Read Online Creatures of the Storm by Brad Munson - Free Book Online Page B

should,” he told her, clearly not
listening to her answer. “You really should.”
    “I have kids, Sheriff, I’ll be there for
sure.”
    “Terrible thing,” Fender chimed in. “Totally
sucks.”
    Peck’s attention snapped to him. “What do you
know about it, my friend?”
    Fender’s eyes got big and he took a step
back. “Nothing, Sheriff. Not a thing, you know that.”
    Peck focused on him like a cougar fixing on a
quail. “I don’t know anything like that, Fender. But I know you’re
not coming to the meeting tonight, are you?’
    Fender started shaking his head before the
cop stopped talking. “Heck, no, Sheriff. No way.”
    “’Cause you have no kids, my friend. You have
no family. You have your tacky little trailer way out here on the
edge of forever, and you have no business bothering the decent
people of this town. It’s none of your concern.”
    Fender was almost pleading. “Shit, your
honor, come on, you’ve rousted my place twice already and you
didn’t find a thing! You got no reason–”
    The Sheriff was almost nose to crooked nose
with the long-haired man. “Oh, I have reasons, my friend,” he said,
still staring him down. “I have good reasons. But I don’t have to
tell you about them, now do I?”
    Apparently the phrase
‘probable cause’ hadn’t made it into his vocabulary quite
yet , Lucy mused. “Here we are, Sheriff
Peck,” she said loudly, stepping forward to pull the cop’s
attention away from her trembling neighbor. “What can we do for
you?”
    Peck took his time. When he did face her, his
eyes had lost some of their hardness, and his smile was
professionally bland. “Sorry to disturb you,” he said, “but I had a
few questions. For both of you, as it happens.”
    Lucy was surprised in spite of herself. “You
two have met?” she said, looking at the Sheriff, then at Steinberg,
then back at the Sheriff again.
    “A couple of times,” the Sheriff said mildly.
“Nice friendly chats.”
    “Yes,” Steinberg said, as if he had swallowed
a turd. “Friendly.”
    Must have been about the
last ATV incident , Lucy thought. She had
been under the impression that it had never gone beyond a simple
traffic ticket. Now... Steinberg had dealt with the Sheriff
himself? And more than once? Yet again, and not for the first time
that day, Lucy wondered how much she had missed while working all
alone up in her lab, mourning for her lost love and generally
hating the world.
    “Okay,” she said, recovering. “That’s fine.
I’m glad you’re here in any event.”
    He raised a well-trimmed eyebrow at that.
“Really?”
    “Yes. You take care of your business first,
then I have something important to talk to you about before you
go.”
    “Oh… kay,” he said,
sounding strangely hesitant. Lucy thought maybe he wasn’t used to talking to such decisive
women , or maybe
he couldn’t imagine any business more important than his
own . Either way, he seemed almost relieved
to focus his attention on the other scientist in the room. “Dr.
Steinberg,” he said.
    Michael regarded him, smirking.
    “The ATV,” he said.
    Michael continued to smirk.
    Peck sighed deeply. “All right, if that’s the
way you want to play it…” He pulled a small notebook from the
breast pocket of his sharply ironed shirt and referred to it with a
barely noticeable squint. Lucy wondered how he managed to keep that
crisp crease in his clothing in the midst of a major storm. She
also wondered how long it would be before the good Sheriff broke
down and got himself some reading glasses. “At approximately 2:30
this afternoon, a silver BMW was forced off a private driveway
connected to North Ridge Road. The driver subsequently lost
control, rolled down an embankment at high speed, and collided with
a rocky impediment causing serious injury to the driver and the
destruction of the vehicle.”
    Lucy said, “Jesus Christ!” and turned to
Steinberg. “Michael?”
    Michael shrugged. “Impediment, Sheriff