by Raven Snow
“Just at night?” Margo asked, turning her frown on Sutton.
Sutton wasn’t shaken by the look she was giving him. “You’re not the sort of person to sit at home all day. I assume you’ll be around people. There’s very little chance of you being attacked in broad daylight.”
“And you think the occasional cop car is going to discourage anyone at night.”
Sutton nodded again. “Years of experience suggests, yes. That should be sufficient. Whoever came after you was an amateur. They weren’t brave enough to stick around and finish the job—”
“Hey,” warned Jasper, like being that blunt offended him. Maybe it did. Margo had winced.
Sutton didn’t look terribly repentant. “When things didn’t go as planned, the perp didn’t try to follow through. They panicked and ran. That’s not a sign of a professional which is a good thing. Chances are they slipped up somewhere, and we’ll catch them.”
“And what if they don’t know any better?” Margo insisted. “What if they don’t notice the police and try again? If they’re an amateur like you said, maybe they’re not all that observant.”
“I think you’ll be all right.” Sutton did sound awfully sure of himself. Rowen could tell that he was starting to win Margo over. She uncrossed her arms, her expression only a little pouty.
“I guess I’ll stay with Rowen,” she said with a sigh. “But if something happens, just know that my death is on your hands. I tried to play it safe and stay here, but no one wanted to listen to my opinion.”
Rowen dropped a hand onto her cousin’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. You’ve gotta be getting bored.”
Margo inclined her head at that. “It’s true. There’s not a whole lot to do around here.”
“That’s because this is a police station,” said Sutton, looking incredibly world weary all of a sudden. “It’s not a hotel.”
Margo started to say something back to him, but Rowen had a feeling it wasn’t not going to be anything nice. She didn’t let it get that far, instead grabbing Margo’s arm and giving it a tug. “Come on. We should check in on Rose and see what she’s up to. Channel 2 has probably run some sort of story by now as well.”
The idea that people were talking about her somewhere got Margo’s attention. She slid her chair back and stood. “If something happens to me, I’m going to haunt all of you,” she told the room before turning and walking out.
Everyone else was still waiting in the break room. Norm and Nadine both looked very pleased that Margo was going to finally leave the police station. “And you’re sure you don’t want to stay with me?” Norm asked, looking hesitant to part ways even if he was glad to be done with this place.
“Rowen has more room.” Margo shrugged her shoulders. “And everyone seems to think that the police will be able to monitor things better there.”
Norm looked like he wanted to ask to stay over too. He looked at Rowen, but she cut him off before he could actually verbalize his request. “We’ll take good care of her,” she assured him. “We won’t leave her alone or anything. If we do, we’ll give you a call and you can come stay with her or something.”
Margo didn’t object. The last thing she probably wanted was to be left alone right now. Rowen’s words also seemed to pacify Norm some. “All right. You have my number, Margo. If you need me for any reason, call.”
“Yes, Daddy.” Margo leaned in for a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Jasper cleared his throat once they had stepped away from one another. He didn’t look entirely sure of what to do with himself. The way Margo turned to look at him, Rowen wasn’t completely sure what was going to happen there either.
“I suppose you have to go back home,” Margo said, angling her head so as to peer down her nose at Jasper while she talked. She was mad at him. There was no mistaking that.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said I could get a room in town.” Jasper was loaded. It wasn’t like spending the extra money was an inconvenience to him or that there was any sort of day job he would be dodging.
“You can do whatever you want,” said Margo, shrugging like it was no big concern of hers.
“Well, I want to stay close then.” Jasper still looked annoyed, and Rowen didn’t blame him. Regardless of what Margo had just been through, she was still being kind of harsh. “I’ll call you when I get settled, let you know where I’m staying.”
“There’s only the one hotel in town. I think I’ll be able to make an educated guess.”
“I’ll call you any way.” With that, Jasper headed out of the station.
Rowen didn’t mention Jasper until they were all in Eric’s car. “Don’t you think you’re being a little… harsh?” Rowen asked, turning in her seat as Eric backed up out of his parking space.
Margo was in the back seat. She looked up from the window, eyebrows raised. “Are you talking to me?”
“Yeah. Don’t you think you’re being kind of mean to Jasper?”
“Mean? Me?” Margo brought a hand to her chest, indicating herself. She looked genuinely baffled. “He abandoned me in my time of need.”
It was hard not to roll her eyes. “Okay, he didn’t abandon you. He just didn’t pick up the phone. It was turned off. It happens.”
“It only happened because of his parents. He does every little thing they ask him to, I swear. I’m sure he won’t even stay in town if they have a problem with it. God forbid he ever go against his family’s wishes.”
“He came running as soon as he found out.” Rowen wasn’t sure why she felt the need to come to Jasper’s defense, but It seemed like someone needed to. “I know you’re upset, but… Maybe you’re being so hard on Jasper because you want to break up with him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe you’re looking for reasons to be mad at him, to make this whole break up thing easier for yourself.”
If the car hadn’t been moving, Rowen was fairly certain Margo would have thrown open the door and stormed out. “Rowen, someone just tried to kill me. Breaking up with my boyfriend isn’t something that is on my mind right now. Who even said I was breaking up with him anyway?”
