by Alex Tully
She had never seen Ethan look that way before. He looked utterly defeated, “And I don’t remember a lot after that. They told me later that I went into shock—I never realized that was like a real thing, but I swear to god the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital—a day later.”
She squeezed his shoulder.
“My whole life changed in that instant,” Ethan looked straight ahead at the water. “There was a big investigation, and it was on the news, and everybody—and I mean everybody—looked at me differently. A mixture of pity and curiosity…and some people—they blamed me. I could see it on their faces.”
He started talking faster, and she could see the tears start to fall, “I told the cops, I told everybody—exactly what happened. I told them that he was talking about jumping, but that he was going to come down…”
And then Ethan finally looked her in the face, his eyes red and swollen, “I swear Zoe, he was going to come down.”
She put both her arms around him, and he buried his face into her shoulder. She felt so bad for him, “Thank you for telling me,” she said into his ear.
He looked up at her, “Do you know how many times I’ve asked myself, ‘What if you never went into that room? What if Troy would’ve come down safely on his own?’”
“No, Ethan, you can’t do that to yourself. You were put in an impossible situation.”
“Well…now you know why I am, the way I am.”
“You know what?” she smiled at him, “I like you because of the way you are. I think there’s a very good chance that I wouldn’t have liked the old Ethan.”
“Um…” he smiled at her, “you’re probably right.”
Just then, Zoe got a Facetime from Meredith. Usually, it would be an annoyance, but the timing couldn’t have been better.
Zoe and Ethan watched as Meredith’s wide-eyed face filled the screen. She was back working at the police station—and she was—in a bathroom stall?
“Where are you?” Zoe asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” she was frantic, “I have to be quick. When do you get off work?”
“Two, I hope.”
“As soon as you get off work, go to the dock. Okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“What’s going on?”
“Just go. You too Ethan.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, bye.”
And she was gone. Zoe and Ethan looked at each other.
“She found out something,” Zoe said, “Do you think she got the autopsy?”
Ethan hesitated, “I don’t know, but you have to give Meredith her props, because she was smart enough not to say anything, or text anything.”
“Oh my god,” Zoe jumped up, “I can’t wait until after work!”
“I know,” Ethan agreed, “I’m going to go hang with Parker and do some fishing, so I’ll meet you over there.”
“You’re so nice to hang out with him.”
Ethan shrugged, “I like hanging out with him. I never had a brother so…”
“Well,” Zoe looked at her phone, “Crap, I really gotta get back to work.”
As she turned to leave, he called after her, “I’m really glad I met you, Zoe!”
OMG! She officially understood the meaning of the term melting heart, because that’s exactly what it felt like, “I’m glad I met you too Ethan!”
CHAPTER 41
ETHAN
Unfortunately, they weren’t catching anything. Actually, they hadn’t even gotten a bite. Parker had informed him that fishing in the middle of the afternoon was one of the worst times—fish liked to eat at dusk and at dawn. But that never stopped him, because “you never know when the really big one is going to come along,” he said.
A seagull suddenly swooped down and landed only a couple of feet in front of them at the end of the dock. Ethan wondered if it was the same bird he’d seen before.
“Hey Ethan, would you rather be a bird or a fish?”
He didn’t hesitate, “A bird, no question.”
“Really,” Parker seemed surprised, “I’d definitely want to be a fish.”
“Why is that?”
“Just imagine everything you could see swimming under the water,” he smiled, “in the lakes, the oceans…”
“Yeah, but just imagine everything you could see from flying around in the sky,” Ethan countered.
“I know, but everything up here has already been seen,” Parker looked up at the sky, “You can even go on Google maps and see anywhere in the world.”
“Well, that’s a little different than actually seeing it from a bird’s eye view.”
“True,” Parker agreed, “but I saw on this show Grams and I were watching—Blue Planet or something like that—they said that ninety-five percent of our oceans are unexplored by humans—think about that!”
“Wow, that’s pretty incredible,” Ethan was surprised.
“Just imagine what could be down there!”
Ethan was thinking probably a lot of darkness, maybe some freaky squid species, neither of which he had any interest in, “I bet some seriously cool stuff.”
He looked over to Crystal Waters again. He’d been doing it constantly since he got to the dock. Finally this time, he saw her—Zoe. She was running toward Sunny Shores, kicking up sand behind her. She waved, and he waved back.
“I’m gonna go change!” she yelled, “I’ll be right back!”
He gave her a thumbs-up, “Okay!”
Parker looked at him and smiled, “You really like her, don’t you?”
Shit, here we go… “Of course I like her. Don’t you like her?”
“You know what I mean,” the kid wasn’t going to let it go, “Do you really like her?”
Ethan could feel his face burning up—in front of an eleven-year-old. He was at a loss for words.
“Don’t worry, I can keep a secret,” Parker smiled even bigger, “and the lake never tells.”
The lake? “What do you mean, the lake?” It was a perfect opportunity to change the subject.
“Well I know it’s weird, but sometimes when I’m out here alone, I just talk—I talk to the lake. Just about whatever. Like, just to get my thoughts out there.”
