Sunrise happened at 0500 hours-give or take half-an-hour. The coffee maker started brewing at about the same time, filling the house with familiar sounds of waking up. Crickets chirped far off from the house in the tall grass where the snow had given way. Last week the birds returned, marking Purgatory's yawn into spring. There was murmur in the town about when the last frost would be, but winter did like to stick around long past its welcome.
Nicole lied awake in bed. Her window faced west, allowing her to only see the long shadows stretching across the back of her property. She'd woken up before her alarm for the third time this week.
For the past six months all of Purgatory had been hushed. Something changed. Citizens would still lock themselves in before nightfall, but without much happening on the unexplainable front, they'd forgotten what for. The absence of darkness raised the suspicions of the long-time residents; however, it also raised their hopes of saving their small businesses as tourist season began. The fight with the demon, Clootie, left the town permanently scarred but licking the wounds that could be healed. It made the lack of supernatural occurrences a bittersweet taste, and gave the town a false sense that the dark past of Purgatory had been settled once and for all.
Nicole knew the demons would still come. There were present sins to atone for.
When her alarm finally went off, she groaned as she forced herself to sit up. Her bruises disappeared a while ago, but the soreness had yet to relent. Despite all that, she pushed herself off the bed and winced at the sound of her joints popping. Nedley had offered to let her take some time off to recover right after the battle over Purgatory, but she refused because Nedley needed the time to recover more than she did and somebody had to take care of the town. She could hear her mother's voice, "You're quite tenacious, aren't you?" It was a venom worse than the Widows'.
She shuffled over to her closet and pulled out her uniform. As usual, she got dressed first, then went down the hallway to continue her morning routine in the bathroom, and then she'd go downstairs to fill her travel mug with more creamer than coffee. The routine was streamlined for efficiency, no sense in going back and forth all morning and wasting time-except on yoga Sundays.
Her cell phone rang, which was not unusual on her work days. It was Nedley's personal number.
"Hello?" Nicole hoped he wasn't calling to say he was coming back in today.
"Good morning, Deputy. I just got a call from Helen McClur in town. She went to her antique store this morning to find that the front window had a rock through it. Could you stop over there on your way into work this morning? She called me, personally, but I told her I'd send you in my place." Nedley. Always straight to the point.
"Yes sir, I will do that for you. How are you feeling?"
"I'm all right. I hope to be back after the weekend. Doctors say I'm doing just fine." He paused. "How's Calamity Jane?"
Nicole suppressed a laugh, "I haven't seen her yet this morning. She's probably huddled up somewhere sleeping because you know she doesn't move until noon."
"Yeah, she's a good cat. I have something for her; I'll give it to you the next time I see you."
"She'll appreciate it, Nedley. But I should probably leave if I'm gonna make a stop on my way in."
"All right, take care."
As soon as he hung up, she rushed out the door. She couldn't deny that she felt a little bit excited about something interesting happening in town. It'd all been traffic violations and babysitting the drunk-tank for six months. This was at least a little more interesting.
Helen McClur was a town favorite. Her store was always neat but never changed much. People would regularly stop in just to chat with her and eat the freshly baked cookies she always set out for free on the front counter. She was the type of person who would not only call the fire department if she saw your house burning, but would also try to put the fire out herself. Because of her good deeds, a Key to the city was displayed by the free cookies. It made the break in more peculiar. No one disliked Helen.
"Oh, deputy Haught! I am so glad you could make it over here." Helen had been pacing outside the storefront when Nicole arrived. "I've not yet been inside because I just couldn't be sure if it was safe yet." This was the first time Nicole had seen Helen frown since she'd arrived in Purgatory.
"You did the right thing, ma'am." Nicole smiled but it quickly faded as she began to look over the damage to the window. "Any idea when this happened?"
"No, I locked up around 7:00 last night and when I got here at 5:20 this morning, it was like this. So I went across the street to ask someone if they knew, but everyone was asleep. I forget that I'm an early riser." Helen shrugged off an embarrassed laugh at herself. "I guess it must have happened last night sometime." She looked Nicole in the eyes. They appeared tired and worried, but not desperate. "Oh, and officer, don't call me ma'am. Helen is just fine, sweetheart."
