Into The Light
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fic!
Chapter Twenty-Four
They reluctantly left their friends, Mart with a last glance of longing for Di and Trixie with a tiny smile for Jim, and got into the car. Trixie watched in the mirror as Jim drove off in the opposite direction toward Glen Road, wishing she could have been in his car. But nothing seemed to be going the way she wanted it to go, she thought despairingly to herself. Lost in thought, she didn't pay any attention during the short ride to the grocery store. Thankfully, it was not one of the busiest times for the store. There were only a few other cars in the parking lot. Mart parked his car on the far side and together the two entered the store, both with the same unenthusiastic expressions on their faces. "I'm not looking forward to this," Trixie grumbled to Mart.
"That makes two of us." Mart paused and stared at the long, neat aisles, patiently waiting for the shoppers to peruse them and find the items that they needed. He blinked his eyes against the harsh glare of the fluorescent lighting and pondered where to start.
"At least we're not here during rush hour." Trixie gave a dramatic shudder. Shopping during the hectic hours was not an enjoyable experience, was one to avoid at all costs, especially when the Shop 'n' Save was the only grocery store in town, other than Mr. Lytell's little store out on Glen Road. She hastily tore the list in half, offered one piece to him, and grabbed a shopping cart. "How about we split up and meet back here at the check-out registers when we're done? We should be able to get done in half the time."
His blue eyes glinted with approval. He liked the sound of it. While he had a special appreciation for anything that pertained to food, foraging for it was not his favorite way to spend his time. "Sometimes, my dear Beatrix, you astound me and come up with an excellent idea." He tapped her blonde head. "It's proof to me that there is something else rattling around in there besides cobwebs." He accepted his list with a flourish and pulled out his own shopping cart. "I'm off to find…milk, bread, and pop-tarts!" he sang out, leaving her laughing.
She read her half of the list, started towards the deli, and shook her head, sending her curls flying. It took an awful lot of food to feed the large Belden family, as well as any number of friends who may drop in at a moment's notice, she thought, chuckling to herself, and causing the elderly lady standing next to her to look at her as if she was crazy. Trixie concentrated on searching for each item on her list. After completing her half of the shopping, she waited by the check-out registers, making small talk with the townspeople who walked by, and stood on her tiptoes to search the area for her taller brother. She finally spotted him coming her way. "What took you so long?" Trixie complained when he rejoined her, doing her best to hide a satisfied grin that she had finished first.
"Your list must have been shorter," he shot back, detesting the fact that she had beaten him, and pulled his cart ahead of hers into the check-out line. Looking through his wallet, he took out the family debit card his mother had given him for the groceries and glanced at his watch, amazed by how quickly they had shopped. "It wasn't that bad. Our tag-team shopping cut our expected shopping time in half. We've only been in here for twenty minutes, Trix!"
"That's not bad, Mart." They worked together in competent and compatible silence, emptying their carts, and placing the items on the belt. It wasn't long before everything was checked, bagged, paid for, and back in the cart. The cart was overflowing with plastic bags. "Thank you," Trixie offered politely to the cashier who looked as if she had spent one too many hours on her feet. Then the two walked down the aisle that led to the front doors, Mart pushing the full cart while Trixie was beside him. "Now we get the ultra fun task of putting the groceries away," she said wryly.
"That's another reason why shopping is not one of my favorite things to do," Mart shared. He would much prefer to do something outside. They walked through the sliding glass doors that opened wide for them.
"There's only one thing that we're missing," Trixie said hesitatingly. The large grocery store did not carry her favorite item, much to her chagrin. She gave Mart a wistful look, causing him to groan.
"You want to stop at Mr. Lytell's store, don't you?" he inferred correctly and gave her a look of exaggerated pain. He didn't mind shopping at the quiet country store if Trixie wasn't with him. She was not Mr. Lytell's favorite person.
"Well, we are out of strawberry pop," she replied defensively. Then Trixie gave him a large grin and grabbed the shopping cart away from him. "Come on, let's go! The quicker we get the groceries loaded up, the quicker we get to Mr. Lytell's and the quicker we get home!"
