Chapter 87

Rawle Powder touched base first thing the next morning with Kings RCMP media spokesman Cst. Moss, mainly to establish that he would be calling every morning from now on, and every afternoon, for updates on the investigation.
Cst. Moss said the case would be proceeding along several avenues, one of which would include an RCMP dog team continuing to search for tracks in the forest behind Sunken Lake.
Rawle decided to go check on the dog’s progress and try to get a photo, then spend the rest of the day hanging around as near the investigators as possible, to see if he could pick up any chatter.
Everyone at the Gazette knew this story would require a level of investigation not seen much anymore in modern news.
Rawle swore he would scour the earth to find the Lee killer and try to get justice for Jack and Tee. Whatever it takes.
As soon as he hung up with Cst. Moss, assignment editor Mittelstaedt was calling.
“I want you and Kyle and Elnora all week,” Mittelstaedt said. “You and Elnora on the hunt. Today, Verryn should canvass the neighbours at the lake. Talk to all Jack’s friends. Any that you know. Any police sources you have. Retrace his movements Thursday. You know, what about enemies? Was Jack or Tamara caught up in anything? Go back and look at his court and crime stories. Have you guys received threats lately that could have been serious? Check those. I’ll make sure you have all the resources… anything you need. And keep close contact with me, Rawle. I want to know everything that’s happening, as it happens. Find out exactly what happened.”
He said that a lot. ‘Find out exactly what happened.’ It was like his mission statement.
Rawle was starting to get pumped up, listening to Mittelstaedt. This was going to be a massive, probing investigation. All the time, space, money, anything he needed would be taken care of. He was the lead.
It was his fault his friends were dead, and therefore it would be his calling to solve their story. To expose a killer and pin himdown.
‘Sticks and Stones.’
He drove out to Sunken Lake again, this time with a blue sky overhead.
He felt a little more of the solid tension in his chest starting to ease up, like melting ice.
But there was still a lot there.
It was still hard for him to think clearly. He just kept seeing images of Tamara’s broken eye. Her eyes had been blue, really uniquely blue.
Crystal clear and smooth and light-light turquoise, like the water off a white sandy beach in the Maldives.
Flashes of the gruesome physical injuries of Jack and Tee’s bodies appeared in Rawle’s head, no matter what else he thought about. Tamara’s eye broken open like a soft-boiled egg, hanging down.
Ohhhh. He pressed the gas, flooring the Golf and belting up the road, with a furious roar of the engine. The back started fishtailing a little on greasy Gaspereau River Road.
He was panicking.
It felt like his heart was being plunged in some horrible, scathing liquid, and like his body was being boiled and would evaporate at any second, right through the windshield.
“I’m meltinggggg…” he muttered out loud, trying to laugh his way through the misery.
He put his hand down his pants and tickled the head of his penis.
It helped to masturbate.