“Hmmm…” First the mom talk, now this. A reason for concern, or a healthy outlet—what would Dr. Malone say?
Parker went on, “I told Grams, and she said sometimes, she did the same thing. She said, ‘You know what Parker, the lake never tells.’”
Ethan looked out at the water, “I guess that’s true, huh?” Then his eyes were drawn to the east where the rocky shore turned to pebbles and then to sand. All of the yellow tape was gone, and no one would ever know that just a couple of days ago, a dead body was there.
It would be really nice if the lake told this time—if it could tell them what the hell happened to Crawford.
“You know what,” Parker stood up, “I’m getting really hot sitting out here. Let’s go to Zoe’s trailer.”
Ethan agreed. There was zero shade on the dock, and it was coming up on the hottest part of the day, “I’ll text Zoe.”
Ethan: Too hot out here, can we come up there
Zoe: Yeah but Debbie home, so not here maybe Parkers
Ethan: K
As soon as they got to the top of the hill, Zoe was waiting, “You guys catch anything?”
She still had her hair pulled back, but now she was wearing a yellow t-shirt and jean shorts. Nothing fancy, yet every time he saw her, she seemed to get prettier.
“No,” Parker said, “But this is the worst time to fish.”
“Have you heard from Meredith?” Ethan quickly asked.
“Yes, she just texted me and said five minutes,” Zoe looked back toward her trailer, “But my mom’s already bugging the crap out of me—she was freaking out about the police interviews. They had to call her to get permission to talk to me, so now she won’t stop with the questions.”
“We can go hang out on my porch,” Parker offered, “Grams
is still treating me like a fricking baby and won’t let me on the yacht.”
So the three of them headed to Parker’s porch, just as Meredith’s Civic came barreling into the Sunny Shores driveway. She was waving a piece of paper out of the window, “Hey!” she yelled, a big smile on her face, “Look what I got!”
Ethan and Zoe looked at each other, and at the same time said, “Autopsy.”
CHAPTER 42
ZOE
Meredith slammed on the breaks in front of Parker’s trailer, and the Civic jolted to a stop. She jumped out of the car, “Okay, I can’t believe I just did that. I could get in so much trouble, but seriously, it was like meant to happen.”
“Is that the autopsy?!” Parker shouted.
“Shut up!” Meredith’s eyes were wide as she quickly looked around, “Do you want me to get busted?”
“Sorry…”
“It’s better than an autopsy,” Meredith folded the paper up into a little square, “But we need to go somewhere completely private.”
What could be better than an autopsy?
“Well Grams is home,” Parker said quickly, “but she’s probably watching her shows, so we could go on the porch.”
“No, we can’t risk it,” she looked at Zoe, “Debbie’s still home?”
“Yeah, we can’t go there,” Zoe shook her head, “she’s being a psycho about earlier today—about the cops interviewing me.”
Meredith’s eyes sparkled, “And I know why the cops were interviewing you.”
“What?! Wait—why were they?”
“Chill Zoe, not yet—I have to show you all of it,” she looked at Parker, “Sorry Twerp, but we’re going to the yacht.”
“No!” Parker wailed.
Ethan interjected, “Do you want us to talk to your grandma?”
“Yes! I’ll go get her!”
But as Parker walked into the trailer, Shirley was walking out, “I was just going to see if you kids wanted some lemonade?”
Meredith quickly folded her arms in front of her, tucking the paper away and out of sight.
“Um, Ma’am—I mean Shirley,” Ethan corrected himself, “We were actually wondering if Parker could come hang out on my boat for a little bit,” he looked at his phone, “we could be back in an hour, or whenever you want.”
Shirley looked at her watch and looked at Parker, “I want you back here by five o’clock for dinner.”
Parker’s face lit up, “Okay, I will, promise.”
“And I think you having that phone maybe wasn’t such a bad idea,” Shirley said, “So I’m going to get you one Parker, purely for safety reasons. It probably won’t be as fancy as the other one, but at least you’ll be able to call me if you need to.”
“Yes! Woohoo!” Parker yelled, jumping up and down.
Shirley looked at Ethan, “And I’m sure Parker already told you how sorry he was about losing your phone. We both felt bad about it.”
Ethan nodded, “Yeah, it’s okay.”
“Alright, well have fun,” she gave Parker a pat on the back, “and don’t be late.”
They turned and started down toward the water when Shirley yelled, “Hey Meredith! You—not so fast!”
All four of them froze in their tracks.
“You better move that hunk of junk off my front lawn, or I’ll have it towed!”
They all let out a collective sigh of relief.
After Meredith moved her car, the four of them went to the yacht. They all sat on the giant wrap-around couch and waited for her to start the show.
Parker had already asked a million questions, which she had ignored, until she finally lost her shit and yelled, “Stop it, twerp! You’re getting your panties in a bunch!” And that finally shut him up.
“Okay…” Meredith started, “So in the morning, I heard Renee talking—she’s like the station manager—and she said that Detective Zeller was at Crystal Waters. And even though he keeps his office door closed, I knew he didn’t lock it because I see Renee go in and out of there all the time. So I waited until she went to lunch, and I just casually walked in there.”
