Cypress Lake

by Graysen Morgen

  "Oh my God, you don't think I did this…do you, Dani?"

  "I have no idea! I don't see you or hear from you for twelve damn years and I get called out here for a dead body that turns out to be a homicide and you just happened to be back."

  "Do I need to call my lawyer?"

  "I don't know. You tell me," Dani countered.

  "I can't believe you're standing on my doorstep harassing me like this."

  Dani blew out a frustrated breath. Seeing Kristen again had thrown her off balance. She'd let the pieces of her broken heart resurface, leading her down an angry path, instead of thinking like an officer, or in this case, a detective. She slipped her sunglasses back on.

  "Don't leave town. I'll be in touch," she said, turning around and walking towards the backyard.

  *

  Kristen watched her walk away before closing the door. The anger in Dani's voice was a surprise, but the pain in her deep green eyes had been unmistakable and had cut Kristen to the bone. She'd been shocked to see Dani in a uniform and the fact that she'd been slightly aroused when she'd first seen the deputy through the screen had made complete sense. Even after all the years between them, simply looking at Dani Ricketts still made her weak in the knees.

  "I can't do this. I should've just followed my original plan and hired someone," she said, shaking her head as she pulled the curtain back, peering down at the three uniformed deputies gathered together on her dock. "Damn you, Dani. I've tried so hard to avoid seeing you. Who the hell knew you were a sheriff's deputy?"

  She watched Dani pointing to the water and the dock before writing on the little notepad. She was obviously in charge of the two young men who nodded their heads, following her every move. If you knew why I left you so long ago, you'd understand why I'm back, doing what I need to do to move on.

  *

  Dani looked out across the water at the big green cypress trees that filled the wooded space between each of the houses that lined the lake. She watched the lake current flow past the end of the dock that she stood on. She was able to see through the clear, ten foot deep water, straight to the sandy bottom, littered with river rocks and water plants. Her nerves were still frazzled from seeing Kristen. She tried calming her racing pulse, but her mind was about as far from relaxed as it could possibly be.

  "Do you think that woman in the house did this?" Wilbur asked.

  "No," she replied. It was true. She didn't know Kristen Malone anymore, but the young girl she'd grown up with wasn't capable of physically harming anyone. Dani pursed her lips and blew out a deep breath. "The body was probably dumped from a boat and washed up into the rocks next to this dock. I think it's pure coincidence, but nothing is set in stone until we get the results from Henry and find out who he is."

  "What do we do now?"

  Dani looked at Vince and grinned. "Have you ever seen an autopsy?"

  "No. Well, in the academy we had to watch one, but I stood in the back, so I didn't actually see it."

  "Since I know he has a weak stomach…" She smiled, nodding towards Wilbur. "You go ahead and catch up with Henry." She pointed to Vince. "See if he's started. I'm going to go meet with Sheriff Fisher and bring him up to speed. Wilbur, go back on patrol."

  "Yes, ma'am." Wilbur smiled, and headed towards his patrol car. He was happy to be reassigned. The dead body freaked him out.

  "I'll check in with you in a little while," Dani said to Vince as she climbed into her SUV. She started the engine and backed out of the driveway.

  Dani turned at the first road off of Lake Drive, pulled into a parking lot and threw the truck into park as she bent her head down, pressing her forehead against the steering wheel. She hadn't been prepared for the rush of feelings that had come back to her when she'd seen Kristen. It was like the world had stood still during the brief, heated conversation that they'd shared.

  "Why the hell are you back? More importantly, why the hell did you ever leave?" She said, shaking her head. "There are over two hundred houses around this lake and that damn corpse just had to wash up at hers." I thought I had a better chance of being struck by lightning than ever seeing her again.

  Chapter 3

  Dani walked into the sheriff's office, stretching her neck from side to side as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head. Her empty stomach was starting to make her feel queasy, but eating food was the last thing on her mind. She had no idea how long her day was going to be after finding the body out at Kristen's house and the only thing she really wanted was a cold beer.

