The Morning Catch

By Matt Kavan

12 Short stories including science fiction, mythology, horror, animation and fishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312388796

Book preview

The Morning Catch

The Morning Catch

12 Short Stories Including Science Fiction,

Mythology, Horror, Animation

and Fishing

First Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Matt Kavan

Book Cover Graphics: The paintings were created by Paul Kavan.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

ISBN: 978-1-312-38879-6

Learn more by going to http://www.mattkavan.com

Dedication

To the unknown and imagination grown, where they meet dreams are shown.

The Morning Catch

Fred had never seen a dead body before, not out of a coffin anyway. It was 8am and he was out in his boat fishing, shortly after dawn for the early morning bite and before too many other boats showed up. 

He was fishing on a reef about 30 feet down with a Lindy Rig, slowly dancing his weight along the bottom when he felt a bit of a tug. With senses going on full alert, he felt the line and watched the rod tip for something more. An active fish will be a bunch of short tugs but occasionally larger fish aren’t twitching so much, and sort of just lumber along not paying attention to the hook or line, or he could be caught on the bottom, always hard to tell at first. He let the line go a bit, felt the weight getting stronger but starting to move, which means it’s not a rock. Rearing back he sets the hook, the rod doubles over, and he starts reeling in. After a few seconds and the weight not moving much other than being pulled up, Fred figures he caught a tree or something similar. It happens, but this seemed heavier than usual. He was using this new type of line which was almost impossible to break, good for catching fish, not so good when it’s the bottom of the lake. As he slowly reeled it up he peered down in the water and couldn’t believe his eyes, he had brought up a large, dead body to the surface.

Holy shit, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? Fred said to himself. Looking around the lake he didn’t see any other boats, he was still alone. Not sure if he should just cut the line and head back to the resort for a drink or do the responsible thing, haul it in and report it. Instead he decides on a compromise, let it back down as to not disturb the crime scene, but tie a fishing marker to it for easily relocating the spot. That way he could dump it back over, report it to the authorities and let them deal with it. Plus, it looked like the person just died recently, could make out all the features but didn’t recognize him. Fred had lived in the area for a few years now, but there were so many tourists he would rarely run across anyone he knew while out on the lake.

Dumping the body back overboard with the fishing marker, he looks around to double check if anyone saw him, starts his engine up and races back to the resort he launched his boat from.

Getting to the dock, he ties the boat up and briskly walks up the dock to find a phone and call the authorities. 

Hi Fred, you’re back early, catch your limit already? Asks the morning waitress for the restaurant of the resort he was at.

Fred looks over and replies, Hey Millie, you won’t believe what I caught, can I use your phone?

Sure, it’s at the end of the bar, what happened or what did you catch? Millie asks.

Fred stops for a second, looks directly at Millie and relies, A dead body, should I call the police or 911?

Millie looks up from what she was doing, A what? Are you serious? Call 911, they’ll connect you to somebody.

Fred dials and waits a few seconds for somebody to pick up. Hi, yeah, I’m over here at Sandy Beach Resort and I’m reporting that I a caught a body while out fishing this morning. Huh huh, right, Fred Wilson, that’s right, Sandy Beach Resort, yup, ok, will do.

Turning back to Millie, Fred tells her, The person said somebody would be out in a bit and to stay put. I need a drink, can you pour me one quick before they get here?

Millie responds with a downcast look, No way, you don’t want to be drunk answering questions about a body you just found, give it an hour or so and I’ll buy you one myself.

Fred pleads and asks again, C’mon, I need to calm down, one shot and I’ll chase it with a beer, we can go outside for a smoke and I’ll tell ya all about it.

Millie looked back at the restaurant, saw the few people that were there seemed to be fine and decided what the hell. Alright, just one though. And she pours him a shot along with a beer, from which he slams both. 

Got any coffee? Fred asks.

Millie looks at him and shocked at how fast he downed both. Yeah, I’ll meet you outside with it.

