Lake Honor by Alan Brown

Author:Alan Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
Published: 2023-03-16T16:23:10+00:00

CHAPTER 9: Love Lost and Found

Rachael jumped into the passenger side of Gary’s car. She was sobbing uncontrollably at first. It was a miserable night. The rain was pounding down on the beat-up two-door Gremlin. The windshield wipers were on high, and they were barely helping. Visibility came in the flashes between the blades. Thunder roared, and lightning illuminated the dark, dense clouds causing a haze that glistened through the windshield. Gary gripped the steering wheel tight and squinted and leaned forward to see.

He tried to comfort Rachael as best he could, resting his right hand on top of her leg when he could manage fleeting free moments to guide the steering wheel with his left. She was too upset to talk, still managing an overflow of tears, belches of whimpers, sinus drain and gasps for air. The fuss was indistinguishable from the storm. Gary was in survival mode, fixed on getting her back to the trailer as soon as he could. Perhaps, he thought, being home with a couple of shots of whiskey might calm her down enough for him to understand what had gone so terribly wrong.

Whiskey was never Rachael’s choice of drink. She almost exclusively drank beer. Maybe a glass of wine once in a while. Sometimes a brandy if she was struggling to sleep, but almost never whiskey.

But that night, she needed her senses dulled as quickly as possible. Her body was trembling. She couldn’t stop crying. Gary had never seen her like that before. So, she drank whiskey, Southern Comfort 100 proof. Gary had bought a quart of it a couple of weeks earlier. He had seen it advertised. It sounded like something he might like. It was not. It was too strong for him, with an odd combination of sweetness and bitterness that burned his throat and left an aftertaste that reminded him of siphoned gas.

The bottle was nearly full when he gave Rachael the first drink. Twenty minutes later, it was half empty. That was when Rachael told Gary about the letter.

“It was from Harley,” she said. “He thinks we were the ones that shot him and took his money and drugs. He didn’t outright say it, but he eluded to the fire that burned down my house. I know he was the person that set it.”

“Does he know about me, Rachael?” Gary asked.

“Yeah, he knows about you. I don’t know how, but he does. He thinks you and I were in on a plan to kill him and take everything he had.

“He said he’d come after you, and more bad things would happen to me if we didn’t come up with $40,000 within the next two days. He included a map of the place where we need to drop off the money. It’s down in the Ozarks, in hill country, secluded and not close to any town.

“I’m scared, Gary. I don’t know what to do.”

Gary put his head down into his hands. He was scared too. He needed time to think. His entire life had always been a struggle, but he had never faced a situation like this.

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