Killing

"A Dark Tale"

Author's note: "Killing: A Dark Tale" is part 1 of a hopefully continuing story arc that will last for a few chapters. This is my first story on this site….hope that you find it interesting. Also, if you like Dexter, I hope you like this, Z

************************ Killing: A Dark Take ***********************

Lake Bollard was a nice and peaceful place, created years ago by the construction of the Harvey Mont Reservoir. The reservoir was used to harness the Wenatchee River, which in turn provided power to the whole Wenatchee Valley. Glenn Frank had always loved the place; it was where his parents had taught him to love the outdoors, and to love camping. Also Glenn loved to hunt, but mostly he loved to fish. Many times a year he would go there for a weekend and do that very thing, fish.

The lake was huge, its coastline and waterways had been a source of recreation for many people for generations. Although the Wenatchee Valley had been sparsely populated before the reservoir was built, the area had become more populated after its construction. Small towns and villages sprung up around the lake, but the valley had never become over populated with people. There were just no jobs around; no big business had ever come in. Restrictions on pollution had kept big industry away; at the time of the reservoir construction, there were other areas that were more lenient to pollution regulation, less policy. There were some jobs; people raised in the area could find work, though most time it was only for moderate pay. Within a few miles of the lake the lands were used for farming, or ranching. Other jobs found around the area were in small businesses, like food markets, or something pertaining to the recreation around the lake, like fishing, boating or skiing stores. More people made visits to camp, fish and vacation around Bollard then there were folks living there, Glenn, an only child, was one of them.

Glenn Frank had started his own construction company years ago, around the age of thirty, and like most people, he visited Bollard for the pleasure of escape, and to relax from the stresses of his business. Those visits had become less frequent, since the passing of his parents, and his divorce two years ago.

Glenn was forty seven, and after a thirteen year marriage his wife had decided to give up the relationship, not that he blamed her. Although it was never an abusive or strained marriage; there was just nothing to it. No love, no romance, no connection. Glenn blamed himself for a lot of that. He had spent much of his time building up his business…so much that the relationship had suffered. It had been better that it had dissolved; his wife had never enjoyed the outdoors, not like him anyway. She wasn't the outdoorsy type, now, he was astonished that they had ever gotten together, thirteen years was a good run. While married he had made fewer trips to Bollard, the last he remembered was the weekend he had taken his father fishing, twenty days before he died. That was a pleasurable but sad memory. His father had really enjoyed the trip, it was fun, but watching him try to fish during his illness was heartbreaking. It hurt, but Glenn cherished that memory.

Anyway, since his divorce he had submerged himself into work, spent more time with his company. That was when he met Joshua Greene, a young employee in his mid-twenties. He reminded Glenn of himself. Although Joshua was a happy, go lucky kind of fellow, like Glenn remembered himself to be at that age, he did not have the kind of early family life that his boss had experienced. Although Joshua was a good kid, and a hard worker, his relationship with his step father had been strained. He had moved away from home, and miles away from the area where he was raised. He still called his mother, and kept in touch that way, but it wasn't near as often as he should.

Glenn took a shining to the young man. Although his marriage had remained childless, Glenn had always wanted children. After marrying older, he and his wife kept putting off bringing offspring into the world. As it turned out, that had been the better thing to do. Now though, he could see Joshua as being the kind of boy in which he could develop a friendship with, almost like a big brother kind of thing, or something like that. He found out that Josh had only been fishing a couple time in his life, so here was a good opportunity to maybe interest his employee into the worlds of fishing and hunting, the pastimes Glenn loved so much.

He approach the boy about joining him the following weekend for a trip out onto the lake, Josh smiled, and agreed to go.

Now it was Saturday morning, and they were out on the Bollard in Glenn's fourteen foot, Bass-Master boat. The sun was just starting to peek over the eastern horizon, and they were headed to one of Glenn's favorite fishing spots. Josh had used half of his paycheck to buy all kinds of new fishing gear for the trip, Glenn chuckled. The older man maintained enough fishing gear to supply seven folk with fishing supplies; Josh could have borrowed as much stuff as he wanted.

When Glenn had awakened Josh in the tent it had still been dark out. He now looked at the kid riding in the front of his boat; Josh was still wiping the sleep from his eyes. Glenn smiled to himself, he remembered in the tent the boy saying….

"…..But it's still dark out; shouldn't we give the fish time to wake up?"

