Tainted Waters Read online

  Tainted Waters

  by

  Maggie Thom

  Published by Glenna Mageau at Smashwords

  Copyright 2013 Glenna Mageau

  All Rights Reserved

  Epub ISBN: 978-0-9917272-1-6

  He didn’t commit suicide but who’s going to believe her...

  Frustrated at being fired from her latest job and overwhelmed by her consolatory family, Sam decides to move to the family’s cabin at the lake. A place she hasn’t been since her dad committed suicide there twenty years before. Or did he? Snooping is something she’s good at but someone seems to be taking offense to her looking too closely at what has been happening at the lake. What she discovers is shocking. Now she must uncover what’s real and what’s not. All that she learned growing up, may be false. Keegan who has recently moved to the area to finish his latest book is also trying to find out if his grandfather, who’d passed away ten years before, died of natural causes or was murdered? The descendants of the four families who own the land around the lagoon are dying off. Since Sam and Keegan are the only ones questioning the deaths, they find themselves working together to seek the truth. Are people being murdered? Who would benefit from their deaths? Why would there be barricades and armed guards at the north end of the lake? To stay alive, Sam and Keegan must find the answers and convince others, before more people are killed... including them.

  Tainted Waters 2013 Suspense & Thriller Book of the Year

  Turning the Pages Magazine.

  Tainted Waters is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual people, alive or dead, business, establishments, locales or events is entirely coincidental. Any references to real events, business, organizations or locales are intended to only give the fiction a sense of realism and authenticity.

  ©Copyright Glenna Mageau (2013)

  All Rights Reserved

  Published by Glenna Mageau

  Cover Design ©2013 digitaldonna.com

  ISBN: 978-0-9917272-1-6

  Smashwords Editions License Notes:

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual people, alive or dead, business, establishments, locales or events is entirely coincidental. Any references to real events, business, organizations or locales are intended to only give the fiction a sense of realism and authenticity.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The Story is my creation but the journey is yours...

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Other Books by Maggie Thom

  The Caspian Wine Suspense/Thriller/Mystery Series

  Captured Lies – Book One

  She was kidnapped not once but twice… and now someone wants her dead!

  Deceitful Truths – Book Two

  Someone had stolen a week of her life… and now was trying to steal the secret she was desperately hiding.

  To get your free download: Start here

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty One

  Chapter Forty Two

  Chapter Forty Three

  Chapter Forty Four

  Chapter Forty Five

  Chapter Forty Six

  Chapter Forty Seven

  Chapter Forty Eight

  Chapter Forty Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty One

  Chapter Fifty Two

  Chapter Fifty Three

  Chapter Fifty Four

  Chapter Fifty Five

  Chapter Fifty Six

  Chapter Fifty Seven

  Chapter Fifty Eight

  Chapter Fifty Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Captured Lies

  Deceitful Truths

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Daddy, I love you.”

  “I love you too, punkin.”

  He touched the tip of her nose. She squealed in delight and touched his too. He smiled at her.

  “Shall we go see the baby birds?”

  She jumped up and down clapping her hands. “Oh yes. But we have to be quiet. Right, daddy?”

  “Yes, sweetheart. And we don't touch.”

  “I won’t. I won’t. I promise.”

  He squatted down in front of her. “Okay then, hop on and I’ll piggy back you. We have to walk through the water and over to the marsh area. I think it’s still a little deep for you.”

  She climbed onto his back, bouncing up and down, bobbing from one shoulder to the other, so she could watch where they were going. Her dad had on his waist-high rubber boots. He took her to really neat places when he wore those. He carefully stepped into the calm water.

  Then everything changed.

  He was laying face down in the lake. She touched him. “Daddy. Daddy,” she called but he didn’t move. She tickled him under the chin like she always did but still he laid there. She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him but she couldn't move him. Her tiny arms weren’t strong enough.

  “Help! Daddy! Help!” She screamed and screamed but nobody came. And she couldn’t leave him.

  Then the lake started to churn. To spin. To suck them both into its swirling vortex. Shaking with fear, she held on tight to him. The water started pulling them apart. One minute she was clinging to him, the next she was flung aside… tossed out… lying on the grass. With shaking arms, she struggled to get up. She could see him but he was now a long ways away... slowly disappearing… vanishing from her life.

  “No, Daddy. No. Please don’t leave me. Please don’t leave.” She stretched her arms out to him, like she had many times when she’d asked him to pick her up.

  “Daddddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”

  Chapter Two

  “You’re fired!”

