lake”.

  “Looks good, Rick,” Cindy said.

  “Yeah, whatever, I will see you at the bar,” Rick said, struggling to keep the sign upright.

  Continuing her walk around the lake, enjoying the water views. Walking on the sidewalk along Route 38, she looked back and saw the new sign was in place. Reflecting back, she thought the sign was the one thing she has ever seen the town do to fix up Silver Lake. She has never seen anything else to make the lake more appealing to attract more people to the area. It’s a sign.

  As she walked, she wondered if she will ever get her life together to move on from this place. She realized the amount of drugs and alcohol she was consuming was enough to keep her here forever. She doesn’t want to give in to a life here in Silver Lake. The money she owes from the drugs and alcohol seems like a mountain of debt she needs to climb and conquer.

  She took a small package out of her right front pocket and put the white powder in between her thumb and index finger, right on the jackal tattoo. She brought her hand up to her nose and snorted the white powder. She used her right hand to pinch her nose to keep the powder inside of it. The rush of the cocaine entering her system and the fast high took her away from Silver Lake for a few minutes. As the high wore off, she sunk slowly back down to the shallows of Silver Lake. She realized she was going to have to do whatever it took to get out from under the drugs.

  She decided she was going to work as many shifts as she could, do as many Punchbowl inventories, and work as many Devil’s Den meetings until the debt was paid off. She reminded herself the next meeting she has to work was tomorrow night, July 4th.

  She knew all her friends were going to be at the edge of the lake having parties all night long. She had no choice; Luke and the Lakeview Lounge was the one way she knew how to make decent money in this area. She needed the money she had to work. She had to do the best she could to take care of her mother as well. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked at the small aging cottage on the water’s edge, #7 North Shore Drive where she and her elderly mother lived.

  Knowing there was a stack of unpaid bills on the kitchen table frustrated her more. She walked towards the cottage after a long day, wondering if anything was ever going to change. She knew she had to stop drinking and doing drugs but she was not ready to givethem up yet.

  “That is what Cindy told me on July 3rd,” Kelly says through tears again.

  “I understand,” Blake says.

  “Cindy was trying really hard,” Kelly says.

  “Do you think you can continue?”

  “Let’s talk about the next day, July 4th,” Kelly says.

  “OK.”

  CHAPTER 12

  Kelly takes a minute to herself. She is staring into the fire. She takes her time, looking deeper into the island woods. The tears in her eyes have dried. She stands quietly. She takes a sip of water. She repositions herself again, standing in front of Blake, Billy, and Lester. The fire has dwindled. They do not want to throw any more logs onto it because they realize Kelly is nearing the end of telling them the story. Kelly continues to tell the story. Starting with July 4th, the night of The Silver Lake Murder.

  Cindy looked at the clock on the wall and read, 11:45 p.m. She reminded herself the meeting the night of July 4th is here. She had been dreading tonight for a few days now. She was upstairs inside The Devil’s Den, above the Lakeview Lounge. Walking through the sliding doors and onto the side porch, she could see to her right the lake water. Looking left, she could see the side and the back of the commercial building.

  Looking up into the sky, she could see the fireworks display was still going on. She could hear the small crowd of people scream every time there was a big burst in the sky. She wondered how the party her friends were at was going. She hoped they were having a good time. She knew she had a long night ahead of her. These meetings never go smoothly; there was always some kind of trouble. I wonder what the trouble tonight is going to be?

  Cindy watched me clearing mason jars with remnants of Jackal Moonshine i
n them. I cleaned the tops of the tables. I was going to run the vacuum cleaner as well. Cindy knew I needed the money and told Luke I was willing to work extra if he had the work for me. Cindy respected me. I kept my nose clean and stayed away from the drugs and alcohol in the bar. I was saving all the money I made and was trying to get away from Silver Lake. Cindy thought I was going to be the first one of her friends to make it out of Silver Lake in a while.

  There was a large ruby red motorcycle parked in the back of the commercial building, she knew the motorcycle belonged to Luke. She had seen him ride it many times. She was on the back of the motorcycle a couple of times before she realized what was going on here.

  The rumbling sound of another large motorcycle was heard off in the distance. The rumbling sounds were louder and getting louder with every passing moment. She looked back over to where Luke’s motorcycle was and realized there will be another one next to it any minute. She checked the piece of paper Luke gave her. The first name on the paper was Shawn.

  A newer, pearl white motorcycle rumbled into the empty dirt parking lot located behind the Lakeview Lounge. She watched the driver park his motorcycle right next to Luke’s motorcycle.

  The noise of a new arrival caused Luke to hurry down the stairs to greet his guest. She looked down at the motorcycle and saw there was a four-leaf clover, with flames coming out the side of it painted on the gas tank. She could not see from where she was standing, but the gas tank had the name Shawn in black paint across the top close to the seat. There are black painted letters along the side of the gas tank spelling out Captain. She watched Shawn turn his motorcycle and backed it into a parking spot using his feet. He backed in to make it easier to pull the motorcycle out of the parking spot if he needed to leave in a hurry. He reached up on the right handlebar and turned the ignition key to the off position. Turning the ignition key to the off position killed the engine and quieted the scene.