limbo

When a murder happens in one's community, it doesn't stay far from people's minds, especially since no one has been arrested for this crime yet. Some folks say it is just starting to hit them, what really happened to Asha, and if the killer is still at large, lurking around someplace. There is a suspect in jail who worked with Asha, but he is being charged with a separate (horrific) crime. There has been no reportage in our local paper, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, for several days now on Asha Veil's murder. This is a time of limbo; I've heard of no information leaked out to anyone from those working directly on the crime, and I am glad for their ability and willingness to keep any evidence they've found in this case airtight. Still, the absence of news in the media right now leaves room for rumors to wildly proliferate.

I had my hair done yesterday; the shop is located in the same area where Asha worked.
It's often the site of the best news in town, and lively, fun gossip, but this time, it was a source of rumors and fearful speculation. One woman said that there was a murder at UCSC (in reality, it was a young woman who had tragically taken an accidental fall from a 60-foot-high pedestrian bridge). My hairdresser told me that Asha often parked her car in front of the salon, and that's how she knew who she was, though she had never spoken at length to her. I kvetched about the horrible lighting in town, and my hairdresser said that the streetlights go on and off at random, sometimes leaving folks in total darkness as they walk along. She also said there was a rumor someone had gone missing from Coffee Nine just up the block (I've heard nothing whatsoever to substantiate this), and people have been speculating that the FBI are swarming over Ben Lomond. And who knows where the truth resides right now?

Truman Capote came across unbelievably sad and ironic rumors and theories when he was researching the Clutter murder for In Cold Blood: before Smith and Hickock were caught, someone called a local detective and said he just knew Herb Clutter had blown his whole family up with a bomb. It's human nature to speculate, and sometimes those speculations get pretty bizarre in situations like this.

When I left my appointment, I had an urge to go up the road where Asha was found, all the way up past the houses to the place where the earth groaned and slid over twenty years ago, wrecking everything in its path, a monument to destruction and human frailty. I asked myself what in the world I thought I might find, and thought better of it, aware of the possibility of danger to myself, and knowing that I probably would do nothing more than freak myself out. Still, I thought that desolate area might have an answer for me somehow--but for now, it is the time for secrets to stay hidden.

**AN AMENDMENT** I'm cranky today because some wild cat--probably a male bobcat--was advertising its presence quite loudly last night, all night; it felt like the darn thing was right under my window. So, if you work for the Sentinel, do forgive my rant, which has some cause in the fact that I live in the Wild Kingdom, sans Marlon Perkins.

I just want to know why Asha Veil's murder case has now disappeared from the Sentinel's reporting. This is the major paper for Santa Cruz County and no one has mentioned a word about whether the investigation is continuing; there have been no further interviews with community residents; I heard not one word about her deeply moving memorial service, in which a whole cross-section of this community turned out.

A photograph of this would, in my opinion, have been an important piece of news coverage in the Sentinel. The folks in the San Lorenzo Valley aren't a bunch of hillbillies who hide in their cabins when the revenuers come to town--this, by and large, is a caring community, and so many folks are frightened and angry right now, with a million unanswered questions. Perhaps the family didn't want the media at her memorial service, which is completely understandable. Also, I know there's probably not a lot for the Sentinel to report, but still......