Moon Lake by Joe R. Lansdale

Author:Joe R. Lansdale
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2021-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

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Late that afternoon, after buying some clothes and shoes at a JCPenney’s and a few more bananas and candy bars, I arrived home. Clasping my good friend the ax handle in my right hand, carrying the bag containing my new clothes and shoes, bananas, and candy bars in my left, I went up to my room.

I put the ax handle next to the other one so they could keep each other company, though I was uncertain what two ax handles would talk about. I put the new clothes away and started toward my desk. I wasn’t sure what I would write, as I really didn’t know anything new that could be printed in the newspaper, but I still had a few days to organize my thoughts and put together an article.

Truth was, that creepy Jack Jr. had upset me. His threat of legal action seemed to conceal another threat as well. I almost expected another visit from the circus clowns.

I wondered what life might be like in Bora-Bora, provided I had enough money to get there. If I did and found a tree to live under, about all I could get out of it was a swinging weekend, a pineapple, and a sunburn.

I hadn’t sold my aunt’s house yet—my house—and it might be time to pack up my small bit of goods and go back there. It wasn’t Bora-Bora, but it wasn’t here. Ronnie was here, though, and the thought of being even two or three hours from her unnerved me as much as Jack Jr. and his threats.

I was thinking on this when I saw the folded piece of paper on my desk that the librarian had given me, the one with her phone number on it. I had pulled it out of my pocket and put it there before I consigned my shirt to the dirty laundry.

It wasn’t like I was going to chase her down for a date, not with what Ronnie and I had going, but I unfolded the note and looked at it.

It said what it had said before. Estelle Parker, and below her name was her phone number.

Sometimes you have to be slapped in the face to see what’s right in front of you. Right then, I was slapped hard.

I had filled out a form with my information on it. Estelle had given me her number with a smile, and that smile had flattered my ego and swollen my dick enough that I had let down my guard. My biology makes me easy that way.

Estelle’s last name was Parker. Same last name as one of the town fathers. She knew I was an author and she knew I was researching. The thugs showed up not long after I left the library. They’d had just enough time to put on their burnt cork and white face paint and go to the address she had given them.

As Shirley said, it was a pattern.

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