Fred steps outside, walks to the end of the patio above the docks, looks out at the water and lights a smoke and the morning events start catching up with him, as usually things do that are very different, you don’t realize what happened until sometime later. A couple minutes go by and Millie walks out with two cups of coffee, sits down and lights one herself before asking, So, what happened?

Fred, talking in a very fast, jittery voice, I was out out fishing at at Captains Rrreeef….

Millie interrupts him. Slow down, take a breath for a second.

Fred breathes for a few moments before responding, looks out at the lake and back at Millie. Ok, I was out fishing at Captains reef, got out there around 7am, had a few bites and smaller ones when I hooked onto it around 8am. Pulled it up and there it was.

So you just left it there? Millie asks.

Fred answers, I tied a fishing marker to it.

Millie thinks about it for a second and asks. How deep does the marker go?

Fred replies, About 60 feet or so, why?

Millie quickly answers, You know about the currents in this lake, Captains Reef is surrounded by water that goes to a 100 feet or more, it’ll sink the marker won’t it?

Fred ponders the point but feels a bit agitated, Good point, hadn’t thought about that. Look, I didn’t want to deal with it plus isn’t there something about not disturbing a crime scene? They can find it on their depth finders and with scuba divers anyway.

Millie nods her head in mild agreement but asks further, What if some fish or turtles eat it?

Fred replies, Turtles don’t go that deep, at least I don’t think they do, plus, what fish would eat a person, maybe minnows.

What about crayfish, or burbot, they’ll eat anything. Millie answers.

While the questioning was a little tiresome for Fred, he didn’t mind it too much, as it was good to go through it a bit more, see if he was missing anything. It was there all night or more and was fine, will probably be ok for another few hours.

Millie responds somewhat jokingly, I don’t know, I would have left the marker and brought the body in, this is nature out here, dead carcasses usually don’t last too long. Which was probably the idea in the first place, where to get rid of body, throw it in nature, gone before you know it.

Fred answers, The lake is so cold it’s being preserved, on ice, ice out was just a few weeks ago after all.

Maybe, so any idea who it was? Millie asks.

Fred looks from the lake back to Millie, Nobody I knew, any missing guests?

Gee, I don’t know, should probably check huh. As she’s responding Millie looks up, notices a police car pull up and gets up from her chair.

The police officer walked up to the two on the patio. Are you Fred Wilson?

Fred responds, Yeah, that’s me.

Would you mind repeating to me what happened? The officer asks.

Fred takes another sip of his coffee before getting into it. Right, well, I was out fishing this morning at Captains Reef and caught a dead body. I didn’t want to disturb the crime scene so I tied one of my fishing markers on the person and left him where I found him.

Did you see anyone else in the area, was anyone with you or were you alone? The officer asks as he’s writing down notes.

Fred responds, Just myself and I didn’t see anyone, pretty early still this morning.

You didn’t recognize the person by any chance? The officer asks.

No idea. Fred replies.

The police officer looks around before back at Fred, Ok, stay here and I’ll be right back.

Will do. Fred answers and is glad to be done, has washed his hands of the event.

The police officer heads back to his car and starts making a few calls. Within an hour there were four police vehicles and two boats loaded up ready to go out. The police office walks up to Fred and asks. Say, ah, Fred, would you mind coming along with us to show us the exact spot?

Yeah, ok, you know where Captains Reef is? Fred asks.

Not exactly. The office responds.

Fred tells him, Ok, it’s about 15 minutes going straight past those two islands.

Another officer from inside one of the boats speaks up. I know where it is, went there last year a few times, a good spot.

The motors are started and the boats begin heading out to Captains Reef, with three people in each boat, including Fred, the first police officer, two scuba divers, and two other officers. Upon arrival they spot the fishing market just as Fred had left it.

Fred tells the officers he’s in the boat with, There it is, just where I left it.

They pull up to the fishing marker, the officer gives a tug and feels a weight, looks over to the divers and tells them, "Alright, ready to get