Sorry if this has been a little slow/boring. It will start to pick up soon, I promise.
Also...really? The Black Eyed Pea's Superbowl Halftime show? Really? Sigh.
- kp "Pea U" 1185
Chapter 11
The next morning, before Jill, Sabrina, and even the sun had risen for the day, Kelly was jogging down the cracked sidewalk of the motel's walkway towards the bus stop on the corner. It was still dark outside, though the rosy pink and gray streaks in the east promised a new morning within the hour. A quiet and peaceful morning, it's stillness yet to be shattered by the chorus of songbirds, the rush of morning traffic, and the bustle of businesses that would no doubt begin to greet the new day soon. That would all come later, though. For now, Kelly enjoyed the stillness.
She slowed to a halt at the surprisingly well maintained bus stop bench and was mildly surprised to find that she would not be waiting for the bus alone. Slightly awkward by the unexpected company, she flopped herself down next to a white haired old woman dressed in a salmon colored waitress's uniform, obviously intending on relieving someone, somewhere at a greasy all night diner. Kelly made herself comfortable, and sensing the other occupant of the bench was staring at her, lifted her eyes away from her shoes and in the old woman's direction. The old woman smiled politely at her, though there was a trace of annoyance in her cloudy, gray eyes. Kelly offered her a quiet greeting in return and once again sought out her shoes in the dim, flickering light of the broken street lamp overhead.
Hopefully, the friendly salutation would make up for rattling the bench as she sat and sloshing the old woman's coffee onto her starched clean uniform, as she just realized she had done. Oh well. That probably wouldn't be either the first or last time that happened to her today.
With a few minutes to wait for the bus and talking to her neighbor now out of the question, Kelly sighed and leaned her head back. A lone cricket was chirping noisily nearby and the entire area smelled strangely of fresh paint, like the bench and only the bench had recently received a makeover. Kelly closed her eyes. A fresh coat of paint to hide all the imperfections in the old, rotting wood she was sitting on. The easiest way to make the weather beaten surface look new without actually changing anything inside. All a smooth, shiny disguise hiding the marred and ugly secrets underneath. Just like her. Fooling everyone with a mask.
Suddenly restless, Kelly stood up and paced around the littered area between the bench and a rusty chain link fence.
What was she doing?
She sighed to herself and kicked at a piece of Styrofoam cup lying on the ground. All this sneaking around, this avoiding her friends, betraying their trust, hurting them with her lies. Was it really necessary?
Yes.
A resounding yes. The alternative would be them knowing, and though lying was cowardly and disloyal, the mere thought of the looks they would or maybe wouldn't be able to give her, the awkward behavior it would inspire, the disgusting pity in their eyes and tone, made her stomach flutter in panic. No, she couldn't fathom an existence where they knew. How would she be able to face them?
How could they face her?
Kelly turned back toward the motel room and rocked anxiously on her heels. Still, though. Maybe she should have left a note telling them where she was going?
Before she could entertain the idea of going back, the street corner to the left was washed in pale yellow headlights. Tires crunched over the loose gravel and bumped over potholes as Bus 9 turned at the stop sign and headed towards its earliest haul, effectively ending the moral debate in Kelly's head.
Avoiding eye contact with the old woman, Kelly lingered back to let her enter first before climbing aboard. The bus was surprisingly crowded for such an early hour. Sleepy faces of restaurant and construction workers not quite ready for their early shifts, glanced at her as she boarded and then looked away disinterestedly. She sank down onto the closest seat she could find, and though there were other empty seats, the old woman sat down next to her without a word, quietly sipping her coffee as she got herself settled.
The bus door swung shut with a hiss and the big vehicle rolled forward again, thwarting the beginnings of a plan to quickly change seats. Kelly rolled her eyes in disbelief.
At least she wasn't going far.
Bus 9 bumped and jostled its passengers passed four other stops before Kelly decided she was as close as she was going to get to her first destination. The constricting heat and stale odor on the bus, the old woman's unnerving presence and smell of cheap coffee, combined with an overall feeling of paranoia and anxiety was starting to get the best of her, and even if she wasn't exactly there, it wasn't so far that she couldn't just walk the rest of the way. The bus began to roll to a stop and Kelly jumped prematurely to her feet.
And immediately realized she would have to push past the old woman sitting next to her, who clearly wasn't going to move her knobby legs out of the way.
