Warm, Yummy, Wet & Salty: Black Star Canyon: Book 2 (Black Star Canyon Mystery Novel) Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Exclusive FREE Download

  Previously In Black Star Canyon

  1 - The Morning After

  2 - Tunnel Vision

  3 - Ignoramouses

  4 - Hart Attack

  5 - Better Late Than Never

  6 - The Red Room

  7 - The Harkers

  8 - Tying the Perfect Tie

  9 - The Hallway

  10 - Apple Pucker

  11 - The Great Escape

  12 - Special Delivery

  13 - Here and There

  14 - A Fish Story

  15 - The Cracking World

  16 - Very Strong Words

  17 - Going Home

  18 - The Fool

  19 - VHS

  20 - Black Star Cafe

  21 - Three Years Tops

  22 - The Silent Partner

  23 - Worth Every Penny

  24 - Minute to Minute

  25 - Pie and Bacon

  26 - Black Star Bear

  27 - Strawberry Syrup

  28 - The Spot

  29 - The Lemon Jellies

  30 - Mothers

  31 - Rowboat

  32 - Fathers

  33 - Guilt

  34 - Just Like Old Times

  35 - Civic Pride

  36 - The Gang’s Back Together

  37 - Remains

  38 - Like a Shark

  39 - Wasting Time

  40 - The Chunky Version

  41 - The Ice Cube Mixer

  42 - The Mop Bucket

  43 - Behind the Red Door

  44 - Not Alone

  45 - Spelling It Out

  46 - With A Cherry On Top

  47 - Moe Eastman

  48 - Above All Things

  49 - Quietly Looking For Answers

  50 - Dirty Glass

  51 - Walking Away

  52 - Out of the Woods

  53 - It’s All in the Name

  54 - Popcorn

  55 - The Last Place Ever

  56 - Burn In Hell

  57 - A Beautiful Day

  58 - Strength In Numbers

  59 - I Dare You

  60 - Awkward Reunions

  61 - Judge Judge

  62 - Birds Of A Feather

  63 - Riding Into The Sunset

  64 - First Trip Out

  65 - Smart Guy

  66 - The Campout

  67 - Lookout Point

  Find out what happens next!

  Don't forget!

  Get in touch

  Black Star Canyon Book 2:

  Warm, Yummy, Wet & Salty

  by C.C. Wall

  Cover by Zoe Wall

  Edited by Jeff Yates

  Copyright © 2014, 2017 C.C. Wall. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locations, is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole prohibited.

  This book was originally released in a slightly different form as Black Star Canyon: The Complete Second Season.

  Get Welcome to Black Star Canyon FREE!

  This tour guide to the town has history, local legends, a map, clues and so much more!

  Plus, it’s written by town historian Ernest Wilson.

  And it’s free.

  Previously in Black Star Canyon…

  - Eugene decided that he wants to be the next mayor of Black Star Canyon.

  - After accusing Jonathan for being involved in the murders and what happened to Elizabeth, Jonathan asked for Sue’s resignation.

  - Lukas chased Hoodie into the crowd at Cook’s and while trying to stop Hoodie from killing Jason Harker, Lukas accidentally shot and killed Michelle Roth.

  - Sue is horrified to find the red door opened.

  - After a terrifying dream, Jason wakes to find that he is horribly disfigured and attacked Bekka and Eric before abducting Jen.

  - Drunk and depressed, Lukas took a bottle of pills and dropped to the floor of his apartment. He then found the body of Jane Doe hidden under his bed with his last dying breath.

  1 - The Morning After

  Sheriff Reagan didn’t sleep well that night. He was troubled and his mind was racing. He hated having his mind race. He would much rather have his mind still or swimming in bourbon. He grabbed his things and headed outside. It was a beautiful day out, but something wasn’t quite right. Reagan couldn’t tell if it was just his mood or if the birds really weren’t chirping like they normally do. He loved having a place out in the middle of nowhere with no one around, but that morning, it made him feel alone. He was about to get into his squad car but then looked over at his old beat up truck. He let out a heavy sigh and decided the truck was a better way to go. He needed the comfort of something old and close to him.

  The door creaked loudly as he opened it. The shocks squeaked as he pulled himself into it and dropped on the torn up bench seat. Reagan felt an ease come over him when he slammed the heavy metal door shut. He smiled when the engine finally started after being turned a few times. He didn’t put on his seat belt because his truck would never do anything to hurt him he thought. They had been through enough that they had a mutual trust. As he pulled off his property, he opened a beer that was sitting in a cooler on the floorboard. It had been there for about a week, but he needed it. He took a big sip out of the can, then spent the next minute sucking the beer out of his long grey mustache that hung over his lip. He noticed that the truck wasn’t really running very good. He felt a bit upset for a moment then realized that he isn’t running very good either. He figured that they both had been around long enough that they were allowed to not feel great all the time.

  “Let’s just see if we can make it through this week girl,” he said, “I think it might be a bit of a bitch.”

  He made sure to finish the beer before he pulled into the main part of town. He crushed the can and threw it down on the floorboard. He would have grabbed another if there was one there.

