Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “It wouldn’t be right going all the way to Florida and not spending time with your parents too,” Gabe said. I could tell it was his good Southern manners behind the words more than anything. “We’ll split our time between the parents.”

  “Um, Gabe.” I turned within the circle of his arms to face him. “We don’t have to spend every second of our time in Florida with either set of parents.”

  “True.”

  I felt a subtle drop in the water temperature and knew we wouldn’t have long to wash before it dropped to frigid cold. That thought led me to Gabe’s early morning adventure. “Where’d you get called out to this morning?” I handed him his shower gel then reached for my own.

  “You won’t believe it,” was his answer. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it either. He lathered up his hands and began washing his body. I loved the differences between our builds and coloring. Where I was slender, fair, and blond, Gabe was muscular, tanned, and dark. The sight was almost enough to make me lose my focus, but another subtle drop in temperature prompted me to get to washing.

  “Try me,” I replied drolly. I split my attention between washing and listening to Gabe tell me about Nate Turner’s demise.

  “I don’t know what the fuck he was doing out here, but I guaran-fucking-tee it wasn’t for good reasons.”

  “I don’t believe it,” I said in shock.

  “I told you.” Gabe’s gloating remark and smirky smile earned a wet smack on his ass. “What was more shocking was the way the sheriff tested me for GSR and had my car checked over like I was the one who ran him off the road and killed him.”

  “GSR?” I asked.

  “Gunshot residue.” Gabe explained to me what happened when a person shoots a gun. “So the swabs came back negative and my car was cleared of any foul play.” Gabe shook his head then his dark brown eyes widened. “I forgot to tell you the worst part.”

  I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than getting called out of your warm bed to identify a douche bag club owner’s brain-splattered corpse only to be treated like a suspect when all you did was tell the truth. But I was all ears. “What was the worst part?”

  “Ugh, this awful homophobic deputy was on the scene and later at the station. I’m telling you, babe,” Gabe said after releasing a frustrated breath, “Billy Sampson and I will go a round or two before long.”

  I could tell by the scowl on his face that he saw the way I stiffened when I heard Billy’s name. Okay, meeting him was way worse than the cold, gruesome body, and the interrogation that followed. I hated the way my heart raced and my stomach churned from just hearing his name.

  “I wasn’t aware that he moved back.” The words were barely a whisper when they crossed my lips. How had his return flown under my radar? My brain instantly returned to times so dark that I thought my life wasn’t worth living, that no one would ever love me because I wasn’t worthy. Don’t go there, Josh. You’re much stronger now. As if fate wanted to shock me back to the present, the water coming from the showerhead turned ice cold.

  “Fuck!” Gabe reached around me and turned off the water. He reached outside the shower curtain and grabbed our towels off the hooks. He handed my towel to me before he began toweling his hair.

  I stood their awestruck and watched the play of muscles in his chest and arms. I marveled for the hundredth time that Gabe wanted me the way I was. He thought I was worthy and I clung to those feelings instead of the sorrow that tried to move in and ruin my day at the mention of a demon from my misguided past. He looked up from what he was doing and caught me staring at him. The cocky grin he wore told me he mistook my interest as purely sexual. It often was sexual, but not right then.

  “I really like you,” I told him. “I just thought you should know.” I looked away and began toweling myself off before I was blinded by his white smile. “You should’ve been in a toothpaste commercial,” I groused.

  “Aw, you say the sweetest things.” He reached for me as I started to climb over the edge of the bathtub, but I eluded his grip. I’d be late for work if I gave in to the urge to play around with him.

  Once we were dressed and in the kitchen, Gabe pulled me to him and asked, “Do you have time for breakfast?”

  I did, but I was honestly still reeling from the bomb that Gabe inadvertently dropped on me in the shower. I needed to regroup and get myself together before my first client arrived. Besides, I wanted the opportunity to talk to my best friends about the latest development before the rest of the staff showed up for work.

