The Hail Mary: Emma Kane Jacob Thorne Book 4 by Travis Todd

Author:Travis, Todd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Matters Press
Published: 2018-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It was early evening when Jacob found his dad, James, at the racetrack, waiting for the horses to go to gate. James leaned back in a hard wooden folding chair, up high and away from most of the crowd. James didn’t seem shocked when his son appeared out of nowhere and sat next to him.

“Slip in through the back gate?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jacob said.

“Yeah, the bozo of a security guard back there is half in the bag, most of the time. Piece of cake to get by him. How did you know I was here?”

Jacob held up the local paper that he’d fished out of the trash. In the sports section James had underlined a few races he’d been interested in, including the one about to start.

“Okay. Decent deduction, I guess. For your age. And you got out here how?”

“Bus.”

“You spent your bus fare just to come out here?”

“No. I rode on the back bumper to where I wanted to go. Lotta junior high kids do that, hang on the back. I’ve seen them do it.”

James snorted. “You fall off and crack your skull open to the white meat, I’ll ridicule your corpse.”

“I didn’t. And I won’t.”

“Whatever it is you want, it’ll have to wait until this race is over. Don’t talk, just sit there until I tell you differently.”

Jacob did as he was told and heard the bell ring for the start of the race. He craned his neck and watched the horses bolt down the track. His father didn’t move, just sat back and chewed gum. The noise of the crowd seemed to swell as a horse stumbled, then suddenly kicked into another gear and began to overtake the pack of animals leading the race. The beast ran faster and faster, and those bearing witness rose to their feet as one, once the horses approached the finish line. They screamed as the underdog horse won by a nose. Everyone applauded and shouted, though Jacob couldn’t help but notice some of those same people cursed and threw tickets to the ground.

His father, however, just sat, unmoved. Jacob turned to him.

“Did you win?”

“I wasn’t racing, kid. I sat here next to you.”

“I mean, did you win your bet?”

“Yes.”

“You knew that horse would win and that’s why you bet on it?”

“I didn’t bet on the horse.”

“You didn’t?”

“No. I bet on me.”

Jacob was confused by that, and it showed on his face. His father leaned forward.

“I bet on my judgement of the horse, the jockey, and the track. I put money on the horse, but I didn’t bet on it, per se. Understand?”

“I think so. So you made money?”

“I made a few bucks, nothing big. Grocery money, basically. The money doesn’t matter, not about this shit.”

“So what does?”

“Being right.”

“Right about what?”

“Character.”

James sat up straighter, turned to his son. “Okay kid, you went to some trouble to track me down. Why? You need money for some fancy soccer shoes, or what?”

“No, uh. No.”

“So what is it? Aren’t you usually hanging out

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