Renewal 6 - Cold Read Online Free PDF Page A

effort. It never happened. George could work non-stop, albeit slowly, from dawn to dusk, and all we could do was work alongside him.
    Dad’s salvage trips were largely successful. The weather was helping him, along with Kirk and Arturo, to get into town, grab whatever they could find, and get out. Usually, they saw no one except for the curious. Occasionally they ran into trouble, but after Mom expressed her view of the situation, Dad let go of his old moral code long enough to deal with the problem. Every time he was forced to kill, it took a little bit of his spirit. Every time Kirk was forced to kill, however, it seemed to have no real effect. Over time, Kirk naturally became a sort of family killer. The only problem was that it became Kirk’s solution for everything, and my parents clearly struggled with how to find the line between dealing and killing. In the end, they simply dropped the responsibility for the decision, and that’s how Kirk became a fourteen year old man.
    In mid-September, we finally met the Carroll’s nephew and county deputy, Rodney Banks. We had expected him to show up all summer, but he never had. Finally, here he was with a bullet hole in his gut. The Carrolls were his last living relatives, and when he had gotten shot trying to protect the supplies in the county garage, he knew better than most that there were no more hospitals. He had made the long, delirious drive over icy roads to the Carroll’s house. His arrival put us all on alert, triggered by the rattling gate chains and a blast from George’s air horn. The remaining law in the county had abandoned the police vehicles on Breakdown day. The blue pickup truck could have held anyone. Even George did not recognize the truck until it pulled up in front of the house. By then, all of the men, myself loosely included, had showed up in the driveway, bundled against the cold and armed to the teeth.
    Rodney was unable to open the door, much less get out of the truck. Dad and Kirk approached in their own tactical manner, refined by their many salvage attempts. Arturo was still struggling to get around and stood back with me, calling out advice on the fly. They opened the door and found the front seat saturated with blood. Rodney was holding onto the edge of consciousness as they hoisted him out of the truck and carried him inside. Martha Carroll had watched out the window and hustled to get some blankets laid out on the couch before they carried the deputy inside. Dad directed the effort to set Rodney gently on the blankets, and then used his belt knife to cut away the shirt around the source of the blood. The rest of us crowded into the living room and watched as Dad took one look and turned to George, shaking his head.
    Rodney was mumbling, “Johnsons... Johnsons... Watch the Johnsons.” He kept up his chant for another five minutes, until he died.
    We buried him near the old homestead. We used a long steel pole to chip through the frozen ground.
     
    Chapter 6 – 8
    Once Junior got a good look at Murfreesboro, he decided to follow the rules. He supposed that he could overwhelm the authorities if he wanted, but it would only be smart to get a look at the situation first. He circled back out to the old mall, and left his eighty men there. He drove to the state police headquarters solo, and put in a request to visit his father. He ignored the icy glances and open hostility from the police. He was determined to be the model of good behavior until he knew the score. After a two-hour wait, an old man finally led him to a room set up with booths on both sides of a single wall of steel bars. His father waited in the middle of the room.
    “Well, Junior. ‘Bout time you came to see your old man.”
    “I just found out this morning, Daddy. Polecat made it back with seven others.”
    “Polecat... That boy always knows when to run.”
    “Yeah, it worked out this time. He said you were overwhelmed, and he figured he’d better let us know.” Junior