Authors: Jack Parker
A few seconds later, Lisa's voice was heard amongst static saying,
"Loud and clear, Winslow-Seven."
"Yeah, there's a lady here who says she lost her car keys and thinks they're buried somewhere in the sand. Uh…could you bring that metal detector from the warehouse up?"
"
Sure thing, Winslow-Seven. I'll be there in ten minutes."
"Great. Thanks. Over and out."
Collin discarded the walkie-talkie back into his pocket and said, "It's all right. They're bringing a metal detector here now. We'll find those keys if they're here."
"Oh, thank you," the woman said with the relief making itself evident.
"You're welcome."
From that moment on, all Collin had to do was sit and wait for Lisa to arrive with the metal detector. He never thought that he'd have to use it so soon; when Nick showed it to him when he (Collin) was just meeting everyone for the first time, Collin never imagined he would have to use it so soon.
Breakthrough
"All right, ma'am, here it is," Collin said with the metal detector in his hand. "Hopefully we'll be able to find your keys."
The woman watched hopefully as he fumbled with the metal detector, making himself look slightly foolish while trying to figure out how to turn it on. After hitting some random
buttons
, he finally was able to start the machine.
"Okay, here we go…"
Collin started lightly tapping the detector very close to the sand, but was careful not to get too much on the underside. A series of small
beep
s were heard every few seconds just to show that the device was functioning properly, but for almost
a
minute, nothing else happened.
But something soon happened that Collin wasn't expecting. When he was right by the bottom of the lifeguard tower, the metal detector started getting increasingly loud and aggressive, going from
beep…beep…beep…
to
BEEP BEEP BEEP
.
A bit surprised by the sharp response, he turned to the camper and asked, "Were you by the lifeguard tower at all this morning?"
"No," the camper replied, evidently surprised as well.
"Well, it's definitely picking
something
up."
Collin dropped the detector and started digging his fingers into the sand in an attempt to unearth what would hopefully be the camper's car keys. Instead, something else happened.
"Ow!" he yelled suddenly as he dug a little deeper.
"What happened?"
"I just touched something sharp, but I don't think it was a key or something."
"What is it?"
"I dunno."
As Collin dug deeper, he could feel a part on the object's end that was less sharp and could easily be gripped. When he was able to pull it out of the dirt and saw what it really was, he gasped, as did the woman behind him.
In his hand, Collin was holding a knife-a knife that looked disturbingly familiar. Choking on his breath, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the camp issued knife that he had been given just a few days before. He held the two in front of his face and confirmed that the two knives were exact matches. The knife that had just been found buried in the dirt was issued to an employee at Arbur Winslow State Forest.
The surprise continued when Collin looked to the tip of the knife and saw what were clearly dry blood stains on it.
Going completely numb, he stared at the knife in disbelief for what seemed like hours before he finally turned his attention away from it. A short while later, Collin remembered something very special about those knives. As he looked at his own, he remembered that the name of the employee who it belonged to was written into the blade near the handle.
Not waiting a second longer, he looked near the base of the blade and read the name inscribed on it: JESS MALDAVO.
His heart beat began increasing at an extremely fast rate; it had finally happened-he had perhaps gotten a lead on the murder. He found what he believed could have been the murder weapon. He didn't even know for sure if the blood on the knife was Scott's, but he cast aside any doubt and hoped that it was the lead he was looking for.
Stuttering, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his walkie-talkie again. Trying to control his shaking hands and keeping his gaze fixed on the knife. "Winslow-Seven to Headquarters…"
A few seconds later, an electronic beeping noise was heard and Lisa's voice came in through the other side of the receiver. "Loud and clear, Winslow-Seven."
"Lisa…" Collin started nervously, his voice almost being too shaky to even talk at all. "I think I found something you might want to see…and bring the police, too."
It was roughly an hour later. Collin and Lisa were standing at the side of the beach as large crew of police officers and investigators were scavenging the beach, looking for any other item that might prove to be suspicious.
The whole time, Lisa just stared at the police doing their job with her hands on her hips. She tried to remain calm about everything happening in front of her, although it was difficult, given the circumstances.
"So you say a tourist needed to find her keys, and when you used the metal detector you found Jess's knife?" she asked Collin, making sure she understood everything about the situation thus far.
"Yup. That's what happened. Hey, you don't suppose that knife was the…"
Lisa sighed aggressively and put the underside of her hand in front of Collin's face. "Collin, please. That's the last thing I want to think about now."
