The Secrets of Lake Road - Karen Katchur Page 0,12
and replaced it with a black one.
“Look at him down there,” Jo said about Heil. “He acts like he’s king of the lake.”
Heil was directing his staff to clean up now that most of the onlookers had fled the beach when the storm clouds started moving in. Earlier he had ordered two of his workers to cook hotdogs and hamburgers for the underwater recovery team. No charge. He took care of the men as they had gone about their job, making sure to offer an endless supply of food and drink. A drowning wasn’t good for business, but it was even worse for business if Heil failed to show compassion and cooperation. He was president of the lake association and made damn sure everyone knew it. He walked around as though the entire lake community’s survival rested upon his shoulders. He was a large man, a fat man, an ever-so-loud man. It was impossible to ignore him.
Maybe Jo didn’t like him for these reasons, but she believed it had more to do with a gut feeling telling her not to trust what others deemed were his good intentions.
Eddie looked down at Heil and shrugged. After all, Heil was his boss.
“They should be coming in off the water,” he said of the underwater recovery team. It was too risky for divers to search in the dark, particularly with the threat of a storm looming. But at the last minute there was activity on the boat and another diver went under.
Jo leaned farther out on the railing, the muscles in her neck and shoulders tightening as each second passed. She spotted her daughter at the lake’s edge, but it was Johnny who was foremost on her mind. She had watched as he attacked the water, diving down and popping up, covering as much area as he could in his efforts to find the girl in time. He moved through the water, graceful and fearless as if the lake was an extension of his body, a part of his flesh and bones. Sometimes, long after the summer had ended and they were settled in their home and in their lives, Johnny would breeze by in his nonchalant way, and she would catch the smell of the lake on his skin and in his hair. It was as if the lake lived inside of him, what was good, cool, and refreshing, but tangled with something dangerous, too.
Lightning lit up the blackening sky in a one-two flash. The sheriff’s deputies appeared and cleared the beach of stragglers, including Caroline, forcing them to seek shelter.
Eddie ran his hand down his face. “Lots of new renters this summer,” he said, and returned his gaze to the recovery boat, the visibility fading in the waning light.
“Why doesn’t anyone warn them? Why don’t they tell them about the dangers of swimming here?” she asked, thinking about the diver, wondering whether he could feel the temperature drop through the dry suit as he dove closer and closer to the bottom. He would start at the farthest point from the boat and systematically work his way back, sweeping the area with his hands into a center line and then outward, double searching each section at a time, kicking up silt, making it that much harder to navigate, searching blind.
“The signs are posted,” Eddie said. “And advertising three drownings in the last sixteen years wouldn’t be good for business.”
“Posting signs on the beach and in the Pavilion isn’t enough.”
“No matter what you do, it’s never enough.”
She supposed that could be true, but she would never accept that it was fair. Then again, what in life was ever fair?
After a long pause he added, “They found something. It’s the only reason they’d still be out there.”
She agreed.
The diver emerged and handed something to the three men on the boat. It was much too small for a body, even a child’s body.
The sheriff, Dave Borg, appeared on the beach. He stopped and talked to Heil. Heil nodded continually to whatever the sheriff was saying, rubbing his chin and appearing troubled about something.
Thunder continued to rumble. The men on the boat moved quickly. They looked to be securing their equipment, no doubt eager to get off the water. The wind picked up, bending the branches of trees and scattering leaves. The sheriff and Heil made their way onto the dock, waiting for the recovery team to come in.
“I’m going to find out what’s going on,” Eddie said. “Watch the bar.”