by E H Night
She looked at Detective Darrow and shrugged. “Well, that’s that, I guess.”
“Did you hear what you wanted?” he asked, knowing that she wasn’t satisfied.
She paused and stared off at the bottles of liquor for a moment. “I really don’t know.”
“How about we get out of here and go back to my place then. I can show you some of the things I’ve been trying to piece together about the case. Maybe some fresh eyes could help.”
“Really? You can show me those things?”
“No, not really. Just don’t tell anyone. Besides, some company would be a nice change.”
“Well, what are we doing still wasting time in here then? Let’s go!” she said with eagerness in her voice.
They stood up from their seats and left a few more bills for Kirt. He nodded from across the room and waved. Just as the pair was nearing the door to leave, Benji walked inside, and bumped into Alice. He recognized her and smiled, but then noticed Detective Darrow at her side. His expression changed to a scowl, and he passed by them quickly, suddenly acting as if they didn’t even exist.
◆
Detective Darrow’s house was clean and organized, with very little decoration on the walls or tables. The lack of personal touch is what actually somehow ended up personalizing it just for him. It seemed fitting.
“Alright, you can sit here, and I’ll bring a few things out from my office.” He nodded over to a small table and chairs that were nestled beside the dining room window. “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, motioning his hand to the kitchen.
“A drink would be nice, actually,” she responded. “What do you have?”
“Well, there’s soda, beer, tea. Actually, you know what? Just help yourself. Take whatever looks good, and grab one for me, too. I’ll only be gone for a minute.”
He headed down the hallway, and Alice walked up to the refrigerator.
Just like his decor, the contents of his fridge were pretty bare and uninteresting. He had all of the basics, but there were no signs that he ever cooked a real meal. Alice had no room to judge though. After all, she had basically been living off of pizza and fried rice for a month. She looked around at the drinks stacked on the bottom, and decided on more beer. The cans were ice cold in her hands and the frostiness numbed them slightly as she walked back to the dining room. She sat them down, one on each side, and relaxed into a sturdy wooden chair.
“I like your dining set,” she called out, hoping that he could hear the compliment from his office.
Footsteps approached from the hallway, and Detective Darrow sat a few folders and stacks of papers down on the table in front of Alice. “Thanks. My dad actually made the set for me when I moved out for the first time.”
“That’s awesome. He did a really good job. Does he make furniture for a living, or is it more of a hobby? Maybe I could have him make something for me too sometime.”
“I really wish he could. He’s been gone for almost a decade now. But, to answer your question, he made these sort of things as a hobby.”
Alice looked down, embarrassed, and then looked up at Detective Darrow’s face once more. “I’m sorry, I didn’t —”
“Ah, don’t be sorry. He was a good man, and of course I miss him, but life has to go on. I try not to dwell on the fact that he’s gone, and I try to focus on all of the fun times we had together while he was still here.”
“That’s a great way to look at things. My parents passed away before I could really form any memories. I don’t know much about either of them, but I like to imagine that they were good people.”
He nodded, and looked through a few of the folders on the table. “If they were anything like you, I’m sure they would have been.”
When he’d found the folder that he wanted to show her first, he opened it up, and angled it so they could both see it. He scooted his chair closer to her, and cracked open one of the beers. Once he’d taken a big gulp, Alice did the same.
“Okay, so, like I said, I haven’t solved anything yet, but I definitely think that these cases are all linked. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence at all, no matter what the others have been saying.” He flipped through a couple of pages in the folder, until he came upon a few photographs. He pulled them out and slid them directly in front of Alice. “These are a little graphic, so tell me if it gets to be too much for you. I don’t want to freak you out or anything.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she replied, reassuringly.
The first photo was a close-up of Jessica’s head and face. Her skin was dark and discolored. The majority of it had rotted away, but some of it still remained in tact. Brown hair barely clung to the bits on her scalp, but it had all been chopped very short. It looked as if someone had just grabbed handfuls of her hair and cut it off without any care or method in mind.
