Read Dinosaur Lake 3: Infestation for Free Online Page B

Steven, you’re on board. As long as you do what I tell you and accept
the risks, you’re welcome.” What could it hurt? Chances are they wouldn’t see
anything, not on the first junket anyway. The lake was large. The creatures,
whatever they were, might be napping at the bottom somewhere.
    “I accept the risks and I will follow your orders,
Chief, to the note.” Steven promised with a straight face.
    “All right then. We’re leaving as soon as I gulp
down the breakfast coming my way.” The waitress was close to their table with a
tray of food. “Can you be ready?”
    “Fantastic!” The music man grinned as if he’d won a
million dollar lottery and stood up so quickly he nearly knocked his cup of
coffee over when the corner edge of the tablecloth went with him. “And I’m
almost ready now. I’ll just pay up my room bill and be right back with you. I
was already packed, bags in my car, just in case.” Then he rushed off.
    “Eager, isn’t he?” Henry said to Justin as he
watched Steven run across the room.
    “He’s the excitable kind, I will say that. But he’s
a good guy. Smart. And he has a heart as big as that horizon out there. I
couldn’t ask for a better friend.”
    Henry’s breakfast arrived and after thanking the
waitress, he dug in. Time was a wasting. “So…I can read between the lines, what’s
Steven’s real story?” he queried of Justin between bites, eying his son-in-law.
    Justin laughed. “Exactly what I told you. He’s a
thrill seeking old friend of mine who wants to write a dinosaur best-seller.
That and he wants to see a real live dinosaur if there’s one to see…and, well,
he’s at loose ends since his wife died two summers ago. He’s been taking on
more singing gigs and traveling as much as he can. Trying to outrun the grief,
is what I think. He loved his wife dearly. A remarkable woman, she was a
musician like he is and sometimes even sang with him. A sweetheart. She loved
life so.”
    The husband in Henry empathized with Justin’s
friend but the ex-cop in him had to ask, “If I’m not being too nosy, what did
she die of?”
    “No, you’re not. It’s no secret. A car accident involving
a drunk driver. She died immediately. That was the only thing that gave Steven
any peace of mind. But he’s taken her death so hard. They’d been married for
seven years and were trying to have a baby. Happiest couple I’ve ever seen. It
was all so tragic. I feel for him.”
    “I’m sorry to hear this. Do you think he’ll be all
right coming along with us? He’s not suicidal or anything, is he? You trust
him?”
    “No,” Justin stated emphatically. “And I’d trust
him with my life. He’s resourceful and a quick thinker. I knew you wouldn’t
like the idea of a stranger tagging along, but he won’t impede us in any way, I
assure you.
    “In fact, I think this little undertaking might be
good for him. He’s been unhappy for far too long. Unexcited with life. This
will get his mind off his loss. At least for a while.”
    Henry nodded his head. “Okay. When he gets back,
we’ll leave. Ranger Gillian is meeting us at Cleetwood Dock in,” he checked his
wristwatch, “about twenty minutes. We’ll take off from there. This time I have
procured us the fastest boat on the lake with the biggest motor. Don’t say I
don’t learn from past experiences. If there’s something in the lake we’ll be
able to outrun it for sure. Or try to anyway.”
    “So it’ll be just the three of us, huh?” Justin drank
the last of his coffee.
    “Yeah, just the three of us and Ranger Gillian. The
other rangers are busy closing up the park and shooing out the visitors. Notifying
the business owners they have to shut down and leave. That can’t wait. I should
be helping them and not going on a wild goose chase after unidentified swimming
water monsters, but I need to know if there really is something in the lake
again.”
    “You mentioned last night you’d already closed the
lake,