The Secrets of Lake Road

And yet, Kevin wanted to add, they were able to find bones in all that muck, but Jo had warned that Heil meant to keep that quiet, not wanting to remind people of past drownings. For once, Kevin agreed with Heil. “What’s the next step?” he asked instead.

“They’re going to widen the search area.” He lifted his baseball cap and scratched his head. “Some of the fishing guys caught some snappers. They think they have a better chance of finding her with the turtles. You ever hear of such a thing?”

Kevin shrugged. It was how they had found Billy. And in fact, he had heard of other instances where unusual methods had been used. An airplane had gone down in the Atlantic several years back, and divers reported that crabs had unintentionally led them to the carnage. He supposed snappers weren’t any different from crabs, feeding on what was provided. People. Humans. We were part of the food chain whether we liked it or not.

Jim situated the cap back onto his head and pulled the bill down low, hiding his eyes. “It might not be a bad idea to try it,” he said. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”

“I hope it doesn’t become a circus out there.” Kevin thought of Stimpy and his men on boats, following the lines tied to snappers and what that would look like to the little girl’s parents. For a second the image of Billy’s body flashed in his mind’s eye, how the men pulled Billy into the boat and then dumped him onto the beach. His flesh had been shredded to the bone on one of his thighs, his forearm clawed off. The skin on his chin had been torn, and the flap lay on his neck.

“You okay?” Jim asked.

“Yeah,” Kevin said. “Sure.” He allowed himself a glance at the girl’s parents. “Did anybody tell them what to expect?”

Jim looked at the couple and then turned back to Kevin. “Nope. I imagine right now, they just want her found.”

“Right,” Kevin said, wondering how in the world anyone could prepare them for what horrors finding their daughter would bring. It had been three days. There was no telling what she was going to look like when they managed to pull her out.

He turned to the sound of a car. The sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the lot and parked near the girl’s parents. Sheriff Borg got out and talked to the couple. He glanced in the direction of the underwater recovery team where Jim and Kevin were standing.

Kevin looked at the ground and turned away from the sheriff. “I’ll catch you later,” he said to Jim, slinking away, not wanting to attract any attention to himself.





CHAPTER TWELVE

The sun was making its slow descent behind the mountains when Jo climbed the stairs to the second-floor bar. She found Kevin sitting at the far end of the room away from the crowd that had gathered at the tables. Eddie leaned on the bar in front of him. The two had their heads together, and she immediately walked over to them, wanting to know what was going on. She had spent most of the day wandering the colony, avoiding the cabin and cleaning closets.

“Hey,” she said, and sat on the stool next to Kevin.

Kevin looked up and caught her eye. He still looked at her sometimes the way he did when they were teenagers, as though he was seeing her for the first time, and his eyes filled with the same deep desire. And like when they were teenagers, her body reacted, her yearning just as strong. But she wished he wouldn’t look at her that way now. Ever. It made her feel so damn guilty.

Eddie put a cold beer in front of her. “The vultures are at it again,” he said, nodding in the direction of Heil and his crew.

“I heard.” She turned in her seat to look at the mob when one of the men with Heil yelled, “It’s been three damn days! It’s time to take this matter into our own hands.”

“I have a family to feed,” Nate said. He owned the bait and tackle shop located at the opposite end of the lake. “I empathize with the parents, but a man’s got to provide, and I can’t do that if no one can fish on that lake.”

She turned back around, having heard it all before. It wasn’t until Stimpy bounded up the steps and dropped a snapper the size of a truck tire onto the bar, that the crowd hushed.

“This is the biggest one I caught, but I’ve trapped a half dozen more, and they’ll work just as good.” Stimpy looked at Heil who nodded his approval.

“What about the sheriff?” Jonathon asked.

“I don’t see him doing anything to stop us,” Stimpy said, and again looked at Heil.

Heil mumbled, “That’s true.”

“Any objections?” Stimpy asked.

“No, no,” the crowd of men muttered. Jonathon raised his arms, surrendering. The women in the crowd looked away. Jo stared at the beer in her hand.

“All right then.” Stimpy picked up the large snapper by its tail, managing to keep the turtle’s mouth away from his body. It looked to weigh close to fifty pounds. “Let’s do this,” he said, and walked out.

In another minute the crowd dispersed. Some left the bar, while others bellied up for a night of drinking to try to forget what they had just agreed to.

“Maybe I should talk to the little girl’s mother,” Jo said.