Alice remembered the dream. Sarah’s hair had been cut carelessly too. Maybe the dream was more than that. Maybe it had been some sort of sign. She’d never been much of magical thinker before, but sometimes it could be hard to claim that things were only a coincidence. She continued examining the photo.
“See here?” Detective Darrow said, pointing to what was left of Jessica’s nose. “The cartilage was mostly gone when we dug her up, but the bone looked like it had been bludgeoned or smashed somehow. That wasn’t what killed her, but it’s evidence of a struggle. Her ring and pinky fingers were both broken at the knuckles too. So she definitely fought back.”
“That’s just awful...” she said in a shocked tone. “If that’s not what killed her, then how did she die?”
Detective Darrow looked down at the photo. “I think she was strangled. We can stop here, if you want, or —” he paused.
“Maybe we should. It’s just so terrible to think about how scared she must have been. Who could do this to someone?”
“I keep asking myself the same thing.”
Ring Ring
“Hold on one second. I should probably take this.” Detective Darrow got up and hurried to the phone. It didn’t take much time for his expression to reach an entirely new level of seriousness. The fear in his eyes was a stark contrast to his usual happy and relaxed personality.
He lowered the phone and it clanked unsteadily as he hung it up. Slowly, he turned around and walked back to the table, his posture showing defeat. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go,” he said with nervousness shaking around in his voice.
“Is everything okay? You look worried...” she asked, standing to her feet.
He shook his head and reached down to his folders to stack them neatly. “They think they found another body.”
Chapter 12
“Hairspray”
The salon was gloomy, even for a Monday. The younger crowd was absent, either working or just hiding away safely in their homes. The older clients still showed up for their appointments though, fully prepared for their weekly washes and roller sets. The women either knew no fear, or their need to gossip was just way too strong to keep them in the safety of their homes, in front of their TV sets.
Alice listened while a couple of the ladies discussed the latest events. It didn’t take long before the two-person conversation had turned into something much larger. People gasped all around the room in between the short judgmental statements and observations. Everyone had an opinion, and a lot of them even had the same opinions, but their desire to repeat them over in over in different ways out-weighed the redundancy for the most part.
“My niece, the one who’s married to the chief’s brother,” a woman said, her voice much louder than the others. “Well, she said that the bones probably belonged to Tammy Thomas. I don’t know how they’d confirm something like that though. She said that someone had tried to burn them.”
“Poor Tammy,” another woman gasped. “She was actually pretty sweet. Has anyone heard about how she might have died?” The woman’s eyes scanned the room, and for a few seconds, there was silence.
The b
rief silence was broken by the hanging bell that rattled against the entrance door. Betty walked in and looked around sheepishly. Her hair was tangled and greasy looking. It looked as if she had just woken up. She sat down in the waiting area, and her hands reached over to the table next to her for one of the outdated magazines. Once it was in her grip, she flipped through the pages, avoiding eye contact.
“Good morning Betty,” Edna’s voice sang out toward her. “The usual?”
Betty looked up for a brief moment to nod and add a comment.“A trim, too, if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is. I’ll put you with Alice once she’s done with Annie.”
Alice piped up quickly and warmly. “We’re actually all done… Just one more pass of the hairspray, and…” She sat the big metal can on the counter. It clanked loudly, as if it were nearly empty. “Voila! There we go.”
Annie smiled and patted her hair appreciatively before setting a dollar down for a tip. She got up from the styling chair quickly, and sat back down in the waiting area so she could still participate in the conversations.
The women continued chattering about the bones that had been found in the woods near the lake. The wooded area, land and water, sat on the very edge of town. Betty and a handful other people in the community were able to consider it as their backyard. There was no fencing on their properties. There was nothing keeping any of them from walking down to dip their toes into the murky water. Their homes had once been envied by many of the people in town, but now they were just another part of the nightmare that had enveloped Wintersburg. No one wanted any part of the lake anymore.
