Chapter 23: Koch's Folly
November 9, 2018
The noon-day sun streamed in through the windows of Chloe Price's bedroom. Chloe's eyes fluttered open. She stretched out her arm and reached to the other side of the bed. Her arm hit nothing but fleece sheets.
Max was gone.
November 8, 2018
After Denise changed into a pair of khakis and a blue polo shirt (that clung to her, the same way everything else she wore did), Denise, Chloe, Max, and Rutger traversed the length of the house before coming to a small cellar at the rear of the mansion that had a keypad to open the door. Denise punched in the number and opened it.
Inside was Jennifer Healy. She was thinner than her picture, and had dark circles under her eyes. She backed into the corner of the small brick room, near the ratty twin bed that she must have slept on.
"It's okay," Max said. "We're here to rescue you. You're going home."
Jennifer blinked vacantly at Max before she crumpled into a ball on the floor and started sobbing. Max, bless her heart, walked immediately over to Jennifer and knelt down, careful not to touch her. Chloe hung back with Denise and Rutger, ready to clock either one of them if they made any false moves.
"It's alright," Max said.
Jennifer rubbed tears out of her eyes. "If I didn't save Troy," she said, "none of this would have happened."
"Hey," Max said. "You saved someone you loved. It hurts sometimes, and you can't always know the price you'll pay for doing it. But it's what a good person does." Max looked at Chloe. "Trust me, I know."
Chloe looked at Jennifer and, just like the day at Big Bob's Storage, she thought she saw Rachel's face for a second.
And that was okay.
She would never be okay with the fact that Rachel died the way she did, or that she was taken so soon, but… the world was just "The World," now. Not "The World Minus Rachel." Chloe felt a breezy openness inside her, as though a long-nagging injury had finally abated after years of pain.
For the first time in her life, Chloe Price felt like an adult, and not just someone to whom adult shit kept happening.
The five of them were outside when the FBI came, along with an ABPD envoy. Apparently Juliet Watson of the Arcadia Bay Beacon had a police scanner in her car, and she was among their number as well.
As had been agreed upon, Denise turned over Jennifer to the FBI agent in charge, one Agent Carl Hadley. Denise Leonard was immediately taken into custody. She confessed, leaving out all the time travel bits, of course. In the coming months, Chloe would follow Denise's trial. Denise had a high-powered legal team, but they were unable to plea any of the charges down. No matter how the lawyers raved and brought up the fact that she cooperated with federal and local law enforcement, Denise Leonard was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences on multiple charges. Curiously enough, Denise never did cancel payment on the check she had written that night. Chloe figured Denise must have liked her after all.
Agent Hadley had some words for Chloe as well.
"In any other circumstance, Miss Price, I'd have you arrested for getting one of our informants killed, and receive a thank-you letter from the Attorney General for doing so… But you happened to give us a bigger whale with an even bigger operation, and solved three murders and a kidnapping while you did it. The optics on busting you would be horrible. You're free to go… But if you ever make an appearance in one of my investigations again, I will drop such a comical amount of shit on the top of your head that you'll wish your mom had had her tubes tied before she ever met your dad."
And then he walked off.
After she had told Juliet her story, and had gotten teary thank yous from Mister and Missus Healy, who had been summoned to the scene, Chloe scanned the faces of the people assembled in Denise's driveway. The local cops, whenever she looked at them, gave her a look of utmost loathing. The ABPD was full of dirty cops, and Chloe had gotten rid of the two people paying them. Life in this town was going to get more and more complicated the longer she stayed. Chloe realized that there was no longer a place in Arcadia Bay for her.
She saw Max step away from Juliet after they had caught up on old times. The two of them went to each other.
"So," Max said, "in one day, you broke up two separate drug rings, solved three murders and a kidnapping."
"And I got the killer to pay me to do it," Chloe said. "Don't forget that."
"And you couldn't have told me about all this earlier today when you figured it out?"
"I could have," Chloe said, "but I was trying to impress my girlfriend."
"Ohhhhh," Max said. "I see."
Chloe smiled. "Did it work?"
Max kissed her, and made it count. When their lips broke contact, her mouth moved to Chloe's ear, and began whispering.
"Say it, Chloe," Max whispered. "Tell me the one thing you've wanted to tell yourself, and mean it. Because I can't say it for you, no matter how many times I've tried."
