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Back The Ravine Save as PDF
Chapters (21)
  1. Cover Page
  2. The Ravine
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Prologue
  5. CHAPTER 1
  6. CHAPTER 2
  7. CHAPTER 3
  8. CHAPTER 4
  9. CHAPTER 5
  10. CHAPTER 6
  11. CHAPTER 7
  12. CHAPTER 8
  13. CHAPTER 9
  14. CHAPTER 10
  15. CHAPTER 11
  16. CHAPTER 12
  17. CHAPTER 13
  18. CHAPTER 14
  19. CHAPTER 15
  20. CHAPTER 16
  21. Acknowledgments

When Tony got to the bottom of the steps, he saw the woman dialing on the phone in the kitchen. He ran in the room, pulled the phone from her hand, and ripped it out of the wall, inadvertently sending her flying across the floor. Holding the phone like a club, he leaned over her and threatened to kill her if she called the cops; then he turned and ran out the door. Missy sat crumpled on the floor, trembling and calling out for Kevin to come downstairs. Eventually, when she found him, her shrieks echoed throughout the neighborhood.

CHAPTER 5

Crossroads

Our lives are the sum total of the choices we have made.
—Wayne Dyer

DANNY AND TONY rushed off to track down Bags and get their fair share (and beat him to a pulp), but he was nowhere to be found. It turned out the bag he ran off with contained around ten thousand dollars. That’s roughly the amount the police gathered up after it went flying through the windshield, along with Bags, when his VW Bug took off like a missile and collided head-on with a big oak on Winding Way in Gates Mills. The police estimated he was going at least seventy miles per hour. In his obituary, it was noted that he was a graduate of Geauga High and an avid football fan.

By the time Danny and Tony reached their street, the sun was coming up. There were several police cars in the driveway. The brothers backed up when they saw the twirling lights, but made it only as far as Mentor before they were apprehended. Missy had attended Geauga High and recognized Tony and Danny for the stars they used to be. The Chesterland police were not at all surprised, but they were mighty disappointed in the Turner boys. The officers who were assigned the duty of breaking the news to Steve and Debby did so with the great delicacy and sympathy only another parent could understand.

Kevin Grant spent almost a month in the hospital and suffered a brain injury at the base of his skull, along with numerous broken ribs and a punctured lung. A few more strokes with that tire iron and he probably wouldn’t have recovered. Don and Linda Grant flew back that day and were horrified to see the condition of their son, their house, and their daughter-in-law. Linda began to cry when she saw Kevin, and didn’t stop until that night when Missy took her aside and told her the good news about the baby that was due later that year.