Pushkin

Mid-Summer, the longest day of the year.

We're better to be than Malibu.

Near the beaches with their famous surf breaks,

in a wooded campground surrounded by rugged mountain peaks.

You build a roaring fire.

You teach your kids about the stars.

Then, when it's finally time for bed,

you sling them over your shoulders and tuck them into the safety of the tent.

You tell yourself the little noises you hear are nothing,

a scuttle, a too close cough, foot steps,

normal campground stuff.

If the children start to wake up, you snuggle them back to sleep.

The moon slips below the horizon.

The night is finally fully dark, and you start to drift off.

Then, sometime around dawn.

June 22, 2018, 4.43 in the morning.

Inside a tent at Malibu Creek State Park, a man named Tristan Bodette,

with his two kids of sleep next to him, is shot in the head.

He's killed instantly.

The Malibu cops follow a crumb trail of clues

and find a survivalist camping in the woods.

...