by A L Crouch
I opened the top folder in order to cram it back in when the office door opened and I heard Sulley’s deep voice as he paused to finish his sentence. The name on the statement caught my eye before I closed the folder: William Galia. Will had been there.
I shut the folder and walked away from the desk just as Will followed Sulley out of the office.
“The handwriting analysis should be here by the end of the day. Jones sent in the photos of the mirror as well as a snapshot of Brightman’s signature from one of the permits. It’s not much, but maybe we can get a match,” Will said as they walked into the room.
He nodded to me and I grinned back and had a seat at the table near the coffee pot. My head was reeling. Will had been there, at the accident scene, and had made an official statement about what he had seen. Why would he not have told me?
“Good, good. Call them back and tell them to call me directly. I don’t want to miss them if I’m not back. If that analysis points to Brightman, I’m hauling him in tonight.” Sulley walked to the coffee pot and refilled his cup.
“Will do,” Will said and walked to his desk.
I watched from the corner of my eye as he swept the stack of folders into his top drawer, the whole time keeping an eye on Sulley’s back as he did. Sulley handed me a key and I focused back on him.
“Here you go. Make sure you hang onto this at all times. Put it in your pocket and don’t let anyone else touch it. I’ve got the only other one for emergencies, so we don’t have to worry about someone letting themselves in,” he said and took a swig from his cup and set it down.
I stuffed the key into the front pocket of my jeans wishing I had brought my purse with my key ring or even my jacket, which had much deeper pockets. I had been in such a rush, I had forgotten both.
“Okay, I have to get going. I should be gone for a few hours,” Sulley said to me. “Just stay here, okay? If you get hungry have Evelyn call down to the diner and have them send something over. Tell them to put it on my tab.”
“I said not to worry about me. Just take care of Gram, please.”
“That’s the plan,” he said with a sigh and then turned to Will. “Remember, pull up anything you can on Brightman. We’ll go over what we’ve got when I get back.”
“I’m on it. Don’t worry about a thing,” Will assured.
Sulley gave one final glance from me to Will before he turned and left the station.
Will came around and had a seat on top of his desk and folded his hands.
“How are you holding up? The chief told me what happened with Brightman. What are you thinking?”
“It’s him. It has to be,” I said looking Will in the eyes. “You should have seen his face when he talked about my mom. Nothing but sheer hatred.”
“Sounds like he has a real thing about the house. I guess it would make sense that he would want to try and scare you out of it.”
I rubbed my face and leaned back in my chair.
“I don’t know. Just seems so . . . so crazy. To kill someone over a house. It just doesn’t make sense to me. How could someone DO that?”
Will nodded in agreement and came to the coffee pot and grabbed a clean cup.
“Yeah, well it sounds like his beef had more to do with the loss of his mother, not so much the house,” he said and poured himself a cup of coffee and then sniffed it and winced. “Do you think he still wants the house back?”
I took the pot from him and sniffed its contents. Disgusted, I put the pot back and watched in shock as Will took a sip and winked at me.
“Well,” I continued, shaking my head, “it makes sense with what was written in the mirror I guess. Maybe he found out I was coming to take possession of the house. I just wish I could remember something else.”
“Something else?” Will asked, taking another sip of coffee.
“Didn’t Sulley tell you? I remembered a little about the vehicle that hit us that night. I remembered that it was taller than a car, like a jeep or small SUV. And I remembered that it was red.”
“No, he didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah well, that’s probably because it does no good whatsoever,” I pouted.
“I don’t know; it could be useful. Would be pretty easy to see what kind of car was under Brightman’s name at the time. Cross reference vehicle description with accident reports or mechanic shop submissions on or around that day. I mean, to hit you guys with that kind of force must have done some pretty significant damage to the perp’s car as well, right?”
I found new hope in his words. “You think it’s possible to track down the vehicle then? Is there anything helpful in those files you have?”
Will looked up, mid sip, from his cup.
“What files?”
I pointed to his desk and raised an eyebrow at him. “The ones you hid in the top drawer of your desk as soon as Sulley had his back turned. What are you doing with those anyway? And when were you going to tell me that you were there that night? That you gave a statement?”
Will let out a long breath and set his cup on the table.
“I’ve been looking over the files from the accident, trying to find something that could tie Brightman to the scene. I haven’t found anything.”
He walked to his desk and retrieved the files from the drawer.
“I was there that night, yes.” He confirmed. “I was walking home from a friend’s house and saw the car over the side of the road just as the paramedics and police were pulling up. They took me in for questioning, but I didn’t see anything. There was nothing to tell. See for yourself.”
He tossed me the statements folder and I caught it and pulled his statement from the pile. I read it over as he watched.
“Why didn’t you tell me? It says here you helped get me out of the car. I don’t remember any of that.”
“Yeah, well you wouldn’t. You were pretty banged up and unconscious at the time.”
“Answer my question, Will,” I demanded.
“I didn’t say anything because I can hardly remember a thing myself. I was walking home from my friend’s house because I was wasted. He took my keys so I got pissed and started walking, okay? Not one of my prouder moments.”
