Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
My father and I would have had a better relationship if I’d let him steer me through life the way he’d wanted to, but unlike my mother, my father had his own plans, and no one, especially not his wayward son, was going to get in his way.
I thought about turning down his summons. Tempting, but I had a feeling this dinner was less about filial duty and more about my father going after something he wanted. If I were right, I’d be better off if I knew what that was.
Now that Prentice Sawyer was dead, I had a chance to clean up Sawyers Bend once and for all. At the moment, the main force standing in my way was my father. As the mayor of Sawyers Bend, he was the most visible of the good ol’ boys’ club that ran the town. His more powerful and wealthy compatriots came to him when they needed the rules bent, or town policy ‘adjusted.’ My father gave them what they needed, and in return, they cut him in on ‘investments’ profitable enough to ease any ethical dilemmas he might have had.
The police chief before me had been in on the game. I could only assume that my father and Prentice thought I’d happily take his place. They should have known when I’d refused to go to law school and follow my grandfather’s footsteps into a judgeship that I wasn’t going to play along. I didn’t want to be a lawyer, a judge, or the mayor—the only three professions acceptable for Garfield men. I wanted to be a cop—a respected profession to the rest of the world—but in my father’s eyes, I was a fuck-up.
My father’s perks from kissing Prentice’s ass had included tuition for Laurel Country Day, the same private school the Sawyer kids went to, but it hadn’t created the distance from my fellow citizens my father had hoped. I’d grown up in the big brick house just off Main Street that they still lived in, and when I wasn’t in school, I was on my bike, riding around town to the playground or the baseball fields, to get an ice cream or a piece of pie at Maisie’s place. By the time I was a teenager, I knew everyone in Sawyers Bend. Not as the son of the mayor, but as me. And unlike my father, pretty much everyone liked me. Not a huge surprise. I’m a likable guy, as long as you aren’t breaking the law.
I’d always wanted to be a cop. It was the first Halloween costume I’d chosen for myself, complete with a shiny badge and a plastic gun on my hip. It wasn’t until later that I understood that what I wanted was justice.
Just because Prentice Sawyer owned most of the town didn’t mean it was okay for him to talk the police chief into enforcing parking and loitering laws to target those they felt were undesirable, or to look the other way when one of their cronies broke the law. Sawyers Bend was filled with mostly good people who were just trying to make a living and enjoy life with their families. It was my job to make sure they could do that without bending to the wills of the men who wanted to run my town like their own personal fiefdom.
I still didn’t know why they didn’t get rid of me the first time we’d butted heads. Prentice had demanded that I serve an eviction notice to a woman who was behind on her rent. She had two young kids and had recently lost her husband, but that wasn’t of concern to Prentice. He had plans for the house she was renting, and he wanted her out. Immediately.
I’ll never forget the look on his face when I’d informed him it was the County Sheriff, not Sawyers Bend Chief of Police, who executed evictions, and if he wanted his tenant out, he’d have to initiate the legal process of eviction, which would take time. His face had turned scarlet with rage, and he’d thrown me out of his office at Heartstone Manor, swearing he’d have my badge. I didn’t care. I wanted to stay in Sawyers Bend, but not at that price, and I could be a cop anywhere.
I’d never asked, but I suspected Ford had played a role in keeping me on the job. Here and there, problems were sometimes quietly solved, actions taken to subvert Prentice’s goals that only someone on the inside could have pulled off. Like the newly widowed mother behind on her rent. The pastor at her church had helped her with childcare and a deposit on a new apartment, thanks to an anonymous grant. I couldn’t prove it was Ford, but my gut was sure.
Trying to level the playing field in Sawyers Bend had been an uphill battle—if the hill was the size of Mt. Everest. With Prentice gone, I had the chance to make real progress. In the time since Prentice’s murder, my father had made it clear he didn’t see an opportunity for change, but a power vacuum he badly wanted to fill. That he’d never have a fraction of Prentice’s resources wasn’t going to stop him. As long as he could get more than what he had. For men like my father, there was never enough more. If I wanted to stay ahead of him, I had to know what he was up to.