Читать книгу Small Town Monsters - Craig Nybo - Страница 67

Small Town Monsters

13

the atrocities that we elders have seen.”

“What are we talking about here?” Kurt asked, getting a little irritated.

Harmon sighed. “Monsters, we’re talking about monsters.”

“The only monsters in this world walk on two legs,” Kurt said. “If a crime is committed, I will get to the bottom of it; but until that happens, I don’t want any more talk of monsters. You are a respected man in this community. It is essential that you, of all people, keep a cool head.”

“I will keep a cool head. But if people start dying again in DePalma Beach—people you could have saved—the guilt and pain of this community and the judgment of God will fall on your shoulders.”

“That will be all, Harmon.”

Harmon forced a tight smile with his bloodless lips and plopped his fedora onto his gray head. “We have ways in this community of getting things done when certain parties opt out of performing their paid functions.”

Kurt froze. “I caution you, Harmon; don’t meddle in police business. My job is to keep the peace. That includes stopping those who would disrupt that peace no matter who they are.”

“It is passed down through the genes, you know.” Harmon nodded toward the old book on Kurt’s desk. “Like father, like son, as they say.”

Kurt picked up the book and held it up so Harmon could get a good look at it. “This,” said Kurt, “is fiction, like Buren Peoples’s infatuation with aliens and el chupacabra, like Larry Uriarte’s obsession with Bigfoot. These men’s beliefs in paranormal fantasy does not make them bad men. Acting out those fantasies with violence makes them bad men, you know the drill, pitchforks, torches and such.” Kurt slammed the book down on his desk so hard that Harmon flinched. “You say, like father, like son. I say, if you even think about stirring up the already paranoid people of this little community and going after Danny’s father, Artemus, I will come down on you thicker and heavier than anything I’ve read in this book of delusions.” Kurt shoved the book so hard that it shot off the front of Kurt’s