Trout Heaven

Everyone in Sassafras County stays clear of the quarantined Crater Lake in fear of toxic coal spoils from the meteorite crash decades earlier. Everyone, that is, except two precocious teenage brothers who skip church one Sunday morning to try out their new rods and reels in the mysterious lake. They are amazed to land dozens of giant rainbow trout.Naturally, the state lifts the quarantine, recognizing a potential for tourist revenues. Along comes sleazy Vacation Inns and Resorts, Corp. to develop the lake, leading to a tacky town called Trout Heaven.Meanwhile across the valley, famous investigative reporter Henry Clyde Ford is frustrated with writing his memoirs in his log cabin retreat. His peace of mind and once pristine view are ruined by the new resort and town.Some excerpts: THE LOST MEMOIR: I stood up, walked around the cabin and saw nothing. I decided to go on with the plan. Well okay, so it's quiet; all the better. Here goes, I thought. But, at that very moment, as I placed my fingers back onto the keyboard ... THEY appeared! I put down my coffee on my log table and watched in horror.THE FIRST GIANTS: But, I'm tellin' ya, Mr. Ford; those damn rainbow trout in that lake were bigger, much bigger ... and strong! One took Johnny's bait, line and rig-reel and all, right outta his hands." THE ENCOUNTER: I could only focus on one thing at that moment as we entered the dim light of my cabin with its canvas-covered windows: I needed to touch her. I didn't know how. But, in some way, right then and no later, I needed to find out if she would respond. She had to come to me, I thought. THE UGLINESSIn my mind, at least, all the ugliness around bully Mays, plus Levine's drunken threats, employees disappearing, the execs suspicions of Tina, Bradley Armstrong's molesting her in the women's restroom, ... were adding up to stronger criminal indictments than the financial shenanigans of Vacation Inns and Resorts, Corp. And, now Sheriff Deed's assessment of Manny's murder ties in too!THE CHASE: "I'm not going to hurt you O'Leary. Just want to know why you broke into headquarters. You have no right," Mays yelled." He was shaking his hands in front of him, maybe forgetting that he was wielding his favorite pearl-handle fishing knife. ... Tina tripped over a concrete parking bumper and tumbled to the asphalt. She looked back and was frozen by the sight of the huge blade.