January
White Pine Bay had been hit with a storm the 2nd week of the new year and snow has piled up on the roadways and the houses including freezing some of the lakes. The storm didn't stop the townspeople from going into town and doing what business they had to do and then retreating back to their warm homes.
The Sheriff was on duty as they had been getting a lot of calls on collapsing trees, cars that were stuck on icy roads, and how some guy in the bar was drinking too much and scaring other patrons. He sighed as he didn't see a reason for his other officers to always call him for misdemeanors or stuff that they could handle without him. At times like these he felt like going back into the Marines and especially after the phone call he got from Bob on Christmas.
"You know what you have to do." Bob had told him.
He was behind the wheel of his SUV and was trying to push the thought out of his mind, he knew that something needed to be done, but he didn't want to kill anyone. He didn't like being a crooked cop, he wasn't but some of the things he did would apply him for one.
He remembered George, he was a tall handsome man, he was one of those people from the wealthy side of White Pine Bay, that stuck closer to successful people than the normal small business owners. They mostly kept to themselves, but that night George had murdered a prostitute and left her for someone to find. He remembered the man who had kept pressuring him into sleeping with one of the prostitutes Bob had scattered around that night, but he'd declined and left. Did he want to frame him?
He drove into the Village after receiving a call on some owner who needed help getting his sign up, it had fallen apparently and the first thing you do is call the police. It wasn't that big of a sign, but it was pretty heavy and not many people were outside due to the harsh weather blowing in, it had stopped snowing which was good, but it was just windy, cold wind.
"You need some help." Alex was friendly as he walked to the husky business owner who shook his hand and thanked him for coming over.
"Yeah, I don't know it fell and I don't want anyone getting hurt from the broken wires, so if we could just put it inside, in the back." The husky man said as he and Alex got on each end and hauled it into the shop and dropped it in the open storage room.
"Thanks Sheriff, here for your troubles." He handed Alex a gift basket which Alex winced at slightly, the holidays were just a time to gain weight, he'd eaten so much he needed to head back to the gym or do some marine drills. He thanked him though and took the cute basket and headed back to his car when he spotted a familiar blonde woman with short curls. She was shivering as she was walking back to her car from the market.
Norma stood putting her tote bags filled with groceries in her trunk, she made sure to stock up enough so she wouldn't have to go back into town until next week when she would go have a new year check up with her doctor.
"Norma." She turned around to see Alex in his SUV, she had missed the black and white car when it would sit in front of the motel. She smiled up at him with her teeth chattering, she had on a big coat and a thick scarf and furry beanie. Her cheeks were flushed red from the cold air, he could barely see her face as the scarf was obscuring most of it.
"Hey, Alex. What's up?" She said putting the last bag in as she huffed from exasperation, she was tired from trying to stay warm and then putting the heavy bags of groceries in. She would have sent Norman or Dylan, but they wouldn't know what to get and they'd probably come back with something that wasn't even remotely food.
"Nothing, just thought I'd say hi." He said with a little wave.
"Do you want something?" She said noticing his tone sounded similar to when she went into his office asking if he could help her get a seat on the council which he rudely declined and threatened her to never ask him again.
"To say hi." He said before driving off leaving her there with her mouth open in question, she just shook her head and went back to slamming her trunk shut before driving home. Alex had been acting too casual around her, he would say and do things she wasn't used to and she wondered what he wanted. Maybe the new year got to him. New year, new him type of thing? Or maybe his re-election was coming up and he wanted to have a good social standing with her so she could vote for him since they would get into disagreements often like on Christmas when she invited him over and he said flat no. She yelled at him on the phone and hadn't talked to him for days, but there he stood saying hi to her as if nothing had happened.
"What a weirdo." She said as she drove down the road when a certain smell whiffed passed her window, since she had her side window down cause the car was getting too steamy and hot. She felt herself hurl, she didn't know why, but it'd made her sick and she pulled to the side of the road and got off her car and threw up her breakfast. All of it.
"Ah. uh…Ugh…" She moaned in pain as she was on her knees as more of her breakfast poured out of her and on the snow.
"This is what I get for eating that bacon a day overdue." She said as she got back in the car after wiping her mouth. She shut the door and started the car when another whiff of nausea came over her and she quickly opened the door, but it was too late and she threw up on herself.
"Good God." She groaned as she looked to her lap.
The Police Station was slow, there were a few people seated in the waiting room, the receptionist sat on her phone going through social media, the officer behind her clicked through files on the computer in front of him before looking to the papers below him and then back to the screen. A few officers moved around behind them casually, there was no hurry other than the storm raging outside and a message had broadcasted through the town that citizen should remain indoors to the violent nature of the weather and a few injuries that had landed a few people in the White Pine Bay hospital.
