The Girl and the Cursed Lake (Emma Griffin FBI Mystery Book 12) Read online

  Jason's mother, trying to find out what happened to her son, searched his social media and discovered a picture of him in front of a cabin. She recognized the cabin and knew it was several miles from where they’d said they were going to hike. None of the four was seen or heard from again.

  "We’re in front of the cabin where Jason Zapinski took a picture. Cabin 13 of Arrow Lake Campground," Ken Abbott says, opening his arms out to the sides to indicate the small wooden cabin behind him. "To many people, it looks like just any of the other cabins throughout the campground. But this is not just another cabin. Jason, his cousin Gregory, and their friends came here for a reason. To see this particular cabin.

  “That's because Arrow Lake Campground, a small section within the park, is no idyllic summer camp. This area is no stranger to tragedy and horror. Three years before the four boys went missing, a little girl by the name of Violet Montgomery disappeared while vacationing at this campground with her parents. They were staying right in this cabin. Two months after her disappearance, her body was found in the woods, in a cavern in the mountains. Some say it was an accident, that she just wandered away and ended up succumbing to the environment. Others say it was impossible for her to find the cavern where she was discovered. Some experts also say her body didn't show signs of being out in the woods for any amount of time. Mystery continued to surround her disappearance. Park authorities undertook a full investigation, but they never found any evidence of foul play.

  “One year later to the day, Logan Boyer and Jimmy Grant, both aged 14, disappeared from this campground. They were staying at Cabin 12, just next door to the cabin where the Montgomerys had been staying. Several weeks later, Logan Boyer was found strangled. His body had been placed in his sleeping bag as if he was just camping in the woods. Jimmy was never found.

  “This horrific pattern continued for one more year. Once again, exactly on the anniversary of Violet's disappearance, three teenagers ventured into the woods. Terrence Walker, age 16, Dustin Connelly, age 15, and Brianna Ferrell, age 17. Terrence’s body was found by an old swimming hole, strangled in the same manner as Logan Boyer from the year before. Dustin suffered a more gruesome fate, with his body ripped apart by animals and scattered throughout the woods. Some of it has not been recovered. Just like Jimmy Grant, Brianna is still unaccounted for to this day. Those events caused the campground to be shut down. No one was allowed to camp here, and the lake was to remain empty.

  “Of course, that didn't stop the curious from venturing to Arrow Lake to find out what might be happening. But it wasn't until the four, Jason, Gregory, Ben, and Julian, came at the anniversary, that the curse seemed to strike again.

  “Who, or what is causing the tragedies throughout the Arrow Lake Campground?

  “The abandoned campground has been sleeping for years. But tonight is the thirteenth anniversary of the final disappearance. We are going to be here all night to investigate reports of screaming, wailing, splashes coming from the lake, lights in the cabins, and shadow figures. If the curse of Arrow Lake wants to make itself known, and I believe it will, we will be ready for it.

  “Let's get started."

  Ken stepped inside the cabin and looked around. His flashlight beam bounced off a dirty floor and a sagging, forgotten couch. He could smell the damp, dirty fabric and the stagnant air. Behind him, Elsie stepped in and headed for the other corner of the room to let her own light slice through the darkness that had gotten very comfortable with being there.

  It had been years since that door closed. The inside of the cabin seemed to know that. It didn't want to be found.

  The team moved around the small cabin, examining it to get a feel for where they were.

  "Those of you who have seen our investigations before might notice we're handling things a little bit differently. Usually, someone familiar with a location meets with us during daylight and gives us a tour, so we know where the most important spots are. Tonight, we're on our own. No one was willing to participate in this investigation and give personal insights into what happened. We have permission from the proper authorities to be here; other than that, it's just us. We'll have to go on our instincts and what we know about the horrible things that happened here to find out everything we can."

  When they were finished exploring with the flashlights, they turned them off and spoke directly to any spirits that might be in the area, using their equipment to try to capture voices. He was hoping for one of the screams that campers from other regions of the park had reported.

  The scream was from her. Violet. He knew it was. He'd read through the information made public from the case files so many times he could recite the interviews. One of them had been with the neighbor, Adrian Slatton, who’d told Detective Fitzgerald he’d heard a scream while he was taking trash out to the back of his cabin. He’d thought it was just children playing, but after he heard about the missing little girl, he realized it might not have been so harmless.

  The team finished their investigation inside Cabin 13, then moved to the back of Cabin 10, where Adrian Slatton had been staying. It was more rustic than the one where the Montgomery family had stayed. They hadn't upgraded this one as much, adding only electricity rather than the bathroom and kitchenette, as in the other. That meant it was only a square open space instead of having individual rooms. At the back, the heavy metal trash canister was still there. When the campground was in use, this kind of container prevented bears from coming in and rummaging through to find what the humans cast aside.

  Now, it was empty except for a few cast-aside beer cans. At least the trespassers who managed to come this way and get out alive had been courteous enough to throw away their trash rather than just leaving it on the ground. He'd seen plenty of locations destroyed by people with no respect or self-control who went to party and didn't bother removing any of the aftermath.

