Mångata Bay

|07| cameras

|r o s e|
🌹

"You ready?" Teo asks as I open the door. His pink bike is parked on the curb beside a duffel bag, which appears to be filled to the brim.

I turn around and shout into the house, "Mom, Dad! I'm heading out!"

"Don't get into any trouble!" Dad calls back. I snort and glance at Teo, who holds up his crossed fingers. I follow suit with a smirk.

"I won't!" I lie, then lean toward Teo and whisper, "Let's roll." His lips quirk up in a mischievous, yet anxious, smile. We jog down the sidewalk towards our bikes and the duffel bag, which Teo holds up to show me its contents.

"So we've got duct tape, a map, a flashlight, batteries, chocolate chip muffins, and two cameras."

"Why two cameras?"

"You've always got to be prepared. Oh," he adds, "and we need to make a stop at my house before we do any investigating."

I nod, and we set off on our bicycles. After the short trip to his little bungalow, we drop our bikes off on the curb and head inside through the garage. The screen door snaps shut after me but does nothing to shut out the sounds of the seagulls and the beach nearby. Teo switches on the lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room, casting ghostly shadows over a wrinkled tarp that covers an entire wall.

"I need to show you something," Teo admits, turning to the tarp. I linger behind him uncertainly.

"Uh, okay."

He reaches up and pulls the tarp off of the wall, revealing a labyrinth of pictures, notes, and torn out newspaper articles pinned to the wall. I step forward and let my eyes sweep over everything. I stop on a picture of a young adult with a blonde braid posing in front of a seagull. Teo comes up and stands beside me, following my line of sight.

"That's Elena, my sister."

I slide my gaze to another picture, but this one is of a man about the same age as Teo's sister. "And this?"

"Greg Palmer," he responds, tracing his finger along the wall between Greg and an article from the newspaper. He taps on it twice. I lean forward and read it.

MÅNGATA MYSTERY
by: Greg Palmer

Rachel Esther, Howie Marks, Elena Hughes. These names all belong to the so called "suicides" in our small town of Mångata over the past four years. Our local sheriffs department has ruled them all as suicides, proclaiming that the deceased had all hurled themselves off of the cliff by the bay, resulting in tragedy for the entire town.

I spoke to the family of Elena Hughes after her "suicide" and was enlightened with suspicion. Her parents stated that they "never saw it coming" and Elena was "such a happy girl." I also did my research on this young woman, finding that she was the valedictorian of her class in high school, she started on the high school volleyball team, she had many friends, and she was rewarded with an academic scholarship to University of Florida.

Isn't that peculiar?

And if that isn't enough, I investigated more into these deaths and found that they were all found the same way; on the shore beneath the cliff with bruised necks. It's is also to be noted that the bruises were in the shape of a hand.

Coincidence? Unlikely. Someone is hiding something from us, and it's about time we stand up for ourselves and the community.

"Greg Palmer wrote this?"

"And now he's dead. And, get this—" Teo says, pointing to his sister's picture, "Elena died the same way and it was ruled a suicide. I know Elena; she would never do that."

"Does anybody else know about this?" I ask, flabbergasted.

"None of these deaths get any attention; it's like they're being covered up or something." Teo turns to me. "And I think it's about time someone uncovered them."

I run my shaky and clammy hands over my jeans anxiously. "What do we do? What can we do? This has got to be dangerous, T. Are you sure we should do this?"

"Rose, just think about all those families like mine; imagine losing your brother and no one doing anything about it." He purses his lips. "If you don't help me, then I'm doing it myself."

I nod, biting my lip as I study the wall again. "Okay, I'm in."

Teo sends me a short but grateful smile. "To the cliff, then."

🌙

As Teo and I rode up to the cliff where the crime scene was blocked off, we were both shocked to see that all the police tape was gone and there was no sign of any murder. Teo kicks his bike stand down and swings his leg over his bicycle with a slack jaw.

"What the...?" he mutters under his breath.

"How long ago was it, again? Only four days?" I say, answering my own question. "How in the world did this disappear in four days?"

Teo shrugs, running a hand through his unruly blond hair.

Well, we might as well still take pictures of the cliff to take back to Teo's garage in case something pops up, though I doubt anything would. With this in mind, I reach into Teo's duffel and grab one of the cameras, steadying it in my hands and focusing the lenses anything even slightly noteworthy. Teo opens his mouth to speak, but the sound of a car pulling up behind us stops him.

"What're you kids doing up here?" a gruff voice calls to our backs. We spin around to see a sheriff's car with two brooding men inside, their badges catching in the sunlight.

Teo sends them an innocent smile. "Nothing, officer. Just enjoying the view."

"Why is she taking pictures of the ground? The view is up there."

"She's in a summer photography class, and her assignment was to take pictures of..." he glances to me, "grass."

The sheriffs share a suspicious look and swing open their doors, coming to stand in front of us. The older looking one spoke, "Look, kid, I'm going to have to ask you to delete those pictures you took." He reaches for my camera but I wrench it away from his grasp.

"What? Why?" I ask.

"If you don't delete those photos I'll have to use force."

Teo steps up to him. "What's your problem? They're just pictures of the grass, dude."

To be honest I only took two pictures; one of a rock and one of a footprint beside the rock. I could easily hand the camera over, but everything these officers are doing is wrong. Something serious is going on if I can't even take pictures of the stupid ground.

The younger sheriff snatches the camera from my hands suddenly, holding it above my head so I can't get it back. He mumbles something to his partner before they both slip back inside their car.

"Pleasure doing business with you," the older one sneers, a smug smirk etched into his face as they drive away. I turn to Teo with a frown and my arms crossed. He simply holds up the duffel bag and slips the other camera out with a smile playing on the edge of his lips. My face lights up, too.

"It's a good thing we came prepared," he says, snapping a picture.