Nicole smiled gently and asked, "May I have your keys, please, Helen?"
Helen nodded and handed them over with trembling hands. Nicole proceeded to check the store for whoever might have broken in.
The sweep took less than ten minutes due to the size of the store and lack of hiding places within it. There was more broken glass from the two displays that had been stolen from. No sign of anybody who might have done it.
"Miss Helen, it's safe to come inside now." Nicole led her into the store slowly so she could take it all in herself. Helen looked around for a little while and Nicole decided it was best to stay quiet and let her process the damage.
It was heartbreaking watching Purgatory's grandmother gasp and shake her head at the harm someone had done to her pride and joy. She was the epitome of a little old lady: only about five feet tall, her shoulders hunched over and her short hair was always in a perm. She wore flashy colored outfits with lots of embellishments, and she always greeted people with the sweetest smile which would trap them into staying at the store for at least an hour to talk. The fact that someone would break in and steal from this sweet old lady made Nicole furious and all the more determined to find them.
"Well, officer, the only items missing are an old class ring from 1959 and a beer stein," Helen said, shaking her head some more.
"Is there anything significant about those two things?"
"I got them from the son of Eustis White after his daddy died in a house fire back in '72. Eustis was only 31 years-old. He was a mean little bastard-pardon the language, officer. Basically tortured that son of his. The official story is that Eustis fell asleep smoking one night and it caught the house on fire. But the town thinks it was his wife and son that set fire to the house and left him there. We don't blame them." Helen sighed. "Sorry, I'm just rambling now. I don't know what somebody would want with those things."
"All right. Well, let's go down to the station and file a report and we'll see if somebody will come and help you clean up, okay?" Nicole offered a smile. Helen agreed to go with her.
Specific thefts were common because of demonic activity. Just as Nicole predicted, the demons would come.
Waverly called around 1200 hours to tell Nicole that she had finished cleaning the antique store with Miss Helen and was starving. They decided to meet at the diner on Main Street in their usual booth.
"It wouldn't have taken that long if Helen didn't ask me to help her dust everything off after we cleaned up the glass. Do you know how much dust was in that store? A lot!" Waverly exclaimed. "I had to go home and change because I was covered in it by the time I was done!" Her hair was still tied back in a bun and she took advantage of the warm day by wearing a pair of her favorite high waisted jeans and a crop top. Nicole loved crop top season.
"Well, I appreciate you going and helping her for me. As a thanks, I pay for lunch today." Nicole said with a smile that showed off her dimples.
Waverly took her hand across the table and stroked it with her thumb. "Thanks, baby."
They were quiet for a while. When their food came to the table, they ate in relative silence and it was Nicole that noticed something must have been wrong since Waverly started to advert her eyes.
"Whatcha thinking about, Waves?" Nicole mustered the courage to ask.
"Did you get those papers from Shay?" Waverly's voice was so low that Nicole could hardly hear her over the noise of lunch rush. She had placed her hands in her lap so Nicole could not hold them to comfort her.
She knew that was going to come up even though it felt out of the blue. "Yes. It took a long time because she had to file in the States since that's where we got married." She suddenly didn't feel all that hungry and put down her fork. What was left of her sunny-side-up eggs and bacon looked like an alien frowning face.
Waverly nodded slowly. She was contemplating something new and Nicole braced for impact. Even though things had been quiet around town, they weren't able to find the time to really talk about Shay. With Baby Earp to take care of and melt over, and a town to put back together, their missing pieces took the the back-burner. They both wanted to ride the bliss wave of surviving their toughest enemy for as long as they could, knowing they would wash up on reality's shore eventually.
"Waverly, I'm sorry I never said anything about her to you. There was never really a good time." Nicole felt pressured to keep talking against all the years of training to not break under pressure. She tried to refocus herself and count cars driving down Main Street, but there were none.
"Did the word 'wife' mean anything to you?" Waverly's brow furrowed. The question was almost directed to the window rather than Nicole. This must have been the first time she said the thought out loud. It felt like a zap to both of them.
"It's complicated."
"How is it complicated, Nicole?"
