Back From The Dead: My Apocalypse Level-up System novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: The Sheriff's Table
The county courthouse smelled like floor wax and burnt coffee.
Conroy drove me there in his gray truck and didn't ask whether he could come in.
He just parked, got out, and walked beside me up the steps.
"You don't have to stay," I said.
"I know."
The sheriff's office sat at the end of a long hall with a bench outside it.
Three men with scraped knuckles sat on that bench.
One of them was the man who had swung the crowbar.
He looked at me, and then at the floor.
I went in.
The sheriff was a lean, tired man of about sixty, with a gray mustache and a mug that said WORLD'S OKAYEST DAD.
He stood up when I came in, and sat when he saw Conroy.
"Ms. Pendelton. Mr. Gallagher. Sit."
We sat.
"I have three men in my holding cell who say a Brent Lasker paid them a hundred dollars each to rob your barn. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"He's your ex."
"Yes."
"Why would he do that?"
"He wants my father's cellar," I said. "He thinks I'm going to hide in it."
The sheriff blinked.
"From what?"
I had decided on the drive to tell him the truth, and only the truth, in the smallest dose that would work.
"I think a sickness is coming that the county isn't ready for," I said. "I think it'll be bad, and I'm getting ready for it. Brent knew that, and he wanted what I'm getting ready."
"Based on?"
"A feeling, and a news broadcast you've probably seen."
"Second ward at the Columbus hospital," the sheriff said slowly.
"Yes."
"I did see that."
He looked at his mug for a while.
The door opened.
I turned.
Brent stood in the doorway in a pressed shirt, with Lacey beside him holding a folder.
Her eyes were red again.
Brent saw me, and his face twisted for half a second before it smoothed.
"Sheriff," he said. "I'm so sorry to interrupt. We came to file a welfare petition."
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