  "How bad is it?" Sheriff Fisher asked when Dani walked into his office, sitting down in the chair across from his old dilapidated desk.

  "It's a young male with his throat cut. Henry has him now, but from what I noticed on the scene, he wasn't bloated. That means he probably wasn't in the water long."

  "What did the renter say? Do they have any idea who he is?"

  "No and it's not a renter. Kristen Malone is back in town."

  "Malone? I remember that name. The body was found at their dock?"

  "The Malone family became residents here when I was only a few years old. I grew up with Kristen. Her family moved away towards the end of our senior year and their house has been a rental ever since. The body was washed up in the rocks against their dock on the south side of the lake."

  "Hmm…do you think she has anything to do with this?" he asked, chewing on the corner of his thick white mustache.

  "No. It would take someone awfully strong to cut a grown man's throat. She's an inch short than me and looks like she's in great shape, but I doubt she's strong enough to do something like that. I'll know more after Henry finishes his report. I sent Vince to observe the autopsy."

  Sheriff Fisher laughed. "Poor kid."

  "Wilbur lost his lunch at the scene, so I sent him back on patrol. There's not much to do at this point anyway and he's only part-time."

  "Make sure you check the missing person reports and cross check anything from the nearby cities that match his description. Let me know when you get that report. Mayor Olsen doesn't know about this yet and I want to make sure we have all of our bases covered before I fill him in."

  Dani nodded and went back to the makeshift closet she called an office. She emailed all of the crime scene photos to herself, uploaded them onto her computer, and went to work checking the databases. She didn't have much to go on and the description of a 5'10", 160lb male with brown hair between the ages of 25 and 33 had over fifty hits on the larger database that covered the three nearby cities.

  "Damn," she huffed. This was going to take the rest of the day and most of the night to weed through unless the medical examiner came up with something to positively ID the man.

  A couple of hours later, Dani's stomach rumbled, reminding her dinner time was nearing and she'd had nothing to eat the entire day except for a glass of chocolate milk and a banana after her morning run. She reached into her side desk drawer and pulled out a cookie dough flavored protein bar. She tore open the wrapper, chewing nearly half the bar in one bite before the bitterly disgusting, sour taste coated her tongue. She tossed the rest of the bar into the trash can next to her and spewed the chewed up pieces from her mouth.

  "Yuck!" she spat as her stomach rolled. Her cell phone lit up and began vibrating on her desk. She answered it as she spit the last of the remnants into the can.

  "Everything okay?" Henry asked.

  Dani rolled her eyes, wishing desperately for a bottle of water to appear. "I'm fine," she replied. "Apparently, I need to check the dates on the food I leave lying around the station."

  Henry laughed. "Your report's finished. I sent it over with Huckleberry Hound."

  "What?" Dani snickered.

  "That deputy you sent over had a hundred questions. He reminded me of that old blue dog cartoon. It's probably well before your time, kiddo."

  "No, I know who you're talking about. I just don't picture Vince as Huckleberry Hound. He is a little inquisitive though. I figured he was a better choice
than Wilbur, unless you want puke on your cadaver. He's a green as goose shit part-timer."

  "No, I'd take the questions over the puking rookie any day. I need to get back to my live patients. Let me know if you have any questions about the report. I was able to get one solid finger print, so maybe you can ID him with that. His toxicology screen should be back in about two weeks, so I'll let you know as soon as I get it."

  "Great. Thanks again, Henry." Dani hung up the phone and pulled the trash bag from the can, tying the top of it as she walked out of her office.

  "Mine needs to go out too, if you're pulling maid duties," Sheriff Fisher called from his opened doorway.

  "Does yours have rotten food in it too?" she grinned.

  "Eww, Ricketts. I told you that health food was bad for you."

