And the Sea Shall Hide Them

This is a shocking tale of horrific murders at sea. The crime takes place aboard a sleek schooner just two miles of the shores of a tropical island named Utila. There were eleven in all comprising the passengers and crew, and they were taken entirely by surprise by the murderer. He was a respected citizen of the island and beyond suspicion of committing such killings, much less to consider getting away with the deed. The first leg of the voyage was to be the twenty-two miles to the neighboring island of Roatan, part of the Bay Islands group lying a few miles off the old Spanish Main, the southern coast of Honduras. It was once a colony of England then later given over to the Spanish due to the pressure from the U.S president James Monroe. A few passengers would disembark there and the vessel would continue on to a mainland anchorage to purchase a load of cattle. The night would be filled with the wails and tears of the surprised victims as one by one their blood was spilled onto the deck of the Olympia. They sailed through a calm sea and a sky filled with glittering stars, dimly lit by a crescent moon. There was absolutely no portent that anything evil would descent upon these poor, unfortunate souls. The island had enjoyed years of prosperity for they had been the first to ship bananas to the United States. The island growers maintained an advantage over the Standard Fruit and Steamship Company, along with United Fruit as they had not yet become dominant competing suppliers. The enormity and vulgar audacity of the crime will both horrify and mystify the reader as he/she struggles through trials and tears of this dark night.