Secrets at Spawning Run Read online

  He laughed. “You don’t want much, do you?”

  “Well, you asked me, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, guess I did. We’d better get moving if we’re going to film all that,” Luke said, grinning.

  Aurora buckled on her life vest and draped one arm over King’s neck. The big dog licked her face and the two settled back to enjoy the ride.

  “Want a towel?” Luke asked. Aurora laughed.

  “How about videotaping the Virginia Dare? She’s a paddle wheeler made out-of-state and trucked to Virginia over ten years ago,” Luke said.

  “Great idea. I’m sure locals know about her, but those unfamiliar with the area could use this information. Do they still run dinner cruises?”

  “Yeah. I think they have lunch cruises, too, as well as non-meal related ones. Carole and I took a dinner cruise a few months ago. We both enjoyed it.”

  Aurora enjoyed working with Luke. He supplied tidbits of local lore about the lake that she either had forgotten or didn’t know. She knew the thick forests bordering parts of the lake were home to deer, black bears and bobcats. She hadn’t heard that coyotes had moved into the area or that the population of bald eagles had increased in the last ten years.

  “I’ve heard a few reports of mountain lion sightings over near the dam, but I’ve never seen one,” Luke said. He pointed out the vacation homes of a couple of best-selling authors and a former actress, and showed Aurora the area where a record-breaking striper was hooked. “My friend Jim caught it. I think the smile is still on his face.”

  The afternoon seemed to fly by. At 5:30, Luke suggested they anchor at the mouth of a large cove and wait for the sunset. The wait proved worthwhile. A spectacular bright orange sun shot vivid streaks of red, gold, yellow and gray into the sky. Aurora stretched out across the boat’s bow and photographed a sailboat sailing through the sun’s reflection in the water.

  “Wow! That’s what I call a million-dollar shot,” she said. Luke agreed.

  A ring-ring-ring from Aurora’s tote bag interrupted the sunset magic.

  “I can’t believe you brought a cell phone with you,” Luke exclaimed, shaking his head. Grinning sheepishly, Aurora dug in her bag for her phone.

  “Hello.”

  “Aurora, Doc Eggleston here. I’ve finished checking out Little Guy. He was in pretty bad shape, but he’ll make it. He’s a feisty one.”

  Aurora sighed with relief. Little Guy would be okay. Doc said so.

  “When can I pick him up?”

  “I need to keep him here a couple of days. I think the wound on his side was made by a bullet.”

  “Somebody shot Little Guy? Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, I am. He’s a lucky dog; any deeper and the bullet would’ve done major internal damage. The wound’s infected and he’s running a fever. I’ll call you if there’s any change for the worse.”

  Aurora thanked Doc and told him she’d check on Little Guy in the morning. She hung up and promptly burst into tears. She struggled to regain her composure, then looked sheepishly at Luke.

  “Sorry for that. I’m fine now.”

  “What happened?”

  “Around lunch time today, King barked to come in the house. I opened the door and in he trotted with a dirty little dog close behind him. The dog was limping badly. I examined him, then gave him a bath. I could tell he had some nasty wounds on him, so I bundled him in a beach towel and rushed him to Doc Eggleston. I left him there. Didn’t want to miss our two o’clock appointment.”

  “I would’ve understood, Aurora. I like dogs. What kind is he?”

  “A Jack Russell terrier. I call him Little Guy.”

  On the ride back to Aurora’s house, Luke watched Aurora drape her arm around King’s neck. The compassion she had for a stray, injured little dog didn’t surprise him.

  Back at the dock, Aurora and King stepped out of the boat. “Luke, thank you so much for a wonderful and productive afternoon. Thanks to you, I got some great shots.”

  Luke smiled. “Glad I could help. Do you think you’ll need me again?”

  “Since you asked, yes. Would you be available to photograph the sunrise tomorrow morning?”

