Skimming Over the Lake by P.D. Workman

Author:P.D. Workman [Workman, P.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: pd workman

CHAPTER TEN

“When was the last time each of you saw Simon?” Siever asked.

They looked at each other.

“He wasn’t here Sunday,” Larry answered. The others were giving him dirty looks for being the first to speak up, but he ignored them. “Was he here last Tuesday? He’s usually here every time I am… he likes to get his boats out whenever he gets the opportunity.”

“He was here Tuesday, a week ago,” Vernon agreed. “Same as he is every week.”

“Were you surprised not to see him on Sunday, then?” Siever pressed.

“Well, yes. A couple of us said something about it. Wonder what happened to Simon. Maybe he’s sick. Just the usual stuff in passing.”

“Anyone call him to find out if everything was okay?”

Heads shook. They weren’t close enough to be comfortable calling him up, even if they thought that he might be sick. But of course they hadn’t had any reason to believe that anything bad had happened to him. Just because a guy didn’t make it to one regular boating day, that didn’t mean that there was anything wrong. He could have been working, visiting his mother, getting a vaccination. A hundred other things.

“So the last time any of you saw him was last Tuesday?” Margie asked.

They all nodded, some more emphatically than others.

“How did he seem then?”

Looks were exchanged. People thought back, tried to remember clearly.

“No different than usual,” Larry said. “Simon was Simon.”

“Yeah. Just the same,” Monica agreed.

“He wasn’t upset about anything?”

“Well… Simon was usually upset about something. He liked to complain and make a big drama over little things,” Larry contributed, picking his words carefully.

“Larry!” Monica reprimanded.

“Well, it’s true. Are you going to deny that it’s the truth?”

“No… I just don’t think… you need to make it sound like he’s a bad person. He complained, but a lot of people do. Something bothers you, you go rant to your friends about it for a while, and then you feel better. That’s the way society is these days. Did he argue any more than the average person…?” Monica opened her mouth to answer her own question “No,” then stopped, looking stricken.

“Yes,” several of the others answered together.

They all looked at each other. Monica was still trying to bring herself to say no, he was just like anyone else, but she couldn’t seem to manage it, knowing that it was a lie.

“Well… maybe,” she admitted. “A little.”

“A lot,” Larry corrected. “He always had something stuck in his craw. You know it’s true.”

“But that doesn’t mean that he was dramatizing. Some people just have… a more negative outlook at life. Maybe he had a difficult childhood.”

“I’m sure his mother thought he had a difficult childhood,” Terry said dryly.

“You guys! I don’t know how you can joke about this, or not think about the fact that Simon is dead! He’s dead, and you’re joking about him or saying things about him that are… exaggerations.”

“Was there something in particular that he was upset about on Tuesday?” Margie interposed.

“That’s a long time ago now,” Larry said, shaking his head.

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