Read Online The Girl from Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson - Free Book Online Page A

lean to one side.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Bee asked.
    â€œIt belonged to the family of a friend of mine, Skoogie Middleton. His grandparents used to live there, but then his grandpa died, and his grandmother moved out. It was a long time ago.”
    â€œBut you said this was part of Reward.”
    â€œIt is, but . . . I don’t really understand much about it,” I admitted. “All that stuff happened before Daddy and I came here to live. Skoogie and his grandma live in a trailer down the road now.”
    â€œDid she move because the house was falling apart? That seems kind of crummy to let that happen.”
    I glanced at Bee, wondering if she was accusing Daddy of something. “It happened back when Uncle Charlie was running things on the plantation. My grandfather was still alive, but he was sick and in the hospital. Daddy was a lawyer in New York City then, so he didn’t have anything to do with Reward. Besides, I was really young and my mother was sick with cancer.”
    Bee scrunched up her face. “I wasn’t saying your dad did anything bad, but from what I hear from Grandma Em, your uncle Charlie sounds like a jerk.”
    I let out a laugh, and I might have told her a whole lot more about Uncle Charlie, but at that point the machine we had heard a minute earlier suddenly belched out a loud roar that made us look to our left. We stepped farther into the open to get a better view, and I spotted one of those small digging machines with a bulldozer blade on one end and a little steam-shovel bucket on the other. It was digging a hole in the sand a few yards from the water, one of about twenty holes that dotted the shoreline of Felony Bay. Maybe the foundations for a bunch of boat docks? I wondered if Bee’s dad was trying to start a marina and hadn’t bothered to tell her. Whatever was happening, it was a lot of development.
    Just about then the man who was driving the machine spotted us. He brought the bucket to a sudden halt, jumped out of his driver’s seat, and ran toward us. “Hey!” he yelled. He was big, with powerful-looking arms and a dirty T-shirt. His hair was short but still managed to look messy, and a couple inches of scraggly black beard covered his cheeks and chin. I recognized Bubba Simmons, Leadenwah Island’s part-time deputy sheriff. Not to mention the father of Jimmy Simmons, the kid who had tried to choke me to death.
    â€œWhat y’all think you’re doin’ here?” he demanded. His voice was low and full of menace. “Can’t y’all read signs?”
    Rufus was on my left, his neck hair bristling, a low growl coming from his throat. I grabbed his collar to keep him from doing anything I’d regret. Bee came up on my other side and pulled herself erect. “We can be here if we want. My father owns this land,” she said.
    â€œLike heck he does. This ain’t part of that plantation,” he said, pointing in the direction of Reward. “Y’all, git!”
    â€œI know who you are, Mr. Simmons,” I said.
    â€œYeah, and I know you, too.”
    I stuck out my chin. “This land has always been part of Reward,” I said.
    He looked at me, and his face grew red. “Well, it ain’t anymore. So I’m tellin’ you for the last time, you git off this property! You don’t move right now, I’ll arrest you both.”
    I stood my ground. “If this isn’t part of Reward, who owns it?”
    â€œNone a your business,” Bubba growled, and started toward us.
    He was the kind of person who looked half crazy when he got angry. Bee and I started to edge back toward the path as Bubba kept coming. We were almost running, and I could hear Bee sucking air between her teeth and I knew her leg had to be hurting bad.
    Bubba followed us all the way out to the No Trespassing signs; then he stayed there and watched as we headed back toward the big house. I walked behind