  Dani rolled her eyes and walked through the back door of the station. She tossed the bag into the dumpster and turned around when she heard a siren in the distance. A minute later, Vince pulled into the parking lot, stopping and rolling his window down when he saw her.

  "Tell me you didn't drive over here lit up because of an autopsy report." She raised an eyebrow, leaning down with her hands on the top of the door.

  "I…Uh, I thought this was urgent, so…"

  Dani shook her head. "We never run with lights and sirens unless it's an emergency. A simple report is NOT an emergency, Deputy Wagner." Dani stuck her hand into the car, grabbing the report folder from his hand. She checked the black digital watch on her left wrist. "Get back out on patrol. Your shift's almost over and there's nothing more to do on this case until tomorrow morning."

  She stepped back as he drove away. Subsequently, her shift was ending soon too, but she still had another couple of hours to go before she'd be able to call it a day. She needed to get this man identified. Dani walked back into the building, stopping in the break room to grab a replacement bag for her trash can on the way to her office.

  Back at her desk, she read through the report, page by page. Just as she had suspected, the deceased man had died from the wound on his throat. The wound on the right side of the neck was superficial and the jugular vein and carotid artery on the left side were both severed, indicating he had probably bled to death very quickly. He'd been in the water between forty-eight and seventy-two hours, but wasn't bloated, which meant he hadn't sunk to the bottom and resurfaced.

  Dani wrote down a few points on the small pad from her pocket, noting his trachea hadn't been sliced through and the cut was more on the left side of the trachea and back to the ear, severing the arteries. Also, the beginning of the wound and slice edges were inconclusive because of the various fish that had chewed on the opened flesh. So, it was uncertain as to which hand the killer may have used to hold the knife or what type of blade was used. She had just finished her notes when she heard her name followed by muffled cursing. She closed the file and stepped out of her office.

  "Damn it. You owe me fifty cents! I wanted a diet soda and the damn machine spit out a water!" Sheriff Fisher growled.

  Dani laughed. "Well, you shouldn't make me refill it then. Besides, water is good for you."

  "Just because you're one of those health nut freaks, doesn't mean the rest of us have to be too."

  "There is nothing wrong with eating healthy and I hate to say it, but I'm not a health nut by any means. I can't stand the taste of kale, I eat meat, and ice cream and I have a long standing relationship. I just try to eat healthy and drink lots of water. You should try it sometime," she replied, getting a water from the machine for herself.

  "No, thanks. Do you remember when you tried to turn me into a gym rat? That didn't work either. So, get your damn water out of my diet soda slot on the machine or I'm promoting Vince to chief deputy."

  Dani laughed, shaking her head as he started walking away, drinking the water. He knew where the key to the machine was located and could have easily traded the water for his precious soda, but he was too lazy to go through all the trouble. She knew he'd be pissed when he figured it out, but honestly the machine only had one slot for water and five slots for various sodas. She'd simple rectified the situation.

  "Hey, I've finished reading Henry's report," she called to his back before taking a long swallow of the cold water.

  He spun and walked back towards her as she ducked into her office. He sat down in front of her desk, still drinking his water. She grinned.

  "Get on with it," he growled.

  "There isn't much to go on. His arteries on the left side of his neck were severed, so he died within seconds and was already dead when he went into the water. He wasn't in the water long, two or three days at the most."

  "You said he wasn't a floater, correct?"

  "Yes. This leads me to believe he was dumped in that spot. I think if he'd been dumped further out in the lake he would've sunk instead of floating up to that particular dock and getting hung up in the rocks. Whoever did this wanted to make sure this man was dead and their tracks were covered."

  "That makes sense. What about the wound?"

  "Fish pretty much destroyed the flesh, so it's impossible to tell which angle the blade traveled or even what type of blade was used. I did find something slightly interesting though. His throat was mainly only cut on the left side and the trachea was barely cut at all. Most throat slices include severing the trachea."

  "That sounds like a right-handed killer."

