55.
~ The White Pine Bay cemetery was a peaceful a beautiful place. A far cry from what it had been that awful winter. A winter when Romero had to oversee a literal plague pit of bodies. Each of them wrapped in industrial plastic and spread along a trench dug by a back hoe.
Now, the city had honored those lost by the virus with a bricked, garden pathway where family and visitors could stroll past the graves of lost loved ones and see only flowers, not death. There was even park benches and a tasteful statue with the names of those lost during the virus. It didn't look like a part of the cemetery at all now. The plague pit cut the old cemetery apart from the new. The virus becoming the deciding point in the town's history. It's dead telling the tale of before, and after.
Norma was buried in the newer part of the cemetery. The deaths that came after that awful winter. Deaths that weren't apart of the virus, but were still changed by it.
Alex and Dylan had bought a good sized family plot at the urging of the seedy funeral director. It seemed the right thing to do though. For everyone to be laid to rest together. To be a family again on the other side of the veil.
That was how Alex wanted to see it, and it was comforting to know he'd be laid to rest beside Norma. To sleep next to her once more.
"Norman's stone looks nice." Dylan said. The late spring afternoon becoming hot and the shade of the nearby trees was the only relief.
Alex only nodded.
A small headstone was erected for Norma's youngest son next to his mother's. A short, slanted stone with 'Norman Bates' carved harshly into it. There was no year of birth and no year of death; he would forever be a ghost that existed in no time at all. Alex wouldn't put an epitaph for him. No 'loving son'. No, Norman Bates was far from a loving son. He was a monster who'd killed his mother. It was an afterthought of a headstone; something that would eventually be forgotten. It seemed to cling to the larger companion headstone bearing Norma's name. A headstone she shared with her husband Alex.
After ten years being officially missing, Alex had filed paperwork to have Norman Bates declared legally dead. He'd provided all the proof a concerned step parent might go to to find a missing person. He'd hired a detective to search criminal and employment records. To look for anyone who died meeting the young man's description. He'd gone through great lengths to search for him and held out hope that Norma's lost son was still alive somewhere. He'd waited longer than was legally necessary to have him declared dead. Saying to the judge that this was the last thing he wanted to do, that he'd been waiting for Norman to make contact again. Sadly, Norman Bates must have been lost in all the chaos of the pandemic.
The judge understood. Of course he did. The past few years were so tragic for Alex. To lose his wife and to have to agonize over his missing step son? It must have been hard to not know where he was. To eventually accept he was dead and try to move on.
Yes, everyone knew Mayor Romero was a grieving husband who's wife had been murdered in her own home. A case still unsolved and had grown cold almost immediately. A case that had cost Sheriff Flint the re-election and, as a result, had elected White Pine Bay's first female Sheriff. A likable woman named Dana Green.
She brought a softer touch to the office. She was kind and willing to talk to everyone. A trait Alex had never mastered as Sheriff. He found it odd she rode a bicycle to and from work and had even organized a bike race every summer to bond the community. She was good to the tourists and good for the town and Alex felt she was better at the job than he was. Sheriff Green seemed to help White Pine Bay enter a new age. She belonged to the future and the younger citizens were ready to accept her.
Alex looked at Dylan, wondering if he suspected anything at all. Wondered if he knew that Alex was concealing a terrible, weighted secret. He knew full well where Norman Bates really was. That he'd hired detectives knowing they wouldn't find him. There was nothing to find after all. Norman had vanished the day he left Pine View as far as the rest of the world was concerned. Only Alex knew better. The bones of Norman Bates would never rest peacefully beside his mother. That was far too good for him. The only leniency Romero would permit was the short and slanted headstone with his name on it, to be beside her. After all, it would look suspicious if he didn't have the headstone for Norman. He had to look as though he grieved for him to.
"Yeah." Alex nodded.
He glanced at Norma's headstone. His last name dominating the companion stone. He wanted the world to know she was Norma Romero, and should never be remembered as anything else. A simple epitaph of 'Beloved Wife and Mother' under her name and years of birth and death. She was only 44 when she died. Her whole life ahead of her still. Her husband and daughter needing her so much. Two lives unmoored now that their anchor was gone.
