Read Lakebridge: Spring (Supernatural Horror Literary Fiction) Page 17

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  There was no good reason why his father chose to follow Jenny. His father rarely went by the lake. He always told Gil that he knew what was down there and there was no reason to pay it a casual visit. Gil was pretty sure he went to get away from Gil and that was fine. Ever since the election, they didn’t have much to say to one another. Actually, Gil didn’t have much to say to his father. His father had a lot to say to him, but had long since stopped trying to say it. If Gil could say anything about the man, he understood people better than anyone else Gil had ever met. He was also incredibly noble and that’s what killed Gil about the damned election. Ben was supposed to be sheriff of Stansbury. It was his calling and he gave it up and now he just drove around racking up speeding tickets and sitting in his case room looking at his files and trying to figure out how to stop it all and not listening to Gil who knew that it couldn’t be stopped so long as the bridge was there and since the bridge wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, Kurtz’s efforts notwithstanding, there was no reason to stop being sheriff. The town needed Sheriff Ben to keep it all together and everyone knew it. Sheriff Tom knew it, which is why he just about never left his office. When his father sat him down to explain it all, Gil understood and he told him as much. Gil knew the deep pain his father felt about the case. But it wasn’t enough to abandon the town to drive around like a maniac hoping something would come to him as the mile markers ticked by to the coast and back. Gil told his father that when he was ready to be sheriff again, Gil would be happy to help him with the case. His father told him that he couldn’t be sheriff and work on the case and that Gil was never to even glance at the case files or step foot in the case room. It all had to stop. But Sheriff Ben did not have to stop being Sheriff Ben to make it all stop.

  Gil watched his father walk down the path after Vermont State Trooper Jennifer Julia Kennisaw. He had nothing better to do than work on her a little more. Of course he knew she was a lost cause. But at this point, his whole life was a lost cause. He turned to Rick and Marisol who had been watching the whole melodrama without comment.

  “Care to see Vermont’s finest in action?”

  “You sure you want to do that, son?” Gil could see that Rick couldn’t help grinning. Gil really liked Rick.

  “No. But I’ll go and do it all the same.”

  Rick shrugged at Marisol. “We’ve got no place to be right now. Maybe someone else will try to do something crazy.”

  “Not outside of the range of possibilities.” The couple again followed Gil as he made his way towards the bridge.