"I was. I work just about every night. It's my bar, and I practically live here. Why?"
"Do you know Stella and Jerry?"
"Very well. They are two of my best customers,” he said.
"Were they in here the night Merrill died? Like the whole night without leaving?" I asked.
"They were. From just after five until I kicked them out at closing,” he said, and I felt my heart drop. "You know, the sheriff has already been in here and asked me the exact same thing."
"Well, thanks,” I said and finished off my Coke in a couple of big gulps. "The soda really is good. Better than what you get at restaurants and stuff."
"Come back anytime,” he said. "Even if you don't have questions. But I'll let you in on a little secret, the sodas are free."
"Hey, why can't I get free drinks?" the man at the very end of the bar groused. "I'm as pretty as she is."
"Shut up and drink your beer, Richard," the bartender commanded.
The man at the end of the bar started grumbling something about going to a nicer place with better service, but I couldn't catch it all.
"You're not going anywhere," the bartender said. "You've been banned from every other establishment that serves beer in this county. So, shut up and drink your beer."
The man, Richard, grumbled some more, but he did go back to drinking his beer and watching the television hanging over the bar. There was some sort of poker tournament going on, and it caught his attention quickly.
"Thank you again,” I said and pushed the empty glass across the bar to him as I stood up from my stool.
He gave me a nod, and I left.
Chapter Twenty-Three
When I left the bar, I was feeling completely defeated, but I was also hungry. Usually, the best cure for that combination was a huge, greasy bacon cheeseburger and fries. I wanted to drop in and see how Reggie was doing too, so I headed for the diner.
There weren't many cars in the parking lot since it was after the lunch rush but before most normal people had dinner. I pulled into a spot near the door and made my way inside.
The sign that said "please seat yourself" was near the door, so I found a booth close to a window. I didn't see Reggie, and eventually, another waitress came to my table. Her nametag said Ginger, and she looked annoyed. As soon as she saw me looking at her, she replaced her scowl with a smile, but I'd already seen her.
"Where is Reggie?" I asked as she approached my table. "I was hoping to see her."
"Reggie didn't show up," Ginger said and smacked a wad of pink bubble gum. "I was supposed to have the night off. My sister is ticked because I had to drop my kid off at her house at the last minute. She didn't even call. Reggie has never just no-called, no-showed a shift."
"I wonder if something happened to her grandmother,” I said and pulled out the phone.
"Naw, I already thought of that. I called over to Shady Acres. They haven't seen her either."
"I should go,” I said, feeling suddenly panicked.
I didn't know if it was my intuition telling me that something was very wrong or the appearance of my uncle's ghost out in the parking lot that spooked me. He was closer than he usually got, but fortunately, he was on the opposite side of the building from my car.
As I was crossing the parking lot, a memory struck me like lightning. I remembered where I'd seen those black and burgundy nails. Suddenly, some things started to make sense.
I had to put some distance between myself and Brody's ghost, so I drove away from the diner and to the edge of town. Once I was fairly certain he was gone, I used my phone to find the location I was sure was the primary crime scene and also might have been where the killer had taken Reggie.
"But why would she take Reggie?" Thorn asked after he picked up the phone, and I explained everything.
"She was sniffing around earlier. I wonder if she's gotten desperate,” I said.
"Kinsley, please calm down,” he said, and I felt myself bristle. I hated being told to calm down. "You don't even know if Reggie really missing?"
"She is, Thorn. She didn't show up to work. She didn't call. She's not with her grandmother."
"She could be with her grandmother now. Maybe she wasn't there yet, or maybe Shady Acres made a mistake."
"Fine, call them yourself. Call me right back,” I said and hung up before he could argue with me more.
I told myself that if he didn't call back in five minutes, I was going. Something was very wrong, and if I couldn't make Thorn believe me, then I was going to go save Reggie myself.
"She's not there." Thorn said when I picked up.
"I'm going,” I said. "You can believe me or not, but..."
"Let's just check her house here first, okay?" Thorn said. "I mean, maybe that place is the crime scene, but perhaps she didn't go that far with Reggie. It will only take a few minutes to check her house and Reggie's, okay? Please, Kinsley. That cabin is outside of my jurisdiction anyway."
"Fine, what's her address in Coventry?" I asked.
He gave it to me. "And don't you dare go inside without me,” Thorn said. "Please."
"I will wait for you,” I said. "But I'm more worried about you than I am me."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Thorn got to the house two minutes after me. I know that because I was counting the seconds. He pulled into the driveway and blocked in a massive black SUV.
"Her car is here,” Thorn said as I hurried over to him.
"She could have another one. Lots of people have more than one,” I said.
"I'm going in to check it out. You stay out here,” he said.
"You've got to be kidding,” I said.
"No,” Thorn said firmly. "I'm not kidding. This is an official investigation. I know you figured this all out, but you're a civilian. Let me do my job."
"Official investigation or not, you got this information from my vision,” I said.
"We'll work that out later. Right now, I want to go see if Reggie is in there. If she is, then I need to go save her."
"Fine,” I said. "Go, please."
The house was a massive, red brick structure with a white carport area supported by Greek columns on the side. Thorn didn't go to the front door, but instead, he ran around to the side door under the carport.
He pounded on the door a few times, but unsurprisingly, no one ever answered. I was actually a little shocked when he reared back and kicked the door in. Maybe he'd heard something inside that worried him, though.
That thought had my stomach in knots. I tried to stay outside, I really did. As I was about to step inside the house, a little black streak came barreling in my direction.
Meri ran into the house before me. "You didn't think you were going to go in without me, did you?" he asked as I followed him in.
He sort of skittered across the linoleum in the mudroom, but Meri managed to get control of himself. "You all right?" I asked.
"I'm fine."