Stifling a groan of impatience, Kelly shouldered her purse and shuffled through the narrow space between the seats.
"Excuse me." she muttered. The old woman glanced her way and then scooted back a worthless fraction of an inch.
Not wanting to prolong interaction any longer, Kelly sighed and pushed her way through anyway. Her purse may have swung to the side a bit and there might have been a faint splash of liquid behind her, but she certainly wasn't going to turn around to check. So half expecting something to be thrown at the back of her head in retaliation, Kelly ducked down, hurried through the bus, and quickly slipped out into the warm morning air.
Once free from the confining metal walls of the bus, Kelly took a grateful breath of fresh air. The warm, fragrant summer scent immediately lifted her spirits and eased the suffocating feeling of anxiety she'd been suffering with during her bus ride. But, it wasn't just her elevated mood that made the city look brighter. The past fifteen minutes had also turned the sky the pale pink and orange of dawn. Kelly shoved her hands in her pockets and took a good look around the city street she'd ended up on.
Time had changed the sights around her, but not to the point of disorientation. Like a snapshot of her memories, with deliberate and subtle changes. Different colors, the addition of fire hydrants, a few remodeled buildings. But this was still the library she remembered. Ten years hadn't changed it much
Kelly's eyes completed their circuit of her surroundings and, after a few moments thought to get her bearings, turned and began walking. It was about a mile to the drugstore she planned to visit and the bus could have taken her much closer, she realized.
Maybe the walking would help with the overwhelming restlessness that had made it impossible to stay in bed until dawn.
Though, there was the drugstore itself to deal with.
Kelly swallowed and forced herself to occupy her mind with something else until she arrived. The drugstore wasn't new territory, wasn't just revisiting a place she had been once or twice, a random place in a city that used to be hers. No, she knew the drugstore. Wiled away many a happy hour with half a mile blissfully separating her and her abusive foster parents.
Oh, she knew the drugstore, but if there was a certain familiar face there, she probably wouldn't recognize her. She'd changed too much.
Hadn't she?
It didn't matter. There wouldn't be time. She'd be in and out.
So with a twenty minute walk in front of her, Kelly squared her shoulders, ignored the memories around her and plowed forward.
"Bri! Bri wake up!"
Sabrina groggily creaked her eyelids open and tried to focus on the loud, blurry presence in front of her. When the three images melded into Jill's anxious looking face, she groaned and closed her eyes again.
"C'mon, wake up!" Jill's voice kept on. She reached over and shook her friend with determination.
Sabrina's bleary eyes opened again. "Jill! Leave me alone! I'm dreaming about Dean Martin." she grumbled irritably. She buried her face in her pillow in the futile hope of drowning out her friend's voice. But before she could get comfortable, the pillow was roughly yanked out from under her, leaving her head to thump unpleasantly against the mattress.
"Get up!"
The uncharacteristic anger in Jill's tone pierced through the sleepy haze in Sabrina's head. Now more awake, she opened her eyes and pushed herself up on her elbows to face whatever pre-dawn situation that she was now a part of. Her tired eyes took on the dimly lit hotel room and Jill, crouched in front of her by the bed, both hands clutching her pillow and looking more than upset.
"What's wrong, Jill?" Sabrina croaked, rubbing her eyes.
"She's gone!" Jill snapped. "That's what's wrong."
Sabrina's brows knitted in confusion. "Gone? What are you tal-"
"Kelly!" Jill shouted, impatiently thumping her on the back with the pillow. "Kelly's gone! It's six in the morning and Kelly's gone! I told you she's up to something!"
Though she had no reason to doubt her, Sabrina looked around the room anyway. Just as reported, Kelly's bed was rumpled and empty. "Where'd she go?" she asked stupidly. It was too early in the morning for logical questions and the look on Jill's face told her that she maybe should have given it a few seconds more thought.
Jill laughed derisively. "I don't know, Sabrina. She didn't exactly wake me up to tell me."
Sabrina rubbed her face and muttered a few curses under her breath. "Well, what can we do? Maybe she just wanted an early start."
"It's six in the morning, Sabrina." Jill answered with a piteous frown. "She did it to avoid us and I want to know why."
"Well, so do I, Jill." Sabrina sighed.
For the first time since she woke up, Jill cracked a determined smile. "So get up and ruin her plan. We're going to follow her."
