Turn Point Massacre by D W Ulsterman

Author:D W Ulsterman [Ulsterman, D W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

18.

“I was wondering when I’d see you again. Are you here to buy a boat?”

Adele recognized the voice and turned around to see Lawrence smiling up at her from his wheelchair. He looked exactly the same as when she had seen him before right down to the plastic bucket at his feet and the sticks in his lap.

“No, I’m actually looking for someone.”

“Is that right? Are they in there?” Lawrence pointed at the door of the Blue Waters Yacht Sales office that occupied the corner space of the Cap Sante Marina business complex. An online search during the ferry ride over listed Maxine Box as the receptionist.

“I think so.”

Lawrence lit a cigarette. “Are you feeling better? Last time we spoke there were some tears involved.”

“I’m fine. Thanks.”

Tobacco smoke swirled around Lawrence’s head. “Good to hear it. Make you a bubble for good luck?”

“I don’t need luck. I just need to find out if the person I’m looking for is inside.”

“Don’t need luck? Nonsense. Everyone could use some luck. Here, it’ll just take a second.” The cigarette dangled from Lawrence’s lips as he dipped the sticks into the bucket and then lifted them high over his head. A bubble formed, hovered, but then crashed to the ground. “Not enough wind,” he said. “Sorry about that.”

Adele smiled. “No need. I appreciate the gesture.”

“Hey, will you look at that? There must be at least a dozen of those things fighting over something right over there. See?” Lawrence pointed to a throng of squalling white-speckled starlings in the parking lot. “Shoo,” he cried out while tapping one of the sticks on the sidewalk. “You leave that poor thing be.”

When the starlings hopped back for a few seconds, Adele was able to see what had them so excited. It was the body of a baby robin. Most of its feathers had already been plucked away by the hungry starlings, leaving a bloody, tattered mess. The starling throng descended again, their thin yellow beaks hungrily tearing off the bits of flesh that remained.

Lawrence wrinkled his nose. “Nasty things. They eat the babies of other birds. Babies, eggs, they steal them right out of the nests and then take over the nests. The only good starling is a dead one. That’s what my mother always said.”

Adele couldn’t take her eyes off the gruesome scene. She flinched each time a starling’s beak jabbed into the corpse. The body would be picked up by one starling and then ripped away by another.

A shadow moved across the parking lot. Adele looked up just as a raven dropped down into the middle of the starling mass. The smaller birds cried out angrily as they backed away. The baby robin lay at the raven’s feet.

The starlings fluttered together, held their ground, and then hopped forward as one, clearly intending to take back their meal. The raven was three times the size of the starlings. It spread its wings wide, lowered its head, and stared down the feathered mob with its unblinking, coal-black eyes.

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