  Luke groaned, knowing they’d have to be on the water early, but he liked Aurora and wanted her to get the pictures she needed. Besides, it would help Carole, too, and that’s why he became involved in the first place. Gratis, of course. Somehow Carole usually managed to involve her friends in all her ventures.

  “If you insist. Just don’t make a habit of asking me to get up that early. Can you meet me here at 4:30 tomorrow morning?”

  “I’ll be here. Thanks, Luke.” He waved goodbye and pushed off from the dock.

  Aurora and King ran up the path to the house—she, energized by creative thoughts of this project; he, by visions of his dinner. Inside, Aurora poured dry, chunky dog food into King’s blue and white dog bowl and set it on the floor. It’s really bad when even a dog bowl makes me cry. She wiped a tear from one eye. Her mother had bought the bowl at Emerson Creek Pottery for Duke, the family’s Lab, when Aurora was fifteen. She shoved thoughts of her mother aside and put the lake tape into the VCR. Too excited to fix a from-scratch meal, she popped a frozen dinner into the microwave and turned on the TV.

  As she watched the footage and ate her meal, Aurora paused the tape often to admire several new residential communities. She knew she’d use some of the incredible wide-water mountain-view shots from Saunders Parkway Marina in the promo, as well as shots of the sunset from the same location.

  I’ll start the piece with a sunrise, then end with a sunset, she decided, but first I need to make an outline. As Aurora watched the video, she paused the tape often to make notes. She knew much editing would be necessary, and she still wanted good footage of a brave soul parasailing 500 feet above the water. Three hours later she stood and stretched, then fixed popcorn dripping with melted butter just the way she liked it. She poured herself a glass of Chablis and thought how glad she was that Sam wasn’t here to lecture her about eating all that butter. Aurora continued reviewing the tape and taking notes until bedtime.

  She showered and went to bed, but nightmares of calm water suddenly turning into huge waves with dead bodies floating in the lake kept waking her. Are these dreams premonitions of what will come? In desperation, she inserted a classical music CD into the player on her nightstand and finally drifted off to sleep.

  A gentle nudge and soft growl from King awakened Aurora. Immediately alert, she crept out of bed in the pitch-black room and padded barefoot to the open window overlooking the water. She flicked a switch, and light flooded the entire exterior of the house, boathouse, and dock. A man cursed and a boat roared out of the boathouse.

  Exhausted, Aurora went back to bed, but she couldn’t sleep. Why had a strange boat entered her boathouse for the second time in a week? She knew that in mid-April the stripers were fair game and fishermen were out en masse, often all night long. But if someone were just fishing, why the profanity when the light came on? And why speed away?

  She reached for the telephone to call Sam, then stopped. Don’t be ridiculous, Aurora. It’s two-thirty in the morning, Sam is in Augusta, there’s nothing he can do. Besides, he doesn’t have a suspicious bone in his body, trusts everyone. He’d probably tell me to rein in that big imagination, say there’s nothing to worry about.

  “It was probably just a fisherman, King. Let’s try to get some sleep.”

  At 4:25, Aurora and King walked to the lighted dock to wait for Luke. “The water looks different this morning,” she said to King.

  Sploosh. Splat. Beside the dock and just inside the boathouse, large fish broke the water’s surface.

  They must be feeding on something to be that active. King growled and the hair stood up on the back of his neck.

  “It’s okay, King,” she laughed. “It’s just some carp or stripers. You’re not accustomed to being on the dock this early. Me either, thank goodness.” She patted her dog, then turne
d when she heard a boat approaching. Luke waved and pulled up to the dock.

  Quickly Aurora passed her cameras and tripods to Luke and stepped into the boat. King, still growling, followed reluctantly.

  “What’s with him? Did he get up on the wrong side of his dog bed?” Luke asked.

  “Looks that way, doesn’t it? Actually, neither King nor I slept well last night—a boat paid a quick visit to my boathouse in the middle of the night. I think King’s a little miffed that he couldn’t go chase them away himself. And when we came down to the dock a few minutes ago, lots of fish were rolling. I guess they were feeding on something or spawning, but King didn’t like it. I think he thought that if he showed his displeasure by growling, the fish would leave.” Luke and Aurora both laughed.

