by Joshua Brown
I felt the start of a maniacal rumbling laughter, ready to escape at his words, yet stilled myself. I don’t believe there was a decent sheriff in Priest River in the past century, let alone Freddy Cochran. The place was such a minuscule scrap of land that the people could’ve governed themselves and done a better job than any lawman here.
Two thousand in total, most of them bruisers and bastards ready to take the law into their own hands, if necessary.
“It was Valentina that called me about Donald’s disappearance.”
“I don’t see why she would. I saw her drop Donald off there myself this morning.” Freddy took a seat opposite me.
My blood boiled. Whatever was going on down here was no business of mine. I felt like a fly caught in a spider’s web, and I wanted no part of it.
I got up out of the chair. I pulled my hat back on, made sure I had all my things. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to sit around and let whatever was going on continue. A lingering excitement bubbled through me, knowing I’d soon enough be back home. That this blip was one of necessity to remind me how much I hated this place.
Priest River, a dark void of putrid hatred and torment. I’d not let it consume me whole again.
“Jack, where are you going?” Freddy asked, leaning over in his chair.
“Home,” I replied, killing my cigarette in the ashtray. I adjusted my coat, cracked my neck from side to side, and made my way for the door.
I didn’t even make it halfway through the building before I saw her–Ruby Mercer, my sister.
Ruby’s face sparkled with joy at the sight of me. A high-pitched squeal escaped her lips, and she was all but jumping. Her thin frame, draped in a cheap dress, looked withered. Her blonde hair, dirty, matted, and brushed back. The skin on her face was dry and decrepit–like some villain out of a horror movie.
We were related in name and blood but shared little more in the way of genes and looks.
“Jack, it’s really you,” Ruby just about shouted. The entire restaurant went still at her words; all eyes fell on our unholy reunion.
I couldn’t find the words to speak. At seeing her in the doorway, I knew what this was. Valentina Shelby was just a lure to bring me here. Freddy Cochran, the fool, broke the news. I should’ve seen it coming.
I’d never come home on the premise of seeing family. They all knew it too. This was all a twisted story formulated and crafted to lure me from safety into the wolf’s den. I carried on walking, slotting another cigarette in my mouth. I had to stand strong, not get lured into whatever was going on here. Something about my dad that much I got from Freddy. But I had no interest in hearing what she had to say.
This game was hers to play alone. She stood in the doorway, blocking my escape. She was short enough that I could look right over her head, and I gave her no more of my time.
“Step aside, Ruby,” the words left my lips.
“Jack, don’t be like this. Come on, have a meal with me,” she replied.
How did she think I’d stay? What reason did I have to stick around knowing I was lured in under false pretenses? I lit the cigarette, my eyes locked on the outside world behind Ruby. But she wouldn’t budge.
Ruby crossed one arm over the other, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the pout on her face.
“Please, Jack, just hear me out,” she spoke meek, humble. “It’s been so long, you’ve come all this way. It’s the least you can do.”
“What good’ll that do?” I asked, puffing on my cigarette.
“Pa’s dying, Jack. Got the cancer,” my mind instantly returned to the hospital bed, to Johnny Ortega. “He wants to see you before he passes. Look, I didn’t know how else to get you here….”
I never wished death on any man, deserving or otherwise. My hands were stained with the blood of those who challenged me, and that was my burden to bear. Still, I felt no grievance hearing of my father’s ailment – no more than I would be reading of a stranger in the newspaper. It felt surreal, off, and the thought dashed across my mind: Am I a bad person for feeling this way?
I decided not. Forgiveness isn’t free, even if death’s knocking on your door.
“So, you used Valentina Shelby? Does she even know that you led me here with her son being in danger?”
“No,” Ruby shook her head. “But I knew you wouldn’t have answered the call if you knew it was me.”
It’s been so many years that all their voices sounded so different to me. I’d not have been able to tell Ruby from Valentina and maybe even my mother. I felt like a fool for falling into this trap.
“I’m not staying, Ruby. Get out of my way.”
“It’s been twenty years,” her voice was weak. “Just stay a while, if not for them, for me.”
Ruby was just a kid when I left. The youngest of the four Mercer kids. I guess it was my age, as the first arrival, that placed all the wrath on me. I was an unwanted accident, and my folks let me know it at every opportunity—if any good came from those years, it was that the rest of the kids never had to suffer my fate.
And though there was right to be annoyed by this situation, my anger was misplaced if I put it on Ruby. She had no part to play in the cruel hand life dealt me.
“I’ll stay for you, but I’m not going to see them,” the words sounded funny, leaving my lips. I should’ve held strong and just left.
Ruby let out a sigh, bobbing her head up and down before grabbing my hand. She led me away from the door, and I glanced back at it over my shoulder. It was a window to my escape, and with every step I took, it shrunk.
The tables around us came back to life now that the show was over. Women laughed, and men yelled over one another. Every table had someone rise, walk to another, and greet a patron. A small-knit community of misfits, all intertwined in each other’s lives.
I took a seat in my chair, smoked a cigarette, and waited for Ruby to speak.
