“The Doom Statues” — Chapter 54

Clay, who has no real interest in these matters, begs off in favor of heading back to the cabin, streaming a hunting show on his phone. The others break away from him in the hallway, turning left into the school office. With Liam in the lead they continue straight ahead, not into his personal office but rather behind the long, high desk, like a library checkout counter, where the school secretary must have been entrenched. Here, a series of low filing cabinets spans the width of the wall directly behind it.

The space atop these cabinets, though only chest high to most of them, is unadorned apart from a solitary picture in a plain looking frame at each end, each propped up and slanted to face away from its respective corner. The nearest of these shows a much younger Liam standing in front of what is possibly the Grand Canyon, a woman of his same approximate age next to him, both flanked by two teenage looking girls. The other, of more recent vintage, depicts a grey bearded Blodgett onstage somewhere in cap and gown, shaking hands as he accepts a rolled up diploma.

“Hey, what’s this from?” Denise asks, genuinely interested.

“That’s for my doctorate,” he says, calculates, “so…eleven…no, twelve years ago.”

The others move to other end, to inspect the family photo, and then Lenny asks, grinning to soften the edges…