Under the Bridge : The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk

by Rebecca Godfrey

• ISBN13: 9780743210911
• ISBN10: 0743210913
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-20
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

By twists and turns, Under the Bridge examines a terrible crime in which middle-class teenagers obsessed with film idols and hip-hop culture turn on one of their own with tragic results.

Who were the seemingly ordinary suburban teenage

Excerpts

Prologue:Carefully Floated You can't see anything.In the dark waters of a saltwater inlet known as the Gorge, Sergeant Bob Wall was underwater, searching for the body of a girl. Though he had been a member of the elite Dive Unit for twelve years and was properly and fully equipped with full scuba gear, insulated underwear, neoprene gloves, a buoyancy compensator, and a twenty-five-pound air tank on his back, his search for the girl was frustrating and difficult because underwater, everything was so dark. His eyes were open as he moved forward, yet he could see only blackness. He would have to look for the girl by feeling alone, feeling and touching the darkness that surrounded him, a cold, black depth below the surface of the world.Concealed in his black wet suit, Bob Wall moved slowly, twelve inches at a time, while the other men held the rope taut and firm. Under water, he touched the detritus of suburbia. Bicycles, so many bikes. He touched beer bottles and rusted nails and shopping carts. "There's so much junk in the Gorge," the men of the Dive Unit say; they speak of the water as if it is their enemy. "The visibility's awful. The water's crap."You can't see anything.When you're searching, you like to sink to the bottom,the men say.You have to use your buoyancy compensator, make yourself "negatively buoyant," so you're almost prone on the bottom. It looks as if you're doing a push-up. You're as far down as you could possibly be.Blind and feeling everything, Bob Wall touched the sand with a single hand. His other hand held tight to the rope. Two members of the Dive Unit sank with him, keeping the rope as taut as they possibly could, holding on with both hands, holding tight.The girl who was missing was fourteen years old.The girl, she'd been missing for over a week.If the terrible rumor were true, she would have sunk to the bottom of the Gorge by now. Sergeant Rick "Gos" Gosling was glad he was holding the line and not the one doing the physical search. The "anticipation of finding a body is so stressful," he explains. "You always have that nightmare of finding the face looming up against you, like that scene inJaws."You'd be pushing yourself against the dark water and knowing you might see a face, lifeless and still. You'd come up against the horror of death, right there, literally, before your eyes. Gos remembered the time he'd found an old woman trapped in her sunken Chevrolet. Her eyes met his; the old lady, she looked right at him and he jumped back, feeling nausea and sadness. The old lady's eyes were blue and her mouth was open, as if she'd died in the midst of a roar or a song.Sometimes under water, there would be these strange moments of beauty, a light that would crack through the blackness and the sandstorms. In the darkness, the men say, sometimes, "You get swirls, a pale green, a glimmer."It was a strange occupation -- looking for something you didn't really want to find. And on this pale, blurry day in November, the men really didn't want to find the fourteen-year-old girl because it would mean the rumors of murder were true. "You've got to be kidding," Gos said when he heard about who was alleged to have killed the girl. His partners scoffed as well, for the story of her supposed killers seemed such an absurd and impossible tale.The absence in the water seemed to confirm their disbelief.If you asked the men why they didn't believe the story, they would answer quite logically. This was Victoria, British Columbia, a small island in the Pacific Northwest famed for its natural beauty and easygoing lifestyle. Young girls did not get murdered in Victoria. Girls in this town, they grew up unharmed. They shopped at Hillside Mall, attended schools named after politicians and war heroes. Girls lived safely on streets named after trees and explorers. Girls may have been murdered in the closest big cities of Vancouver a