  "I agree, but if he'd turned his head defensively, then it could easily be a left-handed killer. The results are inconclusive, so it could really go either way. There are no defensive wounds, but then again a lot of the flesh on his hands was eaten away."

  "Are you leaning towards the owner of the home?" Sheriff Fisher asked, tossing his empty bottle into her freshly lined waste basket.

  "No. Although, this report makes me think whoever did this struggled a little bit, I don't think she could have held a man from behind that was four inches taller and thirty pounds heavier and cut his throat at the same time."

  "Could you do it?" he asked.

  "Me? I doubt it. I'm certainly strong enough to hold my own against a man of this guy's size, but to be able to hold him and cut his throat at the same time…no, no way. I'd have to be super woman. Besides, she doesn't have any defensive wounds. A grown man would be fighting like hell if someone was trying to cut his throat."

  "I agree. So, what's your gut telling you?"

  "Cutting someone's throat is way more physical than say shooting them. Either someone was trying to shut this guy up or send a message."

  "Do we know who he is yet?"

  "There's a print. I was just about to load it into our database when you went ape shit over the vending machine," Dani teased.

  "Yeah, yeah. That situation better be straightened out before I come in tomorrow. Don't stay here all night. The good thing about a dead body is the fact that they don't have anywhere to go. He'll be on the same slab in the freezer in the morning."

  "I know. I'm going to run this print and at least see if he's local before I head out for the night. I don't think there's a reason to alert everyone. At this point, he could be a drifter or caught up in some kind of drug deal gone wrong. If the word gets out, the entire town will be on edge."

  "Exactly," he said. "That's why I'm waiting until we have a little more before I take it to Olsen. His beard's liable to turn purple when he finds out we have a murderer on the loose."

  Dani waved goodbye as he passed by her open door on his way out. She had put the fingerprint into their computer system and was waiting for it to finish scrolling through their short list of offenders. Her mind drifted back to Kristen. Seeing her again was like pouring salt into an open wound. It stung deep down to her core, causing her anger to bubble to the surface. The one person she'd never wanted to see again had landed literally in her lap with a devilish smile spread across her face. Dani was tempted to drive back out to the Malone house and have it out with Kristen once and for all. She probably didn't need to know the true reas
on behind the Malone Family's quick departure, but she wanted to know why Kristen chose to never return, not even for her.

  She snatched her keys off the desk and jumped up out of her seat, functioning solely on adrenaline fueled by anger, but the beeping of the computer brought her attention back to reality. The program had finished running and the alert chime sounded because a match had been found. Dani sat back down and clicked on the results. The name Paul Davis was at the top of the page in bold letters with a small picture from his last arrest under it and his rap sheet below that. She and Kristen had gone to school with him. Dani knew he'd become an alcoholic and eventually became a bum, living in the woods. He'd dabbled in selling drugs here and there which also listed on his record. She checked the latest resident report. Sure enough, his family still lived in Cypress Lake. She'd have to make an official visit to his parent's house in the morning to inform them of his death. This was the part of the job she didn't care for. She shook her head, turning the computer off.

  Chapter 4

  It was after eight p.m. when she climbed into her SUV and drove away from the station. She was tired and hungry enough to gnaw off her own arm. She lived closer to the middle of town in a tiny studio apartment above the Cypress Market, which was the mom and pop style general store her parents owned.

  Dani parked in the back lot of the small building and took the metal stairs two at a time up to her apartment door. She walked inside the place she called home, which looked more like an extended stay type of hotel room than an actual apartment. She shed her utility belt, hanging it on one of the two chairs at the miniature dining table as a flash of orange streaked by, just about knocking her off her feet.

  "Oh, come on. I'm not that late you asshole cat," she yelled. "Besides, there's still food in your bowl from this morning!" She shook her head and opened the door to the walk-in closet. It still amazed her that the five hundred square foot apartment had such a large closet, but it doubled as a storage area since there was no other storage space in the unit.