“Did you see an SUV? A red one? Did you see anything?”
Will sighed and shook his head. “By the time I got close enough to realize what was going on the paramedics and police were already swarming the place. The guy was long gone by then. It’s all a blur anyhow.”
“Did you see her?” I whispered.
Will shuffled his feet and shook his head.
“No,” he said softly. “She was covered with a sheet when I got down there. All I saw was . . .”
“Was what?”
Will walked closer, bent down to look me in the eye.
“I saw you. I saw what that monster did to you. And for the first time, I stopped thinking about only myself. I wanted to help you, but there was nothing else I could do besides get you out of that car. It’s why I decided to be a cop, Alex. I wanted to keep things like that night from happening to anyone else.”
“Why were you hiding them from Sulley? Does he know you were there?”
“I don’t think he knows. I doubt he ever cared to read the accounts of that night. It’s a tough read; I don’t blame him. I was hiding them from him because I know he wouldn’t like me meddling. He doesn’t want to admit that the person who broke into your house the other night could be the same person who murdered your mom and his brother. But sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can catch things that may have been overlooked. I actually found your account really interesting.” Will turned and had a seat behind his desk and grabbed another folder. “I didn’t realize you had gotten a good look at the murder weapon.”
I closed my eyes and shuddered. “The snake handle . . . sort of hard to forget. I just wish I could remember more. If I could just get down there, to the place where it all happened, maybe I could remember something else.”
Will held up his hands. �
��That’s a great idea. Why don’t we?”
“I wanted to earlier with Sulley, but he didn’t like the idea. Said it was too dangerous. He’s probably right, it’s pretty steep and a lot further down than I remembered,” I said and then considered my next words before I spoke them. “And something felt . . . off about the place.”
Will stood again, “That’s understandable. It can’t be easy to go back there. I think you should though, get down to the crash site. It’s the only way you are going to remember anything that could help us find the bastard, especially if you remembered something already today.”
I became aware of the strumming that surrounded me, a warmth on my shoulder.
“I don’t like it, Alexandra. It’s too dangerous. There has to be another way, and I don’t trust him. I knew he was hiding something,” Donovan said against my ear.
“I know a guy in my neighborhood,” Will continued. “He’s leant me some repelling equipment in the past. I can go get it, and then we can get down there and see.”
I shook my head. “Sulley will blow a gasket if I do. He doesn’t want me to leave here at all. He’s got enough to deal with today without me worrying him more.”
Will glanced at the clock. “He said he was going into Hendersonville. That’s a good twenty or thirty minutes away. It will take me about that long to grab the gear and get back here. We could be there and back before he even leaves Hendersonville.”
“I don’t know . . .” I said.
I wanted to go, but Donovan’s concern, his warmth on my shoulder, made me doubt. I wanted desperately to get back to the site and see if I could remember anything else, but I was afraid that the danger Donovan felt, that I felt, would still be out there. Whatever it had been.
“What about Evelyn? She’ll tell him we left.”
Will chuckled and taking the files with him, grabbed his coat from the rack at the front door. He turned back to me with a smile.
“Let me take care of Evelyn. You just be ready as soon as I get back.”
“I don’t know about this,” I said.
Will looked me right in the eye and winked.
“Trust me,” he said and went out the door.
Chapter 11
Five minutes after Will left, Evelyn breezed into the station in a whirl of neon pink and heavy perfume. She smiled when she spotted me attempting to brew a fresh pot of coffee.
“Well hey there Darling, I wasn’t expecting to see your beautiful face this afternoon,” she said and then hung her lime green coat on a hook.
She was wearing a hot pink sweater dress with four-inch matching heels. I wondered how she could possibly be comfortable wearing shoes like that all day. I had never attempted to wear shoes of that height, but I was certain that if I ever tried I would last about a minute before I took a nosedive into the pavement.
“Yeah, I’ve been quarantined here until Uncle Sulley gets back. We had a pretty rough night.”
“Quarantined, my goodness. Is everything alright?” she asked, positioning herself behind her desk.
“Well, someone broke into the house last night,” I said. “We’re trying to figure out who it was.”
Evelyn gasped and put a manicured hand to her chest.
“My word! Are you alright, Hun? That is just awful. Now who would do such a thing?”
I shrugged. “Wish I knew.”
“Well your uncle will get to the bottom of it. If anyone can figure it out, it’s Sullivan. Once that man has it in his mind to do something, he’ll see it through. Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it.”
I remembered the way Sulley had laid out Rick an hour earlier.
“He’s on it alright,” I said and then poured out a cup of coffee. “Would you care for a cup?”
“Oh no, thank you. I don’t trust a thing that comes out of that pot.” She giggled.
I sniffed my cup. It smelled more like coffee and less like burnt rubber this time so I decided to chance it and I took a tentative sip. The hot liquid scorched my tongue and the bitterness made me gag, so I set the cup down.
“That’s probably very wise,” I coughed and Evelyn laughed.
“I’ve worked here for eight years. I’ve learned to have my coffee at home.” She winked and turned in her chair when the phone on her desk rang.
