Blind Eye Read Free Page B

from high school with him and been working for the town’s public works department ever since. The bone-colored mug appeared, steam rising from the black liquid.
    â€œHi, hon,” Lucille said. “Let me guess…three eggs over easy with sausage, home fries and wheat toast, with a side of raisin toast.”
    â€œNo, let’s try something different this morning,” Mark answered, looking up at the Specials board. “How about bacon instead of sausage?”
    â€œOh, be still, my heart,” she responded dramatically.
    â€œLucille thought she had a live one on the line,” Joe said to Mark with a laugh.
    â€œI think I saw Abel start to dance in the kitchen,” Andy added.
    â€œWhadya say?” the cook asked suspiciously through the window.
    â€œNothin’,” Andy replied innocently. “Our boy Mark was just thinking of having some Eggs Benedictine.”
    â€œEggs Benedict , you idiot,” Abel grumbled. “Jeez, we need a better class of clientele.”
    â€œHey, I’m really hurt here,” Andy responded wryly. “Aren’t you hurt, Joe?”
    â€œDon’t drag me into this,” his friend said, sipping his coffee.
    Lucille grinned at Mark and stuck his order up on the carousel.
    â€œSo,” Joe said, changing the subject. “Did you decide what you’re gonna do?”
    Mark stirred the coffee thoughtfully. He couldn’t get away from it. Anywhere he went, whoever he spoke to, that was what they wanted to know. He couldn’t just be.
    â€œHey,” Andy said. “My cousin Brian would give his left nut for that spot on the police force.”
    â€œDon’t rush him,” Lucille said, planting a hip against the counter. “He just got back from Iraq. And watch your language.”
    â€œSorry,” Andy said contritely. “I meant left testicle.”
    â€œOh, much better.”
    â€œHow long do you have before you have to decide?” Joe asked.
    â€œThe chief said he can give me till the end of the month,” Mark said. If only the rest of them could be as patient .
    â€œWell, that’s fair,” Andy said. “Do you know which way you’re leaning?”
    Mark shook his head. He wasn’t being a hard-ass. He really didn’t know. Before his reserve unit had been deployed overseas, he would have said he would be a member of York’s finest until he retired, but now…
    York was home, but it just didn’t seem the same. Fifteen months on the ground in Baghdad and Falluja had left him feeling…what? He wasn’t sure what the right word was. Disconnected. Hollow. Restless . Some word that incorporated all of that.
    He wanted to reconnect with things here, but something didn’t feel right. Just before he’d shipped out, hisfather had found a job in Erie, and he and Mark’s mother had rented out their old house and moved. The garage and the little apartment above it were saved for him. That was where he was staying…for now. Pretty damn depressing for a twenty-eight-year-old.
    Mark had no siblings, and the only relative he had left in York was his grandmother, who had been in an assisted-living home for the past five years. She didn’t recognize him at all and had even become agitated when he went to visit her upon arriving home. And his relationship with Leslie had simply petered out a few months before he went to Iraq.
    Two girls from the car dealership up the road came in, drawing Joe and Andy’s attention, and Lucille went in back to help Abel put together the take-out order.
    Mark was glad to be off the hook. He glanced up at the TV on the wall. Lucille never had the sound on, but the aerial images on the screen showed a spectacular fire on what looked like an offshore oil platform. From the text scrolling across the bottom, he realized it was some kind of research facility on a converted monitoring station in the Gulf of Mexico. As he