He followed her, mainly because he didn't have much of a choice, and complained with each step. "Come on, Trix. We just spent twenty minutes shopping in there. Do we really have to go to Mr. Lytell's store, too?"
She threw a saucy grin over her shoulder. "You know we do, Mart." It didn't take too long before they had the bags loaded up into the back of Mart's car. Then they were on their way to the little country store.
Mart pulled into the small parking lot of the tiny country store. He glanced over at Trixie when he heard her take a deep breath. "You realize that you're still really low on Mr. Lytell's list? I think you rank a little higher than Laura Ramsey."
"I know," she answered with a deprecating laugh. "Believe me, I know. Mr. Lytell has never failed to make me feel unwelcome in his store. I would avoid shopping in his store like the plague if it wasn't for the fact that this is the only place in Sleepyside where we can get my strawberry pop!" Thinking quickly, Trixie pasted a pleading look on her face and made her eyes go extra wide. "Do you think maybe you would go in for me?"
Wise to her ways, Mart opened the door and shook his head. "Not a chance, squaw. I'm more inclined to make you go in by yourself but that would only make Mr. Lytell suffer more. If you want the soda, you will need to go in to get it." He slammed his car door and rounded the hood, waiting for her to join him.
After wrinkling her nose at him, she opened the door and joined him. "Well, it was worth a shot!" she exclaimed laughingly. Then she quieted down, trying to be as somber as possible. Together they entered the store. Trixie shuffled her feet and smiled wanly toward the owner of the small store, hoping that he wouldn't yell at her.
Mr. Lytell looked up from the counter, his glasses perched on the edge of his nose, where he was reading the latest edition of The Sleeypside Sun. His unpleasant scowl was hard to miss. "Good day to you, Mr. Belden," he greeted Mart, clearly ignoring Trixie. "How is college treating you?"
"College was just fine," Mart answered, moving towards the counter and giving Trixie time to escape and get her soda. He put his hands on the counter and leaned forward, secure in his role as a distracter for his sister and the cantankerous store owner, and hoping that he could make the shopping trip a more pleasant experience for everyone involved. "Dan and I had a great freshman year. He's my roommate, you know."
"I know." Mr. Lytell made it his business to know as much as he could about every inhabitant of Sleepyside and especially about the people who lived on his road.
Trixie nodded towards Mart, grateful for his help, and quickly hurried to the back of the store, doing her best to keep her feet quiet. She quickly found her strawberry pop. Grabbing a six-pack, she joined her brother at the counter, walking carefully through the aisle and taking care not to overturn any of the items in the store. She could only imagine the look of disgust Mr. Lytell would give, having been the recipient of many such looks over the years.
"Are you and Dan Mangan still working together this summer?" Mr. Lytell inquired, still ignoring the blonde girl who had placed the strawberry pop on top of the counter. He made no move to ring it up, always eager to hear more about the citizens of Sleepyside.
Mart smothered a laugh. Trixie was holding herself perfectly still, doing her best not to antagonize the man, while Mr. Lytell was working furiously hard to ignore her. It was actually going surprisingly well, all things considered. She had managed to get her soda without upsetting the owner. Mart could remember many times in the store that weren't as successful. "Why, yes, we are, Mr. Lytell," he answered respectfully. "We finished up with Mrs. Elliott today and have a few more jobs lined up already for the rest of the week."
"Humph," he said, still not addressing Trixie. "And what is your older brother doing this summer? I thought I saw him out in my old jalopy yesterday."
Trixie colored a bit, remembering exactly how Brian had come to own the jalopy. She ducked her head and studied the floor. She could tell that Mart was remembering her "yen for Ben" as well.
He disguised his chuckle with a loud cough. "Yes. Brian. Well, he is going to be an intern this summer for a hospital in New York City. He's only home for a few weeks." Then he put an arm around Trixie's shoulder and made her part of the conversation. "He'll be leaving soon after this one graduates from high school."
