Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
He was also the one I’d seen with Griffin at the bar.
Wolf was his name.
The man who’d taken over Griffin’s son’s case.
I shivered when I thought about recounting the story, but they all looked so eager that it was hard to say no, so I didn’t.
“When I was nearly fifteen I went to check trot lines with my father, about four miles past the one fifty-five boat ramp,” I started, my remembrance putting me back into what I’d felt that day. “It was threatening to rain, but I went with my dad anyway because I didn’t like him having to go alone.
“His boat broke down about four miles upstream, and the skies opened up around the same time. It was raining so hard and fast that the boat started to fill up,” I explained. “It was a small flat bottom with one of those huge motors people use to get them into the places that don’t have much water.”
“Muddy Buddy,” Mr. Indifference answered.
I nodded, the name sounding familiar, and looked up at Griffin whose blue eyes were watching me avidly.
“Yeah, that,” I nodded, keeping my eyes connected with Griffin’s. “The rain just kept coming down, filling the boat, until it finally couldn’t hold any more. I was trying to bail us out, but it was useless, like trying to empty a pool with a spoon, “I replied with a sad, slow shake of my head as I recalled just how hard I had tried. “We sank.” I swallowed. “I had my father’s two twenty-three across my shoulders.”
“So what’d you do?” Griffin asked.
“Swam. Luckily, the life jackets hadn’t been tied into the boat, so they floated up,” I answered. “My dad made me put on the vest, and we swam until I just couldn’t swim anymore.”
“Then what?” Wolf asked.
“We got off on the bank, resting against on old abandoned dock,” I told them. “Didn’t notice the huge gator slides…nor the huge nest of alligator eggs that were nestled in the rotting dock.”
“When did you notice?” Griffin asked, his face starting to pale.
I stiffened as I recalled those first horrific moments.
“When the gator pulled my dad off the dock by his upper torso,” I answered.
Gasps filled the room.
“My dad was under before I even realized it,” I said. “And I didn’t know what to do. I knew from experience that the lake was over forty feet deep, and that’s what gators do. They take their victims to the bottom and drown them.”
Griffin’s eyes looked pained.
“But the gator let my dad go, coming back for me, since her nest was still in jeopardy,” I whispered. “But I was waiting for her. The moment she came out of the water like those huge whales do at Sea World, I shot her head full of two twenty-three rounds.”
“You killed her?” Mig asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
I remembered how the alligator had come to rest half on, half off the dock.
The only thing in the water was her huge, fat tail.
“And your dad?”
I looked over at the man who’d asked.
“He wasn’t breathing,” I answered. “He’d floated up to the top of the water and downstream about thirty yards,” I shivered. “I had to swim into the murky water to go get him, but I managed to bring him back to the dock. I pulled him directly onto the bank next to the huge gator.”
“You stayed next to her?” Wolf asked.
I nodded. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I know for a fact that the river part of Caddo doesn’t have many lake houses. So I did the only thing I could, I got him back to the dock and up onto it so I could start CPR.”
“You got him breathing, though,” Peek supplied.
I nodded. “I did. And he came to screaming his ass off.”
Griffin’s arms went around me when the trembling didn’t stop.
I held onto him as I finished the story.
“We stayed there where we were two more hours before a boater finally came by,” I said. “The boater called the game wardens. The game wardens loaded us and the massive alligator into the boat, and we drove off back to the state park where my father was transferred into the ambulance with some pretty serious wounds. I was left to answer questions and take pictures.”
Griffin growled. “They made you stay?”
I shook my head. “No, they asked. My dad’s truck was there. And my mom had met the ambulance at the hospital. Since I wasn’t hurt, and things needed to be taken care of, I stayed.”
“So you’ve never gone to the lake again?” Wolf asked.
I shook my head. “No, I have not.” I glared at Griffin. “At least willingly.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
I shrugged. “It’s okay.”
I refrained from saying, “You didn’t ask.”
That wouldn’t be beneficial right then.
He shook his head. “No it’s not. But thank you for trying to make me feel better.”
He sighed and kissed my head, placing his lips overly long on my forehead before he stood up.
“I’ve got to go talk to them, will you be okay here with Alison?” He asked, looking down at me with concern.
I nodded, assuming that ‘Alison’ was the only woman in the room. The one who’d pulled up that ugly picture and had yet to take it down.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, patting his thigh. “As long as the blinds stay shut.”
That was a warning to all of them in the room, and I saw the other person in my line of sight nod in agreement.
They’d stay shut.
Good.
Griffin left, disappearing into a room in the side of the house we were in.
When the door shut behind the last one, Mr. Pissy, I finally looked to the woman, Alison.
“Can w-we, ummm, t-take that down?” I gestured to the picture.
Geez, I’d gone all the way through a harrowing tale and hadn’t stuttered once, but to be put under the supervision of a woman with angel eyes was making me stutter.
Nice.
She hurriedly complied, hitting a button on the wall that drew the screen up back into the holder in the ceiling.