In the Sheriff's Office stood the Sheriff of White Pine Bay, Alexander Romero, he was seated at his desk, work had been slow and he stared out of the two large windows to the left of him, he watched the outside storm rage through his dark long lashes as he held a finger to his lip in thought. He looked as the trees bended due to the strength the wind brought on, he looked at the snow that had turned into tiny balls of hail and were crackling onto the cement outside, he could hear the little sounds they made onto the concrete.
He sat with his legs apart under his desk, his hand left was clicking away at a file that sat in front of him with his name on it, his fingers made a typing motion across the blue file folder with several documents inside which Bob had addressed to him. He looked from the window to the folder, he read over his name before he adjusted himself in his seat and sat forward as he opened the file and read the first document. There was a picture of George Helden, he was a Caucasian male, he held a kind smile and calm dark eyes, he was a handsome man with a background that wouldn't raise an eyebrow. He was wealthy and successful. He blinked over minor details as he flipped through the many papers on his life before he came upon the receipts of every prostitute ordered that night at the Arcanum Club, his eyes scanned each of the names and then the room numbers they were assigned to.
The room Alex had gone into sleep was Room 4, but on the receipt Room 4 had been vacant and any person or persons there were not identified or accounted for. He looked to Room 13 which held the dead prostitutes name, he found her file which he had built at the station after he and other officers gathered information on who she was and how she may have died. She had been assigned to Room 13, her suitor had never arrived, but another man had arrived instead by the name of George Heldens who had been identified by a butler.
He read through the evidence which Bob had accounted for him of the room, fingerprints, hair particles, sweat particles, and the weapon which was a Christmas lights wire. The death had been quick and unexpected by the autopsy report, he looked to both George and the prostitutes file, but none of them had ever met, but only that night. He looked at the other pieces of evidence on the Colombian drug they had found in Alex, he looked at the background and nature, but his eyes glanced at a sister drug which had been also on George that night which he received from another party attendant. He looked at the name…
Rebecca Hamilton
"That fuckin bitch…" He whispered as he held the paper to his face and he grabbed his office phone from the receiver and called Bob who answered with a giggle.
"Hello."
"Listen, if you know Rebecca was behind this why haven't you done anything?" He asked harshly to Bob who didn't seem at all fazed by Alex's tone of voice.
"Well, she didn't murder anyone so I don't see what I need to do." Bob said with a chuckle and Alex clasped his free hand into a fist, he looked at the door which was closed.
"She has enough information that can send you to prison for a long time." He said and he didn't hear Bob speak for a while until he heard him clear his throat.
"She's been laundering money for me, I don't think she's stupid enough to try and double cross me." Bob said.
"Well, jealousy can make a lot of people do a lot of crazy things including murder and telling a lot of awful secrets to the wrong people." Alex said sarcastically as Bob sighed over the phone.
"Here's what I'll do, I'll make sure she doesn't say anything and in return you take care of George Heldens." He said already knowing Alex was going to find some way out of having to kill someone, he usually did.
"Bob…" Alex said looking to his door which was still closed.
"Bye." Bob hung up and Alex took the phone from his ear and looked at it for a moment before placing it back on the receiver and staring at it. He sat in his chair in deep thought, he wasn't his father, but yet he was becoming him with each passing day. Each case he would sweep under the rug, every deal he would make, and turn he would make from crime. It made him sick and he got up from his desk, he grabbed his leather jacket and a short scarf, he grabbed his keys and opened the door and turned off the lights to his office.
He slowly walked through the halls in the station, he greeted his fellow officers, he bit down on his jaw as he could hear his on heart beating with each passing moment. He went out the back door and the wind immediately met his face with each thrust, his shielded his face and made haste to his SUV. He opened the glove compartment and found his silencer, he took his handgun from his holster and switched out the guns. He turned on the SUV and pulled out from the police station, he looked to the time on the dashboard.
8:16 p.m.
He closed his eyes for a moment and calmed his breathing as he turned his car into drive and went on the highway, he kept his mind on the task. He drove calmly through the storm and he felt warm in his car from the interior heater.
George Helden's was going to be a hard person to arrest and if Alex even tried then it would bring to light all the illegality that he as Sheriff has done and Alex couldn't have that. When he became Sheriff, he didn't do it cause his father was the previous before him, he did so that he could be better. To be someone people could trust and if his activities would ever surface, he didn't know what he would do.
He felt that this was the only way.
"Hey mom, how are you feeling? I bought you some medicine." Norman said as he entered his mother's room in his matching pajamas, his mother was lying on her side asleep.
"Mother?" He questioned as he set the bottle down on the bedside table beside her, she hadn't been downstairs in all day only to eat an apple or something light. He had to watch the motel the pass few days which he didn't seem to mind, but he was worried about his mom's health.
"Norman…" She answered sleepily as she slowly woke up with drool falling out of her mouth, Norman noticed the large amount she had secreted onto her pillow. He watched as she slowly opened up her eyes revealing the blue to the lamps warm light. She looked at the clock beside her and she sighed and shook her head.