"It's comforting." Dylan said. Alex looked back at him.
"What is?"
"This place." Dylan nodded to the park like atmosphere of the new cemetery. "To know that Emma and I will be here someday. We'll all be together again. Mom looked so lonely all by herself. You know?"
Alex nodded. He did know. He hated the idea of his wife buried in the cold ground all by herself. No religious comfort could sooth that. The idea that she was in a better place didn't help at all. Norma wasn't old or in pain. Her life was the better place.
Maybe it would have been easier to lose her if she had been old and suffering. To lose her so young. So beautiful.
Alex swallowed hard.
It was difficult to be here. In this place where they would all be one day.
"I need to go." He said. "Thanks for coming out and seeing the stone."
"I'm glad it's here." Dylan said. "Mom would have liked it. She would have been glad you tried so hard to find Norman."
Alex almost spit at the sour taste in his mouth. Norman's name always made him recoil in disgust.
~ Almost a year after Alex had Norman Bates declared legally dead, an FBI agent turned up in his office. A tall, reedy looking young man who looked far too young for this line of work.
"How can I help you, Agent?" He nodded for the spindly young man to sit down across from his desk.
"Harris." The young man said. "Agent Harris. I'll leave you my card."
Alex gave him his best politician smile and nodded.
"Agent Harris, how can I help you?" He said.
"It's about your late wife." Agent Harris said.
Maria Owens thought it was a good time to interrupt with an urgent message from Sheriff Dana Green.
"Sheriff Green on the phone." She said. His long time assistant comfortable with interrupting him at any meeting.
"Not now! Tell her I'll call her back!" Alex snapped a little more harshly than he meant.
Maria looked unperturbed by Alex's outburst and simply left. The mayor turned back to his visitor.
"Sorry about that." Alex said feeling embarrassed.
Agent Harris shook his head.
"It's alright. I know this is a sensitive subject. Believe me, I've been having a lot of these meetings." He said.
"Meetings?" Alex asked. "Why is the FBI involved in my wife's murder?"
He knew full well why. Norman had most likely crossed state lines and hurt or killed other women in the time he took to run away and then come back home.
"We believe your wife's killer, Caleb Calhoun, has died." Agent Harris said soberly.
"Caleb Calhoun?" Alex asked. He tired to remember the name, but nothing came to him.
"Yes, he was her older brother. They'd been estranged for decades. They talked to you about him during the initial investigation just after she died." Agent Harris reminded him.
Alex shook his head.
"They talked to me about a lot things, Agent." He said. "It's hard to remember sometimes. It was a difficult time"
"I understand." Harris nodded and Alex was sure the young man didn't understand. A young man like that never had to feel his own heart being ripped out of his chest and wonder why he was still alive.
Agent Harris slid several 8x10 photos over to Alex.
"Apart of the evidence in Mrs. Romero's case." He's said. "I need you to provide a positive ID on those objects. We believe they match the description of items missing from your house just before the murder."
Alex felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Norma's blue sweater, a blue and white patterned dress he hadn't even known was missing, but was defiantly hers. The picture of her hugging Norman. Mother and son cut off by a sharp fold.
"Yes." Alex said weakly. "Yes, those… I didn't report the dress. I didn't know it was missing, but I've seen her wear it. Yes."
"We think he'd been camping out in the basement. Coming into the house. Stealing his sister's things. She caught him one night. Things turned ugly." Agent Harris explained neatly.
"How?" Alex asked. "How did he die?"
"He'd been arrested a few months ago but was transferred to a local hospital when he started having chest pains. He'd been working in California and living in his van." Harris said.
"A van?" Alex questioned in shock. 'A White Van?' Such a coincidence was unheard of.
"Yes. An old one. Surprised it still ran. Anyway, all that stuff was there. He said it belonged to his sister, Norma Calhoun. The hospital tried to find her. Reach out to her so he could have family in his final days. That's when they found out she was Norma Romero and had died a few years after the pandemic ended." Harris said knowingly. Clearly proud of himself for connecting all the dots.
