Hazy View: Souls of the Vanished Read Free

I know what I saw. It
happened just like that.”
    “ Can you tell me about the
child you mentioned?”
    “ Well, it sounded lost and
scared, maybe even hurt. Mostly it sounded close to the rock face.
It was quiet and sound travels, I'm sure it's a young child, too
young to be out there alone that time of the night.”
    “ What makes you think it
was alone?”
    “ The cry was heartbreaking
and desperate, children don’t cry like that for any
reason.”
    Andrew turned to the others slowly.
“Did any of you hear or see anything?”
    “ No sir. We were in the
cabin, but we're sure something happened last night.” Steven
assured.
    “ Thanks. We'll look into
it immediately. I have your details so I don't see any reason for
you to stay around here.”
    Andrew walked to the crowd of
bystanders.
    *~*~*
    * IV*
     
    The coroner and three officers
gathered around the boat. Robert was still in the bottom of the
boat as he fell. Water filled two inches of the bottom. Robert's
eyes had turned gray and cold, his mouth was wide open.
    Martin stood silently, his back to the
lake. He puffed up his collar and tucked his hands into his pants
pocket. He remained still only his eyes followed the
Coroner.
    “ Looking at him you can
say something scared him to death.” Martins’ voice was faint, his
throat dry and scratchy.
    “ What’s that?” The coroner
asked without stopping his work.
    Martin cleared his throat and didn’t
realize the coroner heard him. “All I've said was that if you look
at him it looks like something scared him to death.”
    “ You might say so.” The
coroner remarked quickly as he paused for just a moment.
    The coroner was a short stocky man
dressed in a knee length gray short and a t-shirt. His white coat
seemed a size too large and gum boots didn’t fit the outfit but it
was practical. His hair blew wildly in the wind. It fell into his
eyes and onto his glasses. Now and then he stuck his pen into his
mouth to free his hand while he clung to a clipboard in the
other.
    “ What's the possibility
that this could’ve been murder?”
    The coroner turned to Martin. “In this
little sleeping hollow of a town, are you smoking something?
Nothing ever happens here. You should know better. The worst crime
around here's someone running the only stoplight. This isn't a cold
blooded murder. No.”
    ‘ Maybe he could’ve been...
no that's ridiculous.’ Martin paused deep in thought.
    Martin turned paler than Robert and
turned to the lake, his legs weakened by thought. ‘Your secret's
not coming out. Can't you just be quiet? What do you want? What are
you doing? You will be quiet. I'll keep you quiet for as long as it
takes.’
    He turned back to the coroner. The
officers lifted the body out of the boat and placed it in a black
body bag but didn’t close it.
    “ So you're ruling it
natural causes?” Martin asked hoping that explaining this
misfortune could be that easy.
    The coroner paused thoughtfully.
“There's nothing natural about the way he died. Based on his facial
expression, his heart attack was provoked? I don't think he
would’ve died under normal circumstances.”
    “ What makes you so sure?
Maybe the sudden heart attack frightened him to death.”
    “ I’ve gone through the
pick-up and his personal belongings. There's no medication for any
heart condition. No scars indicating any heart surgery. People who
suffer from a heart condition never leave home without their
medication.” The coroner assured.
    “ Some people will say that
heart attacks are silent killers. You might not know it and one day
it just knocks you off your feet. But that's just some cases,
right?”
    “ Right, although in this
case I believe that he was healthy and a scare had caused him to
suffer a heart attack.” The coroner added pointing to Robert.
“People don't look like that when they suffer a heart
attack.”
    The officer zipped the body bag and
removed it from the scene.
    Martin stood for a moment then turned
to