Murder Outside Haneyville by Gary Whitmore - HTML preview

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Chapter 4

 

It was Sunday morning, and the forecast called for a beautiful and sunny day.

Donovan woke up at 6:30 that morning.

He got out of his bed and went into his bathroom. He shaved and took his shower. 

After he had his three cups of morning coffee and bowl of cereal, he headed off to his den with his fourth cup of coffee in hand.

Once he got inside his den, he rushed over to his laptop that sat down at his computer desk.

He turned it on and immediately brought up the Internet. 

As soon as his laptop was ready, Donovan did a search and eventually opened up the link for the WBIR TV news station.

He spotted a story of interest that had the "Divers Search Lake Haney for Remains of Missing 1970 Teenagers" link.

He opened up that link and started reading the article while drinking his coffee.

"Four divers from the police department of Knoxville, searched the bottom of Lake Haney for the remains of the two teens that went missing on August twenty-first nineteen seventy," he read from the article then took another drink of coffee.

"So far, the divers had not been able to locate any remains of Tiffany Carlson and her boyfriend, Howie Anderson. The divers plan on continuing their search on Sunday," he read from the article.

Donovan reread the article and had his suspicion that there was foul play involved during that August night back in 1970. It was a strong gut feeling that started to nag at him for the rest of the day.

Up in Haneyville, Tennessee, the four divers had just got inside their boat.

Rock and his son Deputy Kent Riley in casual clothes stood in the clearing. They watched while the boat of divers headed off to another location of the Lake Haney to continue their search.

Then Rock had a strange feeling there were eyes at his back. He turned around and saw Ernie standing in front of his 2012 Buick Regal.

"If you find their remains, are you going to open up an investigation? For murder?" Ernie yelled out from his car.

"I'll have to wait to see what they find and what an autopsy reveals. It could have been an accidental drowning," Rock yelled back.

Ernie looked at the Sheriff, and he had his doubts. He got inside his Buick. He started up his engine then turned around and drove back down the dirt road.

"Do you think they could have been murdered?" Kent asked his dad.

Rock stared at the lake where the boat of four divers was out of sight. "If anything, they got stoned, accidentally drove into the lake and drowned while trying to get out of the sinking car. But, I firmly believe they're living up in Canada and forgot about this town years ago," said Rock then he pulled out a cigar from his shirt pocket, lit it and started puffing away while he glanced at the lake.

Kent looked at his dad then back at the lake. He started to wonder if that Canada theory was actually correct and began having doubts. 

"I'm heading home, call me if they find anything," Rock told Kent then headed off to his squad car parked in the clearing.

Kent walked over to his squad car and sat down behind the wheel.  He waited while Rock drove off down the dirt road and headed back to Stinson Road.

"Something's just not right," he said while he looked at the divers' boat in the lake. He saw while the two divers jump off the boat into the lake.

Up in Lexington, Kentucky, Jodi sat behind her computer desk in her apartment.

She had her Internet up on her laptop and read the same WBIR TV news station article about the divers search in the Lake Haney. 

She had a healthy gut feeling that the divers would not find any remains of Tiffany and Howie in that lake. Her gut told her that there was foul play that night in 1970.

Her iPhone rang from her computer desk. She picked up her iPhone, looked and frowned with the caller's name. 

"What do you want?" she answered the call.

"I was hoping we could talk," said Robert from her iPhone.

Jodi rolled her eyes and hesitated for a few seconds. "Robert, it's over between us, can't you understand that?" she said.

"Baby, I'm sorry, and Beth meant nothing to me. I screwed up and admit it. It's you I want. You and only you," Robert pleaded from her iPhone and sounded sincere.

"We're through. I thought you were the one, but now that I had some time to think, I know you're not. Have a nice life and go back to Beth. You two belong with each other, and I know you've seen her more than once," she said then immediately disconnected her end of the call.

Jodi started another Internet search on Yahoo for Tiffany Carlson and Howie Anderson. 

She waited for a few seconds and saw that the only results appeared were articles about finding her car at the bottom of the lake and the results of the divers' search.

She stared at the computer, and her gut told her that there was something more behind this story.

Back down in Melbourne, Donovan relaxed in his lazy boy chair in the den of his home.  He just finished washing and waxing his Buick Special and decided he was going to pamper a car for once in his life.