"Caleb Calhoun confessed to breaking into her home and stealing things. He said he wanted to make amends for something that happened when they were young." He added.
"Did he confess to the murder?" Alex asked bluntly. A cold knowing chill was rippling down his back.
"No. Not exactly." Harris said clearing his throat. "At the time, we weren't able to get much out of him. He was very sick by then. But he did confess to breaking into the house through the basement and stealing her things. That places him there at the time she died, and with his criminal past, he's our most viable suspect. He died a few days later after being admitted. Cremated by the county."
"So, do you think he did it?" Alex asked carefully. "You think he killed my wife? And the other girl? Britney?"
Harris seemed reluctant to nod, but finally did.
"We don't have a confession to murder. But he did confess to stealing from the house which places him in the area at the time of the murder. We can not account for his whereabouts otherwise. No alibi at all. You should also know this was a dangerous man, Mayor. He had a long rap sheet." The young man said.
"What kind of crimes?" Alex asked.
"Bad ones." Harris told him. "Crimes against women. Like I said, I've been having a lot of these meetings lately. Having to explain to families that we think we found who hurt their loved ones."
"Will you talk to Britney's mother next?" Alex demanded. "The other victim? She had a son. Kenny."
Harris nodded.
"I wanted to get confirmation from you that those were Mrs. Romero's possessions." He said. "Again, it's all about placing Caleb Calhoun in the area at the time of the murders."
Alex passed back the photos.
"I didn't know my wife even had a brother till she died." He said.
"If Caleb Calhoun was my brother, I wouldn't tell anyone either." Harris said cooly.
The tall young man stood up and handed Romero his card.
"Call me." He said. "If you can think of anything to add to the case. It's normal for people to suddenly remember things years later."
"Can I ask you something?" Alex asked and pocketed the agent's card.
"Sure." Harris said flatly.
"How many murders happened during the pandemic or right after?' He asked. "Murders like my wife's."
The Agent looked like he didn't want to answer.
"I can only tell you we had a very large upswing in murders and missing persons during and right after the pandemic." Harris explained. "It's taken over a decade to try and put back together the mess it made."
"Thank you." Alex said sadly. "It's what I thought."
"I hope this brings you some peace, Mayor." The younger man said.
~ It had been years since Alex had ventured down to the basement. Lulu had become curious about the old furniture when she was in kindergarten, and he'd caught her playing in the last place he ever wanted her to go.
Since then, he'd kept the basement doors rudely shut and locked. Never to be opened or even talked about. The light bulb had long ago died out and the withered plastic that still covered the old furniture looked ghostly in the dim shadows. The only light available now was coming in from the windows, and highlighted Norma's collection of canned preserves. Brightly colored fresh fruits and vegetables that she'd canned during the frightening first few months of the pandemic. Where everyone else grabbed ready made canned goods off the shelves at the grocery store, Norma had wisely started to can her own supply.
Alex, his old police flashlight in hand, shone a harsh beam over the neatly written labels. Norma's girlish handwriting was written in a series of blue and black ink. The peaches and rhubarb still looking luminous and delicious all this time later.
He smiled at seeing the dates of some of the earlier jars. Norma had canned every week during the entire pandemic. She'd made small jars of homemade jam by the dozen when she first suspected she was pregnant with Lulu. She'd even canned after the pandemic. Not wanting to rely so much on the local grocery store anymore.
She'd always loved having a plentiful supply of food during those dark days when almost everything was cut off. They had felt rich in this house when, in the dead of winter, Norma produced peaches and pineapple to go along with Christmas dinner.
"I need more shelves." She had told him. Alex blinked and it was like he was suddenly back there. Back to when the basement wasn't so cluttered, but was warm and well lit. Norma keeping her growing collection of canned fruits and vegetables on an old bookcase.
Alex could see himself now. His younger self, looking up the stairs to make sure Norman or Dylan wouldn't see them before wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his nose in her hair.
"Shelves?" He teased and she was smiling and giggling.
"I want a nice place for all the canning I'm doing." She laughed and let him rock her side to side.
"This whole pandemic will be over by Christmas." He assured her. "People are just panicking. Buying out all the toilet paper? It's crazy."