Sabrina yawned, but obeyed. "Follow her where?" she asked through her hand.
"If I know Kelly, she wanted to get up and get done early so she'd have time to do whatever it is she's sneaking off to go do." Jill explained quickly, pulling on her shoes. "So I bet she's at the drugstore right now and seriously, Bri? Dean Martin? He's sixty years old."
The unexpected acknowledgement of her earlier confession drew a giggle from Sabrina's throat, despite the tense situation at hand. "Forties Dean Martin." she explained hurriedly. When Jill's only response was a quirked eyebrow and baffled look, she sighed and waved it off dismissively. "I saw a thing on T.V. the other night."
Jill only shook her head. "Hurry up and get dressed." she sighed. With a final pat, she popped up from her crouching position and rushed over to her suitcase to grab her clothes for the day, leaving Sabrina sitting sullenly on the edge of her bed.
"I bet if we hurry we can catch her." she called over her shoulder as she rooted through her bag.
Catch her, Sabrina thought to herself in disgust. And then what?
But Jill was in a determined state of mind, and nothing she said or did would deter her. So, she nodded her head in compliance and the two quickly dressed in the dim moonlight of the motel room and, once ready to be seen in public, hurried out into the early morning air towards the rental car parked nearby.
Four.
That was the fourth damn bus stop she had passed.
The fourth bus stop the bus could have driven her by to bring her at least three quarters of a mile closer to her destination in much, much less time. If she had been smart enough to stay on for another ten minutes. But, of course, she hadn't. Was the hell was she thinking?
Thinking, she thought with disgust. She wasn't thinking. That was the whole problem. This case was making her crazy. Crazy, irrational, emotional, and a two faced liar.
A stab of guilt tore at her again at the thought of her friends. At least she was suffering for her dishonesty, and the thought, strange as it was, was a bit comforting. For lying to Jill and Sabrina, she wasn't perched comfortably on a bus seat watching her neighbor sip coffee. Instead, she traipsed along the sidewalk like an idiot, sweating in the June Nevada heat and looking and feeling completely and totally out of place.
Sure, that would completely make up for it.
Kelly groaned unhappily to herself and quickened her pace until she was almost jogging. It didn't matter anyway. The store was in sight now. Only another minute or two worth of walking. And though the open doors promised the end of her trek and a decent air conditioner, for some reason a part of her didn't want to go inside.
Because if she was honest with herself, wasn't that the reason for the growing agitation that seemed to increase with every step? Having to return to a childhood haunt and possibly see more familiar faces?
With an angry sigh, she pushed the thought away.
No. It was the heat. That was why she was so irritated.
Before she was ready to, she reached the familiar stone steps of the local drugstore and, refusing to acknowledge any trepidation she felt, scooted by an old man and forced herself to hurry inside.
The cool air on her face was the first sensation to hit her. The second was a strong wave of nostalgia that swept her up and carried her back ten years into the past.
Aside from the employees being a different crop of faceless college aged men and women and sporting newer looking vests, nothing had changed. The drugstore was the same place it had been ten years ago, as if it had simply paused the last time she left and lied dormant until this very moment.
Kelly swallowed and let her eyes wander around its walls. The register, the shelves, the water fountain in the corner, even the aisle numbers. All the same.
Something bumped her elbow, and in her detached state, sent her whirling around in surprise.
"Sorry, miss." a young, shaggy haired employee said as he maneuvered around her with a wet mop. Kelly forced a slight smile and stepped away from the aisle she had been blocking. Now wasn't the time to be stunned into a gaping mouthed stupor. It was a drugstore. Not the Holy Grail.
With a stern mental scolding to get her going, Kelly drifted toward the far wall where she knew the manager's office would be. She looked down as she fumbled around in her purse for her notepad and pen. It was time to stop wasting time with old memories and get some work done. When her fingers pushed past keys, a compact mirror, and her gun, to finally grip the edge of her notepad, she raised her eyes.
And felt her stomach give a violent lurch.
"Hey, Kell."
Sabrina and Jill standing casually in front of her not only surprised her, it made her jerk backwards as if she had run into an invisible wall. Her notepad went fluttering to the floor without an attempt to save it.
"Wh-" she sputtered, her hand on her heart. "What are you two doing here?"
Her reaction seemed to please her friends. They shared a knowing look and smirked.
