A Cold and Shallow Shore by Scott William Carter

Author:Scott William Carter
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Scott William Carter
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

Experience had taught Gage that the fastest his Volkswagen’s pitiful 1600 cc engine could safely achieve was about sixty-four miles an hour. That was downhill on a straight stretch with good road, the wind behind him. Maybe with some positive thinking thrown in for good measure. Without those advantages, the van usually topped out at fifty-five. Anything more could damage the engine, and Gage loved his beloved Volkswagen too much to risk that.

It took exactly eight minutes for Gage to race from Books and Oddities to the Barnacle Bluffs police station, which, given some gnarly traffic near the outlet mall and a number of sharp turns around Big Dipper Lake, must have meant he was going quite a bit faster than sixty-four. He could tell by his squealing tires alone that he was really tearing up the asphalt.

Somehow he screeched to a stop outside the BBPD without getting a ticket, a miracle considering how many cops were always coming and going. He was only vaguely aware of the clear blue sky above him and the rippling surface of Big Dipper Lake visible in the gaps between the Douglas firs behind the station. There was a KEX van parked out front, and a brunette in a gray pantsuit got out and called to him when he approached the door, but he didn’t stop.

Later, he would barely remember barking at the desk clerk or pacing in the lobby until Jo finally came out to get him or the silent march back to her office. He wouldn’t even remember what he’d said when he’d unloaded on her.

He’d only remember that she’d waited patiently until he was done, leaning back in her swivel chair with her hands clasped on her crisp white shirt, watching him with what might have been amusement but looked an awful lot like disdain, especially in Gage’s furious state of mind.

“Are you finished?” she said.

“Not hardly,” he said.

“Why don’t you take a seat so I don’t make the unfortunate assumption that you’re going to hit me with that thing?”

She nodded toward his hand, where he was clutching his cane. He hadn’t even been aware he’d been holding it. It was only now, as he stood looming over her big metal desk, a desk that once belonged to Percy Quinn, a good man, a much better man than Gage, and certainly a better chief than this steely eyed ice queen, that Gage finally felt like he was settling back into his body.

It was a cramped room, just big enough for the desk and two office chairs. The blinds were partially open, and he saw the parking lot outside, drifts of pine needles at the curbs. The sunlight cast prisonlike bars across her face.

“I understand you’re angry,” she said. “But if you can’t be civil, then there’s nothing more we can talk about.”

“Don’t patronize me. I want to know if there’s anything else you know that you’ve conveniently kept to yourself.”

“I haven’t kept anything to myself. I’m talking to you as a courtesy.

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