Nicole bit her lip to control the tears forming in her eyes and carefully chose her words. "I was twenty-one." The unwelcome memories bombarded her. "Just dropped out of college to spite my parents because I was stupid and so angry. I met Shay in Vegas. We hit it off. She was fun and gave a damn about me."
"Nicole, you don't have to…" Waverly struggled to hold back tears as well and offered her hand to Nicole for comfort.
"No, it's time to come clean." She took a trembling breath. "So we got married. She encouraged me to go back to school and helped me get into the police academy. By then we already knew that we weren't the right fit for each other. We were just cohabitating until I got the job here in Purgatory."
"Why stay married?"
"I needed a safety net. In case something happened to me. I didn't count on meeting you, Waverly Earp." Nicole decided that it was the right time to finally take Waverly's hand in hers. She gently kissed Waverly's fingers. "I'm sorry I kept it from you."
"Let's have dinner at your place tomorrow night." Waverly's smile spread ear-to-ear. "To celebrate the divorce because it means that if you wanted to, you could get married again."
"It's a date!"
Both girls broke into giddy giggles and blushed at the implication of their marriage. The air around them finally cleared. It brought Nicole the same feelings she had walking into Shorty's the day the taps malfunctioned-and the surprise, and joy, and excitement from their first kiss in Nedley's office. She was swept up in the sunshine that is Waverly. It was how she knew it was real. Every detour led them right back to the indescribable bond that brought them together in the first place.
Work was slow back at the station like it had been for weeks. On any other day, it would make Nicole want to shove pencils in her eyes because of the amount of paperwork that had been put off for months. Luckily the peculiar theft at Helen's gave her a new rabbit to chase for a while.
Five newspapers from 1971 to 1973 were spread out on the desk in front of her. Eustis White first appeared in the newspaper for a bar fight at Shorty's over catching a man sleeping with his wife. The next two headlines covered the house fire in 1972. The debate over whether it was an accident or homicide started in '73 but ended when there was not enough evidence to charge his wife with his death. After that, nobody spoke of Eustis White or his family, who no longer reside in the Ghost River Triangle.
So why would somebody want to steal his old belongings? Nicole gathered the newspapers and filed them so she could leave for happy hour at Shorty's with a clean desk. She wasn't much for drinking in public but with Nedley gone, it didn't hurt to keep his seat warm at the bar.
She grabbed her jacket off the coat rack and put her baseball cap on. She tipped the bill to Nancy at the front desk on her way out the door.
The drink special at Shorty's on Thursday was two-dollar shots until 11 P.M. It drew a large crowd around 1800 hours when most of the laborers got off work because it was getting too dark. By the time Nicole got to Nedley's usual seat at the bar, twenty people were scattered throughout the place.
"Deputy Haught, can I fix you up with the usual?" Rosita flashed a smile in her direction but was already making an extra-sweet cappuccino.
Nicole placed her hat on the bar and thanked Rosita in advance. She looked around and didn't see anybody unusual. Just the regulars going about their rituals.
"What's going on over at Helen's?" Rosita asked as she set the cappuccino in front of Nicole.
"Just a little breaking and entering-stole some really bizarre items." Nicole shrugged it off as best she could so that word wouldn't get back to the rest of the gang. Everybody was thirsty for some paranormal shenanigans.
"Well, what did they take?"
"A class ring and a beer stein."
Rosita paused and suppressed a laugh. "Did they belong to Eustis White?"
Okay, that's a little spooky, Nicole thought. "How did you know that?"
"You're gonna think I'm crazy, but there was this really strange guy that came in last night after you left. I struck up a conversation with him." Rosita had to stop to laugh again. She took the towel from over her shoulder and wiped down the bar to the left of Nicole to get a grip on herself. "He told me he was a writer and thought the story of Eustis White would make a great horror novel. So wanna-be-Stephen-King proceeds to ask at least ten people about the story of Eustis, gets drunk off his ass and starts bragging about how his novel is gonna make this town famous."
"That is pretty funny." But Nicole was not laughing. She took a sip of her drink and smirked. It sounded like she had a suspect. "Who did he leave with last night?" she asked before taking another sip.
"I think Dick tried to escort him home last night but after that, I don't know." She shrugged lightly with a coy smile still lingering on her face. "He was really drunk."
