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  Mid-way through dinner, Claudia turned to Dad and bluntly stated: “I heard you got shot.” Most people might have beat around the bush a little first, but not her. “Are you okay?”

  “I got grazed s’all. I was lucky.”

  “So how come you’re retired? I mean you’re not really that old yet.”

  “Claudia, I retired because the Sheriff’s Department felt I was unfit to return to duty.”

  From her expression, I could tell she suddenly realized she’d touched on a sensitive subject. “Well, that’s silly. Why would they think that?”

  The silence grew longer and longer until I thought Dad had just ignored her question. Finally it was Mom who answered, “The department wouldn’t release him to go back to work. So they gave him an early retirement and full disability.”

  I caught Claudia’s attention and gave a short shake of my head. She closed her mouth and continued to eat. After a few moments of silence, though, she asked, “So, do you miss it? The station stuff?”

  “Honestly, I don’t. Twenty-nine days out of the month it was sheer boredom. It was the one day when you’ve got to bring calm from chaos that they pay you for.” Dad sighed and slid his cornbread through a puddle of gravy. “Maybe it’s different in the big city, but y’know, I wouldn’t have traded my job here for a more interesting one in Austin or Dallas for any amount of money.”

  “You knew my father, right?” Claudia asked.

  The air at the table dropped a few degrees.

  It seemed that even my mother stopped chewing. “We seem to be getting all the hard balls tonight,” she muttered with amusement.

  A curious expression passed across my father’s face.

  “He graduated the year before me,” he answered. “What I mean to say is I didn’t know him well, hon.”

  Claudia waited a moment for more. When her patience wasn’t rewarded, she nodded and turned to Mom. “Did you know him?”

  Mom shook her head. “Sorry, sweetie. I didn’t.”

  I could hear the grandfather clock marking off time in the living room.

  “I should probably get going. It’s getting late.”

  She rose and I rose with her.

  “I’ll take you back.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I live the next block over. If you keep this kind of behavior up, somebody will think we’re friends or something.”

  I dropped back into my seat. “Good point. Seeya.”

  She thumped my ear on the way past. “Later.”

  Claudia went around and gave Mom and Dad both hugs. The moment she left the room Mom hissed, “Paul Andrew, you’re not really going to just let her walk home by herself, are you?”

  I just gave her a shrug in response. “Mom, Haven is single dullest place in the entire state of Texas. I think she’ll be okay.”

  My Dad looked on the verge of making a comment when a look passed between my parents and not another word was spoken on the subject.

  Less than a week later, when they’d found the first body in the town of Abner—a mere stone’s throw away from us—I would recall this conversation and reflect on how truly naive I had been.

  Look for Hallowed the new novel from Bryant Delafosse

  Coming to Amazon Kindle October 2012