  The town felt different that morning too. Almost as if its innocence was gone. Almost as if something happened the night before that would change the town forever. Something did happen and Reagan knew it. The problem was that Reagan thought he knew what the problem was. He had no idea that there were more problems that had come crushing down on Black Star Canyon just hours before.

  Reagan didn’t see another soul in town as he drove into the station. That was a strange thing. Usually, the same people were in the same spots every morning doing the same thing. Town historian, Ernest Wilson, would be walking over to the Black Star Cafe to get a cup of coffee and a doughnut. Helen Lee, the owner of the cafe, would be there sweeping the front stoop. Zoe Wood, the owner of the general store, and town gossip, would be hosing the sidewalk down in front of her shop and then when Reagan would drive by he would slow down and holler out the window, “Use a broom! You’re wasting water!” and then Zoe would crinkle her face up like she just ate a lemon and smelled a dirty diaper and say, “Piss off sheriff!” Then Reagan would smile and tell her to have a good day and drive off to the station. These things were like clockwork, but that morning, it would not have surprised him if he saw tumbleweeds rolling through the town’s streets.

  Once he got inside the station, he was assaulted by the barrage of rings coming from all the phones in the station. He thought it strange and decided to investigate. The only person there was Deputy Reed. He was standing between four different desks trying to answer all the phones at once. He was getting con
fused with who he was talking to. One hand had two phones in it. He had one phone in his right hand and another phone resting on his shoulder.

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Reagan asked.

  Reed attempted to answer but decided to bumble around on the phones was more pressing. He was hoping that Reagan would figure out that he needed help and would come and help him.

  Reagan shook his head and walked into his office. He looked at Reed struggling, curled his lips and slammed his office door. He figured that Sue and Lukas would be in shortly and that Dyer was most likely getting doughnuts and coffee for the day from Helen. He opened his booze cabinet and poured himself a bourbon that tasted much better than the warm can of beer he had for breakfast. He sat at his desk and leaned back in his chair. The chair felt like it wasn’t leaning back as far as it usually did. He looked around and felt that his office was smaller than usual as well.

  “Reed!” he shouted.

  No answer.

  He mumbled a few curse words under his breath and then picked up the phone. He dialed a number and sat back. The phone rang and rang. Finally, someone answered.

  “Black Star Canyon Sheriff’s Station.”

  “Reed!” Reagan yelled.

  Confused the person on the other end of the phone answered, “Yes, this is Deputy Reed.”

  Reagan was looking at him through the window of his office. “What the hell is going on?”

  “What do you mean?” Reed stumbled through his question.

  Reagan took a deep breath and spoke very sternly, “Put everyone on hold and come in my office. Now!”

  Reed did just as he asked. Once at Reagan’s door, he knocked.

  “Open the damn door!” Reagan shouted. “What is going on out there?”

  “Do you not know?” Reed asked.

  “Not know what?” Reagan asked.

  “Well, we all tried to get a hold of you last night. Then we were going to go by your place, but it’s been a mad house in here.”

  Reagan’s attitude disappeared. He took his phone of the hook and turned everything else off last night to watch Hondo and then after watching the surveillance tape from Henry’s Handy Shop, he couldn’t be bothered with anything. “I’m sorry, I had a rough night last night, too.” He took another sip of his bourbon. “Fill me in.”

  “There was a riot sort of at Cook’s last night,” Reed said.

  “A riot?” Reagan was in disbelief.

  “Well, Lukas, he…” Reed stopped and looked at the ground.

  “What about Lukas?” Reagan was worried. He thought the worst.

  “Lukas shot and killed a kid last night Sheriff,” Reed said. “A young girl.”

  Reagan dropped his glass. His mouth went dry. His heart skipped. “Where is he?”

  “We can’t get ahold of him,” Reed said. “I figure Sue is with him or looking for him because I can’t get ahold of her either.” Reed sat down and leaned in. “But we are getting a ton of calls about missing kids who were at the concert last night who never came home.”

  “Where is Dyer?” Reagan asked.

  “Sleeping in the back,” Reed said. “We have been up all night.”

  “Is that it?” Reagan asked.

  “The only other call we got is from Moe Eastman,” Reed said.

  Most calls they get from Moe Eastman, they ignore. Moe is a weird hermit type that lives at the base of the mountain. He would call all the time with some crazy thing from aliens to God coming and bothering him. That morning though, Reagan thought he might as well hear what he had to say.

  “What was it this time?” he asked.

  “At first he called and said it was Bigfoot, but then he called back and said he was pretty sure it was a monster.” Reed said.

  “That’s just perfect,” Reagan said.

  Reed looked at his little notepad and added, “He did say that the monster had a girl over his shoulder and was running up the mountain.”

  “Sweet Jesus,” he rubbed his hands behind his glasses on his eyes, “Wake up Dyer and one of you go get Sue and find Lukas. I need to make sure that he is all right. We need all hands on deck. Today is going to get worse before it gets better.”

  “Yes sir,” Reed said and left the office.