"How long have I been asleep?" She asked him as she slowly sat up.
"For a few hours, you should go see a doctor." He said as she waved her hand at the mention of the doctor and wore a sleepy smile.
"The roads are closed cause the weather is too dangerous, it'll pass, honey." She said with a tired smile and caressed his cheek with her hands and he smiled.
"Okay, mother." He said.
She grabbed her phone from her night stand and Norman made his exit from the room to go to his room and go to sleep. She examined the voicemail she had received from Annika and Alex, she listened to Annika's first.
[Norma I'll be back in White Pine Bay on Saturday, we can meet at the Motel and I'll tell you everything you need to know. Wait for me and stay away from town, there are people after you]
Norma didn't like the sound of her message and it made her nervous, she tried to not get too paranoid, but now she had freaked herself out and was looking at her door and all around her room. She was alone, she clutched on her covers before clicking Alex's message.
[Norma stay away from Rebecca Hamilton and George Helden's, if you see them in town or anywhere near by, I need you to call me or the police. Don't go near town. I'll take care of it. Just trust me]
She had received two messages that had deeply disturbed her, she felt slightly relieved at Alex's message since he seemed genuinely concerned about her wellbeing, but Annika's and his mention of people trying to hurt her did not sit well and she didn't want to spend all day cooked up in the house because some people wanted her dead.
George? She had completely forgotten about him, she hadn't even spoke to him in what seemed like year.
*PINT*
The gun squeaked as the bullet passed through the silencer and into the head of Bob Paris who fell sideways into the deep ocean. He had been standing looking out into the deep dark ocean telling Alex of how they should become partners and all the things they have done to develop the town's future. Through drug money and lies.
"Like Father, Like Son." Bob had said turning to Alex who shot him, it was what he should have done a long time ago, instead he thought he could handle it. He thought he could handle all of it, but in reality, it was growing too large, it had become something that wasn't what it was when he'd agreed to it. He had lied to himself that he wasn't his father, but instead he was becoming him, accepting bribes and lies. He'd grown tired of the lies and the dirty crimes.
With one bullet, he ended it all.
He watched Bobs surprise and he saw his body hit the water with a large splash, he felt no remorse or sympathy, he puffed out cold smoky air as he threw the gun in the deep ocean and he sank the boat before getting on a small motor boat and speeding back to shore in the dead of night.
He saw no one, he kept his head down and his cold murderous hands in his pockets, he looked up to see his car covered in small white pieces of snow. He opened the door and drove home where he'd immediately been slammed against his front door by a DEA officer, he hadn't even seen them and he turned to look at them with hard eyes.
"What's the meaning of this?" He questioned calmly as one held his hands behind his back and a woman showed up with her hands on her hips.
"You're under arrest for Perjury." She said folding her arms over her chest and he smiled at her through the cold night air.
"You can't prove that." He said shaking his head and locking his gaze with her's.
"It's something. Take him." She ordered the other officers and Alex had been cuffed and sat inside the black SUV where his rights were read to him and the crime he was being held for. They had no idea of the murder he'd just committed or any other before that, none of his crooked activities as Sheriff, but they were holding him on Perjury.
Rebecca
He thought as he bit down on his jaw hard, he looked around outside and he'd spotted her, she was covered up, but he'd noticed her red lips turned upward in a vengeful smile and a red glove waving to him. He shook his head and cursed her in Spanish under his breath as he felt the car take off in motion and the stiffness of his hands bound together by silver.
"You're a tough guy to bring down and even with perjury you'll still walk with all the other crimes you've done." He heard an officer who sat in the front seat say and Alex shook his head, they were giving him 5 years in the state penitentiary, that wasn't as long as what he should really be getting. He should be getting life like his father.
He blinked as he turned to the window to his left and he could see the blue letters, he saw them vibrant and bright as they blinked awake, it read BATES MOTEL and he looked to the red letters that read VACANCY. He looked up to the house in those brief moments that the car drove by, he could see the motel and the house covered in snow, he saw Dylan and Norma's cars parked in the front. He looked up the stairs and then all that was in front of him vanished into the thick trees and the snow that covered the road and forest.
He looked back in front of him and he sat thinking how he was going to get out of this. Norma was in trouble and there was no way he would be able to do anything to stop whatever danger was coming to her…from happening.
"Fuck." He said and the officer to his right responded.
"Yeah, that's what I would be saying in your position."
"Fuck." He answered.
I'm finally going in the direction I wanted to go to in the beginning, but I'm a slow burn type of person, so it seems like no Normero action is happening, but it will...slowly.
Rebecca and George arc is gonna come to an end soon, too. I know I hate both of those fuckers. LOL :(
Thanks for your reviews. Don't worry shy readers, I will continue to still write and finish the story.
Next Chapter: A Big Surprise