A lakeside Incident

They pulled up alongside the three cars parked outside the country house. A small hedge partly concealed the bodies of two women strewn on the lawn in front of a small, oval swimming pool. As they walked from the car, voices called out in greeting. On the other side of the pool, the men were working, piling steaks and sausages onto the barbecue.

After the hugs and kisses, they were given a tour of the property. It was mostly built out of stone, with dark, wooden window frames. It had a porch overlooking the barbecue area where a rough hewn table was set ready for lunch. The men looked like they had already had a few beers.

“Come over! Join us,” called Ana. She was leaning back on tanned arms, a rounded belly protruding from her bikini bottom. Early pregnancy seemed to suit her well. Raquel was lying face down on a crisp, white towel that contrasted with the deep green of the lawn. She had removed her bikini top so as to get a better tan. Her dark ringlets were held loosely in a bright orange scrunchy.

David, sitting on the porch away from the other men was talking into a mobile phone. Every so often, he’d get up and walk about the porch before sitting down again. It was the first time he was away from his new boyfriend over a weekend. His big, brown eyes expressively accompanied the lovers’ chitchat.

When Rosa and Eduardo looked at the photographs from that afternoon a few days later, it was difficult to imagine the events that had followed. There they all were, frolicking in the pool after the barbecue. In one photograph, Eduardo had his arms around her, her wavy, brown hair nuzzling his neck as they smiled for the camera. There was all the splashing as the guys took turns at throwing each other into the pool. There was Raul, his wife Belem, and their little girl Isabel smiling. The little girl was the only child present; her blond ringlets framed her face like those pictures of angels.

As dusk had fallen, the horse play had gotten merrier. The men decided to walk down the hill on which the house was perched for a swim in the lake below.
“The water there is disgusting guys,” Raul called out. He had stayed behind with his wife and kid.
“Oh come on. Don’t be a spoilsport. Family life has made you real boring Raul,” Eduardo had shouted back.
The women had hesitantly followed to see what would happen.
At first, David had jumped in.
“Get in you lot!” he’d shouted.
Josep and Tomas had jumped in, kicking off their sandals as they made for the water.
“Chicken,chicken,” they called out to Eduardo.
“It will be much more fun watching you guys get carried away by the currents. You’re not getting me in there.”

He had said it as a joke and yet, a little while later, Josep was waving from a few metres away where he had swam to reach a rock. Everyone thought he was fooling around. Then he went under. Tomas and David were laughing, thinking how convincing an act he was pulling. Then silence. In a panic, Tomas and David swam out and just as they had almost got to the rock, they seemed to be pulled underwater.
Eduardo and Rosa and the others were now screaming and shouting. Eduardo jumped in while Rosa ran to the house to call for help. As he neared the area he felt a strong current tagging at him from below. Being a much better swimmer, he fought back and swam back to shore in time to see everybody ran down the hill.

When the rescue services had arrived, it was only to dive in and remove the bodies. There had been a sign warning hikers and visitors not to swim in the lake. It had be blown down by the wind and partly hidden by the shrubs nearby.

Most puzzling of all was the body of a young man who was also pulled out of the lake. The forensics estimated he’d drowned not more than a couple of weeks prior to then. And yet there had been no news of anyone gone missing in the area.