Chloe knew what Max wanted her to say, and on any other day, in any other timeline, she wouldn't have been able to without damning herself for a liar. But tonight was a night of realized potential and exorcised ghosts. The very fabric of time and space had contorted to give Chloe and Max this moment. This was the future the two of them had made.
Chloe looked Max in the eye.
"Max… I deserve you."
Max beamed at Chloe, all emotion in her smile and no thought.
"You're Goddamn right," Max said. "Do I deserve you?"
"Well," Chloe said, "let's not get carried away."
Max lightly kicked Chloe in the shin.
"Dick."
"Of course you do," Chloe said. "In the past week, I've been up to my ass in kidnapping, murder, drugs, and just some shitty people. Now I'm at the end of it with you, and… I can't help thinking that the world might just be a decent place after all."
Max smiled and took Chloe's hand.
"Shall we?" Max asked.
"Let's."
Max put Chloe's arm over her shoulder and put her own hand in the back pocket of Chloe's jeans as they walked to The Beast.
They went to Chloe's apartment, as opposed to the hotel. But even though Chloe's bedroom door shut at a quarter after one AM, the two women didn't get to sleep until… oh… let's say five-ish.
November 9, 2018
After she had deposited Denise's check, Chloe swung around to the Two Whales.
No Max. She knew Chloe lost her phone, right?
She stopped at a booth at sat down. Vivian, world-noted practitioner on the stink-eye, brought her a cup of coffee.
Chloe went bareheaded today, as she wasn't feeling up to the beanie. It was chilly outside, but Chloe toughed it out with a long-sleeve shirt underneath a navy blue sweatshirt that hung off of her. And thank Christ the bag of clothes she brought to the hotel had one pair of jeans that didn't have any holes in them.
Chloe had gotten caught up in the darkness of her coffee, wondering when Max would pop up and announce herself, when Joyce plopped down in the seat opposite her.
"What's this I hear about you getting arrested?" Joyce asked.
Chloe could only blink. "That was a week ago. No 'Nice hair, Chloe,' no 'What's with the cut under your eye?' Just… that."
"Don't change the subject, Chloe."
"They released me because they didn't have anything on me," Chloe said, "and they didn't have anything on me because I didn't do anything."
Joyce squinted at Chloe, as though she didn't believe her.
"Did you check this morning's newspaper instead of one of the ones from last week? I've been busy. I've been solving murders and kidnappings like they're going out of style."
Joyce sighed. "Chloe, this is why I have…"
Almost as if on cue, a voice from near the entrance of the diner yelled "Chloe!"
Chloe turned around in her seat. It was Dalton Folger, the one who put her on the case to begin with, clutching a newspaper.
"You're in the newspaper!" Dalton said.
"Can my mom borrow it for a minute?"
She could. Chloe got a refill on her coffee while Joyce read through Juliet Watson's article on the front page.
"It says here that the mayor wants to 'publicly recognize Chloe Price for her contributions to the safety and welfare of the citizens of Arcadia Bay.'"
Chloe's coffee cup froze halfway to her lips. "Arcadia Bay has a mayor?"
Joyce looked at Chloe, but didn't say anything.
"You can say it," Chloe said.
"I apologize."
"Thank you."
"So where's Max?"
Chloe shifted in her seat. "I, uh… I don't really know."
Joyce gave Chloe the side-eye. "What did you do?"
"And we were doing so well," Chloe said. "I didn't do anything. She just… kinda… disappeared this morning."
A lull in the conversation.
"You know," Joyce said. "I only ever gave you a hard time about Max because I thought she was your best shot at being happy."
"And not because she got me out of the house?"
"I can like Max for more than one thing."
Chloe smiled.
"You either get something dumped on top of you," Joyce said, "or you go looking for something to get dumped on top of you. No one wants to see their daughter struggle like that."
Chloe took a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say to that.
"It might have taken me too long to figure this one out," Chloe said, "but I might not have been the easiest kid to raise."
Joyce tilted her head. "Want to know a secret?"
"Sure," Chloe said.
Joyce leaned in. "It wasn't all bad with you."
Chloe actually laughed at this. "That's a hell of a qualifier. That's like they're telling someone they're 'kind of attractive.'"
"I'm serious," Joyce said. "You may have been a rampaging little shit, but I could tell that no one was gonna walk all over you. I'll take that over a little angel who only does what they're told."
Chloe rolled that one over in her head. "That's… actually kinda sweet."
"I try," Joyce said.
