Mistaken Suicide

         This is part of a story I'm working on. I'm trying out some characters to see where it's going. Let me know what you think!


         Kate looked at the paper Leah tossed down on the bar. “You know,” Leah said pointing to the headline, “I remember when all those murders happened. I was in junior high.”

          “Did you know any of the victims?” Kate picked up the paper and started scanning the article.

          “Sort of, a girl in my class, Tina, was a cousin of one of the boys. They were very close, like brother and sister. After he disappeared she started acting weird.” Leah slid the clean glasses into the rack hanging over the bar. “When they found his body down by the river she completely lost it. Her parents had to admit her to a mental hospital.”

          “It says here,” Kate said. “That they may have found new evidence that can prove Father Peter’s guilty. Father Peter? A priest killed those kids?”

         “Well, that’s the going theory. All of the kids who were murdered went to the same church. After the last body was found, Father Peter decided to leave the parish. He always maintained his innocence, and the police could never find any concrete evidence to bring formal charges.” Leah poured a draft and handed it to a server. “What does the paper say about the new evidence?”

          “It says a couple of high school girls were painting some of the old pews for a charity auction. The church donated them after they remodeled.” Kate read. “They found the names of all the victims carved on the
bottom of the pews.”

          “God that’s sick. Did they put the names in the paper?” Leah asked as she rolled silverware.

         Kate flipped over to the back page. “Yeah, Sean Donavan, Kyle Simmon's, Mark Evan's, Craig Plye and Tina Wallace.” Hmm, only one girl. That’s odd Kate thought as she read the names aloud.

          “No,” Leah reached for the paper. “That can’t be right. Let me see that, Tina wasn’t murdered. That was the girl I was telling you about, Sean’s cousin. About a month after she was released from the mental hospital she jumped off the old Carson County bridge. Killed herself.”

          “If she killed herself, then how did her name end up on one of the pews?” Kate’s interest jumped. “Are you sure it was a suicide?”

         “Yeah, I’m sure. Everyone was talking about how sad she’d been since Sean’s disappearance, and when they found his body near the river, she just lost it. The bridge she jumped from goes over the S. Green River, about a mile from where they found his body.” Leah saw a couple enter the restaurant. “Have a seat wherever you like,” she said to them. “I’ll be right with you.” Leah turned back to Kate as she went to get the couple’s drink order. “It must be a mistake, I know Tina killed herself. Don’t go letting your imagination get the best of you.”

         Kate smiled to herself as Leah went to wait on the table. She was so glad to have such a good friend in Ashton. Kate moved from England almost ten months ago, but had known Leah since she was a child. Leah’s grandmother and Kate’s Aunt Sophie had been neighbors in an old section of Ashton known for it’s Victorians. When Sophia passed away a year and a half ago, she left everything to Kate. “It’s a family of social snobs,” her aunt used to say about their english relatives. “I want you to have a place to escape to and pursue your photography.” Sophie was Kate’s father’s only sister. She had left England in the early sixties mad married a ‘disgusting hippie from the mountains’ as Kate’s father said. But Kate loved her aunt and the mountains of Ashton. Her parents thought she was crazy to give up a chance to go to one of the best medical schools in Europe. Kate looked at it as a chance to start living her life as she wanted, not her parents.

         So far the photography thing was going okay, but it was Sophie's nose for mystery that seemed to be the predominate theme in Kate’s life in Ashton. Not long after she moved, she found herself the object of a psychotic college professor. She and Leah had found the information the authorities needed to finally catch him.

         Kate folded the newspaper under her arm and hopped off the bar stool.
“And where are you off to,” Leah asked as she rang in an order.

          “I think I’ll go talk to my new friend Sam. You know, that reporter we met awhile back. It’s his byline on this article. Perhaps he’ll let me peak at his notes,” Kate said. “I think I sense and adventure on the horizon-I’ll ring you after I get home.”

         “Why do I suddenly have a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach?” Leah hugged her friend. “Be careful. I’ll ask mom if she can remember anything about Tina or her cousin.”

         As Kate made her way to the red MG Sophie had left her, she couldn’t help but smile. What would father think, she thought as she laughed to herself.