“Saluda police department,” she answered in a cheerful voice. “Oh hey Gertie! How are you this afternoon, Sugar?”
I smiled at the perfect Hollywood southern bell that was Evelyn. I wondered if I would have picked up that overly-charming accent if I had gotten a chance to grow up here. Would I have picked up a liking for sweater dresses and big hair too?
“You’re kidding. Really? But my birthday isn’t until next week. And they didn’t say who it was from? Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Isn’t that the sweetest thing,” Evelyn said and then covered the receiver with her hand in order to whisper to me.
“Someone bought me a hair appointment for my birthday next week. Don’t even know who did it. Wanted to remain anonymous. Isn’t that just darling?”
I nodded in simulated enthusiasm and then remembered what Will had said. Let me take care of Evelyn. I chuckled to myself. Brilliant.
“You should totally go now. I’m stuck here anyways. I can answer the phones. Plus, Will should be back any minute. Uncle Sulley will be out for hours yet, you’ve got time. Go enjoy yourself, you deserve it.” I smiled innocently.
“Well aren’t you the sweetest,” she said and then took her hand away from the receiver. “Well Getrie, I haven’t had my roots touched up in a coon’s age, do you have time to fix me up? You do?”
Evelyn covered the receiver again. “Are you sure you don’t mind? I really shouldn’t . . .”
I stood up and waved her off. “Of course not. Get on out of here and enjoy yourself.”
Evelyn stood and bounced happily in her heels.
“Why this is so unexpected. Okay Gertie, I’ll be right over,” she said and hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket. “You know, I bet that Jack Lovell up at the tavern is responsible for this.”
She giggled as I helped her into her jacket. I held back my laughter.
“He’s had his eye on me ever since the divorce, bless his heart,” she continued.
“I’d say he is probably in good company.”
“Oh thank you Hun, but I’m nothing to shake a stick at. If it weren’t for miracle workers like Gertie, I’d scare dogs off a meant wagon,” she said and grabbed her purse from her desk.
I held the door for her as she rushed out of the station balancing on her pink stilts.
“I’ll only be a couple of hours. If anyone calls with an emergency, just forward the number on to the chief,” she said with a wave.
“Will do,” I called after her and went back inside.
Relieved at the ease at which Evelyn was disposed of, I wandered back over to the coffee pot and picked up my cup. I was desperate for the caffeine, I just wasn’t sure I was THAT desperate. I regretted skipping breakfast too; my stomach was starting to growl. I took another sip and grimaced. The brew tasted very little like coffee and more what I thought an old gym sock might taste like.
I grabbed three dusty sugar packets from a little basket on the table and dumped them in. I stirred the white crystals around with a tiny straw I also found in the basket. Holding my nose, I sipped again. The sweetness overpowered the dank bitterness and made it a little easier to tolerate.
The phone on Evelyn’s desk rang and made me jump, spilling a small amount of coffee on the floor. I stared at the spill, half expecting it to dissolve the tile in a wisp of chemical smoke. When the phone rang again I went to the desk and considered a moment before picking it up. What if it was Sulley?
“Saluda Police Department,” I answered in my best southern drawl, trying to mimic Evelyn as best I could.
The voice on the line laughed. “You’ve been watching too much Andy Griffith.”
I recognized Will’s voice a
nd sighed with relief.
“Well it was my first attempt at southern charm, give me a break.”
“Well I take it by your performance that Evelyn fell for it?” he asked.
“Faster than a hot knife through butter,” I tried again.
“That was better. I’ll be there in five minutes. Be ready to jump in the car, Aunt Bee.”
“Got it,” I said and hung up the phone.
I retrieved my coffee and returned to Evelyn’s desk when I heard the strumming, gentle, behind me.
“This isn’t a game Alexandra,” Donovan said.
I spotted movement from the top of the desk and noticed a small vanity mirror sitting to the side of a stack of papers and some old family photos. Through it I could see Donovan leaning against the door, his face stern.
“Do you really think you have to tell me that this isn’t a game? I know it’s not a game. In fact, I am scared out of my mind to go back there, but I have to do this.”
Donovan sighed. “I don’t like it.”
“What happened back there exactly? What did you sense? What was it . . . was it him?” I asked. “My mother’s murderer?”
“Yes, I believe so. Only it was different. I couldn’t tell where he was coming from. The danger was everywhere all at once as if it came out of nowhere. And there was something else. A . . . sadness I haven’t felt before.”
“Sadness? I don’t understand,” I said looking in his eyes through the mirror.
“As much hatred and anger that was closing in, I felt an overwhelming anguish and desperation. I don’t like the idea of you going back there. It isn’t safe, Alexandra.”
I thought for a moment, terrified by the description of what was possibly waiting for me at the bottom of that ledge. Nothing however could squelch the desperation and need that swelled up from my own soul. I had to have answers, the need for them consumed me. The cost of finding them didn’t matter anymore.
“I’m going down there. It’s the only way I’ll be able to remember more about that night. Maybe I’ll remember something that can put this monster away for good. I have to try,” I said unwavering.
