The Red Lake
Sammamish, Washington
20th Pirates vs Vikings Party
“Welcome everyone to the 20th celebration of the Pirates vs Vikings Party here at Lake Sammamish! The entire event staff is enthusiastic for tonight and happy that we can reunite again as a community after this tough past year with the pandemic. As you might have noticed, our annual party seems a bit bigger than usual, and that’s because we have some new faces in the city, like Mr Hawthorne, the Felucci family from Italy, and more. On behalf of the entire community, we warmly welcome you. Now, let’s move on with tonight’s itinerary. First, there’s going to be a quick meet-up in the community area for around 30 minutes so y'all can catch up with everyone while the staff organizes the last details. Then, as every year, we are going to have our massive balloon fight between boats on the lake, followed by an after party on a floating dance floor until your body manages to stay active. With nothing left to say, LET THE PARTY BEGIN!”
Once mayor Falvorich finished his speech everyone applauded for the night about to begin and went to the community area for the meet up. The place was crowded with people from all over the county of all ages and backgrounds, which was an upgrade from previous years, where the event was smaller. The mayor and his cabinet really wanted to make this edition of the Pirates vs Kings Party special, in particular for the new families and members, who seemed distant from the rest, especially that Italian family. Their neighbors say they are the most private ones in their street and almost never go out; they barely know anyone. And that’s a lot to say in a city where everyone knows everyone’s business.
“It’s that Mauro? The Italian guy?” Samantha, the mayor’s daughter, asked her friend Harper.
“Yeah. My Chemistry classmates say he’s a total weirdo. Once, he brought a rat to school and let it run all around the classroom, and the other day during lunch he got extremely mad all of a sudden and basically exploded. He began shouting at everyone near him,” she replied.
“Wait, really? I had no idea!” Samantha said, surprised.
“I don’t understand why, it was the talk of the week. He even threatened Oliver with a knife. Where were you Sam?”
“Maybe it happened during that week when I was sick, I don’t know. Let’s just stay away from him, alright? He doesn't seem reliable.”
The 30 stipulated minutes passed and everyone prepared to board their boats on the shore. The staff handed red life jackets to the pirates and blue ones to the vikings before they went into the water in order to tell one team from another. When each person reached the entry to the boats they were guided into a specific boat because teams were divided into multiple groups of four each.
“Samantha Falvorich and Harper Wright, boat #17,” said the young woman from the staff.
The two girls followed the instructions and proceeded to their assigned boat waiting for the fight to initiate while the staff was still handing out life jackets and assigning places.
“Closing boat #17, Mauro Felucci and Aiden Campbell,” stated another staff member.
“WOW! You’ve got to be kidding me! Really? Now we don't only have to deal with the Italian weirdo but also with my dumb ex. They are the worst of all the options. This only happens to me, I swear!” exclaimed Samantha.
The two guys boarded the boat with their red life jackets and were welcomed with an unpleasant look from the girls who were just complaining about them. “Hey, Sam!” greeted Aiden trying to be nice, while Mauro walked straight in without saying a single word. Samantha and Harper ignored him and turned their backs looking at the people still on the shore and wanting to get over with the whole situation as fast as they could.
Another 10 minutes passed and the game hadn't started yet, which upsetted the girls, not only because of the time waste and their annoying company, but also because it was becoming darker and it could make the game harder, as well as more dangerous. Samantha, the most irritated of the two, decided to take off her life jacket during the wait, which Harper insisted she should not, but the girl didn't care much.
When it was finally the moment to set the game in motion, the night was darker than ever and no one could see a thing. Everything went so fast that nobody on boat #17 noticed on time, so Samantha wasn't able to put back on her life jacket. A loud noise resonated in the entire lake caused by the big horn one of the staff members blew on the shore. This led to a huge commotion in the place, where everyone was very disturbed and not really aware of the details.
Seconds later, another roaring sound hit the lake; however, this one didn't come from the horn. It was a human screech. A girl’s squeal. Everything stopped. Faces looked worried, looking for an explanation, until a heartbreaking scream hit their ears, followed by a girl crying her heart out in the middle of the lake. It was Harper.
Immediately, people approached her with flashlights in hand expecting an answer, just to find boat #17 soaking wet with the girl’s best friend sprawled on the ground with blood coming out of her belly. Hence, out of the 4 teenagers who boarded the boat: one died, one seated in a corner bawling, the other just stood there silently, and the last one tried to reanimate the dead girl incredulously.
When mayor Falvorich and his family heard the notice they couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe their little girl was gone forever. He didn't want the case to go unnoticed, just like the rest, and as he knew the police department in Sammamish wasn't the best and it wouldn't solve Sam’s death, he called the well known Detective Lin Ardolf, who was the best in the region, to do so.
The only information the police was able to provide to Ardolf was that the case was a murder, that the girl passed away due to a deep cut in her abdomen made with a sharp object they couldn't yet retrieve and that the main 3 suspects were Harper Wright, her best friend; Mauro Felucci, the mysterious new guy; and Aiden Campbell, her recent ex-boyfriend.
During 48 hours Ardolf did with this information what he could, but it wasn't enough, so in the morning of the 3rd day he summoned the presence of the suspects to ask them some questions. He had a clue of who it could be, but he needed to be 100% sure. When they all arrived, he started by asking them separately what happened in specific detail the night of the murder, which didn’t give him anything he didn’t already know. He continued by asking what was their relationship with the victim, which interested him more. Even though Mauro was the city’s murderer choice, Ardolf didn't think the same way. He and Samantha hadn’t had one single conversation in their life before the incident and it wouldn't make sense for him to be the killer. Yes, he had some questionable attitudes, but not enough to declare him guilty. Harper and Aiden on the other hand…
Ardolf left the interrogation room and told the anxious major, “I know who did it. I just need to check something,” leaving the poor man in an even worse state. He requested an officer to show him the life jacket Samantha used before dying to inspect it. Later, he returned and explained the whole murder.
“The murderer is Aiden Campbell. He and Samantha had recently broken up due to constant fighting in which Aiden sometimes crossed the line. Samatha never told any of this to you or your wife, major Falvorich, but Aiden was a possessive and aggressive boyfriend. It all got worse when he discovered Samantha was texting a new guy. After his reaction she decided to break every kind of relationship with him, but the guy was harassing her at school for weeks. All of this information was obtained from Harper Wright, who has helped with this investigation immensely. Moving on, the night of the murder he was assigned the same boat as Samantha, boat #17. Everything looked normal, and actually, it was. Aiden didn't arrive there with the intention of killing the poor girl; however, when he noticed that her life jacket’s clasp was broken, he got the insane idea. For some reason, the clasps of the lake’s life jackets are made of steel, making them possible to act as the murdering weapon, which is what I just ordered one of the officers to confirm in the lab. Later, when the horn initiated the game, creating chaos around, Samantha didn't have her life jacket on, so Aiden took the opportunity, grabbed it and killed the girl with the steel clasp. Making this, his hands were covered in blood, so that’s why he was trying to supposedly “reanimate” her, but this was only an excuse to hide the real reason there was blood on them.”
Minutes later, the officer Ardolf had ordered to examine the Samantha’s clasp came in with the results saying, “The DNA in the victim’s clasp matches with the suspect #3, Aiden Campbell,” confirming the detective’s theory and condemning the young guy to 20 years of prison.
By Carolina Leon, Step 9 Yellow