  “You know, don’t you, that stripers don’t spawn in Smith Mountain Lake,” Luke said. “The lake is stocked annually with striped bass fingerlings.”

  “I know few stripers are able to reproduce here. But they still spawn.”

  “No, they don’t. Aurora, they can’t reproduce in this lake.”

  “But the stripers don’t know that, so they go through the act of spawning. I’ve seen it happen many times.”

  “Aurora, you’re a hopeless romantic.”

  “I know. And I like being that way.”

  As they motored away from the dock, Aurora opened up her camera bag and removed the video camera, 35mm camera, digital camera and two tripods.

  “Don’t know if these will help any,” said Luke, “but last night I threw together a couple of wooden frames for your tripods.” He pointed to the frames already attached to swivel seats.

  “How thoughtful, Luke. Thank you. But I’m sure you didn’t just ‘throw them together.’ They look much too sturdy for that.” Luke smiled.

  Slowly they motored out of the cove and cruised out to the main channel. Luke dropped anchor about 30 feet from shore and offered Aurora a cup of steaming, black coffee from his thermos.

  “Thanks. Coffee will taste great right now.” She wrapped her chilly hands around the hot cup.

  Luke volunteered to shoot with the 35mm camera so Aurora could concentrate on getting pictures with the digital and video cameras. They bolted the video camera onto one of the wooden frames and turned on the cameras. Then they settled back to wait for the sun.

  “So, Luke, do you have any other ideas for the promo? I realized last night that I still need a shot of someone parasailing, but can you think of anything else we’ve missed?” She finished her coffee and set the mug down.

  “How about somebody wake boarding?”

  “Great idea. Maybe—”

  “Look out, Aurora! They’re gonna ram us!”

  Out of the darkness, a speedboat zoomed straight toward them. At the last second, the speeding boat veered sharply to starboard, missing them by inches. The turbulence created by the boat’s wake nearly capsized Luke’s smaller craft. Aurora grabbed hold of the seat with one hand and the gunwale with the other. Luke did the same. King, who’d been dozing on the bow, fell overboard. As the surprised dog swam to the side of the boat, Luke reached out, grabbed his collar, and hauled him back in. After examining King for injuries and making sure all equipment was still intact, Luke picked up the two bailers he always kept on board, tossed one to Aurora, and they bailed water from the boat. Both seethed with anger.

  “We could’ve been killed! Why he didn’t hit us, I don’t know!” cried Aurora as she continued to bail. “He must be crazy. Or drunk. We even had our running lights on. You know he saw us.”

  “He saw us, all right. And he had no running lights.” His thoughts racing, Luke frowned. “Aurora, have you noticed anything strange since you’ve been here?”

  “Well, a few things had been moved around in the house sometime before I arrived last Thursday. One night I thought I heard gun shots, but decided it was a car backfiring or thunder. Oh, I almost forgot—you were with me when Doc Eggleston told me that Little Guy had a gunshot wound. And a boat went in my boathouse a couple of nights ago, and King’s been antsy a lot. Last night he woke me, and when I turned on the outside lights I heard cursing, and then a boat shot out of the boathouse. Probably just some fishermen netting stripers illegally, don’t you think?”

  “You’re probably right, but please be extra cautious from now on. And keep King with you at all times, okay?” His concern for Aurora surprised him; he’d just met her yesterday.

  Aurora laughed. “I can barely take two steps without King beside me.”

  “Good.” Then he pointed. “Look over there. The sun’s rising.” Aurora quickly swiveled the video camera into position and started taping.

  They returned to Aurora’s dock a little after 7:00.

  “Luke, would you like to come up to the house? I’ll fix us some breakfast.”

  He grinned. “I’d be an idiot to refuse. Can’t resist good home cookin’.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Once they were in the house, Aurora said, “Why don’t you review the video footage we shot this morning while I fix breakfast. The VCR is over there,” Aurora said, pointing in its direction.

