Chapter 23
It was a quiet and cloudless summer night, the stars were in full view. It was the perfect time of year for camping; the cool mountain air had driven away the summer heat from earlier. There was a tall cedar tree standing up in the center of the camp site they had chosen. There wasn’t much out here except a red pick-up truck with a camp shell on the back, a sleeping bag thrown on the ground and a few camp site cooking utensils. They didn’t even bother pitching the tent as the stars in the sky were too beautiful to waste.
The campers were Bob Myers and his girlfriend Cindy Epstein, they had been dating for two years and this was the anniversary of their first date. This was the very same camp site they got together at when they first met. It was a special night for the couple as Bob just got a promotion at his job and was now confident enough to ask Cindy to be his bride. Bob wasn’t much of a camper himself. Cindy on the other hand was a mountain girl, having been raised in the wilderness; she loved nothing more than to be outdoors close to nature.
Cindy had been keeping a secret from Bob. She had a little too much fun at her office party celebrating her boss’s birthday and ended up sleeping with one of her co-workers. It had just happened couple of weeks ago and she already was showing signs of being pregnant. She had been putting pressure on Bob’s friends to talk him into proposing to her, thinking if they got married she could say it was his and avoid an awkward conversation.
She felt terrible about what she was doing to him, but he was in love and she made a mistake she didn’t know how to deal with. That was the whole reason she planned the camping trip to where they met, she figured if she got him in a really romantic mood and dropped hints at how ready she was to settle down and start a family, he would surely take notice.
Things so far had been going according to plan, they had a romantic evening under the stars, and he pulled out a cheap looking diamond ring and asked her to marry him. Of course she had to accept and they had the most romantic time of their lives. Not wanting to harm the unborn baby she was very careful not to drink too much tonight.
This left Bob with the task of consuming her share of the bottle of wine that he brought to celebrate. Being a light drinker was one trait she admired about her man and so it didn’t come as much of a surprise that he would pass out from the booze. She felt a little bad but she was just friendly enough in her part that she knew it would make it up to him. But the guilt was eating at her and she was having trouble sleeping.
Being raised as a mountain girl Cindy knew how to get around in these woods. She had no problem navigating her way down to the stream they had chosen to camp near. All she wanted was to take a nice little dip in the cool water to see if she could wash her worries away.
Cindy was not even sure if she really was ready to get married, but she damn sure wasn’t ready to break Bob’s heart by telling him she cheated and was going to have another man’s child instead of his. It wasn’t like she was against marriage, but her parents were the only couple she knew who stayed together for any significant length of time and even they were separated at the moment. Cindy looked around to make sure nobody was looking, quietly removed her clothing and dove into the water.
Bob had been lying quietly in bed, waiting for Cindy to get up. He watched her walked away out of the corner of his eye and as soon as she was gone he got up, went to her bag and dug out her cell phone. He had heard a rumor from one of his friends that was dating one of her friends that she had cheated on him.
He didn’t believe it, he didn’t want to believe it but there was no denying it. The problem was Bob loved Cindy, had ever since the first time he laid eyes on her. He also knew she didn’t want to get married or have kids until after college so for her to be putting the pressure on him now all of a sudden, that meant something had changed. He scrolled down the list of text messages and there it was.
Bob wasn’t exactly reading this for the first time; he got the other half from his friend who was dating the recipient of those text messages. It was a known fact Bob was a jealous guy but he was in love with Cindy, he wanted to tell her he knew and that he was okay with it he understood it was a mistake and he could forgive her. But he wanted her to confess it to him.
He didn’t like having to pretend like he didn’t know anything when it was killing him inside. Still he did love her and that all that mattered. He knew why she was going down to the river, it was her think whenever she felt guilty or stressed she would take a swim in the cold water, she said it cleansed her or something. He never understood her mountain girl ways, he was from the city after all but he was in love and love blinds you.
He thought he was going to have to win her heart; he would go down there, dive into the water and surprise her. Then he would tell her how he already knew but he didn’t care he loved her and that love was all that mattered. Problem was he was a jealous guy and it was still eating at him. Could he really live with this? He decided to put that aside for now and focus on winning his girlfriend, no fiance’s, heart back so they could get married and be happy together.
He was making his way down to the river when he noticed something unusual, he could not hear the sounds of her slashing in the water. He came to a bush where she had hanged her clothes on and knew he was at the stop where she must have dove in. His gaze turned to the water and his eyes widened in horror, her bloody body was lying there on a tree trunk that had fallen down.
He ran over to her as fast as he could, it looked like she must have fallen and hit her head or something, oh God he thought that is too much blood, Cindy be okay please be okay. Just as he got to where she was his heart stopped, she had not fallen, there was a knife sticking out of her leg and she had been cut up all to hell. He turned and suddenly a shovel hit him in the head.
It would be three days before the police would find the crime scene.
Stephanie Bri 