  “Raincheck?” I asked him.

  “Anytime,” was his swift reply.

  The goodbye kiss he gave me at his back door was anything but swift and it was exactly what I needed to warm my heart during the walk home because two blocks felt like two miles in January. Gabe would’ve given me a ride home, but I found the brisk air to be exhilarating on most mornings. That morning all it did was wrap its icy fingers around my already stressed heart and squeeze.

  Both Meredith and Chaz were running a little behind that morning so I didn’t have a chance to speak to them about Billy’s return to Carter County. I knew without a doubt that neither of them knew or they would’ve told me. I had practically befriended Chaz at birth and my beautiful queen came along in ninth grade. I knew without a doubt that I could count on them for anything, even if it meant they had to deliver unsettling news.

  Not only were Chaz and Meredith late, my client was early, so there wasn’t time to chat. I had to push aside all my conflicting thoughts and feelings so I could focus on making Mrs. Applegate feel like a million bucks. I closed my eyes briefly, found my center, and went on about my day as if nothing and no one could hurt me.

  “Captain, can I have a minute?”

  Captain Shawn Reardon looked up from his desk and assessed me with keen eyes. I wasn’t sure of his age, but I placed him in his late forties to early fifties. He struck me as one of the guys who went gray early but kept their youthful faces. His light blue eyes were a lot like lasers when they were locked on a person, as they were on me right then. I had worked for the man for three years and it was the first time I requested to speak to him privately instead of the other way around.

  “Come on in, Gabe.” Captain folded his hands on top of his large desk. “What’s on your mind?” he asked briskly. Many people probably found his demeanor to be abrupt, but to me, he was a man whose every word and action had a purpose.

  “I got a call in the middle of the night from Sheriff Tucker regarding a homicide on one of his county highways. The victim didn’t have any ID on them, but he did have my business card in his wallet.” The captain sat up straighter, if that was even possible, and listened as I told him everything that happened during my visit to Nate’s office a few months prior and the early morning activities.

  “Let me see if I understand you correctly. Sheriff Tucker called you out to ID a body and once you did, he treated you like a suspect. Did I hear you right?” Captain asked.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say…”

  “Professional courtesy dictates that he should’ve at least called me, your superior, and informed me of what was going on. Did he ask you if you wanted a union rep present?” Captain’s eyes turned an icy shade of blue and a vein popped out on his forehead as he became angrier with every word he spoke.

  “No, but I…”

  “It doesn’t matter that you volunteered the information and agreed to the tests. There is protocol that he should’ve followed. I’ll be calling that fat bastard’s office later today.” The level of animosity the captain felt for Sheriff Tucker was shocking. I was certain I resembled a cartoon character with bulging eyes and a gaping mouth after the captain’s tirade. He rarely showed any emotion at all. I was beyond curious about the source of his dislike for the sheriff. He pinned me with narrowed eyes and said, “Never again, Detective Wyatt.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  My hearty agreement seemed to appease the captain and I could see his countena
nce returning to normal until once again his stoic façade was in place. “Do you have any idea what Nate Turner was into or why it seemed like he was coming to see you in the middle of the night?”

  “I don’t, sir,” I answered honestly. “I just know he didn’t want police involvement in identifying his harasser, well, not in the traditional sense any way. I have no idea why he was in this area at that time of night after a snow storm had moved through.”

  “It reeks of desperation. I have to ask you a tough question and I need your complete honesty, Gabe.”

  “You got it, sir,” I replied.

  “Did Nate Turner have reason to believe that you’d harbor or protect him from the person making threats?” Captain tipped his head slightly to the side like he was mulling over his next words. “Was there anything personal between you?”

  “No, sir.” Maybe our definitions of personal were different, but I didn’t think the one time I got bent over Nate’s desk in his office counted as personal. I had given the guy my card after I pulled up my pants. He tossed it in the trash then told me that he didn’t do repeats. I considered the short time I was in his presence to be very impersonal, regardless of the fact that his dick had been in my ass. I was shocked when he called me out of the blue a year later and asked for help.