"What if it's not?" She had asked. "What if it's serious, Alex?"
Alex had rolled his eyes. What a fool he'd been.
"Only a few people have died of this." He told her. "We're more likely to die of a car accident than of this virus."
Norma moved away from him just as Norman came down the stairs. The two adults trying to not look suspicious.
"What are you doing down here?" The young man asked. He looked at Romero as though at some intruder.
"I'm going to be building shelves for your mother. Apparently." Alex said and gave Norma an annoyed look.
"Thank you, Sheriff." She beamed at him.
Norman was still looking at the both of them suspiciously.
Then it was gone. The memory turning to darkness. The basement as lifeless as the tomb it now was. Alex ventured further into the shadows. The older foundations of the house.
Norman's grave looked just as old and abandoned as the rest of the floor. No one would suspect he was barely four feet deep. His body already rotting in the sour smelling earth.
He would remain there. For as long as the house stood possibly. The historical society was wanting to put the house on its registry. But that would mean dragging up old ghosts. His wife. Shelby. Keith Summers. It was better to let them rest.
"Dad?" Came Lulu's voice and the slamming of the back door.
Alex hurried out of the basement. Away from the memories there.
"Your'e home early. Emma picked you up?" Alex asked feeling slightly out of breath from rushing up the stairs.
"What are you doing in the basement?" Lulu asked trying to peer into it.
"Checking the foundations." He lied. "Don't go down there, baby, it's full of spiders.
Lulu shivered slightly.
"Look what's in the school's history book." She said showing him the soft cover text book that was cheap to manufacture and easy to recycle.
Alex laughed at the time period they were covering in her history class. It didn't seem that long ago.
"The pandemic." He nodded recognizing all the people in masks and the business closed.
"Yes, but look at this. That's you, Daddy." She said flipping a few pages.
Alex blinked hard at seeing his younger self in the color picture. He was standing just outside of the motel. At the road block with another deputy. Norma's house looming over his left shoulder in the distance.
"Sheriff Alex Romero stands guard at the entrance to White Pine Bay, Oregon." Alex read. "White Pine Bay was one of several small communities on the west cost who chose to quarantine the town to keep the virus from spreading to their vulnerable population."
"Everyone in school was really excited to see you." Lulu said.
Alex examined the textbook more carefully. His story now apart of required reading in history felt like a strange honor.
"My teacher wants to know if you would come and talk to us about the pandemic. Why you chose to quarantine the town." Lulu said pulling out the rest of her books from a pink backpack. She would forever love pink.
"It wasn't just my decision." He said. "The city council-" he could tell Lulu wasn't listening. Young people never did.
"Was it really as bad as our teacher was saying? I mean, we saw the mass grave. It's close to where mom and Norman are buried." She asked.
Alex flinched at the name. He'd forgotten that Lulu was curious about her long lost brother.
"It was very bad, honey, yes." Alex said.
"Was mom scared?" Lulu asked. Her face growing concerned and looking too much like Norma.
"She…" Alex smiled. "She canned a lot of food. She was smart that way. We never went hungry. Not really."
"You married mom during the pandemic." Lulu encouraged.
Alex nodded.
"I'd been staying at the motel then. I'd had a house fire at my old place." He said.
"A fire?" Lulu asked.
"It's not a big deal. I just started staying in one of the rooms and then, when the pandemic started getting worse, and people started to flood in, your mother had me move here in the house with her." He explained with a shrug.
His daughter looked like the whole story was so romantic, when in reality, those days were cold and scary.
"Lot of bad people trying to get into the town back then, Lulu." He explained.
"All those people dying." She said sadly.
"Well, it was." Alex agreed. "But if it had't been for the pandemic and the quarantine, we wouldn't have gotten married and had you."
She smiled.
"I mean there was nothing else to do." He shrugged with a teasing smile.
"Dad!" Lulu snapped and looked at him in disgust.
"Everything was closed and you can only watch TV so long." He said quickly. "Your mother and I got bored easily."
"Dad!" She shouted in annoyance.
"I'll be sure to tell the class all about it." He called after her.