*Side Chapter, done in a bit of a rush so sorry for mistakes *
While everyone else in Moon Lake was enjoying some “private” time with their friends, family, and significant others, a lone black sedan drove into town. It went unnoticed, and parked near the destroyed hospital parking lot.
The area had been taped off following the explosion*, and would remain so until construction started. Which wouldn’t be until after the holidays. US Marshal Sean Walker ** exited the car, and looked at the crime scene.
“Just like the report said.” he muttered, bending down to examine things more closely.
He was determined to find out what this town’s dirty secret was. Every since that faithful day in the hospital, Sean knew that Moon Lake was hiding something big. And then, yesterday, he’d heard the news about Jeremy’s father, and personally went to see the bodies. That was the final straw, and Sean left for town that night.
Once back in Seattle, he got a copy of the reports from the FBI. And again, there was far too much that just didn’t add up. What, to the medical examiner, looked like faint CLAW marks on Bower Sr.’s body for starters. There wasn’t even so much as a fluff piece in the news about the attacks. Either of them. Explosions don’t go unnoticed. How could the town not be overrun with media crews?
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this.” Sean thought to himself.
He’d spent Thanksgiving finishing his own paperwork so he could “take a vacation”. In Moon Lake. No one would be expecting to see him, so Sean would be able to observe things without an alarm. Agent Brooke Reed had tried to convince him there was nothing going on in town, and that everything was just in his head.
“We’re all just tired. There’s nothing weird about Moon Lake. Nothing worth getting so worked up about.” she had said the last time Sean had seen her. But he was convinced otherwise. And so here he was, snooping again.
It was only about one in the afternoon when he first drove in. There weren’t too many people out. Those few families or couples Sean did see mostly kept to themselves. For the first time, he noticed how the vast majority of families were all so young. Not a single adult older than thirty something.
And why did everyone look like they just stepped out of an issue of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition? Sean took great pride in that he made a point to stay in shape. But surrounded by all these people who looked like Olympic athletes made him feel extremely inferior.
Sean climbed back into his car, and headed for the nearest motel (about five miles away). He’s already check in, and left some of his bags there. Cameras, listening devices, all sorts of equipment like that. Even night vision goggles, because he suspected the majority of the “shady” things that happened in Moon Lake took place at night. That would certainly explain why, while he and his fellow agents were in town, no one was caught.
Sean didn’t stay long. He only spent about fifteen minutes reacquainting himself with the layout of the small town, and accessing the damage Bower Sr. and his friends had done.
“It would be worth it to pay both Jeremy Jr. and that other accomplice a visit in prison.” he thought.
But that could all wait until Monday. The weekend he’d devote to combing through all the old files he’d procured from various agencies. Anything and everything about Moon Lake’s history he could find, he copied. Hopefully the reading material would give him some insight into this mysterious place.
“Like something out of a Stephen King novel.” Sean thought as he went past the sign that indicated you were leaving Moon Lake. The further he got from the border, the more the trees looked like they were pulling the town back into the forest. Until the only indication there was any sort of civilization was the cellular tower Sean could just makes out in the clouds.