On cue, Collin shut his mouth. But a moment later, Lisa turned back to him and said, "That was the whole reason you started working here, wasn't it?"
"What?"
"You wanted to try to get to the bottom of that killing that happened here last summer, didn't you?"
Collin had no idea what to say, and as a result, he just stood there silently for several seconds. But after
a
while, it became too much for him, and he let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah, Lisa. You're right."
Lisa didn't say anything, giving Collin the impression he was supposed to continue talking. "But you don't get it! I worked for the police department the last two summers, and when Scott died here last summer, I really, REALLY wanted to find out who did it!"
"Collin, I don't care, all right? Look, the police are the best investigators around and
they
couldn't solve it. You think some seventeen…"
"Eighteen."
Lisa sighed, the annoyance becoming all the more obvious. "…
Eighteen
year old could figure it out when they couldn't?"
"Hey, it was worth a shot."
"Well, look what's happened now because of it. Now all these tourists are gonna get uneasy around here and they'll all leave. It'll be just like
last
summer."
Collin promptly shut his mouth to avoid a confrontation with Lisa any further. A few minutes after that, the captain of the police squad went over to her as if she had something important to say. The captain was
a
woman in her mid-forties and had a light brown ponytail hanging out from the back of her hat.
"Ms. McNorr?"
Lisa turned her full attention the captain. "Yes, ma'am?"
"We've done a search of the beach and haven't found anything else. It looks like the knife was the only thing here worth looking at. Now, I understand a murder happened here last summer?"
"That's right."
"And the victim was a man named Scott Halpin?"
"That's right."
"All right, we're gonna have to take this knife then and run a few DNA tests on the blood to see if that's Scott's blood on there, all right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"And would you happen to know who the owner of this knife is?"
Now a bit nervous about answering, Lisa only stuttered and replied, "The person's name is usually written at the bottom of the blade."
The captain looked near the base of the knife and read the name out loud. "Jess…Maldavo? Is that the name of someone who works here?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Okay.
Should
this turn out to be Scott's blood on the knife, we may have to take Ms. Maldavo in for questioning, all right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"All right."
The captain beckoned for some of her subordinates to gather all their equipment together and to leave in an organized fashion. She handed the knife (now tightly wrapped in a plastic bag) off to one of the other officers, who promptly walked away with it into the police cruiser.
The captain looked once more at Collin and Lisa. She tipped her hat to both of them and said, "Have
a
good one."
"You, too," Lisa weakly replied.
The captain walked away and sat down in the passenger's seat in the cruiser leading the rest of the squad. As the cruiser drove off, Collin received
a
nasty look from Lisa that seemed to very strongly be saying, "Why did you do that?"
Without even letting her talk, he started with, "Hey, I didn't know I'd find a knife! The woman just lost her car keys and I was doing what you've
told
me to do!"
Lisa covered her eyes with one hand and started massaging her temples as if she was getting a migraine. "Collin, did you
have
to let the police know?"
"Uh…yeah, I did, actually. I mean, come on, it was a knife with
blood
on it."
"I know, but…ugh, it's happening all over again."
"
What's
happening all over again?!"
"After Scott got killed, a bunch of crap started flying around about this camp left and right. And just as it was starting to die down and people were coming to their senses, something like this happens. Now everyone's gonna stop coming here, because for some reason, they think they're gonna get stabbed. And people are gonna start a bunch of rumors about us and the police will be breathing down our necks for the next couple of months."
"…uh…sorry," Collin impatiently responded. He thought Lisa was laying it on a little thick, especially since she probably would have had to do the same thing. "But you know I didn't plan on finding that knife,
right
?!"
"I don't want to talk about it," she coldly stated as she ended the conversation at that moment. "I've gotta head back to my office now."
Without another word, Lisa walked away, leaving Collin standing there all by himself. It was a pretty strange feeling for him; every day, ever since the murder first happened, he wanted to figure out what had happened. Now that it looked like he could possibly find out the truth, he was getting very hesitant and questioning whether it was all worth it. If it was going to cause this much trouble and upset, was it really worth it?
Collin instantly shrugged that thought aside. "Oh, man…this is
awesome
!"
The rest of the day went on just as hectic as it had been when the police showed up. As soon as his shift was over, Collin hopped in his car and drove over to the police station as fast as he could. After doing a somewhat messy job parking, he hopped out and nearly broke through the double glass doors at the speed he was going. Sprinting, he ran through the station until he eventually got to the front of Teneire's office. Without even knocking, he opened up the door and saw Teneire on the phone.