What Swims Beneath

FICTION

Water it's everywhere. Seventy percent of the planet is covered with it. Stories have been written about it for centuries, from Spiritual levels to horror stories water has been the center of millions of accounts. This story, however, is slightly different, more tangled, and more fitting with a horror story.

Let me start here. I live in a small town nestled deep in the woods with a tiny river that overflows its banks, but typically, it is a passive stream with fish, and you would never suspect it to have the horrible past that it does. It started years ago in the early 1940's people began to go missing. At first, no one knew what to think. Yeah, the families were upset and searched for their loved ones, but they never found a trace. It was as if they completely vanished.

The police were called to homes at least once a month with a mysterious vanishing. The last one was Joe Ray Bowling, 38, heavy drinker, been in jail multiple times, suspected of robbery, did a stint in prison for car theft, came home married his wife had five children and seemed to settle down, got a job and one day disappears.

The police interviewed his family and friends, taking notes about every detail they could find, from what he was wearing to where he was the night before. They searched each point exhaustively. One officer asks the Captian, "Tom, do we have suspects?" The Captian replies, "No, we don't." It's like these people get up one day and completely vanish and take their cars with them. He places the missing poster on the wall at the police station. "He's been gone four days. His wife is a wreck. His children are missing their dad." Tom, a young man, has a key chain given to him by his dad with a medal dangling of St Christoper. He glares momentarily; he does that a lot when there are times of trouble.

The community goes on about its business, doing what it does best, doing the next best thing. The county Sherrif says, "I don't want to call in the FBI just yet, but it looks like we may have to. This is their specialty." The young Deputy Tommy says, "They are out of our league." The Sherrif says, "I know, but it's coming to that place to where we need to look at calling them in on this." Tommy looks down and says, "I need to get a coffee and start my patrol." He sluggishly gets into his car and starts down the road.

This town is filled with country roads, small winding one-lane country roads. Tommy sees old man Lenny Baker with a fishing pole two fish walking with a limp. He pulls up next to him. He fiddles with his key chain of St Christopher. "You catch them by yourself, Mr. Baker?" Mr. Baker looks at the young police officer and says, "You are just funny. NO, I wrestled them to the bank and hogtied them." They both laugh. The young police officer asks, "You've not seen any strangers around, have you?" The old man replies, "Nope, you are about as strange as it gets for me." The young police officer laughs, "I suspect so. Ok, I won't keep you."

The police officer drives around that night. There are no events to speak of the following day, he pulls in to clock out, and the Sherrif says, "Did you hear Leonard Hendrix has gone missing." The police officer says, "What? I was by his house last night he was mowing the yard." The Sherrif asks, "Did you see anybody out?" He said, "Just Lenny Baker fishing." interesting. Maybe we need to stop by Mr. Bakers' house today? Come on, go with me. The two men take off to the older man's house.

They pull up in the yard. He stumbles out drunk. "Mr. Baker, how are ya?" "I'm fine. What can I do for you?" Tommy asks, "Did you see anybody out last night?" Mr. Baker replies, "No, just you. Why?" Mr. Hendrix up the road has gone missing. "Leonard? He's probably in the motel in the next town over he does that." The Sherrif says, shocked. "He does?" Leonard says, "Yeah, he's done that stuff for years, gets drunk, and you can figure it out." Thanks for your help we'll leave you alone.

The two officers leave the hill in a hurry. They arrive at the office, and both of them start to call the hotels. There are only four in the next town over, so it's a big ordeal. "He's not at this one," The Sherrif says. "He's not at the Happy Hen." He's not at the other two, either. "You need to sleep, young man. " You have to work tonight." "I do" The young police officer smiles and says, be here at Ten PM. The young man goes home and goes to bed. Waking to hop out of bed at Nine PM and out the door on the way into town, he passes a spot where there's a really deep hole of water. He flips his father's key chain over and over while he's driving. St Christoper keeps showing the coin's face. A spot where many have said, "I couldn't touch the bottom." as he passes by the spot, there's a huge splash. As if something almost tree size hit the water. The young officer pulls over and shines the light over where he heard the splash. Only a slightly muddy trail of water where something may have fallen in remained. The trees were changing, and the leaves were beginning to fall so that any track would be covered up in no time.

The young man shrugs it off like a rock falling into the water, gets back into his car, and takes off to town. The young man fills out reports that night and keeps thinking about that rock. He sits and ponders if it was a rock, "I should check that out. I don't remember seeing a rock there." Having gone swimming there many times, he had a complete mental picture of the area.

The phone rings and Ulene Couch is calling about her husband, Bert. "He's been missing all day." She said nervously. "He went out to mow the backfield this morning and never came back." The young officer thinking out loud, says, "That sounds like a machine accident. Mrs. Couch, I'll be out there in just a minute." The young man rushes out the door twirling his father's chain hurriedly.

The young officer races to the farm arriving in an impressive time Mrs. Couch points the way to the back of the farm. He was there on that side of the field. The young officer begins walking. A certain dread comes with a job like this, and today Tom had this dread. He walks quickly, and finally, in the back of the field near the edge of the woods, he can see the tractor. "Well, it's not a rolling accident. It looks fine from here." He steps closer with caution. The engine is turned off, and the door is open. It looks like deliberately put the machine in park. Tom calls out, "Mr. Hendrix!" No answer. He begins to walk around. He is shouting at the top of his lungs, and there is no answer.