“You just walked in?” Zoe was nervous just thinking about it.
“Yes, trust me, I was scared shitless—my heart was beating so fast,” Meredith laid her hand over her chest dramatically, “But I do a lot of filing—so if I got caught, I was just going to say I was getting a file. Which ironically, I was.”
They all waited patiently.
“So, there was a stack of manila file folders on his desk, and I quickly looked through those—nada. So then I opened his top left drawer and right on top was a plain black notebook. I opened it and, voila.”
Meredith held up the paper and began unfolding it.
“Tell me that’s not the original,” Zoe said quietly.
“Jesus Zoe, what do you think of me?” Meredith shook her head, “I had my phone ready—I snapped a pic and got the hell out of there. No one noticed a thing. I printed it out at the library and then deleted it off my phone, just like a good criminal should.”
Meredith laid the paper down on the glass table, “It’s kind of hard to read, but it’s pretty much all there.”
All of them leaned in closer for a better look. The paper was full of scratchy black handwriting.
“It’s Zeller’s own notes,” Meredith smiled.
Zoe began scanning it as fast as she could.
Crawford case
Last text message to M.C. (from kid’s lost phone) at 12:09
meet on boat at 12:30, bring drugs, from “Cabana Girl”
“So that’s why the police were interviewing us this morning,” Zoe said, “but none of us would ever use that term, cabana girl.”
“Whatever,” Meredith said quickly, “keep reading.”
M.C last seen on camera entering gate to marina @ 12:27am
Prints of victim all over the inside of boat, no other prints
If someone else in boat, they were wearing gloves ~ meeting a setup?
Empty wine bottle ~ victim dna only
“So that was the boat they sectioned off with crime tape…” Ethan trailed off.
“Thanks for that genius,” Meredith quipped, “keep reading!”
Medical examiner
Toxicology: blood alcohol 0.237, oxycodone in system
Minor contusion, left jaw, missing left incisor – fight with E.P
Elongated contusion on back of head - consistent in shape from a backward fall onto bow of boat, from standing position on pier
DNA match with victim, and the blood/hair sample found on bow of boat
Pulmonary edema and water in lungs ~ consistent with drowning
Cause of death: accidental drowning ~ combination of high alcohol levels,
oxycodone, contusion on head from fall ~ none of these things alone would cause death
Time of death: 12:30 am – 2:00 am (exact time tbd after full report)
How did he fall onto boat??? - lost balance because intoxicated, or pushed?
No cameras in marina!
“So it was an accident,” Zoe looked up.
“Unless he was pushed,” Meredith countered, “You see that?” She pointed to the word pushed, “keep reading.”
Gayle Crawford
1:06 am – G.C. seen on camera going thru gate that leads to marina- she confirms in interview that she left to look for her husband – she tracked his last location via cell phone to marina
G.C was out of camera range for 11 minutes and then came back through gate 1:17 am– she claims she never found her husband
Did G.C. send the text? If text said meet at 12:30, why go after 1 am? – Timing doesn’t fit
“Well, what do you guys think?” Meredith was about to burst.
“Wow…” Ethan said.
“Exactly! I was right!” Meredith jumped up excitedly, “Gayle sent that text to lure him out there, and then she pushed him off that pier.”
“Okay, hold on,” Zoe said, “Even if she did push him in,
it’s still an accident right? I’m sure she didn’t think that she would kill him.”
“Um, but it did,” Meredith snapped back, “And that’s what we call Involuntary Manslaughter people! What if Gayle saw him go under the water, and she didn’t do anything…or what if he was struggling and she could’ve saved him, but she didn’t?”
“That’s a lot of what-if’s,” Ethan said, “Look, the big problem with all of this is nobody knows what happened for sure. But, what the police do know for sure is that Crawford drowned—one, because he was drunk and high on oxy, and two, because he hit his head. A really bad combination that led to a really bad accident.”
“I can’t believe you guys!” Meredith was waving her hands through the air in frustration, “You don’t think Gayle was behind this whole thing?”
“I mean, maybe? But without any witnesses…” Ethan trailed off.
Zoe agreed, “Yeah, and the last part, it’s true—it doesn’t make sense for Gayle to wait over half an hour to go meet him. So I don’t think she sent the text—I think she went out there to find out what the hell he was doing.”
“Zoe,” Meredith sighed, “Don’t you want Gayle to be guilty? Then maybe she’d be tied up in all of her legal troubles, and she wouldn’t have the time or money to destroy Sunny Shores.”
“I don’t know…,” Zoe said, “but I think it’s more likely if she was in trouble, she’d probably just sell the land. And then we’re back to square one—someone just tearing it down again. Either way, we’re screwed.”
There was a collective silence.
“I just wish there was a way we could stay,” Parker said, and all eyes turned to him. He looked like he was about to burst into tears.
Zoe sometimes forgot that Parker was just a kid. He was around them so much, she didn’t stop to think how much harder all of it would be on him.
She quickly moved over to him, putting her arm around his shoulder, “Hey bud, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. There’s always hope—we really don’t know what’s going to happen…anything can happen.”
