It's true you know. The river never sleeps. No river ever does, and if it does it is no longer a river but a stagnant stinky pool of slime. A swamp of sorts and that is exactly what all this felt like. A swamp of mystery of epic proportions.
I sat thinking about this, that very next very very early in the morning escape I guess from the horror reality show that our lives had become and which seemed to be moving toward...I don't know what.
I had eased my way out of bed so as not to awaken Rico and headed downstairs in stealth mode, and grabbing a fresh mug of Billy Brew of unknown origins or age (but still warm)...headed out to the deck. Early-summer and warm to say the least I thought as I settled down in my fave lounger. Okay, not the favorite double one that Rico and I sit in so often these days but my second favorite. Padded to a fare-thee-well and just really comfy. But tonight or rather this morning my thoughts were not focused on my being comfy but rather the river laying just beyond where I sat above it, but was I?
The Boutique River that had now given us so much to think about and to deal with.
The perimeter lights that Garrett Longworth had had installed when he built this place glowed softly along the riverbank lending an almost mystical aura to the dark and fairly swiftly moving water. I could hear the gentle lapping of it against the bank almost like a lover nuzzling his mate. I slowly sipped my Billy nectar and sat, watching...watching, for what I had not a clue. I just wanted for once to be alone...alone with my thoughts and emotions, and prayed no one would come downstairs and find me.
Vain hope to be sure knowing this crowd. They SMELL a hostage taking a mile off and how I have no clue...they just do. I hadn't looked and my watch was on my nightstand so I had no clue what time it was but knew it was really early. That much I could tell. The night sky was still pitch black with a few stars scattered about like errant toys after a child's rampant rowdiness had been cut short by a mother with nap on her mind.
The minutes rolled by as swiftly as the darkened water out front and I only felt the weight of what we were being confronted with. 'Death Becomes Us', I thought, to quote a phrase...and yet WHY? Why US? Why pick on this merry band of marauding loonies with only good hearts and souls and a penchant for mayhem of only the bestest kind. That too was as much a mystery as the one we were now involved in, wanted or not. Actually, not us but rather I, as it is MY house and it is MY yard that the first victim washed up onto. Oh goodie.
Lap Lap Lap, I heard the merrily passing water kissing the shore as water so often do, and it had a soothing sound and feel...but not a sleep-inducing one to be sure, since I was about as awake as it gets.
What had caused all this misery and death I wondered to myself? What had brought Rick and the twins all the way from California to Michigan and to a certain death? Or was it certain? What was it? That they had come was not in doubt and we had the bodies to prove it or rather the coroner did. Was there someone else here who had also come? Come to end life? Come to create death and destruction? WHO? WHY?
I knew I was driving myself totally nuts but I was so certain that if only I could get time away from the raucous noise of life and just think, it would all come to me in time. Yeh, right.
That wasn't likely as we still had far too many puzzle pieces missing, but...
"Want some company?"
I almost came out of my skin. Startled I was.
"Truth?" and I laughed, sorta.
"No to be honest."
and he laughed too.
We had done this before sort of, and I wondered why.
Zeke planted himself in the lounger next to me and sat slowly sipping his mug of Billy Brew as I was. He leaned over and patted my hand.
"Hell of a mess."
"Got that right."
"Got any ideas?"
"That is what I was just wondering."
Just then another face appeared. Good God, the circus is in town and here come the clowns.
"Mind if I join you?"
"TRUTH?" Zeke and I both said in unison.
"No, to be honest," and we all sorta kinda quietly laughed, sorta.
Kip sat.
"Hell of a mess," he said quietly, thoughtfully.
What is this? A pre-recorded thought pattern?
"Yup," I answered just as quietly.
"I swear to God. Something is missing."
"NO SHIT," I answered him.
"No, some ONE is missing."
"Uh, some ONE?"
"Yeh, something doesn't fit here, as it would if there was one more thing or more to the point, one more person...the one with the answers."
"And blood on his hands," I added.
"Perhaps," Zeke interjected.
"Is there someone else here from California...?"
"Or Colorado?" Zeke added.
"Yeh, or Colorado, that we don't know about?"
"$64.00 question to be sure. But who?"
"Maybe not from there, but maybe HERE," I thought and then said.
"True," Kip said.
"Someone we are overlooking?"
"Danny?" I volunteered, but then shook my head.
"No, I can't see that. Might get his fingernails dirty."
We all laughed.
"Yeh, he seemed to be sincere tonight. Sissy on steroids but sincere."
Zeke and I both nodded.
"But if not Danny, then WHO?"
"Who, indeed," Rose said as she entered the deck area.
Well, so much for peace and quiet...the lapping of the water against the shore and the darkened night lending one's thoughts some help.
YEH RIGHT.
What did I tell you. It is uncanny how this group's radar goes off every time...
Yeh, the river never sleeps and neither do we it would appear. Sigh.
CHAPTER XXI: MEETING OF THE...
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