  Sam’s hands slammed down on the arms of the office chair as she jerked forward. “Because some dude stole a necklace from his wife, pawned it and got the insurance for it? And I had the nerve to tell the story?”


  “You’re fired!”

  There was so much more she wanted to say to him, to tell him. It wasn’t fair that she was getting kicked to the curb, for other people’s lies and secrets. It wasn’t her fault that she felt truth should win out at all costs. Climbing to her feet, she stared hard at her boss, debating about telling him again why she’d written that story. The blue vein bulging from his forehead and the deep crimson color of his puffy cheeks, told her it was pointless and might just cause a heart attack.

  “The story didn’t run, so what’s the big deal?”

  His mottled face started to shake with fury. Sam picked up her coffee, which she was glad she’d set down when she came in, and took a step back. The last man she’d seen that angry had thrown a punch.

  “Only because I caught it. Nothing and I mean nothing, gets printed in this paper without my say so. Very sneaky Samantha. Not acceptable. You’re done here. And don’t worry, you won’t ever work in this industry again.”

  She shook her head hoping something would fall into place and this would all make sense. It wasn’t like it was any different than any of the other stories the newspaper wrote – they got details, or as many as they could and then skewed them sideways if that’s what made the tale sensational. Only she hadn’t needed to do that. The facts themselves had been enough to make the story astounding. For once the paper might have been able to print the truth and nothing but the truth. The informant who’d put her on to this situation had been right, it had been unbelievable. She wished she’d been able to thank him but that was part of the agreement – no names, no thank yous and no mention of where the story started. And she couldn’t tell anyone because it wasn’t actually supposed to have been hers to tell.

  “I’m fired.” It didn’t compute.

  “Of course. I don’t say things I don’t mean. Now get out.”

  She eyed Mr. Donner, the man that she’d thought she was going to have a lot of respect for, the man she’d envisioned thanking, in the future, for all he’d taught her. For taking her under his wing and making her the exceptional journalist that she was. Okay she knew that was crap but she had hoped that her initial ‘feeling’ about him had been wrong. Besides she figured that even if he wasn’t more than a pompous figurehead, there had to be some people at the paper that she could learn from. To date, unfortunately, she’d only been patted on the head and given the lame jobs. Still, she’d actually started to believe that this work might be her calling. Well, until she’d taken it into her head to run with a tip she’d been given. It hadn’t really been meant for her but since Tom hadn’t been at his desk when his phone had kept ringing and ringing, she’d figured it had been hers to run with since she’d been the one to answer the call. She had planned to show them what she could do and then that would have been the start to her amazing career.

  Another damn dream dashed.

  Without stopping to think about what she was doing or even taking the time to rationalize that this wouldn’t be in her best interest, she tossed her almost full cup of lukewarm coffee across the expansive cherry wood desk, into the face of the man who had been her supervisor for a few short months.

  “You bitch!” he screamed. He jerked awkwardly to his feet, only to step onto the leg of his office chair, pitching him forward. His large bulk flopped forward onto the desk, with a loud thud, landing spread-eagled over the almost immaculate surface.

  Her eyes widened in disbelief as she choked back a laugh. It was way past time for her to leave. She saluted with two fingers, spun on her heel, and scurried out the door, shutting it with a gentle click behind her. No point in enraging the man any further. Hurrying down three flights of stairs, she ran to her desk, opened the top drawer and pulled out her wallet, skimmed through the rest of the drawers to see if she had any other belongings, which she knew she didn’t but wanted to be thorough. It was highly unlikely she’d be back. Her hand brushed aside the USB key she’d been using to store information, totally against policy. She’d only been doing it because there was some amazing stuff – fact was more captivating than fiction – and she figured it might give her some ideas for the book she planned on writing someday. Another plan that she was sure would never take off but it was better to dream than to do nothing. Knowing she didn’t have time to erase it and couldn’t leave it to be found, she shoved it in her pocket. She reached out and unpinned the only other thing that belonged to her in her cubicle – a picture. She slid it into her back pocket, reminding herself to remove it as soon as she got home.

  “Where is she?”

  Not waiting to see if that bellow was for her, which she knew it was, she scurried out of her cubicle, doing a hunched over old lady impression as she raced down the aisle.

  “Samantha? Sam?”

  She kept her head low as she zipped out the exit door and headed down two more flights of stairs.

  “Samantha... Sammie... Sam... Will you wait up? Geez whiz.”

  Her co-worker Fred’s call was the last thing she wanted to hear. So she ignored it and didn’t stop until she’d reached the main floor.