“It seemed implied.” Rowen tried to back off a little bit. “I’m sorry… It’s just… I don’t know. I think he’s doing his best. You knew how he was with his parents before all this. Don’t use it against him now. I think it was an honest mistake.”
Margo huffed, but her posture relaxed a little bit. “I think I deserve to give him the cold shoulder for a little while.” The way she said that seemed to imply that she would try to be a little more patient with him in the future. That was probably the best that Rowen was going to get. Best to leave things there.
“Do you want to swing by the trailer?” Rowen noticed the way Margo’s eyes widened. She continued quickly, “Just to get your stuff, I mean. I assume you’ll need some clothes and your makeup and stuff. If you don’t want to go, Eric or I can swing by alone and grab some things for you. It’s not a big deal.”
“It really isn’t,” Eric assured her. “I can drop you two off somewhere and swing by. It’s no problem. Just give me a list of stuff to grab.”
“I can do that,” said Margo. A moment later she added a quiet, “Thanks.” Maybe she was self-conscious after Rowen had pointed out how rude she was being.
“It’s no trouble.” Eric spared a quick glance to the back seat. “I’m glad you’re all right. Seriously. I know we didn’t talk last night, but I was worried.”
“Thanks,” Margo said again, and Rowen looked back to find an earnest smile on her face. She liked moments like this, moments when it hit her just how much a part of the family Eric had become.
“Okay, I’m going to call Rose,” Rowen said, indicating that no one should talk over her while she pulled her phone out. She dialed.
Rose answered on the second ring. “Hey. Did you get some sleep?”
So Ben hadn’t told her about the tracks. No big surprise ther
e. He didn’t fill Rose in on police happenings every step of the way. Granted, this was about Margo, so Rowen seriously doubted he would care if she said something. There were other things she wanted to know before she told her that, though. “I actually didn’t get a whole lot of sleep.”
“Oh.” Rose sounded disappointed. “I would have called you if I knew that. What have you been up to?”
“I went and got Margo, actually.”
“Oh?” That got Rose’s attention. “She actually went with you? I thought she was refusing to leave the police station.”
“I’ve got her in the car now.” Rowen hoped to signal that she couldn’t talk about some things with Margo in the car. She didn’t want to talk about how difficult she was being or her concerns about Jasper. “She’s going to be staying at our place. We have the guest room, so…”
“Great.” Rose sounded genuinely pleased to hear that bit of news. “That’s probably the best place for her. Make sure you’re careful, though. Do you have a security system?”
“No, but we’ll have a car patrolling by regularly.”
“Even better. Ben says security systems are a scam. I’m not so sure about that, but— Well, either way, a police patrol should do the trick, huh?”
“I definitely hope so. Hey, I was kind of wondering where I should be headed next. Are you at the office?”
“I am.”
“Are you working on the story?” Rowen didn’t have to specify which story, and it felt like a stupid question regardless. She couldn’t think of what else Rose would be doing right now. Someone had to do it, and Rowen doubted very much that someone was Willow or Peony. “Do you want me to head down there? Margo can come too.” Rowen looked into the back seat as she said that last part, looking for conformation. Margo nodded.
“Yeah… Yeah, I am at the office.” There was a tone of relief in Rose’s voice. “I could use some help if you don’t have your hands full with Margo. I released a basic story, but I’m working on something more detailed. I was actually hoping I could have a word with Margo before I published it.”
“We’ll be there in a bit.” Rowen said her goodbyes, hung up the phone, and told her husband where he could drop them off.
Chapter Eight
There wasn’t anyone at the Lainswich Inquirer aside from Rose. That didn’t surprise Rowen one bit. She let herself in, and found Rose in her office. The door was wide open.
Rose was typing away at something when they all entered. It took her a moment to realize she was no longer alone. Once she did, she hurried over and gave Margo a hug. “How are you doing? Did you get any sleep?”
“Some,” Margo said, and she sounded wearier than she had in the car. Rowen could tell she was putting on an act. She let it slide. If there was any time to let Margo by with being overdramatic, it was now. The situation called for some drama.
Rowen had Margo make Eric a list before they got down to business. She spent a long time on it. In its entirety, the list took up the front and back of a sheet of printer paper. Rowen watched over Margo’s shoulder as she started to straighten up. “Oh,” she said and bent back down to add something else to the list.
“Don’t you think you have enough stuff there? How long are you planning on staying?” Rowen hadn’t realized Eric would be expected to pack up the entire trailer when she sent him.
“There’s not any kind of deadline,” Eric said quickly, reassuring her from across the room. He was getting himself a cup of coffee. He hadn’t seen the length of the list. “You can stay as long as you want.”
Margo straightened up with her list and raised her eyebrows at Rowen. “At least one of you cares.” She crossed the room to hand over the list.
Eric finally got a good look at it, and Rowen watched his face fall. “I’ll… I’ll, uh, do my best.” Family or not, he hadn’t mastered the art of telling Margo to shove it. She deserved to be humored right now, sure, but there had to be limits.
