Masks by Greg Hunt

Author:Greg Hunt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, mystery suspense, mystery amateur sleuth, mystery action adventure noir humor

FIFTEEN

Country Life

Several ducks competed for the scraps of hamburger bun that Danny tossed into the water. Beneath them, tiny fish darted about in hungry schools, nipping at the crumbs. Further out into the lake floated a lone turtle, his blunt beak just breaking the surface of the water, calmly watching the commotion.

Not far away, Whit Skerett opened the lid of the grill to check his coals. A pall of smoke drifted toward Danny, already teasing his appetite although his father had yet to put any food on the cooking grates.

"Just about ready," Whit declared. He took a lot of pride in his grill work, and timing was everything to him. To move a sizzling, perfectly cooked steak or burger straight off the grill onto a hungry guest's plate was, to him, sheer artistry.

Danny turned to look at his father, leaning against the deck rail of the gently rocking boat. Whit Skerett was lean and tan. Life on the lake agreed with him. In his early sixties, he fished almost every morning, and he always had some ambitious project underway, whether it be the building a new greenhouse, replacing rotting timbers on the boat dock, or clearing weeds and brush for a vegetable garden.

Whit picked up his Mountain Dew from a sideboard and came over to sit near his son. Beyond the chatter of the ducks, the only other sound nearby was the pleasant lapping of the water against the side of the pontoon boat.

"So after all these weeks, you still don't have the faintest idea what your pal Edwin was up to?" Whit asked.

" I know a lot about what he was doing," Danny said. "But it's the why that's got me baffled."

For the past hour, while helping his father prepare the boat for this evening's cook-out, Danny had explained his discoveries about Edwin Raines' activities in the months before his death.

"I always thought that boy was a little strange," Whit admitted. "Something about him made me think he had layers deep inside that nobody knew about. But it just made sense that he would be kind of odd. Hell, his whole family was."

"He was strange, Dad. But he was also a very good friend to me at a point in my life when I really needed a friend. That year when I was sick, I don't think I could have possibly stayed up with my school work if Edwin hadn't been there to help me."

"I remember that, son," Whit said. "Hey deserves your loyalty. But what can you do for him now? Maybe there was a good reason why he wasn't telling anybody about what he was doing. Maybe it's information you shouldn't have."

"I've already decided that if it's anything embarrassing or scandalous, I'll go dead in the water and keep it to myself. Forever. But I've got an idea that it's something else, not just some secret perversion or strange, unexplained whimsy. I have a feeling that if I can begin tying a few loose ends together, it will start making sense.

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