by Patricia Fry
“It was floating in the lake,” Margaret said. “We called the sheriff.” She then remembered something and walked swiftly to their skiff to retrieve the skillet, hiding it under her jacket as she returned to the group.
In the meantime, Lawrence gazed at the women, then glanced at the cats and back at the body. “Well, it’s been a long night. I’d better get some sleep.”
“It’s after four in the morning; where do you go until four in the morning?” Savannah asked.
“Yoga?” Colbi said.
Iris chuckled. “Deep sea diving?”
Lawrence stood unsmiling. “As if it’s any of your business, I play poker and a friend across the lake had a game going, so I motored over and joined in.” He focused on the women again. “I might ask you the same. Why are you out at this time of morning?”
“Something scared us,” Margaret said. “So we came over here to make a call.”
The man seemed to perk up. “Scared you, you say? What was it, do you know?”
When Iris started to respond, Savannah interrupted, saying, “Oh you know, things that go bump in the night. It was probably nothing. We just got a little nervous, so thought we’d row over here and maybe get a cup of coffee.” She glanced at the café. “What time does she open, anyway?”
“Not ‘til eight most days. This is a weekend, so closer to six.” He looked at his watch. “You have a bit of a wait, ladies.” He then headed toward his quarters, saying, “I’m going to bed, so don’t make a ruckus out here.”
Savannah couldn’t help but notice him glance at the body on the bank before walking away.
“You don’t trust him, Vannie?” Margaret asked after she was sure he was out of earshot.
“I don’t know,” she said. “How do we know who to trust? Obviously, someone around here isn’t trustworthy.”
“It’s like a community gone mad,” Colbi said. When the others stared at her, she challenged, “Well, have you met a single sane soul here?” She turned to Iris. “You’ve never had any crazy experiences when you’ve been up here?”
“No. If I had, do you think I’d bring you here for a quiet, relaxing, fun weekend?” Iris asked, tears welling in her eyes.
“Awww, Iris, it’s not your fault,” Savannah said, reaching out and rubbing her friend’s arm. She chuckled. “It’ll be a birthday to remember.”
“Yeah, if we get out of here alive,” Margaret added, suspiciously glancing around the area and pulling her jacket tightly around herself with her free hand.
“Shhh,” Savannah said. “I hear something.”
“It’s a car,” Margaret said.
Colbi sucked in a breath. “Oh please, don’t let it be another crazy.”
Iris nudged her. “You’re getting some good stuff to write about, girl.”
“Hmph,” Margaret said, “only if you’re writing fiction. No one would believe it.”
“It’s the ranger’s Jeep,” Savannah observed.
“Yeah, his office is a few miles up the road there,” Iris said. “I remember Craig telling me that one night when…”
“When what?” Margaret asked. “Iris, did something like this happen before?”
She shook her head. “No. I swear nothing happened. We were just talking in generalities, that’s all—you know, what if…”
“And when the ‘what if’ happened, you forgot about the ranger station?” Margaret asked. “You mean, we could have driven over there and gotten help?”
Iris raised her eyebrows. “Not exactly, Maggie. We’d still have to drive around the lake first before going the few miles to the ranger station.”
“So we could have walked over there from here?” Colbi asked. When everyone looked at her, she said, “Well, we’d have a warm place to wait.” Her voice trailed off when she said, “…maybe they’d fix us some cocoa…with marshmallows and cinnamon…”
Chapter 7
By the first hint of daylight, the north side of the lake was a bustle with police activity.
“They brought a lot of help this time,” Iris whispered as the four women sat on the block wall watching the authorities pursue their investigation.
“Well, this is body number two since we arrived,” Colbi explained. “It looks like a serial killer is—or was—loose up here. Of course, they’re going to pay a lot of attention.” She shivered. “I wonder what’s going on behind that barrier they’ve raised around the body.”
Savannah winced. “I don’t think we want to know.”
“Yeah, did you hear that one officer say the guy had been bludgeoned?” Margaret said. “Bludgeoned—as in attacked by a claw hammer.” Her voice pinched, she asked Iris, “Do you think your relative has stayed here for all these years?”
“What relative?”
“Amos, of course.”
Iris shook her head vigorously. “He’s no relative of mine—no way, no how.”
“Maybe he came just to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his first murder,” Colbi surmised.
“You and your imagination,” Savannah said, grinning at Colbi.
“And you have a better explanation for what’s been going on?” she asked.
Savannah spoke more quietly. “How can anyone explain murder? Especially when it’s so brutal?” She then shushed the others. “Here comes the sheriff.”
“Evening ladies…” He glanced at the orange sun-ball glowing from behind a stand of tall trees, “…or I should say good morning. I’m Deputy John Thomas.” When he noticed the skillet lying on the ground in front of Margaret, he smirked. “Planning to cook your breakfast?”
Just then, Dolly stepped into the pan and curled up.
“No, it’s the cat’s bed,” Margaret quipped. When the deputy didn’t respond, she said, “It’s a weapon, sir. We brought it to protect ourselves.”
Making eye contact with each of the women, he said, “I see. So what made you feel that you needed…protection?”