Freddy Cochran already moved to a table over, his intentions of being so close, no doubt to eavesdrop on the conversation. He was a nosy bastard, looking for gossip to spread around the town.
Jack Mercer, the man who abandoned this beloved town, returns only to neglect his dying father.
I could damn well see the headlines scrawled before me without the paper even being printed. No matter, I’d be out of town by the time they released it the following day.
“Holy hell, Jack, you’re not the man I was expecting to see,” Ruby said. She looked at me with a goofy grin on her aged face. She was younger than me yet looked ten years older. “The years have been kind to you out there in New York, huh?”
“Sure,” I didn’t know what else to say. Divulging secrets of missions and cases felt pointless. Though she had no part in my troublesome youth, I had no connection with Ruby. Same went for my brothers. They were all no better than someone I’d meet on the street and forget about the next hour.
Their lives were never set in stone, never dictated by this town, and yet they stayed here. I suppose they had no reason to run, not the way I did. They weren’t the whipping post of an angry man who got accustomed to delivering a beating.
Guess that’s why I became a police officer, a man of peace and justice, wanting never to let anyone suffer the same fate. Hell, I suppose that’s why any abuse cases hurt me deeper than the rest.
“How have things been around here since I left?” I knew I could go on with this conversation, and it’d be unpleasant, or I could try to be active in it; make the best of an unpleasant situation. If I was going to indulge it, I might as well have done so fully.
“You know, same old same old. Nothing ever changes around here,” Ruby replied. Thirty years and there wasn’t more to say than same old, same old.
“You married?” I leaned back in my chair, ashing the cigarette. It burned down to the filter while I lost myself in the situation’s awkwardness. The server finally brought the drink I ordered when I sat down and took Ruby’s order: a glass of water with ice and lemon.
�
��Married, naw. Ain’t had much time to go looking for a man with pa being sick. Been at home most of the time, taking some of the load off ma. Willy and Peter have been helping too,” Ruby’s order arrived quicker than mine, though I assume it because I was about to storm off after ordering.
The waitress set it down and lingered close to us after. Too many eyes from various patrons fell on our table, all ready to hear about the deserter. How many of them knew about my father? Though I’m guessing most. If I put enough effort in, I’d probably have recognized a few more of them too.
That’s how things go in those small towns, right? Everyone knows everyone. They were veritable cults, shunning outsiders no matter their relation.
“How long’s he been sick if you had to put your life on hold for it?”
“A couple years now,” Ruby sighed. “Pa never bothered calling you about it, coz we thought he’d shake it off. But the doctors gave him three months to live, and well, he’s mighty torn up about it all.”
“About what? Dying?”
She couldn’t have meant me, and I didn’t much care if she did. Two and a half decades was more than enough time to make amends for what happened, and I never once heard from them.
“He’s not the same man he used to be. He’s changed his ways, found God, started over. I know you don’t want to hear it, Jack. I know it’s got to be hard considering what you went through, but he’s dying,” Ruby shrugged. “Can’t you give a dying man his last wish?”
“No,” I shook my head. “No, I don’t think I can. You called me here under false pretenses because you knew I’d not come without them. None of you understand what it meant growing up under his roof before Peter was born. Hell, it never changed much after his birth. Ten years is a damn long time, Ruby, and there were eight more ‘till I left. Wasn’t even worth fighting him when I knew I could. It was easier to pack my things and hit the open road in search of some better tomorrow.”
“And is that what you ended up finding?” she sipped her drink, squishing the straw into the lemon to release the flavor.
Of course not. I traded a living hell for solving them. My broken home left my future shattered, delving deep into the depths of the worst minds New York produced. But there was no turning back for me. I was a fighter, and I’d overcome all obstacles with enough time and planning.
Admitting that to Ruby, however, wasn’t a move I was going to make.
“Life’s been good,” was all I said.
“Driving a nice car and living in a fancy apartment doesn’t mean life’s good. Being with your kin, spending time with those who raised you….”
“Raised me?” I cut her off before she could finish whatever thought was about to spew from her mouth. I only just reigned in my emotion before my temper got the best of me.
While Ruby and I spoke, Freddy Cochran suddenly slammed a fist against his table, making the plates and cutlery rattle. He’d taken a phone call a moment before, and whoever it was got his temper flaring.
“What the hell d’ya mean there’s a dead body at the church?” he asked. Those words were enough to catch my attention and draw it away from whatever Ruby was going to say next.
A murder? In Priest River?
That didn’t seem right.
“Why are you telling me about this? Call the God-damned sheriff and have him sort it out.” Freddy sounded livid. It tweaked the corners of my lips, seeing his face turn so sour and red.
“Alright, alright, I’ll be down right away,” Freddy hung up the phone.
“Trouble in paradise?” I asked. He greeted me with a scowl.
“You best come along now, boy, if you want to see how an actual officer of the law deals with a crime,” Freddy got up from his chair, tucking his phone in a pocket.
“Now, why in the hell would I do that?” I’d seen enough bloodshed in New York. I didn’t need to see it there to know it existed.
“Don’t hassle me, and let’s go,” Freddy demanded.