  The EVP sessions gathered nothing but static. Shadows moved in the darkness but were hard to point cameras at. No scratches, no calls, nothing. Nothing but silence.

  They repeated the process of listening for sounds, calling out to the spirits. Ken was getting angry. Just being there made him feel antsy and pissed him off. He hated not knowing. Years of death and disappearances, years of people coming here thinking they were going to have fun only to be hunted down, and no one knew what happened.

  He wanted to be the one to find the answer. Someone was going to tell him. He would be the one to find it. To dig deeper than the police ever had, because they were only willing to go to the surface. He was going to claw that surface away and find what was beneath it. Then they would know.

  The investigation had been carefully planned out. He wanted to go through every step of what happened. Tracing the events of those four brutal summers would get him in touch with those who were lost. More importantly, it could give him a chance to connect it with whoever was responsible.

  "Some say whoever committed these murders and caused the disappearances of the other campers is still here. But it has been ten years since there's been any sign. I believe that is evidence enough to indicate whoever committed these horrific offenses has already met with fate. And if that's the case, perhaps that is the cause of the negative energy and apparently malevolent spirit activity throughout Arrow Lake Campground. Tonight, as we continue to trace these crimes, I will be attempting to reach out to this person. It's time these families are given peace.

  “Now that we have investigated the cabins, it's time to go deeper. That cabin was the last place that little Violet was seen alive, but her story continues. We are now going to leave the campground and make our way to where they found her body. On request from the park and her parents, we are not going to show you how to access the remote spot where her body was found. I can tell you the cavern is small and difficult to locate. But I'm going to respect their wishes and protect the secrecy and sanctity of the location. We are live, so right now we will switch to a commercial break, then recap some footage while we make our way over to
the cavern. I'll see you when we get there."

  The camera turned off and they started the trek to the out-of-the-way corner of the park where the cavern was located. It was the only place they’d visited before the investigation that night. A hiker familiar with the area had shown it to him so they would know how to get there. Ken was glad he had. The spot was a good distance from the campground and deep in the woods away from the most popular trails.

  It was hard to find even in daylight. In the dark, it would have been impossible.

  They waited until they were halfway up the ridge to the cavern to turn the cameras back on.

  “So, as you can see, we are quite literally in the middle of nowhere. You can see us pretty clearly right now because of the night vision cameras, but it is unbelievably dark out here. There are no light sources through the vast majority of the national park, and that is extremely noticeable when you get out here to these areas that aren't used very often. Again, we weren't able to show you the walk to this place because both the park rangers and Violet’s parents prefer as few people as possible to know how to access this place.

  “As has been demonstrated, people are curious and want to go to the locations of incidents such as disappearances and murders. You saw some evidence of that in the cabin. I'm sure there are a lot of people who want to know what happened and want to run their own investigations, and there are people who just want to pay their respects. But there are also people who would vandalize and disrespect the location, so we are going to keep it private.

  “But if you look around, you'll see we are far away from just about everything. Some people say Violet wandered out here on her own and climbed into the cavern, where she died of dehydration. Of course, there wasn't an autopsy because of the condition of her body when they found her, so there is no way to be absolutely sure. But I'll put it this way. I'm a grown adult man who is not only familiar with climbing around and walking through all kinds of terrain, I'm dressed for hiking, including boots and thick jeans. I was also guided up here the first time. And it was still difficult as hell to get here. I'm bruised up. I tripped a couple of times. And it took a couple of tries to get to just this spot. I'm about fifteen feet down from the cavern.

  “When Violet was found, she was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. I have a very difficult time believing a four-year-old girl would be able to get up there without serious injury. That being said, however she got here, this is where her body was found two months after her disappearance. She was discovered by a very experienced hiker who was on a long-term camping trip and looking for shelter from an upcoming storm. Jeremy, if you can point the camera right up the rocks, I'm going to try to direct my flashlight so you can see the entrance to the cavern.

  “Do you see that? Even from down here, it just kind of looks like a gap between the rocks. There isn't a defined area that looks like a cave, and there's definitely not a lot of space around it. That is what anyone hiking around this area would see. And unless they were really familiar with the area, they wouldn't have any idea that there was a cavern up there. That's what caused little Violet to go unnoticed for two months. If it wasn't for that one hiker, it could have been much longer before she was found.

  “Elsie, since you're a woman, I think you should go up there alone and see if you feel anything. This was a very small child. If she was alive when she went into that cavern, she would be scared and confused. She probably wanted her mother. A woman would be comforting to her. Why don't you go up there and sit in the cavern for a bit and see if anything happens?"

  Elsie agreed and started up the rocks. She carried a small camera of her own and was holding it while also trying to keep some of the light from her flashlight trained on her feet to stop herself from stepping on something loose or slippery and tumbling down.