  Reagan pulled out the VHS tape from Henry’s Handy Shop. He put it on his desk and stared at it rocking back and forth in his chair. It was almost as if by him staring at it, it would change or disappear. Something caught his eye. Under the tape, he saw an envelope. It had his name on it. He didn’t like the look of it. Nothing good ever comes from a letter on your desk found first thing in the morning. He had only had this happen to him once before and that was some of the worst news he ever had in his life. He knew it wouldn’t be as bad as that, but knew it wouldn’t be good.

  2 - Tunnel Vision

  Even though the lights were red, Sue Callahan didn’t stop or even slow down. She was in a hurry to get to the hospital. Writing her letter of resignation was enough to make her night one of the worst ever, but coming home to find the red door opened, made her life flash before her eyes. She couldn’t sleep. She locked herself in her room all night. She was also worried that she couldn’t get ahold of Eric but thought that maybe, just maybe, as long as he was far from the apartment, he would be safe. That was before she got the call from the hospital.

  Any other morning, if Sue had been speeding through town, she would have noticed that there was no one else out. She had complete tunnel vision. All she could think about was Eric. She hoped he was all right and that her worst fears were not coming true.

  When Sue was a deputy, that made her feel a bit safer. She was the law. She carried a gun. That small sense of security was now gone. She did not know how she was going to protect her family any longer. She knew she had to, but hadn’t any clue how. She knew that her life had never been in more danger than it was at that time. She just needed to make sure that Eric was all right.

  When the hospital called, all they were able to get out before Sue bolted from the apartment was that Eric was there. She hadn’t any idea if that meant he was alive or dead.

  Sue ran through the halls of the hospital, something that she had been doing a lot of lately. This time it was different. This time there was a weight pushing down on her chest that made the journey much harder than usual.

  She ran by Elizabeth Kensington’s room. This got the attention of Jonathan who walked out of the room into the hall.

  “Dressed as a civilian I see,” Jonathan said.

  Sue didn’t look back but knew who it was, “Fuck you, Jon.” Sue shouted as she rounded the corner and came to the nurses station. “Where’s Eric?”

  “Room 4,” the nurse said. She pointed to it even though she knew Sue knew where it was.

  Sue ran into the room, crashing into the doorjamb, “Eric!”

  “Hey mom,” Eric said. He was sitting up in his bed. He had a black eye and his right arm was in a sling.

  “My baby.” Sue grabbed him and held him tightly.

  Eric gasped in pain.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night…” he said.

  “Shut up!” Sue interrupted. “Are you all right? I mean, what happened?”

  “My collarbone is fractured,” he said, “that’s it.”

  “Your eye?” she questioned.

  “Yeah, I’m a little banged up,” tears started running down his face.

  “Who did this to you?” she asked frantically, “Did you recognize who did it?”

  “Mom, stop. I don’t need a cop, I need my mom,” he said.

  Sue stood there for a moment and tried to put herself in his shoes, “I’m sorry.”

  “How’s Lukas holding up?” Eric said.

  “Lukas?” Sue asked, “What does he have to do with this?” She was confused. Lukas was the last person she thought Eric would bring up.

  “He…” Eric stopped when he saw Bekka slowly walk in.

  Sue saw that Eric was looking behind her. Sh
e turned around and saw Bekka. “Oh my God! What happened?”

  Bekka had a broken nose, a fat, busted lip, both her eyes were black. Her face was still stained with the blood from the night before. Bekka knew she wasn’t much to look at and her self-esteem showed it. She looked to the floor and walked passed Sue and sat on Eric’s bed. She put her hand on Eric’s leg. “Thank you.”

  “How are you feeling?” Eric asked.

  Sue was feeling invisible. “I don’t mean to be rude, but someone has to tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “Eric tried to protect me. It’s my fault he’s in here. It’s my fault Jen…” Bekka trailed off. She began to cry, then choked as she had a hard time crying out.

  Sue put her hands on Bekka’s shoulders and rubbed them gently. “It’s okay. Just tell me who hurt you?”

  “Jason fucking Harker,” Eric said.

  “What?” Sue asked.

  “I don’t know if it was him!” Bekka snapped. “It didn’t look like him. Something wasn’t right.”

  “Yeah something wasn’t right,” Eric said. “That asshole took Jen.”

  “Took?” Sue was confused, “Start from the beginning.”

  “I heard a crash and screaming,’ Eric said. “So, I ran in Bekka’s room and Jason was attacking her. I tried to stop it and he did this to me. Next thing I know, he’s gone, Jen’s gone, and Bekka was knocked out. I thought he killed her. I called 911, I thought you would have got the call.”

  “I’m so sorry honey,” Sue said. She was getting choked up. She was horrified that her son was hurt, but she was so proud of him. She was also relieved that Jason Harker was the problem and not what she feared.

  “We don’t know if Jason took Jen,” Bekka said.

  “Well, I do,” Eric said.

  Dr. Clive walked in. “How are we all feeling?”

  The three of them looked up at Dr. Clive like she was crazy for asking such a stupid question. Sue knew it was her job but still felt that any idiot could see that things were not okay. “Can I speak with you in the hallway please?” Sue asked Dr. Clive.