"The same thing you are." Sabrina answered for both of them. "Getting an early start."
"Really early." Jill added with over exaggerated earnestness. "Great minds, huh?"
Kelly, quick to recover as always, rolled her eyes and bent down to pick up her fallen notepad. "Well, you scared me. And didn't we agree that I was going to talk to the drugstore employees?" she asked lightly, though her mind was screaming in panic.
Sabrina shrugged. "School's not open yet, remember?" she said easily. "Besides, we thought if we helped you out here, we could be done early and focus on something else."
"Well, aren't you efficient." Kelly answered back, a little more shortly than she had anticipated. She quickly covered it up with a broad smile. It would take more than the unexpected to shake her. "So let's get started then. I hope you brought something to write with, cause this is my only pen."
Whatever Jill and Sabrina had been bracing themselves for, it wasn't this. Jill tilted her head thoughtfully and studied her friend with narrowed, hurt blue eyes.
"You do want our help, don't you?" she asked, testing the waters.
Kelly shrugged. "Why not?"
Her question was answered with a uneasy glance. With nothing to say, Jill impulsively reached forward and before Kelly could pull away, brushed at the damp hair clinging to her forehead. "You're all sweaty." she asked suspiciously. "Did you walk here?"
Kelly stepped back and self consciously smoothed her hair away from her face. "No, I took the bu-"
"Why are you avoiding us?"
The question surprised even Sabrina, who joined Kelly in staring at Jill with a baffled expression.
"Jill, I'm not avoi-" Kelly started lamely. But Jill had already gotten the ball rolling, and she was not one to hold back.
"Yes, you are." she snapped. "You're sneaking around and I want to know why."
Though Jill's less than subtle accusation was true, the confrontation was still provoking. For reasons she had no right to, Kelly's already short temper suddenly flared.
"No I'm not!" she shot back. "I'm just doing my job. You should do the same instead of following me around like you're my parole officer or something."
Jill had an acidic response sizzling on the tip of her tongue, but it would have to wait. Sabrina saw him first, the tall, lanky man loitering near the open door of his office, almost afraid to walk out and in between the squabbling women.
"Can I help you ladies?" he asked, with an uneasy smile. Sabrina plastered an overly friendly grin on her face and stepped forward in between Jill and Kelly who, caught by surprise by his voice, could only turn and stare.
"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Good to see you!-" she glanced at Kelly. "So good! We're with the Townsend Detective Agency. I'm Sabrina Duncan, and these are my associates Jill Munroe and Kelly Garrett."
Jill and Kelly, situation diffused, recovered quickly and were able to manage polite smiles for the uncomfortable store manager by the time Sabrina jerked her thumb towards them by way of introduction.
The store manager nodded at them. "Nice to meet you, I'm Dave Hoffner." he greeted them, stepping outside his office. He ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair and looked suspiciously at each girl in turn. "Detectives, huh? Well, what can I help you with today?"
Deciding it was best to give her hot-headed friends a chance to cool down, Sabrina moved around in front of them, her most winning smile fixed on her face and her arms open in a show of peace. Mr. Hoffner did seem a bit on the jumpy side.
"Mr. Hoffner, our client is in a lot of trouble here, and it would really help if his alibi checked out." she explained quickly. Hoffner swallowed nervously in response, sending his pronounced Adam's apple bobbing down and then up his thin neck before doubtfully crossing his arms in front of his chest. The defensive stance wasn't at all unnoticed.
"Oh, don't worry!" Sabrina blurted out quickly. "No one here is under investigation! We just want to talk to you and maybe some of your employees. You or they might have seen something that will help us out, that's all."
The additional clarification seemed to ease Hoffner's mind. He visibly relaxed, and even offered them a genuine smile. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Come on in. And watch your step."
Sabrina sighed in relief, smiled a thank you, and crowded through the door with Jill and Kelly.
The warning wasn't at all unwarranted. His office was cluttered and messy, the desk overflowing with haphazard stacks of papers, notebooks, and receipts. Hoffner sank into his rickety wooden chair behind his desk with a groan and gestured politely to the equally unsafe looking chairs positioned around the room.
"So, what kind of information do you ladies need?" Hoffner asked, fishing around the chaos on his desk for a pen.
Though he had directed his question at Sabrina, Kelly decided to speak up.