Funny, but he remember saying something of the like to his own father that first day he took him fishing.

They made it to the fishing spot, baited their hooks, and within the hour had three fish in the live-well, nice size bass, the biggest just under three pounds. Now it was getting on to 8:30, forty five minutes since their last catch; they'd had a couple more bites, but were unable to land any keepers.

"How about we try another spot," Glenn spoke?

Josh was all for it, as far as he was concerned Glenn was the master fisherman, he knew what he was doing, Josh would let Glenn guide them to where the BIG ones were. They pulled anchor and headed for a little cove that Glenn knew was a great fishing spot. Within the hour they had two more fish in the tank, bigger than the first three. Glenn was having a really good time, and he could see the excitement in Josh's young eyes, he too believed that this was what his father had experienced during their fishing expeditions. The joy of watching someone have so much fun was sometimes better than experiencing it yourself, did that make sense? This is what his father must have felt in the days of his son's youth, how could anyone not enjoy?

At mid-day they took a break for sandwiches and soda. Josh looked over at the man that had brightened his weekend.

"Thank you Mr. Frank for doing this."

The remark was so innocent and sincere that Glenn almost choked when swallowing his next bite of sandwich.

"You're quite welcome young Mr. Greene, "he started, "….or should I call you young master fisherman?"

Out of the five fish in the live-well, josh had taken three. Of course Glenn wasn't trying that hard. The enjoyment the older man was getting was in watching his partner bring in his catch.

"One thing Mr. Frank…." Josh began…

"Call me Glenn….," his boss informed him ….this was a friendly outing, not work.

"Glenn then, what does one do out in nature, when nature calls?"

Glenn laughed inside, although he didn't show it outwardly….

"Well," he started, "…. we're out in the middle of a lake, raise the water level a bit. It's not like there's an engineer standing on Harvey Mont Reservoir with a measuring tape," he pause for a moment simulating someone holding a measuring rod…. "Yep, water levels gone up three-hundredths of a centimeter, someone's pissing in the lake, send out the pee patrol."

Both of the men laughed. They were actually not in the middle of the lake, but in one of Bollard's many alcoves, way back in a wooded area.

"Look, I'll pull the boat over to that stretch of land over there; you can do your business in the privacy of the cane brush."

Josh was in agreement with that. In two minutes the boat was banked, and Josh was thirty feet from shore, within some tall reeds, watering the grasses. Glenn was still in the boat, waiting for him. Suddenly Josh made a motion for him to come, to come quickly and quietly. Glenn stood and cautiously approached the young man's location. From the tall reeds the older man could see two men maybe eighty feet distance. One was on his knees with his hands tied behind his back; the other was walking circles around him. The man walking was saying something, but from their hiding place neither Glenn nor Josh could make out what it was. The standing man then walked to the rear of the kneeling man. He pulled out a pistol from his pullover shirt and aimed it to back to the other man's head.

"Sorry Mr. Sinc, but this is the way things have to go," and with that he fired a shot sending the kneeling man spilling face forward into the soggy mush of the ground below.

Glenn and Josh, crouched behind the concealment of the reeds, were in shock. They had just witnessed a murder. What does one do, how does one react in an instance like this? The eyes of the both men were like saucers. Just then there came barking from behind them. They turned to see a Chocolate Labrador Retriever twelve feet away. It stood there glaring at them; the dog did not seem to be in attack mode, but more like a sentinel.

"Come on Betty, it's time for us to head back," the man who'd just committed the crime called to his pet. The beast didn't move for a while, but then after about a minute, without uttering another bark, it turned to obey its master.

When Glenn and Josh returned their gaze to the killer, he had already loaded the body of his victim into the back of an SUV parked a few feet away. He walked to the front of the vehicle and opened the passenger door to let his dog inside, and then he walked around the vehicle and was lost from their view.

Glenn and Josh waited for the vehicle to leave, but it never did. After about five minutes the two made a stealthy retreat, and returned to the boat. Glenn had Josh quietly push the craft away from the shoreline and then climb aboard himself. At that moment they heard someone speak from the opposite shoreline in the cut where they had docked.

"Going somewhere?"

They turned to see the killer not fifteen feet away. In his hands was a shotgun, and it was pointed in their direction.

"…Might want to pull that boat up on this side of the cut, "he said, "….and come with me. If not, then bad things could happen."

END PART 1