  “I guess we’ll never know what he was doing here then.” The captain pointed his finger at me and said, “If Tucker calls you again…”

  “I’ll make you aware of the situation immediately.” I rose from my chair and was prepared to leave when his next question caught me off guard.

  “Do you think that you’re in any danger?” I was used to an unreadable expression on his face, so the concern I saw in his furrowed brow and pinched lips gave me pause.

  It was something that never occurred to me. I knew nothing about Nate’s personal life or criminal activities so I couldn’t possibly see how I would be in danger. “No, sir.”

  “Keep an eye out and report anything odd to me, Gabe.” He nodded his head and returned his attention back to the paperwork on his desk. I had effectively been dismissed.

  I found Adrian sitting at my desk with two cups of coffee. “You’re looking rough, partner.”

  I gratefully accepted the coffee he made for me and tried not to wince over how sweet it was. Only Josh seemed to be able to make my coffee to my exact specifications. The baristas at The Brew came close, but I’d prefer Josh’s coffee any day of the week. Of course, if I was getting Josh’s coffee then that meant I was probably getting a piece of him too.

  “Must be some good coffee,” Adrian said. “You went from half dead to alert in just one sip.”

  “It’s great, Adrian. Thank you.” I let him believe his coffee, and not thoughts of Josh, breathed new life into me. “Hey, I need to tell you something that I should’ve told you sooner. I just never thought it would add up to anything.”

  Adrian listened raptly until I finished telling him about my early morning phone call and subsequent trip to the sheriff’s office. “That’s un-fucking-believable.”

  “It feels like a weird dream.” But I knew the gruesome sight I saw earlier was real. I leaned toward Adrian and lowered my voice. “What does the captain have against Sheriff Tucker?” I told Adrian about how angry he became and even referred to Tucker as the “fat bastard.”

  Adrian threw his head back and laughed hard for several long moments. “Cap is married to the sheriff’s only daughter.”

  “How’d I not know that?” I asked rhetorically. I wasn’t one for gossip and the captain was a very private man, but I thought I would’ve at least known that much about him. “Damn, that must make for some interesting holidays.”

  “You know it.” Adrian’s desk phone rang and he answered it. “Whoa,” he said after listening for a few minutes. “We’re on our way.” Adrian nodded to my cup of coffee and said, “Bring it with you. The high school asked Officer Wen to bring Rocket for a random search and the dog alerted Wen to possible drugs in a locker. The principal opened the locker and found a huge cache of drugs.”

  “Pot?” I asked as I put my coat back on.

  “He said it looked like a little bit of everything. Wen thinks the street value is around twenty thousand dollars.”

  I let out a low whistle. “Where does a high school kid get their hands on drugs like that?”

  “I don’t know, but you can bet your ass we’re going to find out. There’s no way we’re going to let our town be destroyed by drugs,” Adrian replied.

  Blissville High School was a newly constructed two-story, brick building on the edge of town. Approximately six hundred kids in grades nine through twelve attended the school. The school district had a few controversial policies in place, but the biggest one was their search and seizure policy. The policy simply stated that the school had the right to bring in the K-9 unit to conduct random searches. If the dogs indicated to their handlers that contraband was found, the locker, or even a car in the parking lot, was opened and searched.

  During my time in Blissville, the only thing confiscated had been small amounts of pot and sometimes alcohol. Nothing had prepared us for the number of drugs found in the locker that day. I had seen smaller busts in the homes of drug dealers in Miami.

  “Holy shit,” I said softly in the school hallway.

  “Indeed,” Principal Mary Rogers said. “I can’t believe it.” She closed her eyes then reopened them, as if she hoped to wake up from a bad dream.

  “Still there,” I told her.

  “Indeed,” she echoed her words from earlier.