"Our client is being held for murder, and we have reason to believe that he might be innocent." she said. "He claims he was here around the same time of the murder and we'd like to question all of the employees that were working that day. Maybe som-"
Hoffner's face suddenly lit up.
"Oh! The Hanover guy, huh?" he exclaimed excitedly. He abandoned his search for a pen and leaned forward with renewed interest. "I been hearing about that for weeks now! So, he didn't do it, or what?"
"Uh-" Kelly stammered, thrown off by his interruption. The carefully worded statements she had been mentally rehearsing all night and morning like a scripted play to ensure an emotionless and practiced delivery, suddenly dissipated and scattered off into nothing.
"I- We- don't- don't know that yet." she fumbled awkwardly, flustered by the current vast, expansive blank in her head.
Hoffner whistled to himself, unmindful of Kelly's tongue tied situation. "I was surprised when I heard." he mused. "I seen him around, ya know? Seemed like a hell of a nice guy."
"Yeah?" Jill chimed in. "How so?"
Hoffner shrugged. "Just seemed average. Gentle giant kinda guy. Smiled at people, opened doors for ladies, never made a fuss."
"Did you really know him?" Sabrina asked.
"Well, not personally. I just knew his face." Hoffner answered. "I've only been here about a year. People tell me him and his wife have taken in foster kids for the past ten, eleven years or so. Never had a problem until now. Seem like good people. Why take in kids to just hurt them, ya know?"
Kelly did her best to not laugh. The list was longer than he thought. Tax benefits, government checks, free labor, stress relief, a means to fulfill the need for power and other dark, twisted urges. But she said nothing and sat quietly, hoping Jill and Sabrina hadn't noticed her earlier fumble.
"Do you remember seeing him the day of the murder?"
Jill's question brought Dave Hoffner back to topic. He fidgeted uncomfortably and rubbed the scratchy stubble around his large Adam's apple. "Gosh, I don't really remember. I don't think so-" he said slowly. He shook his head. "But that doesn't really mean anything. I'm in and out of here all day. I'm guessing that's why you want to talk to my employees?"
"That's right." Sabrina answered. "Do you have a schedule of who was working the morning and afternoon shifts that day?"
"I do-" Hoffner replied. He paused and let his eyes sweep along the disastrous surface of his desk. "-somewhere in here."
The girls waited patiently for Dave Hoffner to dig up last month's schedule book and flip to the correct page. There, in a variety of smudged red, black, and blue ink, was the names and time shifts of every single employee they needed to talk to.
"You'll find everyone here right now except Billy, Shannon, and Rosa. They don't usually work the morning shift, you can give them a call." he explained, as Kelly, eager to have something to busy her idle hands with, nodded and scribbled his information down. He eyed through the list one more time and tapped his long finger against the last box in the column marked "6-12". "And Kevin. He don't work here anymore, but I still have a phone number I can give you."
Kelly finished scribbling down the last of his information, then handed the scrap of paper to Jill, who wrinkled her nose in disapproval of her friend's handwriting and stuck it in her purse.
As Kelly's capped her pen, and restlessly toyed with it, Sabrina smiled and stood up to shake Hoffner's hand. "Thank you very much, sir. You've been very helpful." she said, summoning back the winning smile that had gotten them through the door.
Hoffner winked at her and shook all three girls' hands in turn. "My pleasure. You can use my office, I'll send them in one at a time. Good luck ladies."
With that, Hoffner strolled away on his long, lanky legs, toward the heart of his store. A dowdy middle aged woman organizing cereal boxes greeted him as he passed, halting him in his tracks with a comical doubletake. He gestured towards her, and the two began a hurried, private conversation with several glances sent their way.
Kelly sighed. That must be the first of sixteen about to be sent on her way. She swallowed the tight, choking feeling in her throat and let her eyes travel sideways to her friends. Jill and Sabrina looked neutral, ready for interviewing, the argument they'd had tossed to the backburner.
For now.
The queasy feeling in Kelly's stomach increased to a rolling nausea. She'd have to keep herself better together, she berated herself sternly. Especially with her friends watching her every move. It had been stupid to just run out and expect them not to worry.
"Ready?" Sabrina whispered, through the polite smile she had put on for the approaching employee.
Kelly licked her lips. Just a little longer. She'd get through whatever repercussions her running off had caused, and then she'd be more careful. It couldn't be much longer. A few more days at best.
Until then, she'd just have to get through it.