  “Good idea.” Luke removed the tape from the camera, put the tape in the machine, then settled back on the sofa.

  Aurora hurried into the kitchen and turned her attention to preparing scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and, her favorite, grits—with puddles of butter, of course.

  “Aurora, this is incredible!” Luke cried. “You’ve gotta come see this now!”

  She turned off the gas burner and hurried over to view the TV screen just as Luke finished rewinding the tape. He hit “Play,” and they saw the speedboat heading straight for them. Unable to recognize the people on board in the early morning light, they did, however, get a good look at the boat.

  “I hadn’t turned off the camera!” Aurora exclaimed. “They came so fast that all I thought about was staying in the boat.”

  “You know, I think those two fools were looking directly at us. Aurora, I don’t think this encounter was an accident.”

  “But why in the world would they want to harm you, Luke?”

  “I don’t believe I’m their target. I don’t want to scare you, but I think they’re after you, Aurora. Have you noticed anything else unusual since you’ve been at the lake?”

  Aurora frowned and shrugged her shoulders. “Only what I told you earlier.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll go do the dishes after we eat if you’ll think about what I just asked. See if you can remember anything that would cause someone to want to scare you. Make a list of everything that’s happened since you arrived on Thursday. And I mean everything. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  When they finished breakfast, Luke took the dirty dishes to the kitchen and Aurora picked up a pencil and note pad. She thought back to the day she arrived after her mother’s funeral, and started writing.

  Thursday:

  Afternoon- arrived, rescued grebe, found necklace;

  Late afternoon- read on dock, watched grebes;

  Early evening- back up to house, fed King, retrieved

  book from dock, saw boat go in/out of boathouse,

  Sam called;

  Evening- read book.

  Friday:

  Morning- faced memories and “ghosts” in basement,

  saw picture frames Dad made, wrote thank-you notes;

  Afternoon- wrote thank-you notes;

  Evening- read book, heard noise that sounded like

  gun shots or car backfiring.

  Saturday:

  Morning- call from Sam, wrote thank-you notes;

  Afternoon- stayed inside, read novel;

  Sunday:

  Morning- went to church, St. Stephen’s, Forest;

  Afternoon- ate lunch with old friends from church,

  went Jefferson Choral Society concert in Lynchburg;

  Evening- played with King, talked to Sam, looked at

  old photo albums, cried a little.

 
Monday:

  Morning- call from Sam, wrote thank-you notes;

  Afternoon- canoed, boat with woman and man came

  to dock (woman wants to breed female with King).

  Tuesday:

  Morning- call from Carole about promo, called Sam,

  Biff came, Little Guy appeared, took Little Guy to vet;

  Afternoon- went with Luke to shoot scenes of lake,

  made plans for shooting sunrise Wed. a.m. early;

  Night- awakened by King, saw boat leave boathouse.

  Wednesday:

  Morning- met Luke at dock, nearly rammed by boat,

  videotaped sunrise, reviewed tape.

  Aurora twisted a strand of her hair as she contemplated what she’d written. She had talked with Sam every day; canoed once; twice she’d been with Luke.

  “Except for boats being in my boathouse a couple of nights, there isn’t anything on this list that would warrant an attack on me.” Aurora paused, then added in a teasing tone, “Although you and I have ‘been together’ twice. Do you have a jealous significant other, perhaps?” she called into the kitchen where Luke was finishing the breakfast dishes.

  “Actually, I do. I’m almost engaged to a great gal, but she isn’t the jealous type.” Then he said, brown eyes twinkling, “But she’s never seen you, either.”

  Aurora blushed. But she said only, “Thank you for doing the dishes. It wasn’t necessary.”

  “I do ‘em at my place all the time. Kind of a habit, I guess.

  “Aurora, is this your husband in the picture with you?”

  “The one on the wall by the kitchen door?”

  “Yeah.”