23.

Even though Avery told him a hundred times she was fine to be home alone, Mark refused to leave her to go look for Leah. She could tell he was worried. He tried Leah's cell phone repeatedly, getting the same robotic voice mail each time. She regretted bringing it up, only because it ruined the mood Mark had been trying to set earlier. But he was juggling way too much and taking too much on himself.

Avery finally talked him into bed. She fell asleep before he did. She was aware of him tossing and turning, and he got up a few dozen times. It made for a restless night for both of them.

When Avery got up it was just past six. Mark wasn't in bed anymore. Apparently she'd fallen into a deep enough sleep that she didn't notice him get up. She found him downstairs in the kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee.

"Go." Avery told him for what felt like the millionth time.

"I'm not leaving you alone." On that he wouldn't be budged. He'd been saying it all night.

His cell phone rang, saving Avery from having to renew the argument they'd had through the night. She went toward the coffee pot as he picked it up.

"Yeah? Where the fuck are you?" The relief in his voice was unmistakable. Avery turned to watch him as he frowned deeply. "Well no shit. Nobody could get in touch with you. " He was quiet, the frown not budging. "Get over here." With that he hung up.

"She's Ok?" Avery asked, feeling relief. She barely knew the woman but she already knew Mark's attachment to her.

"Yeah. Runnin' around, playin' dumb tourist." He pushed his phone away, frustrated. "This town is gettin' to me, Avery. Too damn many shadows to jump at." Mark heaved a sigh and rested his head in his hands.

"You're doing too much." She said softly. Avery went to him and rubbed his shoulders, feeling how tense he was. "Go to bed. Get some sleep."

"Come with me." Mark groped for her hand and squeezed her fingers.

"Nah. I'll wait for Leah. You need to get some rest. Real rest. If she's all right, then whatever she was doing can wait for later." He reluctantly agreed. Avery watched him climb the stairs slowly before heading to the kitchen to finish her coffee.

Leah showed up 20 minutes later. "Sorry if you guys were worried." She said as Avery let her into the house. She had a serious look on her face. "Mark usually isn't such an alarmist."

"I think the circumstances are getting to him." Avery said. "Coffee?"

"Sure." Leah was carrying a backpack with her. "I haven't gone back to the motel. The vibe is weird there."

"The vibe is weird everywhere around here lately." Avery agreed. "Breakfast?"

"Sure. Where's Mark?"

"I made him go to bed. He didn't sleep last night." Avery dug through the fridge and pulled out bacon and eggs.

"Surely not on my account." Leah said with a laugh.

Avery went through their adventures with the local police. "So maybe it's not entirely because you disappeared. I think maybe he's got too much to worry about. Meaning me."

"Oh honey. He's needed to worry about you for a long time." Leah grinned at her. "Me, not so much. I spent most of the night following the sheriff around."

"You what?" Avery wasn't sure she'd heard right.

"Yeah. He must be a night owl. He didn't go home until almost 4 this morning. I lost track of him for about an hour, outside of town. He was just cruising though."

"Were you hoping to catch him in the act?" Avery asked. "Because he was really mad when we left the station last night. Things didn't go his way."

"Guy reminds me of a shark." Leah observed quietly. "At any rate, the fire marshall is out of town. Vacation. He left yesterday morning, which is a bit convenient."

"There's a lot of that going around."

"You're telling me." Leah sipped at her coffee.

"Was there a deputy parked outside?" Avery hadn't bothered to look.

Leah frowned. "Not that I saw. Why?"

"Because they saw fit to put a tail on me for a couple of days." Avery shook her head. "You both should just stay here until this is done. Who cares if they figure out who you are? They probably already know."

"I'm for it. Like I said, that motel was giving me the creeps this morning. But I do need to go get our stuff..."

"Not right now you don't." Avery eyed the other woman. "You really shouldn't go anywhere by yourself if you get a weird vibe. Town seems to be full of them lately. I always used to think this was the safest, most boring place on earth."

"For you, it might have been." Leah said. "You're a local. Locals are pretty off limits. With exceptions here and there. That Williams guy and his wives. Some of them were local."

Avery said nothing to that, because it was true. All of that had been happening right under their noses and noone had said a word.

It was nearly an hour later; Avery offered Leah the use of Emily's room for a nap. That left her to roam the first floor. She should be taking a nap as well since both of her visitors were sleeping deeply. But Avery wasn't used to taking naps. So she wrote a note for Mark in case he woke up before she got back, and headed to the school.

The custodial staff was working, stripping and waxing the floors in the cafeteria. Avery settled in her office and turned on her computer, She could have researched things at home, Emily had a computer in her bedroom. But she wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for. And she didn't want Mark breathing down her neck.

The sad thing was how obvious the town's problems were if someone were to pay attention. Their little town consistently made lists for it's low crime rate. Even with a few rowdy bars on the outskirts, the number of felony crimes was ridiculously low.