"Thanks, Rosita. I think I'll go talk to Richard."
"He goes by Dick."
Nicole and Rosita blinked at each other a few times. "Oh, yeah...I get it..." Rosita stumbled over the words a little bit before laughing off the awkwardness.
Nicole put her hat back on before making her way over to the dart board where Richard stood by himself. He had a strong arm with poor aim that only got worse as he drank. By the end of the night, he rarely hit the board, which is why Doc had to buy a set with plastic darts. He was wearing his usual cut-off flannel shirt to show off his intricate tattoos. He was stout like a bulldog and wrinkled at 40-years-old from working in the sun all his life.
"Good evening, officer." He said without really looking at her and throwing a dart that just barely hit the board. "Did I do something wrong?"
"Not at all." She said and walked up to the board to grab five darts for herself. "Mind if I throw a round with you?"
"I guess not." He realized he didn't have a choice in the matter, though he would prefer to be alone. "Do you need something from me, officer?" He sighed as his second dart hit the floor.
"I do have one question for you." Nicole threw her first dart and hit the circle just outside of the bullseye.
"All right. Go ahead." Thwack! Another miss for Richard.
"That writer you escorted out of here, what do you know about him?" Thwack! Just outside the bullseye for Nicole.
"That son of a bitch took off on me in the parking lot. Looked like some of Champ's buddies convinced him to go with them to cause some trouble last night. I tried to get him to go back to his hotel so he wouldn't get into trouble, but" Thwack! He made it on the edge of the 40 space and grimaced. "He refused to go with me. Something about getting experience for his creative think-tank." He punctuated his sentence by throwing his last dart, which bounced off the board and fell to the ground. He shook his head and made eye-contact with Nicole. "I sure am sorry I don't have more for you, officer. He's a strange one."
Nicole threw her last three darts, hitting the bullseye each time. "That's all right. I appreciate it anyway." She walked over to the board and picked up all of the darts. She put her five back in the cup neck to the board and gave Richard's back to him. His mouth was still open in shock.
"It's all in the wrist." She said before returning to the bar to slam her coffee and settle her tab.
Nicole got home late and already felt the oppressive loneliness that came with coming back to a dark house. Right away she noticed how cold it felt inside. Most of the windows needed to be replaced anyway; it was an old house. She went upstairs to shower and change into her pajamas.
Calamity Jane hissed at her from under the bed, but upon realizing it was Nicole, she darted out and nearly jumped into her arms. Strange. Everything about the day was strange. She wrapped herself in an oversized police academy hoodie that she only wore when Waverly wasn't staying over. It had a tear over the pocket, the strings were missing from the hood, and the lettering was hardly there anymore. The draft in the house deterred her from going pantsless. Instead, she wore her favorite sweats-the ones Waverly let her "borrow."
She went back downstairs to the kitchen and set Calamity Jane by her food dish. She winced at the divorce papers sitting on the table with a pen ready-to-go over top of them. There was no doubt that it was time to let go of that part of her life, but it didn't make it any less painful. However, rum and coke would.
With her glass on the table next to the papers, she picked up the pen. She tapped the glass a few times and took a sip. Her hand moved on its own, signing her name on the dotted line beneath Shay's. After she initialed and dated the rest of the paperwork, she shoved it in the envelope, sealed it and pushed it away. It was done. She could move on from the mistakes of her past. And with that, she slammed back the rest of the rum and coke.
There was no fanfare. Just divorce. Divorce made her feel heavy, and the booze made her feel fuzzy. What would her parents think of her now? Would they believe she fights demons, the real kinds and not the ones "making her heart unclean?" If God exists, only they would know.
She felt so drained, she decided to clean up the kitchen tomorrow morning. After all it was just one glass. It was going to be a long day tomorrow and she needed to get some rest. Her bed had never felt so uncomfortable. Her cat refused to come out from her hiding place.
A feeling of otherness came over her. The room no longer felt like it belonged to her, and she was a guest in her own home. It was menacing. She assumed it was divorce guilt and forced herself to sleep.
But it was much more than that. He fed on every negative feeling.
And he would get stronger.