If Margo had noticed the look on Eric’s face, she didn’t say anything about it. “Call me if there’s something on there that you can’t find.”
“And make sure you leave the television on,” Rowen added quickly. She didn’t want Natalie showing up at her house in the middle of the night. She wasn’t sure if Natalie still knew how to make her way there, but she didn’t want to find out.
They waited until Eric had gone on his way before getting down to business. “Has Channel 2 run a story on all this?” That was the first thing Margo asked. She glanced to the television on the wall as she asked it. Of course, if she wanted to check the news that badly she probably would have done it at the police station.
Rose nodded. “Julia Martinez called me this morning to give me a heads up. It’s just a basic story, more or less what I published earlier today. I didn’t think it was worth bothering you with. She wants to talk, though. She’s being pretty good about all of this, honestly. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, mind you. I’m sure she’s going to insist on going after something meatier soon. We might want to get out in front of that while her goodwill holds. Do you want to give her a call?”
Margo nodded quickly. She gave a sigh like it was a self-sacrificing thing to do, but Rowen could tell she was excited to talk to Julia. She liked her and, more than that, she liked being the center of attention. “Can you call her for me?” she asked Rose. “Tell her I feel like I can talk right now. I’m not sure for how long, but I think I can manage it if she hurries down.”
“Sure.” Rose retreated back to her desk to do just that.
Margo turned to Rowen. “Can you turn on the TV? I suppose I should see what they’re saying about me.” Margo didn’t wait for an answer. It seemed more like a rhetorical question. She expected Rowen to turn on the television for her and find the right channel. In the meantime, she sat down at her own desk. It was out front with the desks of the rest of her cousins. Rose was the only one with her own office.
Margo pulled out her cellphone and started punching at the screen with her index finger. Rowen couldn’t see what she was looking at, but if she had to bet, she would say it was the Lainswich Inquirer website. She would want to see what Rose had published about all this. That was assuming she hadn’t looked at it already, of course.
Rowen tried to hunt down the remote and failed. In the end, she dragged her rolling chair over and stood on it. She balanced there precariously as she turned on the television and flipped the channels manually. It didn’t get many channels, only local ones. It was easy enough to find Channel 2.
Margo looked up from her phone. A reporter Rowen didn’t recognize was on. She was standing in front of a house she vaguely recognized. It took her a few seconds to place it as the home where the drug bust had happened.
“They’re not even talking about me,” Margo said, stating the obvious.
Rowen climbed down from her chair, wobbling a little, nearly falling right off before she made it safely to the floor. “Well, the drug thing is a pretty big story.”
“And I’m not?” Margo’s voice went a little shrill at the end of that question. She sat up straighter, indignant.
“Well, Julia was holding off on reporting about what happened until she talked to you.”
That seemed to calm Margo some. She relaxed into her seat again. “That’s true. She is being thoughtful about all this, isn’t she?”
“I’m sure she’ll run another story on it after she talks with you today.” Rowen wheeled her chair back over to her desk so that she could read down and check the Lainswich Inquirer website herself. “It’s big news. People need to know there’s a maniac out there.”
“They do,” Margo agreed with a resolute nod, though Rowen was pretty sure her insistence that people needed to know was more for personal vanity than the public’s safety. “You can turn that off now. I don’t want to hear about this. I have enough stressing me out.”
Rowen took a deep breath, stood, and wheeled her chair back over to turn off the television. She was filled
with a renewed sense of drive to solve this thing. She wasn’t sure how long she could stand humoring Margo like this.
Before Julia arrived, Rowen had time to run new developments by Rose. She told her about the tracks she had found, though she cautioned both of her cousins not to say anything to anyone. She didn’t know what the police had found since or how they planned to use that information. She didn’t want to take any risks.
Margo gave Rose information as well. Namely, she told her more details about what had happened the night before. It seemed only right that she gave her own family the information first.
“There’s not a whole lot to say,” Margo said with a shrug, sitting at one of the chairs in Rose’s office. “It all happened so fast. I was in bed, on my laptop. I was looking for a new coat.”
The last thing Margo needed was a new piece of clothing, but that really wasn’t the point here. Rowen was smart enough to hold her tongue.
“I heard a loud crash, and then I heard Natalie screaming.” Something seemed to occur to Margo then. “Natalie! Maybe Natalie saw—”
“She didn’t.” Rowen cut that line of thinking off before Margo could get too far with it. “I already talked to her about it. She was the one who showed me the tracks.”
“Oh.” Margo frowned. “Well, it was worth a shot… Anyway, I heard her screaming and, of course, I ran out of my room to see what had happened. I’ve never had anyone kick in my door before. My first thought was that something had happened outside. When I got to the hall and saw an intruder, I panicked.”
“You did well, though,” Rose assured her. “I mean, you may have panicked, but you got away from the guy.”
“I couldn’t get by him to the front door. I should have gone back to my bedroom. There was a window there I could have gotten out of. Instead, I was trapped in a small space. I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me or think to kick in that door. He could have! He kicked down the front door. I can’t imagine the bathroom door would have been any more difficult. I was leaning against it, but—”