“Um, two brutal murders,” Colbi responded. “Isn’t that enough?”
“And a possible intruder in our cabin,” Margaret added.
The deputy stared at Margaret with interest, then pulled a pad and pencil from his pocket. “So tell me how you came upon the body, will you?”
“Yes,” Iris said. “Someone…or something…was in our cabin. It woke us up in the night. So we snuck out and came over here to call you.”
“That’s when we found the body,” Margaret said, “floating in the lake.”
“We rammed it with the boat,” Colbi added.
Savannah nodded. “We couldn’t leave it out there, so we towed it ashore.”
“You say you rammed it with the boat?” Deputy Thomas asked.
“I wouldn’t say we rammed it,” Savannah said. “We did bump into it accidentally, but not hard enough to kill him or anything.”
“Yeah,” Iris said, “he was already dead.”
The deputy made a few notes, then asked, “Did you ladies get a good look at the body?”
After glancing at the others, Savannah said, “Uh, just the back of it—that was enough for us. Why?”
“Approximately where was he in the lake when you bumped him with your boat?”
“Gosh, it’s hard to tell,” Savannah said. “Maybe about half way across, in the middle. We had a little trouble getting our bearings out there. The moon kept going behind clouds and we had only a small flashlight.”
“So he was floating free? You didn’t find him caught up in any tree roots or anything?”
“Yes,” Margaret said. “He was floating. He started to drift downstream, but we caught up to him so we could get our cat back in the boat, and decided to bring him to shore with us, too.”
“Your cat?” the deputy asked, furrowing his brow. “Now, what about the cat?”
Savannah waved her hand in front of her face. “Well, one of the cats jumped overboard and landed on the body.”
The deputy peered down at Dolly,
who was now asleep in the skillet, then glanced at Rags, who sat next to Colbi.
“Does it look like this was an accidental drowning, officer?” Colbi asked. “Or was there foul play?”
He was quiet for a moment, then said, “Well, it appears that this individual has been in the water for some time.”
“Who is he, do you know?” Colbi asked.
He shook his head. “It’s too early to tell. We’ll have to rely on dental records and things like that. There’s decomposition, you know.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, can you describe this someone or something you saw in your cabin—the Sledge cabin, right?”
The women nodded, then looked at each other.
“Is there a sign on my forehead?” Iris asked. When the officer looked bewildered, she said, “How do you know where we’re staying?”
“Ranger Hawkins said he was out at your cabin last night.”
Iris relaxed. “Oh.” She motioned toward Savannah. “She’s the one who saw the…intruder.”
When the officer focused on her, Savannah said, “Well, it was fleeting. I saw a face, nothing else, really. Just a face.”
“Like an illusion?”
“Kind of like that, actually—a floating face.”
“Did you recognize the face?”
“Not really.”
“Tell him who you thought it was,” Margaret insisted.
“Well, I told the others I thought it looked a lot like Amos Sledge.”
At that, the officer stopped writing and stared at Savannah. “Say that again?”
“I thought it looked like Amos Sledge—you know, the one they call the claw-hammer killer?”
“But ma’am, he disappeared and has not been seen or heard from in forty years.”
“Yes, forty years yesterday,” Colbi said, as if it was meaningful information.
After hesitating, Deputy Thomas said, “How do you know what Amos Sledge looks like?”
“Well, we saw a drawing in a journal,” Savannah explained.
“Whose journal?”
“Ellen Sledge. You know, Amos was her husband’s nephew. He had kind of light hair that hung down his forehead and into his eyes. He wore round eyeglasses…”
“Like Harry Potter,” Iris added. When the officer gazed in her direction, she said, “My boys have read a lot of Harry Potter books and we saw some of the movies.”
“Could this have been a dream?” he asked. “Your imagination?”
“No,” Savannah insisted. “I was wide awake. The cats woke me. I walked to the bathroom and back. My aunt woke up and we spoke for a moment.”
“Which one’s your aunt?” he asked, looking at the other women.
Margaret raised her hand.
“Did you see the face?”
Margaret shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Do you remember having a conversation with your niece?”
“Oh yes. Her scream woke me up and she told me what she’d seen.”
“So you decided to leave the cabin and take the cats with you, right?”
“Sure, would you stay in a cabin with an intruder?” Iris asked. “…when you have no phone service?”
“Probably not,” he said. “Did you see anyone else on the lake or here on the north shore this morning?”
Each woman shook her head, then Colbi said, “Except for Lawrence. He came motoring across the lake from a poker party an hour or so ago. He went to bed.”
“Oh?” the deputy asked, obviously interested.
Colbi pointed toward the building. “He runs the store.”
After making a note, Deputy Thomas scoured the shoreline with his eyes. “Will you excuse me? Don’t go anywhere; I may have more questions.”
As the officer stepped away, they heard another voice. “Well, good morning, ladies.”
“Craig,” Iris said, jumping up and hugging him. “Oh, Craig, I thought you’d never get here.” She then looked at him, frowning. “How did you get here so soon?”
He grinned. “I was on my way up on another matter. When you called, I was just turning onto the mountain road.” He glanced around at the women. “So what’s going on?”