Mr. Lytell looked at her down his nose, eyeing her carefully for the first time, and made an incoherent noise. "That is, if she manages to control her impulses and actually graduate. She still has a few more weeks left," he put in snidely.
Trixie's eyes went wide, the words ready to bubble out of her mouth hotly, but she held back when Mart increased the pressure on her shoulders. "I'm sure I'll be able to graduate," she mumbled in her defense under her breath.
"What did you say?" Mr. Lytell barked out and then threw up his hands. "Oh, never mind. With you, it's probably nothing I wanted to hear anyway." He reached for the six-pack and began the methodical routine of ringing it up on his old cash register, taking nearly as long as the efficient clerk at the larger grocery store had needed to ring up their large shopping cart. "Let's see…one six-pack of strawberry soda…plus tax, of course…that will be…three dollars and forty-six cents!"
Trixie reached into the front pocket of her jeans and fished out the amount needed. She placed four crumbled dollars on the counter and blushed some more when Mr. Lytell raised both of his eyebrows, slowly reaching for the money and holding it with distaste. She glared at Mart, who was trying hard to not let his laughter out.
Mr. Lytell made a big display out of unfolding the crumpled bills and making them as neat as he could. Then he placed them in the cash register. With the utmost care, he counted out the correct change and placed it carefully on the counter, the paper receipt on top of it. "Your change, Miss Belden."
Trixie reached for the change but managed to drop most of it on the uneven floor. It clattered to the ground, earning more laughs from Mart and that hated look of disgruntlement from Mr. Lytell. "I'll get it," she muttered out, her face on fire. She bent down quickly and found as many of the coins as she could. She left the dime that had rolled under the counter, figuring Mr. Lytell could keep it.
"Thanks, Mr. Lytell," Mart called out jovially. He grabbed the soda with one hand and his sister's elbow with the other, steering her towards the front of the store. "Have a good day."
Mr. Lytell mumbled something back but they couldn't make it out. "He's probably placing a hex on me," Trixie whispered softly to Mart. "He's never liked me, you know."
"It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that you've never behaved properly in his store when you were younger," Mart answered back. "You set his attitude towards you the first time you ran into his store and knocked over the cans of soup that he had spent most of the morning setting up."
It was true. She couldn't deny it. "Well, let's get home. I may have to start rethinking my favorite drink if this really is the only place I can buy it. It may not be worth the aggravation." She took the six-pack from Mart and gratefully stepped foot onto the ground outside of the store, running into Mart when he came to an abrupt stop.
Mart's mouth dropped open and he pointed towards his car. They weren't the only ones in the tiny parking lot. "Well, look who's here, Trixie. I didn't expect to see him again until tomorrow morning."
Dan was staring at the front doors of the small country store, looking serious, and leaning against his truck. He came to attention the second he saw the two of them leave the store. He didn't wave back. Instead, he waited for them to come to him, his eyes shaded by his dark sunglasses, an unpleasant scowl on his face, and his arms crossed over his chest.
"Dan, what are you doing here? I thought you were heading back to the cabin for a nap after we finished up early." Mart called out, staring intently at his friend. His good cheer was rapidly fading. Something wasn't quite right with him but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Hi, Dan!" She hadn't met his gaze, didn't realize that something was terribly wrong. It had been too good of a day for her, except for Mr. Lytell's shoddy treatment, and had allowed her to believe that her life was returning to normal. Maybe she could relax and put all of the ugliness could be put behind her. Even griping about the shopping trip with her brother and then facing Mr. Lytell in his store had been surprisingly enjoyable. "You won't believe it. I almost made it out of Mr. Lytell's store without making a fool of myself," she said in a loud stage whisper.
"The key word is almost," Mart shot back, riffling his hands through her blonde curls, but keeping a close eye on his friend. "She did pretty good, up until the end."
Dan didn't join in the teasing. Instead, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and stared at the two of them. He could see that Mart was already suspicious but Trixie was oblivious. He concentrated on her, willing her to really look at him.