It was at this point that Vivian came back to the table, carrying a brown box about the size of a computer printer. She put it down on the table between them.
"This came for you," Vivian said to Chloe. "Stop having shit delivered to the diner."
"I love you too, Vivian."
Vivian grimaced at Chloe before turning toe and walking away. Chloe looked back at Joyce.
"She told me to tell you that she deserves a raise, by the way."
Joyce was looking at the box. "There's a note attached."
Chloe looked at the box and saw an envelope taped to the lid. She took the envelope, opened it, and liberated the letter contained within.
The note was only four words long.
"Come find me, detective."
It was signed with a smiley face whose smile was a flat line and whose eyes were too far apart.
Chloe took the lid off of the box and looked inside… and promptly started laughing.
Joyce took a look inside the box as well, before looking at Chloe with puzzlement.
"Is that for you?"
Chloe had begun to stop laughing. "Yup."
"Is it from Max?"
"Yes it is."
Joyce looked from Chloe, to the box, and back again. "Does she know your size?"
"That's the thing about Max," Chloe said. "She knows everything."
It was not hard for Chloe to find Max. She was in her favorite spot, after all.
On the cliff at Koch's Folly, in the shadow of the lighthouse, Max stood looking out over the water. The sky was turning just the right shade of gray: light enough to be pretty, but not dark enough to be threatening.
"Hey," Chloe said.
Max turned around and smiled broadly.
Chloe was wearing Max's present.
The present was a dark brown fedora with a wide brim. She wore the back of the brim flipped up and the front flipped down. It was back on her head, not like Bogart wore it, but like an old-timey news reporter. One stringy lock of blue hair came down under the hat and over Chloe's left eye.
"It's nice to know you don't think the hat is too douchebaggy," Max said.
"If you just said 'Indiana Jones hat,'" Chloe said, "I'd have been on board with the idea."
"I like it."
"Me too," Chloe said. "I need a coat to go with it, but yeah, it works for me. Thank you."
Max did an exaggerated curtsy, and Chloe smiled. They both looked out over the water for a bit.
"So Jennifer Healy has rewind powers," Chloe said. "What are the chances of her starting up a storm?"
"Not high," Max said. "I think that she knows she can jump through photos, but not that she can rewind time for a few seconds a pop. Not to mention that her parents are moving the family out of Arcadia Bay, and given how specific The Myth of the Traveler is, I think her powers will stop working once she leaves town."
"If you'd known that five years ago, would you have done anything differently?"
"No," Max said. "Absolutely not."
Chloe smiled. "Y'know, I think there are online classes I can take. Get a license to be a private investigator. It's not how I thought my life would turn out, but I'm good at it, apparently."
"You know it's mostly following cheating husbands, right?"
"Good," Chloe said. "I'm not jumping off of any more cliffs if I can help it."
Max looked into Chloe's eyes. "Now what?"
"What do you mean 'Now what?'"
"I mean now what between us," Max said.
"Oh," Chloe said. "I'm staying in Arcadia Bay until after Thanksgiving, then I'm moving back to Seattle with you… If you'll have me."
"Well," Max said, "my parents are doing Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Caulfield's this year, and they're, like, really racist, so can I crash at your place and you, me and Joyce can do Turkey Day together?"
"That," Chloe said, "is a very good idea."
"Your bed's really cozy."
"Isn't it, though?"
Chloe looked into Max's eyes. She was happy to see her. She was dying a slow death from small-talk.
"Before we go any further," Chloe said, "there's a promise I've been meaning to make you."
"What's that?"
Chloe walked up and took Max's hands in hers.
"I promise you," Chloe said, "that this is the last time you will ever meet me for the first time. No more breaks. No more starting over. No more looking back. No more regretting what could have happened. I want to look forward to what can happen... That's how much I love you."
Max blinked a couple of times, and then tried to play off how overwhelmed she was. "You're mushy," she said.
"I can afford to be."
"And I love you too."
Max looked out over the water again. "Remember when we were kids? We used to come up here, play around, and tell each other we were going to take over the world."
"It's been ten years," Chloe said. "We best get crackin'."
In the shadow of the lighthouse at Koch's Folly, The Great Punk Detective kissed The Girl Who Broke the World. Neither of them knew how long this kiss was, but both of them would have said it wasn't long enough.
And above them, in the rapidly graying Oregon sky, autumn's first snow began to fall.
THE END