“We found a body…it was just awful.”
“So I heard,” he said, hugging his wife and glancing at the others.
“Hi, Craig,” Savannah said, waving rather weakly.
The others followed suit.
“Craig,” Iris said in a scolding manner, “why didn’t you ever tell me about Amos?”
“Who?” he asked lowering his brow.
“Amos Sledge, your relative…the claw-hammer killer.”
“What?” he said, rubbing his chin.
“Your dad’s brother’s kid,” Iris prompted.
“Yeah, your cousin,” Colbi said.
“What about him?” Craig asked.
“Well, we think he’s back,” Savannah said, rather hesitantly.
“Yeah, it’s been forty years to the day that he…did the deed and disappeared,” Margaret explained. “Don’t tell us you didn’t know about him.”
Craig coughed and cleared his throat. “Well, sure, I met the kid when we were younger. He was always strange. He’d probably be considered autistic or something today. There was no label then. After they put him away in that mental hospital, I don’t recall seeing him again and I certainly don’t remember him being accused of any crime.”
“Gads, Craig, did you have your head buried in the sand?” Colbi asked. “Everyone here knows about him.”
He shook his head. “No. I knew that my folks brought him up here sometimes. I never thought that was a good idea. But I was a college dude, you know. I had other things on my mind, and my folks didn’t talk much about Amos when I was home.” He scowled. “He killed someone?”
“Maybe several people,” Margaret said. “…including that guy down there along the lake.”
Craig stared toward the area where the body lay. He pointed at the women. “You found it?”
They nodded.
“And lassoed it and towed it to shore,” Colbi said.
Craig stared sideways at Colbi and glanced at the others. “You did what?”
“Yes,” Iris said. “We rammed it with the boat, then tied a rope around his leg and rowed him ashore.”
Craig took a deep breath and pursed his lips.
Suddenly, their relative peace was disturbed by a loud and gruff voice. “What do you want with me?” The voice quickly became shrill. “Stop it, will you? I can walk. What’re the handcuffs for?”
“Because you resisted, that’s what,” the officer said as he motioned for Lawrence to sit on the other end of the rock wall.
The distraught man turned toward the women and spat, “You had to open your big mouths, huh? Can’t anyone mind their own business?” He screamed, “I was playing poker, I tell you!”
“Who’s that?” Craig asked.
“Lawrence,” Savannah said. “Craig, you should know him, he runs the store.”
“Aw, I don’t come over here, except for once with Iris. I went fishing while she shopped. I don’t know these people. When I come up here, I just want to relax alone—be incognito.” Appearing somewhat disgusted, he added, “Looks like you gals have caused a stir—my little mountain cabin might never be private and quiet again.”
Savannah shook her head. “Craig, I don’t think it’s been private. You may have always had someone there with you.”
“Are you talking spirit mumbo-jumbo, Savannah? You sound like my wife.”
“No, Craig. We saw someone in the place last night. And there was no way he could have gotten in. We had it all locked up. So either he has a key or he knows a secret way in and out of your cabin that no one else knows about.”
“Or both,” Colbi said.She stiffened and said. “Key! Oh my gosh, you guys.”
“What?” Iris asked.
“Remember when Craig’s dad lost his keys? That
’s probably when Amos had keys made so he could go in and out at night.”
Savannah frowned. “That’s right, only…”
“Only what?” Margaret asked.
“Well, how would Amos get all the way to town to have the keys duplicated? It doesn’t sound like he had that kind of freedom,” Savannah suggested.
“Yeah, but, he might have had a friend who did,” Colbi said.
Craig looked askance. He shook his head and said, “Well, I guess we have some investigating to do. Are you ladies ready to go back to the cabin? Are they finished questioning you?”
“Hey, there’s Maribelle,” Margaret said. “She’s opening up the place.”
When the chef heard her, she waved from the door of the café and said, “Yeah, I thought I’d open in case anyone’s hungry or thirsty.”
“Like me,” Margaret said. “Let’s go in and get warm and have breakfast, shall we?” She glanced at the others. “Did anyone bring money?”
Savannah shook her head.
“I didn’t even think about bringing my purse,” Iris lamented.
“Me neither,” Colbi said.
“I’ve got it covered,” Craig offered. He then looked down at the skillet in front of Margaret. “Looks like you brought your own cooking utensil.”
Margaret smirked at him, lifted Dolly from the pan and picked it up. “Thanks, Craig.” To the others, she said, “Let’s go. It’s cold out here.”
Savannah hesitated. “We’d better tell the officer where we are in case he has more questions.”
“Why? Do you like being interrogated?” Margaret asked.
Savannah thinned her lips. “No, but we are witnesses, you know.”
“To what?” Craig asked.
“Well, we discovered the body and we saw the intruder.”
“I’ll let them know where you are,” Craig said, heading toward the investigating officers. “Meet you in the café.”
“Good morning,” Savannah said as the women stepped into the restaurant. Savannah carried Rags and Colbi had Dolly in her arms. “Um, we have cats with us, is it okay if…”
“Yes, I see you have cats,” Maribelle said. She walked up and petted Rags. “Aren’t you handsome? What’s his name?”