Just then, we heard a muffled sound from the other room. I rushed toward it and nearly tripped over Thorn. He was laid out on the floor with a nasty knot forming on the back of his head.
I knelt down and put my hand gently on the back of his head. As I was healing him, Madeline appeared before me. She had her gun, the same one I'd seen in my vision, pointed at me.
"Get up,” she said.
Thorn began to stir, so she pointed the gun at him.
I stood up and put myself between the two of them. "Lower your gun,” I said.
"Or what?" she said and laughed.
"Fine, we'll do it your way,” I said and waved my hand in front of her.
She dropped the gun, and I quickly stooped to pick it up. Her face was horrified as I aimed it at her. I could tell she had no idea why she'd dropped the gun when I waved my hand, but the magic in the town kept her from putting the pieces together.
"While Sheriff Wilson gets himself together, I think you should tell me why you're doing this,” I said. "Also, back up. Is Reggie in there?"
>
I backed Madeline through her kitchen and a small pantry area. When we emerged in her dining room, I found Reggie tied to a chair. I made my way over to her and untied her with one hand while keeping the gun pointed at Madeline. She was unhurt but seemed pretty ticked off.
"This chick kidnapped me!" she exclaimed as she jumped out of the chair. "How did you find me?"
"We'll worry about that later. Thorn should be okay any minute now, and he's going to arrest her,” I said. "So, Madeline, why'd you do it?"
"I know you think it's because I was having an affair with him," she began. "But you'd be wrong. That was one time, but I kept him on the hook with promises of more. I just wanted information, and Merrill wasn't very bright. He kept feeding me information thinking that if he made me happy, I'd sleep with him again. Ugh. I was really drunk the one time it happened."
"But that doesn't explain why you killed him,” I said. "Why, if he was giving you information?"
"Because he stumbled on a bribery deal that I was... involved with. It was just easier to get rid of him at that point. I couldn't have him poking around in it more. So, I lured him up to my family cabin with the promise of a fun night, and I took him out. I've been involved with the law for so long that I thought I could cover my tracks forensically. So many people hated him that I never thought they'd figure out who did it. That was until you started poking around. I was so close..." Madeline said. "You ruined everything."
"Put your hands behind your back,” Thorn said as he strode into the room with his gun drawn. "And, Kinsley, I've got this. Please place that gun on the table facing away from everyone."
One of Thorn's deputies took Madeline to the jail and booked her. Another gave Reggie a ride home and made sure she was safe. I offered to let her come over to my house so she wouldn't be alone, but she said she was going home.
"I'll call you if I change my mind,” she said.
"You can. I'll come get you."
As she was leaving, I could have sworn I saw the deputy giving her a ride kiss her. It happened in a split second, though, and it was a topic for another time. I had to wonder if that's why she wanted to go home. If it was, good for her, I thought.
"Do you regret leaving me outside yet?" I asked Thorn as he approached me. "I had to save you, after all."
"You know I was just trying to protect you,” he said and took my hand.
"And do your job. I get it," I responded.
"Do you?"
"I do. I'm not upset with you if you're not upset with me,” I said.
"Why would I be upset with you?" Thorn asked. "I mean, you did save me."
"I did."
"You have to stay out of sheriff's business, though,” Thorn said as he pushed a strand of hair off my cheek.
"I will."
"Will you?" he asked skeptically.
"I'll try."
"I guess that's the best I can hope for,” Thorn said with a laugh.
And then he kissed me.
Epilogue
I wasn't able to avoid the welcome home party forever. Three days after Madeline was taken into custody, all of the Aunties showed up at my house. Everyone brought a covered dish except Lilith. She brought a keg and seven cases of wine.
The party lasted for hours, and there were even a few attempts to turn Meri back into an adult cat. They all failed. My spell was too powerful, but I hadn't figured out how to break it either.
They had to stop trying when my neighbors started showing up to see what was going on with the party. I didn't live that close to anyone, but the Aunties could get wild.
We invited everyone who showed up to the celebration, and pretty soon, I was sure half of Coventry was there.
I called Thorn to see if he wanted to drop by for a while. "Hey, so you might have heard we were having a huge party."
"I've gotten a couple of calls,” he said with a laugh. "I was putting off coming over that way to shut it down."
"Hey, how about instead of shutting it down, you come join us?” I said.
"I don't know."
"Come on. I'm sure the people who called you are here now partying anyway. All of my neighbors are here. Emma Langley is three sheets to the wind on a bottle of chocolate wine Lilith handed her when she wouldn't stop complaining. Your shift has to be about over."
"Is there food?" he asked.
"Oh my gosh, Thorn, there is so much food. It's nuts."
"Made by the Aunties?"
"Yes,” I said with a laugh. "My mother and father whipped up something too. But really, there's so much food and a keg too."
"Ha ha. Which one brought the keg?" Thorn asked.
"Guess."
"It was Lilith, right?"
"It was indeed. So, are you coming over or what?"
"Yes,” he said. "I should be there inside an hour."
"Okay, well come find me when you get here,” I said.
"Will do, boss."
"I like that." I said.
"I thought you would."
When I was off the phone with Thorn, I went looking for Meri. I hadn't seen him for a while. He wasn't downstairs or outside with everyone who had sparked up the grill. I thought that was strange. You'd have thought he'd be there waiting for someone to give him a steak or even a hot dog.
I found him upstairs in my bedroom. Meri was sitting on the dressing looking at himself in the mirror.
"Are you doing some sort of spell?" I asked as I walked into the room.
"No. Just trying to figure out if I still hate this or not,” he said and turned around to look at me.
"So, what's the verdict?" I asked.
"It's whatever,” he said and jumped down. "Let's go get some steak."
Thank you for reading!!!
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© Sara Bourgeois 2020
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons alive or dead is a coincidence.
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