Cemetery Road (Sean O'Brien Book 7)
Read Cemetery Road (Sean O'Brien Book 7) Online
Authors: Tom Lowe
ALSO BY TOM LOWE
A False Dawn
The 24
th
Letter
The Butterfly Forest
The Black Bullet
Blood of Cain
Black River
Destiny
Cemetery Road
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
CEMETERY ROAD
© – Copyright 2015 by Tom Lowe. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, Internet, recording, visual/audio or otherwise without written permission from the author. Please do not participate in piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. First published in the United States of America, December 2015. Publisher – Kingsbridge Entertainment, P.O. Box 340, Windermere, FL. 34786
Registered with the Library of Congress, and U.S. Copyright Office. First cataloged December, 2015, Author - Lowe, Tom, 1952 –
1.
CEMETERY ROAD
—fiction. 2. The Preacher—fiction. 3. Florida Panhandle—fiction. 4. Ghosts of the river—fiction. 5. Shorty’s—fiction. Title—
Cemetery Road
CEMETERY ROAD
– is distributed in ebook, print and audiobook editions. Audiobook published by Audible. Printed books are available from Amazon Inc, bookstores and libraries.
Cover design by Damonza. Formatting print and digital conversion by CreateSpace.
ISBN-13 978-1518718281
ISBN-10 1518718280
First edition: December 2015. Published in the USA by Kingsbridge Entertainme
Although CEMETERY ROAD is a work of fiction, it is inspired from the history of the former Florida School for Boys near Marianna, Florida. The reform school was opened in 1900. It operated for 111 years before closing. At one time it was the largest reform school in America. Some children were sent there for “truancy” and “incorrigibility.” Others were wards of the state and sent to the school because they had nowhere else to go. In 2011, the state of Florida reported that the school was closing for budgetary reasons. In the few years before closing, some of the men who were confined within the school as children, reported that they and others incarcerated there were victims of severe physical and sexual abuse. And they allege that there were children who never left the reform school alive, buried in hidden graves. Prosecutors have said that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove or disprove the allegations.
After the school closed, a forensics anthropology team from the University of South Florida secured permission to use grand-penetrating radar and other forensics tools to locate fifty-five graves, and fifty-one bodies. Some of the children, investigators believe, died from a fire and disease. For others, the causes of death were apparently not recorded at the time and difficult to establish decades later. The forensics team used mitochondrial DNA and was successful in identifying a few of the dead children by matching DNA with living family members. At the time of the publication of this novel, the investigation was continuing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
O
ften I’m asked which one of my books is my favorite. I don’t have a favorite, but I do have my favorite part of each book. It’s right here where I have the opportunity to thank and recognize those who’ve helped me launch another novel.
For CEMETERY ROAD, a special thanks goes to Helen Christensen and Darcy Yarosh for their attention to detail and proofreading my books. To the hard working production team at Amazon CreateSpace: Maria Martin, Jamie Lee, Carina Gilbert, Kandis Miller and Brianne Twilley. You’re the best. And finally to my wife, Keri, for her skills as an editor, her patience, perseverance, and her laugh. She makes the often-cloistered life of a writer a little easier.
I tip my hat to you, the reader. If this is your first time reading a Sean O’Brien novel, welcome. If you’re returning, thank you for your loyalty and continuing the journey. I hope you enjoy CEMETERY ROAD.
For Melissa Lowe,
and for…
All the children who entered the doors of the Florida School for boys, and especially to those who never left.
”Some people regard it as their right to return evil for evil and, if they cannot, feel they have lost their liberty.”
- Aristotle
PROLOGUE: Jackson County, Florida - 1964
CHAPTER ONE: Florida - Ponce Inlet - Present Day
A Murder of Crows: (Prologue - Florida wilderness – 1835)
CHAPTER ONE: (Florida Wilderness – Present Day)
PROLOGUE
Jackson County, Florida - 1964
H
is sister was the only one he’d miss. He didn’t want to leave her, but at age thirteen there wasn’t much he could do. He would return one day to get her—to rescue her. Andy Cope sat in a hard, wooden chair across the counter from the principal’s secretary, a heavy woman with listless eyes and turquoise-framed glasses worn halfway down her nose. Her bottle-blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun that looked to Andy like a hornet’s nest. She picked up the phone, stuck her thick finger into the rotary dial and made a call that would forever change Andy’s life.
He glanced at the clock on the wall behind the woman. 11:15. Andy knew the freight train would rumble by the school at 11:30 sharp, always slowing to a crawl at the crossing, sometimes coming to a brief stop in Marianna. Andy hoped today the train would be making that stop. He could run all the way to Marianna if need be. He was athletic. Strong for his age. Handsome angular face, his brown hair cut short. Green eyes, often guarded, suspicious. A small, white crisscross scar above one of his dark eyebrows. He watched the sweep second-hand on the clock as the secretary spoke into the phone.
“We have one boy today. His mother and Mr. Gillespie signed the papers. Warden Beck is expecting him by three. Are you coming in a bus or is the truancy officer picking him up?”
She paused, listening—looking over her glasses at the boy, her eyes superior. Andy held her stare, unblinking. She said, “That’ll be fine. Thank you. Darlene, how’s Harold? Betty told me he’s fixin’ to get out of the turpentine business.”
The principal, a tall balding man in a cotton seersucker suit, came out of his office, his wingtip shoes hard against the pinewood floor, the smell of cigarette smoke on his clothes. He looked down at Andy. “Maybe schoolin’ isn’t for you, son. You lack motivation and discipline. They’ll teach it to you at the Florida Home for Boys. You’ll grow up quick down there. It’s for your own good. When you come back here, you’ll be changed.”
“I’m never comin’ back here.”
The principal rocked slightly on his brown, polished shoes. “I suspect you’re right about that. Boys like you are born bad. Wicked seeds are planted amongst the moral seeds in the garden of good and evil.” The principal’s mouth turned down. He adjusted papers atop a clipboard, two fingers on his right hand yellowed from cigarettes. He tucked the clipboard under his arm and walked out into the hallway, the school bell ringing as the door closed.
Andy looked at the clock, felt his stomach churning. 11:25.
He heard the train whistle in the distance. Soon the train would roll by the old high school, shaking the bedrock of the building. Andy knew he had to be by the tracks when the train slowed. Had to hop a freight to escape. He wouldn’t be sent to reform school.
Hell no
. He’d heard rumors of the place. Horrible rumors. Some boys went in and never came out. Those that did were forever spooked. Distrustful. Fidgety.
Actin’ like they’d been in some kind of war
.
Maybe they had been
.