Tom comes back to his car and calls for help. A massive search party is organized, and they spend the evening looking for Mr. Couch to no avail. One of the searchers notices a man is walking in the woods. "Hey, Mr. Baker, what are you doing in the woods out this far?" The old man says, "I was looking for Red Wigglers." The volunteer says, "The worms?" The old man says, "Yeah, they are all over the place here." The volunteer looks down and moves a few leaves back, and sure enough, worms are everywhere. He laughs and says, "Don't catch them all." The old man replies and says, "Yeah, I won't." He then proceeds to dig in the dirt, grabbing a handful of worms before they escape.

The group of men searches most of the night. The air is thick, foggy, and wet. The trees are dropping their leaves quickly, covering any possible trail that could have been left. The night creeps in, the rain begins, and the air becomes chilled. The young police officer twirling his father's key chain, sits down, flipping the chain over and over, deep in thought. "I think I want to look around Mr. Bakers house. I have a sneaking suspicion something isn't right." He picks up the phone. Sherrif "I want to go to Mr. Bakers' house something isn't right." The Sherrif says, "Mind explaining what you mean by something isn't right?" The young man says, "I don't know; something is off." The Sherrif laughs, "Mr. Baker has been off for years. That doesn't make him guilty of something. You have to be very careful about what you do. You can't accuse him of something without proof." The young police officer says, "I know, sir, I won't do anything stupid."

The young police officer then gets in the car and drives out to Mr. Bakers' house. He finds Mr. Baker standing in the yard in his shirt and shorts. "Afternoon, sir!" "Afternoon, young man, what do I owe the honor?" Tom grabs his father's key chain and starts to flip the chain over and over again. I just figured I would ask you a few questions. Maybe you could help me with some things. The old man smiles and says, "I will try." When did you discover that Red Wigglers were the best bait to fish with?" The old man looked at the police officer and thought carefully, "I must have been eleven or twelve years old. My dad showed me where to find them, and they are the best bait to catch Catfish or Smallmouth Bass." Tom says, "hmm, Where do you find the bait?" The old man says, "Usually around Pine thickets." The young police officer continues to flip the keys.

"Do you ever try to find them at night?" The old man says, "Oh no, that would be pointless. You can only catch Nightcrawlers at night." The young police officer asks, "Where do you catch those?" He said, "Those are usually in a yard or somewhere like that. They need a flat place to live." "Hmm" "Ok," The young police officer says.

"Thank you, sir. I won't keep you. I'm sure you need to catch some worms." The old man smiles and says, "Not tonight." The officer goes back to work. He sits at his desk and starts to look up. When the first disappearances were in 1940, he reads more about the case. "That sounds just like one of our cases today." Talking to himself out loud. He sits down for a moment. He calls the Sherrif, "I think I have an idea." The Sherrif says, "Ok, what's the idea?" He briefly tells the Sherrif his suspicions. The Sherrif, in a strange twist of fate, decides to agree with him. They drive out to Mr. Bakers' house the next day and ask him to show them his favorite fishing hole. Mr. Bakers' demeanor changes immediately. The Sherrif, surprised by this twist, looks at Tom and says, "Yeah, how about you show us your favorite fishing hole." The older man becomes visibly shaken. Tom takes Mr. Baker by the arm and says, "Let's walk down here." They walk down to the deepest hole of water, where Tom had heard the thud and what he thought was the rockfall a few days prior. Mr. Baker stands visibly shaken, trembling. Any words coming out of his mouth now are stuttering.

Tom says, "I think we need to go fishing." Sherrif, did you bring your fishing rod?" Mr. Baker, at this point shaking as if he had Parkinson's, shouts "NO!" The Sherrif says, "Is there some reason we shouldn't go fishing there, Mr. Baker?" The Sherrif is looking intense. Tom turns to Mr. Baker, "Yeah, Is there a reason we shouldn't fish here?" The two men stand there waiting. Mr. Baker stands there shaking all over.

He was trying to figure out what to do next. There is a moment when a criminal knows he's caught, and it's time to confess, but he knows if he does, he's doomed, so he starts to lie more.

Mr. Baker ran out of lies that day. "I need an Attorney." The Sherrif asked, "Why would you need an attorney Mr. Baker?" It's just a fishing question. "He looked at them both. I just do." Tom asks, "How man people are down there, Mr. Baker?" Mr. Baker replies, "I don't know, a lot." The Sherrif says, "How many is a lot? Was your dad the one that showed you how to kill people?" Mr. Baker looked up and said, "Yes." Tom stands there flipping his dad's keyring; it lands with St Christopher face up. Mr. Baker, how many people are down there? Please give us an idea. He gets emotional and says, "Probably 70 or more; the flood washed some away." The Sherrif looks at Tom and says, "Call the Water Plant Manager and tell him to call me Now!" Tom looks perplexed. "Why?" The Sherrif says, "The whole community has been drinking that water for years."

As the Coroner started to remove the bodies, there was 84 total. Mr. Baker had killed and sunk in the river. No one swims there anymore. Everyone who ever swam dreams about someone grabbing their leg and pulling them under or trying to drown them in their sleep. Mr. Baker left his mark on all of us. We can never swim in our favorite swimming hole again. Several people were laid to rest. Eighty of them were identified.

Four of them were not. Mr. Baker confessed and was given multiple life sentences for being a Serial Killer. The families, albeit in shock, finally got to put their loved ones to rest, and our community could begin to heal. We never suspected frail Mr. Baker of being one of the world's most horrific Serial Killers.