Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse

Author:Valerie Fraser Luesse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction;Alabama—Social life and customs—Fiction;Missing persons—Investigation—Fiction;Race relations—Fiction;Christian fiction;FIC042000;FIC043000;FIC066000
ISBN: 9781493412617
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

APRIL 22, 1967

“Pipe down, you idiot!” Judd laughed. “You’re gonna wake up every lunatic in this hollow!”

“Sorry, sir!” Burl giggled. “Lemme lob a grenade to flush out the enemy!” He crushed an empty beer can and hurled it into the woods.

“Hand me a cold one while you’re at it,” Judd said in a hushed voice. Burl pulled a can out of a small cooler he was carrying and pitched it to Judd.

“You know what else would be good right now?” Ted whispered.

“What?” Judd whispered back.

“Another beer!” Ted yelled. Burl tossed him one from the cooler.

All three of them tried to stifle their laughter as they hiked through the trees, clumsily navigating by the light of a full moon and peppering their conversation with the kind of profanity that teenage boys use when they’re trying to convince themselves that they’re men.

“Which way?” Judd asked as the trail forked around a big oak tree.

“Highland, how long you been livin’ here and you still can’t find your way around?” Ted laughed.

“Excuse me for spending my childhood in civilization,” Judd shot back as Ted took the lead. “There’s such a thing as paved roads and street signs, you know.”

Just before they made it to the deserted sawmill, Burl and Judd stumbled into a briar patch, yelping and swearing as they struggled to free themselves from the thorns.

“Ted, where are you?”

“Get us outta this, man!”

Ted managed to untangle them, but not before all three had ripped their T-shirts and taken briar scratches from head to toe. They made their way to the mill and sat in a circle on the ground, keeping away from the old wells. They might be tipsy, but they weren’t drunk enough to do something that stupid.

“Won’t your old man miss these brews from his stash?” Burl asked, fishing around in the cooler.

“Nah,” Judd said. “Whit won’t notice. He’ll just figure Celeste tossed ’em back.”

“Is there some reason why we couldn’t bring a flashlight?” Ted asked.

“Because some of those backwoods freaks might spot us, and we’d never be heard from again. You’ve gotta give ’em a little credit, though—if they hadn’t knocked off that colored guy, we wouldn’t have a ghost to chase, and we’d have to find some other excuse to get gassed in this crummy little town.”

“You really think they killed him?” Burl asked.

“Aw, yeah,” Judd said.

“Coulda been some of his cronies—heard he gambled,” Ted offered.

“Nah. One of them woulda spilled it already,” Judd insisted. “I’m telling you, that Pickett clan is nuts. Old man Harwell might shut me up at school, but that won’t change a thing. And to think I had to defend myself against that loser McLean and his little hick girlfriend—makes me wanna puke. Wouldn’t neither one of ’em last five minutes in Birmingham.”

“How come y’all moved way out here anyway?” Ted asked.

Judd shrugged. “Beats me.”

“Well, there musta been some reason—”

“Look!” Judd cut Ted off before he could press for answers. “If you wanna know why Whit and Celeste do anything, ask them. I got no idea.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.