Almost Midnight_A Novel by Paul Doiron

Author:Paul Doiron [Doiron, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Traditional, Thrillers, crime
ISBN: 9781250102430
Google: WI5xDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1250102413
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2019-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

23

Ronette said she would have a set of keys made and showed me where she would hide them, under a pulpy log outside the gate. Then we said our goodbyes. After what had been a brutal day, I was eager to get on the road, and Ronette was pumped up to pay a visit to the Beliveau boys.

Out of curiosity I checked to see if I had a cell signal, but my phone might as well have been dead. I could play solitaire on it or use the flashlight to light my way to the outhouse, but I wouldn’t be engaging in pillow talk with Dani Tate from my cot.

The clouds were falling on the valley now like curtains after a play. I had spent enough time as a warden living outside in all weather to know that I was in for a wild ride back home.

The highway carried me downstream. I passed again the Bard of Avon coffeehouse, closed for the evening, and the airstrip named for Charles Lindbergh. Off to my left the Sandy River looked more like the muddy river, so brown was it with run-off from the farm fields and sheep pastures.

I finally got a four-bar signal when I crossed the border into the unusually named town of Strong. Maine was famous for its weirdo place names. The state probably had twenty municipalities that had been christened after foreign countries and capitals: Peru, China, Mexico, Norway, Paris, Poland. The list goes on. It was no wonder tourists described my rural state as “quaint.” They might have rethought their adjectives if I introduced them to men such as Trevor Dow, Gorman Peaslee, and the Beliveau boys.

Or Billy Cronk, for that matter.

Among the messages I had missed was a call from the man of the hour. Someone in the Department of Corrections must have decided that they couldn’t deny a soon-to-be-pardoned prisoner the use of a telephone. Billy’s call was time-stamped midafternoon.

“Hey, Mike. I wanted to thank you for paying for my family’s motel. You’ve always looked out for them while I was inside, and I won’t forget it. They’re transferring me to the Farm this afternoon. The docs think I won’t die if I take my antibiotics and hold off on doing crunches a few days.”

I couldn’t be sure if that was a joke or not.

“Could you talk to Aimee for me? She still don’t believe this is for real. She thinks the governor’s promise is for shit and he’s going to screw us over as soon as the camera lights go off. What do you think about that? Should I be worried? I’m trying not to get my hopes up.”

I’d been planning to drive straight home, to give myself time to pack for an extended stay at the luxurious Tantrattle Cabin and get some much-needed sleep. But hearing my friend’s bearish voice made me wish to see him again in person. I checked the clock. No way was I going to make it back to the Midcoast in time for visiting hours at the Bolduc Correctional Facility.

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