  “See you, Suzanne.” She raced by.

  “Sam, you’re always in a hurry.”

  She wiggled her fingers at the receptionist as she cruised by thankful the phone rang at that moment, distracting her.

  A glance over her shoulder showed her Fred, a sixteen-year reporter at the Tennison Post and someone who had taken a real interest in her, huffing and puffing as he exited the stairwell.

  “Sam.”

  She stopped. “I’m in a hurry. Have to go.” Turning, she pushed her way out the front doors.

  “Is it true? Did you get fired?” He followed her out. “I told you not to go snooping. You should have listened to me. I could have saved you but now you’ve done it. You can’t be telling stories about the big boys. They don’t like that. I thought you understood that. That was the first thing I told you. I tried to teach you. You just refused to listen. Now look what you’ve done. I can’t fix it for you now.”

  How the hell did he know already? Were people standing outside the damn door?

  Stopping abruptly, she turned and faced the man who had been chasing her for the better part of a block. “I didn’t ask you to, Fred. I can look after myself. It had to be done and I was the only one with the balls to do it.”

  “Well, well, aren’t we high and mighty. You with no job and no one to help you.”

  The big brown eyes and protruding bottom lip were too much. It made her feel like she was kicking a puppy, one that had just stumbled over his own paws, looking befuddled and unsure of what reaction he was going to get from others.

  Her voice softened. “Look, I appreciate all that you tried to do for me and I’m sorry I’m taking this out on you but I really need to run.” Looking over his shoulder she saw security step out of the building. Shifting slightly, she made sure that Fred’s impressive bulk was blocking her from their view. Patting him gently on the cheek, she said, “gotta go. Thank you for looking out for me.”

  She spun around and dashed across the street, her transportation was just pulling up to the bus stop.

  “Can I call you sometime?”

  Groaning softly, she raised her hand and wiggled her fingers over her shoulder, hoping he would know that it meant goodbye. The driver was just closing the doors as she lunged through them.

  “Hi, George.”

  “You’re heading home early today.”

  She flashed him her bus pass. “Yeah. I just quit my job.”

  “Uh, you’re not looking at applying to be a bus driver again are you?”

  “No, your position is safe.” Not that there was any question about that. She’d seen an ad asking people to come and try a different career, that of being a bus driver. Since there were only two buses in the city, she’d known it was really to get more school bus drivers but since it was something she hadn’t done before, she thought she’d give it a try. A week of learning it had been more than enough. After
sideswiping over half the pylons in the large parking lot every day for five days, they’d encouraged her to try something else. Another failure to add to her long list.

  She plunked down into a seat halfway down the bus, ignoring the fifteen other riders. She leaned her head against the window and stared at nothing. The ride home was long but uneventful. Or at least she assumed so, since she didn’t remember it, other than to wonder how odd it was that on that day she’d chosen to take public transit. She normally only traveled on it Mondays and Wednesdays but never on Thursdays, that was her day to do her running around after work. Her mom would have told her it was an omen. That she had the ‘gift’ but Sam just put it down to just plain luck and the fact that she was broke and her car was almost out of gas.

  ~~~~

  “I’m sorry Mr. Ozz. It should never have come to this. She’s been fired. The story has been shut down and destroyed. No one will see it. I promise.”

  “You screwed up.”

  “Yes. Yes, I did. But I’ve fixed it. I assure you.”

  “This isn’t a little mistake. Strike Two.” The line went dead.

  Harry gulped. He’d had strike one before, in fact a few times before, but he’d always been able to redeem himself and erase that mark against him. Strike Two. He rubbed his damp hands on his pants. He tried to swallow but he didn’t seem to be able to force his throat to work. The spit in his mouth had dried up. Strike two, he’d never hit that before. He was pretty sure that anyone who had, wasn’t around to tell if he’d tried to redeem himself or not.

  A lone bead of sweat ran down his temple, across his cheek and dripped onto his chest. He’d always known there was a good chance he wouldn’t succeed. From the day he’d been appointed to the CEO position, the one he’d been groomed for, the one he’d stepped into with a lot of public outcry. Too many had known him, known the things he’d done. But he’d won them over. The right people in the right places had been paid off and had backed him. The public may not have liked him but they’d come to accept him. He didn’t want to think he’d become complacent, he’d always known that his neck was on the chopping block, literally but he couldn’t deny that he’d let himself get comfortable in his position. A little too comfortable, a little too distracted. He’d allowed himself to fall victim to all that he said he wouldn’t.