She ducked her head away from Mart, about to make a witty rejoinder, but then she got a good look at Dan. She stopped, perplexed, and stared up into his face. She saw his expression and the bubble of contentment she had spent the entire day in burst painfully, leaving her once again in a realm ruled by shock and frustration. Without asking him to explain, she spun around on her heels, glared at Mart's car, and then gasped sharply. The two tires on the driver's side of Mart's car weren't merely flat. They had been slashed, many times from the looks of it, and by an extremely competent knife. She closed her eyes to block out the sight but it didn't work. It was already imprinted on her brain.
"The other two are just as flat," Dan informed her angrily before she could sprint around to find out for herself. "I needed to get a few things for Mr. Maypenny and myself from Mr. Lytell's. We're a little short on supplies, as usual. Neither one of us are great at shopping. Anyway, I saw your car but something didn't look right, Mart. It took me a minute to figure out what was wrong."
Mart's handsome face was set in lines of impotent fury. He couldn't believe it, although the proof was staring at him right in the face. He bit out a set of angry words and kicked his car for good measure but that did nothing to relieve his anger. It only hurt his big toe.
She could follow directions, despite what others may believe about her, but only when the situation warranted it. Deliberately, Trixie reached into Mart's car for his cell phone. She fished it out of her backpack and handed over it over to Dan. "Can you call the sergeant? He wanted to be told right away if something happened. I think he'll want to know about this." She couldn't make the call. Her fingers were shaking too much; from fear or anger, she couldn't tell. She only had the strength to stare at the tires, or what was left of them.
Dan took the phone from her without answering. He spoke quietly to the dispatcher who took part of the information but didn't put him through to the sergeant. She informed him that the sergeant would be at Mr. Lytell's store in a manner of minutes and would take down the rest of their information then. Flipping the phone shut with a smart click, he studied the two who were standing closely together, wearing the exact same expression on their faces. They looked so much like each other that he would have laughed, if the situation wasn't so serious. "He should be here in a few minutes," he shared grimly.
Mart's eyes were thin slits of brilliantly blue anger. It was rare for him to get angry. He almost didn't know what to do with it. "How the hell something like this happens, in broad daylight, is beyond me." Unfortunately, it wasn't an impossibility. Mr. Lytell's store was isolated, with only the extremely limited traffic of Glen Road running by it. And it worried him more than he cared to admit, even to himself. He reached out for Trixie but she picked that moment to move away, unaware of the comforting hug he had wanted to give her.
Trixie was done playing the victim. Ready to do some investigating, no matter how small or trivial it could be, she shaded her eyes against the sun and scanned the area around them. Nothing. Just the road, the trees, and the store. Then she walked around the car and studied the ground around it. Again, there was nothing, only the hard ground, a few stones, and the shredded remains of the tires. Whoever had done it had been smart and hadn't left a bit of evidence.
He heard the sound of tires against asphalt and pointed in the direction. At least they would be able to report incident. It was a small victory, almost hollow, but it would help. "As usual, he is true to his word. There's the sergeant now," Mart announced.
Her mind was overcome with many different thoughts and feelings. She settled on the one thing that was the most imperative. "What are we going to do with the food?" she wondered after watching the sergeant pull up next to Dan's truck. The three vehicles were taking up the entire parking space in Mr. Lytell's little parking lot. She was vaguely surprised that the cantankerous owner hadn't joined them yet. She threw a glance at the doorway and hoped he didn't. She didn't need him on top of everything else."Most of it will be okay out here but we did buy a lot of stuff that needs to go into the refrigerator." It helped to think about something mundane and trivial. She eyed the groceries and hoped that the items wouldn't spoil.
Mart hadn't thought about the food. "I'll call Dad. He'll want to know, anyway." Mart accepted his phone from Dan and expelled a large breath before completing the unwelcome task. Stepping away from the group, he talked lowly and urgently into the phone. It didn't take long. His father wasn't pleased. Both Trixie and Dan could hear his voice. Trixie winced and looked away. "All done," Mart announced after completing the call. "Dad will be here, sooner than later, I imagine."