  Ken watched her progress, describing what he was seeing and hearing to the camera. It was important to differentiate the sounds of a regular night of nature from those that were unexplained.

  “I mentioned there are people who believe Violet simply wandered away and got lost. In fact, that is considered the official theory by the park authorities. But something not many people know, and something law enforcement doesn’t want you to know, is that the case was never closed. It is still an open investigation, and there’s one important detail that is usually left out when talking about this case. There was a witness who …”

  Elsie reached the top of the rocks and briefly disappeared as he was saying the sentence. He never got to finish it.

  "Holy shit! Ken!" Elsie shouted from above his head. "Ken, get up here. Now."

  "It sounds as if Elsie might have captured something she wants to share with us. I'm going to attach my camera and climb up…"

  "Ken, now!"

  He was making his way up toward the cavern when Elsie rushed from the mouth of the cavern and reached out for a tree. Grabbing onto it, she covered her mouth with her hand and turned away from the camera.

  "What's going on?" Ken asked. "Elsie, what happened?"

  She shook her head and moved her hand, drawing in a breath before turning to him.

  "Something is in that cavern," she said.

  "Did you hear something? Did you record it?" Ken asked.

  "No. Ken. There are bones."

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Investigation…

  Ken's face fell and he scrambled to the outcropping where he could look into the cavern. Taking his flashlight off his belt, he shined it into the gap in the rocks. At first, he didn't see anything. A couple of rocks and a few scattered branches on the floor could have confused Elsie, but he didn't know her to be irrational. Usually, she was well under control and looked at everything with a cooler and less impulsive mind than he did.

  It was part of why they were a good team. They could go into the same situation and see it completely differently. While he was more likely to jump into things and make faster assumptions and conclusions, Elsie had a more analytical mind. She liked to look at situations and break them down carefully, approaching them with the belief that logic and calm were the best ways to dismantle skepticism.

  But there she was, struggling to breathe, her eyes wild. She’d obviously seen something that disturbed her. Even scared her.

  Ken took a step further into the cavern, bending down so he could sweep the beam of his light across the entire space. Only a second later, he saw what she had. The small camera attached to his shoulder captured every second.

  At first, his brain couldn't process what he was seeing. It didn't make sense. It shouldn't be there. Yet it was. A dirty, dingy sleeping bag, torn and streaked with mud, spread across the back corner of the cavern. But it wasn't the sleeping bag itself that bothered him or set off the alarm bells now ringing so loudly in his head he could barely hear himself think.

  Instead, it was the hand prominently sticking out of the top of the bag. Nothing but bone. The hand seemed to be reaching for something, as though someone inside was trying to climb out and had been for many years.

  Forgetting to talk, forgetting there were people watching him live, he approached the bag without saying a word. He didn't describe what was happening or turn off his camera so the audience couldn't watch. He was lost in the moment, unable to stop himself as he reached down and moved the edge of the bag aside. It opened and Ken gasped, scrambling back a few steps.

  Deep in the bag, surrounded by dirt and leaves, was a pile of old bones.

  His flashlight fell from his hand as he ran out of the cavern. Scrambling down the rocks, he commanded anybody who could hear him and had a phone on them to call the police. It wasn't until his feet were back on the makeshift path leading to the rocks that he felt in control again. He took back his leadership and got the attention of the other four members of the team.

  “We're going back to the campground,” he said. “We need to get somewhere more centralized so the police can find us. Then we'll lead them back to the cavern. Turn your lights on to be aware of your s
urroundings. I’ll call the police myself when we get back to the campground. We need that documented. Jeremy, turn off the camera.”

  Ken didn't know how the producers would handle the sudden cut of the stream, but all he cared about was not showing how to access the cavern while they were on camera. It was the agreement the team and the producers had made with the powers that be, who gave them permission to do the special in the park. He wasn't going back on it now. Especially now that the cavern was proving itself another crime scene.

  He couldn't be held responsible. He couldn't even give himself the appearance of being responsible. This wasn't on him.

  An eerie chill traced his skin and ran up and down his spine as they made their way back through the pitch-dark words toward the campground. He felt sharply aware of everything around him. Every sound exploded and every rustle of air made the hair stand up on his arms and the back of his neck. The trek to the cavern was long, but it seemed to stretch on far beyond its original length on their way back.

  When they got back to the campground, one of the sound crew tried to make the call, but his phone wouldn't work. Finally, Ken looked toward the camera and had Jeremy turn it on.

  "Hey, guys. I'm sorry for the shutdown. I appreciate your sticking with me. We've encountered a very unexpected situation and are trying to handle it as best we can. Right now, I'm asking that if any of you are in the area of Hollow River Mountain or its surrounding cities, please call the police for us. Our local intranet is connected to an unmanned truck, so we can broadcast this live to you, but apparently, we cannot make phone calls. Please, tell them who we are and that we are at the Arrow Lake campground. Thank you guys so much for staying with us. This is a really surprising turn of events, and we're going to keep you right here with us as much as we can. Does this mean the curse has come back for another year?"