I guess a murder scene was an easy enough way out of the conversation with Ruby—an opportunity I didn’t want to pass on. I got up, pulling my hat back on my head, and waited for Freddy to lead the way.
“Jack, where are you going?” she asked, chasing after us.
“Looks like the sheriff here’s got his hands full and can use some assistance,” I still didn’t know why Freddy wanted me to join. I guess it’s because, like the rest of this god-forsaken town, he knew there wasn’t a person on the force that could do anything about it.
In small towns like this, there’s rarely any crime barring jaywalking or the occasional petty theft; the idea of murder was astounding.
It was easy to put those pieces together, too. No one would get the old dog, Freddy Cochrane, involved in a death unless there was something suspicious about it.
“Let me come with you,” Ruby insisted.
“I can’t let you do that,” I replied.
If there really was a dead body out there, it wasn’t for civilian eyes. Holding the weight of a deceased person, and one she might’ve known wasn’t something I’d be able to allow. There weren’t many ties holding my relationship with Ruby together, but I’d have done the same to anyone who asked to join in an active crime scene.
“Let the girl come, Jack,” Freddy said. “Might do her some good, considering….”
Was he about to make some incentive assumption about my father’s passing?
Christ, these people.
I fought a while longer, trying to get Ruby to stay put, but her insistence became an annoyance, and Freddy’s temper only grew. Eventually, the three of us piled into the Camaro SS and took to the streets, off to the Trinity Baptist Church.
Nothing could prepare us for the sights we saw that day, not even myself, and I’d been around the block a few too many times…
Chapter 6
Jack
A gathering sea of faces flooded the police barricade, trying to get their glimpse of the crime scene. From the outside where I stopped the Camaro SS, little was visible apart from wandering deputies trying to keep the scene secure.
“This is a damned travesty,” someone called inside the crowd.
“It was only a matter of time since that bastard starting his rumblings. We all saw it coming, and none of you tried to stop it,” another yelled.
The calls these people made, though peculiar, were good. It meant that there was something to go off in this case, even if it was little. I don’t know why I cared all that much about what they were saying. Maybe it was just the detective in me.
But this type of mob mentality also came with its own downfall. Mob rule was strong in these small communities, and if the powers in charge didn’t make a break quick, they might’ve acted out on whoever the bastard was.
I prayed for his sake, be he innocent or not, the sheriff’s department would catch their man.
Neither Freddy, Ruby, or I spoke while we trampled through the wet grass from the car to the police line.
“Now, looky, Ruby, you ain’t going to be pushing on from here,” Freddy said, to Ruby’s dismay. “This ain’t no place for a girl to be. You best run on home now.”
“I came this far….” Ruby started, but Freddy cut her off quick.
“No use in arguing. Rodney Stern told me what’s going on behind those walls, and it ain’t no place for a girl. No place at all,” Freddy pulled his hat off his head, clutching it to his chest. His eyes held a trembling fear that almost made way to his words. “You better not try to cause a fuss. Jack and I best be going in and seeing to this heinous act.”
“Jack, you can’t….”
“I think Freddy’s right,” I cut her off before she could finish her attempt at us letting her join. This wasn’t sticking around for lunch. There was a dead body, and Freddy’s reaction only made it seem all the worse. It never crossed my mind that Freddy might step in and shut down Ruby’s attempts to come in, but I’m damn glad he did. “There are some things in this world that you’re
just not meant to see, and I’ll be damned to put that burden on anyone. Hell, if Freddy here said I should turn and run, I’d be heading for the hills already.”
I would’ve, too. My stomping ground was New York. I had no place investigating crimes in a small town—be it where I grew up or not. Hell, if my private investigator license even worked here was beyond me. Looking around for a missing person didn’t seem to break the rules as bad as joining an active investigation in a murder might.
My attempt to settle Ruby’s frustration seemed to work. “I’ll wait here until you come back,” she said.
Not the outcome I expected or wanted. I’d have preferred if she headed back home, so I didn’t have to answer questions about what I saw. I didn’t know Ruby well, but from our brief get-together at the restaurant, I had a feeling she was the nosy sort.
Always eager for answers, no matter the life-changing ramifications they’d bring with them.
Freddy was the first to enter through the wooden police barricades. The words Priest River P.D. ran along the plank of wood, beckoning us forward.
“Hiya, Freddy boy. All good?” one of the deputies asked. The only reason I knew he wasn’t the man in charge was the thin tag with his name written on paper.
Priest River felt like a real western town, I thought, remembering Ruby’s words on the phone. It’s the wild west out here. A truer statement was never spoken. The sheriff’s office was tiny, compared to any normal-sized city. A handful of staff wasn’t nearly ready to take on the challenge of murder in Priest River.
And like the old west, it seemed the sheriff would deputize anyone and everyone willing to help in times of a crisis.
“Nox,” Freddy greeted.
“Who’s this then?” Nox asked.
He was an odd-looking guy. His head looked three times too big for his body, the jawline sinking into a thick layer of fat that wobbled when he spoke. The upper half of his chest looked firm, but his arms were thin and weak. His midsection was rounded out, but I’d not call him overweight, either. Only, when it got to his legs, you could tell that’s where all the fat was stored.