On the other hand, the number of accidents, accidental deaths, and suicides was through the roof. She found that out through police databases that were public record.

There were a ridiculous number of car accidents especially. Vehicular collisions, according to police reports. Vehicular collisions with fatalities. And yet Avery could not recall in recent memory ever getting stuck in traffic or seeing anything about car accidents.

She closed out of the databases and stared thoughtfully out the window. No deputy in the parking lot that day. Apparently the sheriff had taken her at her word. She had no idea why she had researched anything. It only made her feel worse. Desperate somehow. And violated for some reason. This place that she had loved enough to talk her then-husband into moving to, that she had seen fit to raise her daughter, was rotten at it's core.

Maybe not exactly rotten. But there was definitely a worm eating away at the center. It made sense – when every town around them seemed to grow and thrive, theirs had stayed the same sleepy, low key place it had always been. And that was probably exactly how the sheriff wanted it to stay.

The even scarier thought was how deep the cover up went. How many were involved? Could it just be Walls that was killing all of the people who had been found outside of town?

She realized who she needed to talk to. And she really did not want to talk to him. But Avery knew that Mark would never approach the man he was sure had killed his mother. Maybe because he'd be tempted to strangle him with his bare hands.

She shut down her computer and locked up. It was nearing lunch time but she'd never felt less hungry in her life. Avery debated going back and calling Mark to check in but decided against it. If he was still sleeping, she didn't want to wake him. And she really didn't want to tell him what she planned to do.

The hospital was only a hospital by a really good stretch of the word. Clinic was a better word. The building was not quite as big as the elementary school, and the entire left side was housed by private practice types who found operating within the hospital was more cost effective. That meant that the ER was tiny, and the wards were small. Any major trauma was usually transported to the next county.

It wasn't hard to find Williams's room. It was the only one in the adult wing with a chart hanging on the door. The nurse's station was deserted; they did not always stay in one particular place. Sometimes they got called to the ER or to the pediatric ward.

The door was open just a crack. Avery eased it open and noted that the room was empty. The bed was made. The bathroom door stood wide open, showing an empty room on that side as well. She frowned and looked at the chart on the door. The paperwork was blank. There wasn't even a name on the front.

It didn't mean anything, of course. He could be somewhere else. Of course the place was so small Avery probably could have giving a good 'Marco' and gotten a 'Polo' back as an answer. She didn't try that though. It was entirely possible that the gunshot wound meant a trip to the bigger hospital. Still puzzing it out, she went back to her car. She should head home. But she didn't. She went the other way instead, out toward the lake. The big lake. She wanted to stop by and see her dad. She hadn't seen him since the day of the funeral and it wasn't like him to keep to himself for so long.

Predictably she found Ted out on the back deck, reading. Suzanne always accused him of having his nose stuck in a book, and now that he was retired he made it his life mission to do just that. It made her smile. He glanced up and grinned when he spotted her.

"Hey, sweetheart." Ted set the book aside and got up to hug Avery tight. "Enjoying your vacation?"

"Ha. Yes." Avery kissed his cheek and took the empty lounge chair next to his.

"Lemonade? Tea?"

Avery waved that off. "No thanks. Just thought I'd swing by and see how you are. Joe get home all right? You know he never tells me when he comes and goes."

"Yes. Left Monday. It was nice, having him rattling around the house." The underlying tone of his voice made Avery feel horrible.

"It must be pretty quiet without Mom." She said softly.

"Too quiet. Never thought I'd miss the constant nitpicking." Ted smiled sadly. "You probably won't understand it, but that's what attracted me to her. That perfectionist streak. Even back in junior high, she had to have everything just so. These days you'd say she was OCD. But back then I needed that kind of structure."

Avery smiled back at him. As much as her mother tore her down, she understood it wasn't because her mother was being malicious. It was just how she was. Avery had never met her maternal grandmother, and was almost relieved because from what she'd heard, Grandma had been even worse than Mom. She was glad she'd managed to avoid that particular familial trait.

"I've heard that you've had quite the blast from the past lately." Ted said after a few minutes of companionable quiet.

"News travels fast." Avery said with a shrug.

"Small town." Ted reminded her. "How's it going?"

"It's...complicated."

"Rekindling old flames usually is." Ted said with a raised eyebrow. "I can only imagine your mother's reaction to the news."

Avery couldn't help it. She snorted out a laugh. "Would it matter that he's got a perfectly respecatable job now?"

"Not in a million years." Ted lifted his glass of lemonade and lifted it slightly toward the lake that was visible through the trees. Saluting his wife, the smile still curling his lips and bringin gout his dimple. "She was one in a million."

"Two million." Avery agreed.

"You sure I can't get you a drink? Some lunch? I guess it's about that time."

"Lunch would be great. I didn't eat much this morning." Avery got up and followed her dad into his house, determined to spend a day doing normal. It seemed like she hadn't had nearly enough of that lately.