Sergeant Molinson sharp eyes hadn't missed a thing. He had seen what had happened the second he had driven past them on Glen Road. He had to bite back an inner groan of frustration. When he hadn't heard anything from Trixie or her family for the entire day, he had hoped that maybe the stalker's activities had come to a halt, once he or she realized that Trixie had talked to the police. It was a futile hope, he now knew. There wasn't anything common about the sight before him. Glancing at the way the tires looked, it seemed to him that the stalker was becoming more brazen and was pissed off, now more than ever. He reluctantly came over to the group, careful to keep any expression of emotion off of his face, flipped open his little black notebook, and prepared to take notes. He skipped greetings. There wasn't a need for them. "Anyone see anything?" he asked, his voice clipped and short.
Trixie, Dan and Mart looked at each other, taken aback by the gruff manner of the sergeant. They couldn't tell that he was bothered by the incident more than he was letting on. As the normal spokesperson for their group, Trixie took a small step forward and went first. She spoke haltingly, "Mart and I were in Mr. Lytell's store. We were shopping, obviously. Probably for about ten minutes, right?" Mart gave a nod of acquiescence when she prompted him. "When we came out, Dan was waiting by the car. Neither of us saw anything, except for the tires, of course."
"How about you, Mr. Mangan?" Sergeant Molinson turned his eyes on the quiet young man.
Dan shook his head, troubled. He wished he had something to share. "Nothing, except for what you see. I'd only been here for a few minutes myself before Trixie and Mart came out of the store. As soon as I realized what had happened, I got out of my truck and waited for them to come out of the store."
"So that gives us, say, roughly about a five to eight minute window of opportunity for the crime to have been committed." Sergeant Molinson glanced around the parking lot, noting how close it was to Glen Road. It would have been extremely easy for the culprit to have completed his work, jumped back in his car, and sped away, with no one the wiser. There simply wasn't any way to track anyone who had been on the road. No witnesses, no security cameras, nothing. "Which way did you arrive from, Dan?"
Dan pointed in the right direction, anticipating the sergeant's next question. "The only person I passed was Mr. Lynch. I think we can rule him out as a suspect."
The sergeant took down the information. He would ask Mr. Lynch later to see if he had noticed anything unusually. "All right. That may help us."
Trixie crossed her arms around her chest to warm herself up and threw an annoyed scowl at tires, inwardly berating herself for wanting to stop and get the strawberry pop. It was stupid but she was feeling responsible. If she hadn't wanted the soda, then maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Sergeant Molinson reviewed the information he had written down. It was pitiful in the extreme and not much of a help. Finding out who was responsible would be nearly impossible, unless someone had witnessed something suspicious, and the chances of finding a witness on quiet Glen Road were slim to none. Then he caught the flash of the dark blue sedan out of the corner of his eyes. "Here's your father," he stated, not looking forward to dealing with an irate father.
Peter Belden pulled his car up quicker than he normally would, squealing his tires in a way that was very uncharacteristic, and parked Mart in. He stared at his son's car, the serious group surrounding it, and wanted to hit something. Since nothing was available, he settled for slamming his car door and stalking over to the group, his handsome face set in lines of worry. He went first to his daughter and gave her a strong hug. "Are you okay, princess?" he murmured softly, calling on his own strength to keep his frustration under control. She didn't need him to fly off the handle.
"Of course," she responded fiercely, hugging him back. She was angry but she wasn't scared, most likely because she wasn't going through it alone. She looked at the people around her and felt a deep sense of gratitude towards them. How could she be scared when she had so many wonderful people in her corner? And there were many more. "I'm a little ticked off but, other than that, I'm fine. I do think that Mart's tires have seen better times, though," she added, hoping to bring a little lightheartedness to the scene.