  “What can you tell me about the owner of the locker?” I asked her.

  “Well, technically the school owns the locker, Detective, and the kids are permitted to use them.” She tilted her head to the side and lightly tugged on her ear. “This particular locker hasn’t been assigned this year. It’s one of the few unassigned in this hallway.”

  “Someone knew the locker combination,” Adrian said. “Do you have record of who was assigned to this locker last year?”

  “He or she would’ve graduated,” Principal Rogers said. “All these lockers in this hallway belong to the freshman class. They’ll keep the same locker for their four years of high school. Before the seniors graduate, we check their lockers to make sure they’re not damaged. Then we assign the lockers to the next group of incoming freshmen. We don’t keep lists of previous assignments. We’ve never needed to do so.”

  “Someone knew this locker wasn’t being used and they knew the combination.” I looked back at the locker and watched as our team dusted for prints inside and out. “Anything we can use?” I asked.

  “No, sir,” Officer Kasey answered.

  “Video footage?” I asked.

  “The assistant principal is looking through it now with an officer, but we have no idea how long the drugs have been in the locker. We haven’t had the K-9 unit in for several months so it’s hard to say. The videos are only saved for thirty days before they’re recorded over to save space in the mainframe.” Principal Rogers ran her fingers over her pearl necklace nervously. “I don’t like this, Detectives. This isn’t a joint or two a kid has tried to sneak in. That,” she pointed to the stash of drugs that officers were photographing and documenting before it was taken to the evidence room at the station, “was brought in with the intent to deal. I do not want dealers setting up shop inside my high school.”

  “Neither do we,” I told her. “We need to interview any staff members that have access to the video equipment, the locker assignments, locker combinations, or have master keys to open any locker.”

  A small woman came running down the hallway toward us. “Mrs. Rogers, news vans from Cincinnati and Dayton just pulled into the school parking lot.”

  “I will make them available to you later today,” the principal told us, “but right now I need to do damage control.” She turned away and started walking back toward the school office. “Don’t buzz them in,” I heard her say. “They can sta
y outside until I’ve had a chance to speak to the superintendent.” I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about the vultures being locked out in the cold.

  “Well, I guess there’s nothing left for us to do now except to help them bag and tag the evidence. Then we can get some lunch,” Adrian said.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I have lunch plans with Josh,” I told Adrian.

  “Does he know this?” Adrian asked.

  He had me there. Josh had no clue I was coming. He was regimented about his day and might not like me dropping in the salon during business hours, even with delicious food, but I felt like I needed to try. Something in the way he reacted to Billy Sampson’s name struck me. It was almost like he folded in on himself rather than standing proud like I was used to seeing him. I didn’t want to wait until after work to talk to him because it would allow him too much time to bury his emotions.

  “It’s a surprise,” I told Adrian. “I’m hoping it’s a good one.”

  I sat at the counter and drank a cup of coffee while I waited for Emma to cook mine and Josh’s food. I had no idea what Josh might be in the mood for so I just picked something and hoped he liked it. If not, I’d take it home and reheat it for dinner.

  “Long time, no see,” said a familiar voice on my right.

  I turned and looked into the bright blue eyes of the man I used to share a home with. His eyes used to make my heart race when we first got together, but any romantic feelings I felt for him had been gone for more than a year–even longer if I thought hard enough about it. Instead, I saw a handsome guy with a great personality who passionately loved his job as the town veterinarian. I also saw a guy who deserved to find the man who was meant for him.

  “Yeah, I haven’t talked to you since before Christmas,” I replied. I had run into Kyle at The Brew when I showed up hoping to run into a certain platinum blond with hazel eyes. Josh and I had been split up for over two weeks at the time, although I guess we weren’t a couple at the time, and I was dying to see him again. Josh saw me having coffee with Kyle and got the wrong idea. I chased him out of the coffee shop and we took the first steps at amending our fragmented… something, as we both called it.