Page 2 of Vanish From Sight

“We will. Just give it five or ten minutes. You’re always listening to those spooky ghost stories. I figured you would get a kick out of this one.” He poured himself a cup and clambered over to her end to sit beside her. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “Okay, so back in September 1933, a well-known teacher from around these parts supposedly disappeared while rowing across the lake. No one had any idea where she went. She was the dean of an illustrious college. Apparently she was vacationing out here, a bit like us.”

He grinned and Caitlin slapped him on the leg. “Billy Crawford, you better not be pranking me.”

He laughed and she summoned a smirk.

“Shh. Let me finish. So, police dragged the lake, searched the surrounding mountain trails and came up empty-handed. Not asign. She was there one minute and the next, gone. The only thing they found was her capsized boat near the shore. Then get this… thirty years goes by and this diving group is out here on the lake, you know, doing their thing, having a little dig around to see what they could find, and they come across her preserved remains on a shelf about 95 feet down below the surface of the water.”

Caitlin listened intently, her eyes wide with wonder and fear.

“It seems there was a weight attached to a rope around her neck. They think it was suicide but no one could be sure. Too many years had passed to determine if she was murdered. Anyway, since that night, tourists and locals swear that the ghostly figure of a woman is seen hovering near that outcropping of rock over there. They say the spirit of the Lady of the Lake still haunts that spot ’til this very day.”

As she squinted to make out if she could see anything, Billy startled her by shouting, “Boo!”

Caitlin slapped him again and he roared with laughter.

“Billy!”

“You are so easy to scare.”

He studied her expression as Caitlin took a sip of her drink.

“Did you make that up?” she asked.

“No. I swear. It’s a true story.”

Caitlin shook her head. “Poor woman.”

“Apparently, she had a lot of bad luck in her life. Family and whatever.” Billy surveyed the surface of the rock, his eyes slowly descending before he glassed the lake. “Goes to show you that you can achieve a position in life but that career, money, none of that really matters if...” He trailed off, as he began squinting.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Can you see that?” he replied.

“Oh, stop, Billy.”

“No. Seriously Look out there,” he said, pointing toward a strange shape floating in the distance.

Caitlin followed the direction of his finger. Billy took out his flashlight and shone the beam outward, its warm light danced across the ripples. “Here, hold this,” he said, taking out the oars and paddling as fast as he could toward it.

“Billy. C’mon. Let’s go back.”

“I just want to get a closer look.”

“This better not be a joke.”

He didn’t answer. He was too focused on what was up ahead. As they approached the unusual object, he soon realized that it was a lifeless body floating face-down in the water. Billy took an oar and touched the tip of it against the shoulder, turning the face, just enough to see it wasn’t a mannequin but a woman. In fright, he almost dropped the oar.

“Holy crap.”

Frightened and unsure of what to do, he rowed back while Caitlin took out her phone and called the authorities.

2

Friday, November 18, 8:30 p.m.

It was a mystery.

Under the glare of the floodlights, Noah Sutherland stood beside the realtor, unable to believe it was true. He’d only been back in High Peaks a mere two weeks, living out of Aunt Gretchen’s spare room until he could find a place, when he received a call at his work from a local real estate broker. As Kerri was in real estate, he’d been having her handle the search for a property. With a limited budget, his options weren’t extravagant.