Hannegan's Cove Chapter 12

Hannegan's Cove
Chapter 12 of 30
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Time frame	January 2004
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Locations

• The Ryan and Linda Clark home
• The Randy and Nicole Clark home
• The Clark Construction office
• Either the Spearfish Lake First United Methodist Church or an unnamed funeral home, (the location of the visitation / eulogy is not clear)

Characters

• Randy Clark
• Nicole Clark
• Ryan Clark, Randy's father
• Trey Hartwell
• Myleigh Hartwell Harris
• Noah Whittaker, "Preach"

• Crystal Chladek Whittaker
• Dave Griswold
• Ruth Clark Griswold, Randy's sister
• Mike and Abby, Ruth and Dave's children
• Joel Lancaster
• Rachel Clark Lancaster, Randy's sister, wife of Joel Lancaster

Summary

Ryan and Randy are having a private conversation in the garage of Ryan's home, discussing Joel and his views on business. Neither are impressed.

During the conversation Randy comments that Ruth thinks that something’s not right with Rachel and that she wanted to sound Rachel out about it during a shopping trip that day. Ryan asks for an update in case anything turns up.

After dinner Randy, Nicole, Ruth and Dave head back over to Randy and Nicole’s house. Joel and Rachel are staying at Ryan and Linda's.

A short while later Ryan calls and reports that the minister scheduled to do the funeral had to cancel as he was was in the hospital in Camden with a broken leg. Both Ryan and Randy think that Preach would do a much better job than the regular minister, and besides, Preach had met Brent where the regular minister had not.

Randy walks over to Trey and Meyligh's house and asks Preach, who readily agrees. Preach calls Ryan on the phone and they discuss it further. Randy chats with Crystal, Trey and Meyligh for a few minutes, then walks back to his house.

Later on Randy was able to ask Ruth about Rachel, and she reported that very little was said but that she had the same feeling I get when I see a dog with its tail between its legs. More discussion results in nobody getting any further towards a decision than they had been in the beginning.

The next day Randy reports to his father the conclusions that had been reached about Rachel.

That afternoon saw the funeral, and the turnout was much bigger than anyone had anticipated. There were family members, a pretty good crowd of past and present Clark Construction employees, a good number of people associated with competitors, suppliers, and former customers of Clark Construction, and a good contingent from Clark Plywood. Preach did a fine eulogy, well worth reading for yourself.

Also Mentioned

• Brent Clark the deceased and Ryan's father
• Ursula Mandenberg Clark, Brent Clark's wife and Ryan's mother
• Wayne Clark, Brent's father, Ryan's grandfather
• Flora Clark, Wayne's first wife and Brent's mother
• Linda Clark, Ryan's wife and Rachel, Ruth and Randy's mother

• Jared Lancaster, Joel and Rachel's son
• Clark Construction
• Clark Plywood
• Regina Lawrence, office manager at Clark Construction

• (first name not mentioned) O’Conner, the regular minister at the Spearfish Lake First United Methodist Church