Mart chocked back a startled laugh, grateful that Trixie was fighting back against the stalker in the only way she possibly could. There were times when she absolutely stunned him. "Atta girl," he told her proudly.
Sergeant Molinson knelt down on the ground and studied the thin black ribbons that the tires had been reduced to. A lot of rage went into the demolition, he thought to himself, unhappy with the entire situation. He jotted it down in his black notebook and studied the information on the incident again. The amount of information that he had frustrated him. He swore under his breath.
Dan lifted his eyes, having heard the string of inventive curses, and filed it away for his own future use, impressed. It was odd to hear the normally cool, collected sergeant reduced to something as routine as swearing. He ran through the recent events in his mind himself but couldn't recall anything that would help with the case, other than Mr. Lynch waving at him as he had passed him on the road.
"Do you need my kids any longer?" Peter inquired, watching the sergeant complete his investigation. He wanted to get them home, where he prayed the famed walls of Crabapple Farm weren't only stretchy but also safe as well.
Sergeant Molinson gave a curt shake of his head and nodded at the second police officer who drove up to join them. "We'll go over the car and the area, see if we can find some shred of evidence." He stopped himself and deferred to Trixie. "That is, if Miss Belden hasn't already beaten us to it."
She rewarded him with a small but nervous smile. "No, not this time. I couldn't find a thing." Needing to keep herself busy and to also get away from the sergeant's inquisitive eyes, she grabbed a set of plastic bags from the cart and started loading them in her father's car. She wanted to get home; the sooner, the better. Mart and Dan immediately jumped in to help her.
Peter used the time to speak privately with the sergeant. "I do not like this," he muttered quietly while the young adults were busy. His face was the stoniest it had ever been and his eyes promised a dark retribution, should he ever get the chance to meet the stalker.
"To tell you the truth, I don't either." The sergeant matched his tone, keeping it low so that the others couldn't hear them. "We've spent a good part of the day going through her files, checking the status of the criminals she's helped to apprehend, and crossing off suspects."
"Is anyone sticking out?" Peter didn't like to think of the large amount of people she had been responsible for putting away, with the willing help of her friends. The list of potential suspects was longer than he would like it to be.
"Nothing definitive, as of yet. We're waiting to hear back from parole officers on a few of them. Hopefully we'll find out more soon. I'll be certain to share anything we find out with you." The odds were in their favor that the suspect was someone in the folders but there was also the small chance it was someone else entirely. In which case, they would be wasting valuable time in their search. The sergeant didn't voice his thoughts. He didn't want to add anymore worries to the ones Peter Belden already had. "We haven't been able to get anything strong on the cell phones, either. They were all prepaid cell phones, used the one time, and then never used again, most likely discarded. All of the calls came from the immediate area, though."
Peter glanced up at the beautiful blue sky. Soft, white puffy clouds floated gently above them while happy spring birds chirped merrily away. How something so ugly could have happened underneath its peaceful brilliance was beyond him. "It's times like this when I wish that her hobby wasn't so dangerous or that she would simply give it up."
"She's much too good at it," Sergeant Molinson admitted but he would never have said that to her face. He didn't want to encourage her. "I'll be in touch."
"Thanks." Peter walked over to his car, which was filled with the groceries. He looked first at Mart and then at Trixie. They were both doing as well as could be expected, he realized with swelling pride. Neither seemed beaten or scared. "I say it's time to go home."
"That's the best idea I've heard all day." Trixie got into the backseat, pushing aside a few plastic bags to make room for herself. She kept her eyes on Mart's car as her father drove slowly away, Dan following slowly behind them, and thinking about what had happened to Mart's tires. She tried to find the reasoning behind it. She couldn't come up with anything other than strong emotions of hate or anger. It was hard to fathom that someone would have it in for her that much. Racking her brain, she tried to review her list of enemies, hoping to come upon the person responsible. Who could she have made that angry? she wondered to herself. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people. She had also learned the chilling fact that the person was armed with a lethal knife. She laid her forehead against the smooth glass and watched the familiar scenery roll by.