His doorbell rang. He rolled his eyes.

"And she's right on time," he said while he got up from his chair and headed out of his den.

Donovan walked through his living room and went to the front door. He opened it and saw that the outside sky clouded up and there was a hint of a storm approaching. Then he saw Lindsey standing on his front stoop and thought she brought on the storm.

"Hello baby," Lindsay said the second she saw Donovan.

She gave him a kiss on his cheek the second she entered his living room.

He closed the door and was not looking forward to spending time with her.

"Why is there that old blue car parked in your driveway? Do you have someone here?" she asked and looked a little suspicious of Donovan thinking he was cheating on him and she caught him red-handed.

"No. I traded in my CR-V for her. She's an antique and in excellent condition," he said with a smile.

"Does she have air conditioning?"

"No, you have to roll down the windows like they did back in the sixties."

"Well, you won't see me riding in that car without air conditioning. I don't know why you traded in your Honda for some old antique. Sounds stupid if you ask me."

"Everything is stupid to you," he muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"I said, how was your trip?" he asked while she headed through the living room and headed to his kitchen.

"Boring," she said while she went straight to his refrigerator. She opened it and removed a bottle of Diet Coke.

"I could never live in the Chicago area. Too many people and way too much traffic," she said while she popped opened the bottle.

"I can't blame you. I would hate living up in Chicago also," he said while she took a drink.

"Let's plan our very special day," she said.

"Okay," Donovan said, but he was not looking forward to this dreaded conservation.

Lindsey walked out of the kitchen with Donovan by her side.

They walked into his den, where she sat on his lazy boy chair.

He sat down on his couch.

"I thought that we could get married during the first week in June of next year. June seventh to be exact. I talked that with mom and she agreed," Lindsey said then took another drink of her Diet Coke.

"I thought we were going to discuss a date?"

"We did, it's June seventh," Lindsey replied then took another drink of her Diet Coke.

"But I didn't agree to that date," Donovan replied and hated it when Lindsey never consulted him with decisions.

"That fits perfectly with mom and dad's schedule. They're going on a week-long cruise the following week. They also got a cabin for us as a wedding present," she said then took another drink of her Diet Coke.

"I wanted to go to Hawaii."

"We're going on a cruise to the Caribbean. And don't worry, mom said she and dad will keep their distance from us during our honeymoon," she added then polished off her Diet Coke.

Donovan looked at Lindsey and wanted to scream.

"Well, I better get home and relax. I'm exhausted from my trip," she said then got up from his lazy boy chair leaving her empty bottle on the small table by the chair.

Donovan got up and walked her out of the den.

They walked through the living room.

"We're having dinner with mom and dad on Wednesday night at six. Don't work late that night," she said then gave Donovan a quick kiss on his lips the second they arrived at the front door.

Donovan opened the door. She smiled, then stepped outside.

While he started to close the door, she turned around and looked at Donovan. "I was thinking," she said then glanced at his Buick Special in the driveway. "Go back to the Honda dealer and trade that old car in for a new CR-V," she said then turned around and headed to her silver Honda CR-V parked in the driveway.

Donovan closed the door and wanted to scream. He started to have his doubts if marrying Lindsey would be the right thing.

He walked off through the living room then headed off back to his den.

Once he got in his den, he sat down at his laptop. He conducted some more searches on Tiffany Carlson and Howie Anderson.

The only two items of interest that appeared from his search was the article about finding Tiffany's car and the diver's search on Saturday.

Donovan's stomach growled like a starving lion.

He grabbed his iPhone by his computer and made a call to have pizza delivered.

An hour had passed, and Donovan had three more slices of his delivered pepperoni and sausage pizza to munch on from Pizza Hut.

Donovan returned to his laptop and did another search. He found an updated story from the WBIR TV news station. He opened up the link while he munched on a slice of pizza.

He read the article and found that the divers did not locate any remains during their second and final dive attempt in Lake Haney. But Donovan had a healthy gut feeling they would not find the remains of Tiffany and Howie while he finished his slice of pizza.

Way up in Lexington, Jodi ate a salad while she read that same WBIR TV news station Internet article. 

She also had a healthy gut feeling the divers would not locate the remains of Tiffany and Howie in the Lake Haney.