Betty’s expression never changed during the discussion though, even when asked about the crime scene. It was as if she was in a content little daze, completely oblivious to the severity of the situation. Alice didn’t mind. It was much better than seeing her drunk and acting erratically as she had done previously. Since that strange April night, Betty had only appeared in the salon two other times, about half as much as she typically would have showed up to have her hair styled.
Alice didn’t judge much though. She knew what it was like for people to have things held against them, and she didn’t think it was right to do that to others. She knew how deeply teasing could hurt a person. She knew how much something as simple as a cruel stare could haunt a person for years, or even for a lifetime. Even though Alice had blossomed into an attractive young woman, her younger years had been difficult at times. Like many preteens, she had an awkward phase. Her phase just happened to last a few years longer than the other girls’ phases, so she had to deal with the pain of sticking out for quite a bit longer than her peers. When she was only eleven, the words of one girl in particular — a girl whose full name had completely dissolved out of her mind — had hurt her more than any of the others before. They etched themselves in the reflection of every mirror that she passed by from then on.
“No matter how hard you try to hide, everyone can still see how ugly you are.”
The words had haunted Alice like a ghost for twelve whole years. Over time, she learned to paint her face and tease her hair. She hid behind her mask like that same scared eleven-year-old girl had hid behind her stacks of books and long stringy hair. But to everyone else, Alice appeared confident and stylish. She was the city girl with big dreams and a career. No one saw that the makeup was holding her fragile face together like glue, or that one false move of a mascara wand was enough to crack the water-filled porcelain around her eyes. No one saw Alice as Alice. She was just pretty.
◆
Alice walked with Betty over to the shampoo bowl and politely instructed her to sit down, as was usual. She placed a towel into the groove of the bowl for Betty to rest her thin neck onto. It was much more comfortable to do that than to let her visible spine grind against the cold hard porcelain while she was being shampooed. The little things were actually very important.
She turned the water on, and lifted the hose, angling it toward the drain. It always took just a little too long for things to heat up, but it gave Alice time to look for any gray hairs or split ends that might need to be addressed. Her eyes noticed little specks of something along the ends of Betty’s short hair.
“It’s probably just mud or something,” she thought, as she took notice of the amount of grease that had accumulated near Betty’s scalp this time. “She hasn’t been in for a wash in a while.”
The water finally reached a reasonable temperature, so she pointed the hose over Betty’s dirty hair. Her hands finger-combed through the ends while she tried to break up the little chunks as carefully as possible, avoiding hurting Betty’s tender scalp. Fortunately, the grime had started to dissolve rather quickly. Alice looked into the bowl and noticed that the water was changing colors as it traveled down the strands of hair. Normally, it would have turned more of a brownish tint from the hair treatments and various rinses, but not this time.
The water was red.
Images flashed through Alice’s mind, taking her back to the dream that she’d had of Sarah. She saw Sarah’s frightened eyes, begging her for help. She felt her ice cold breath against her skin again. She saw the blood, and the clumps of shorn dark hair on the floor, with coagulation encompassing them, holding each of the strands together like little bouquets of dead roses.
She froze in place, and the water continued to pour out over Betty’s hair.
“Alice, are you okay?” Edna’s voice broke through the silent flashback as she walked toward the shampoo bowl. “Oh, Betty, I see you’ve been painting again,” she said as she looked down at the water.
Edna walked to the opposite side of the bowl and gently took the hose from Alice’s hand. She turned the water off temporarily, and ran a few pumps of shampoo through Betty’s hair. The red paint bubbled and turned into cotton-candy-pink suds as she worked it through her scalp and ends. She lifted her eyes to Alice’s and smiled reassuringly. Her hand reached for the nozzle and she turned the hose on once more to rinse the shampoo out.
“It’s okay,” she mouthed out silently. Edna was very aware of the stress than Alice had been under. The entire town was experiencing it, after all. She lifted Betty’s head, and dried everything with a towel before offering one final thought. “Oh, Betty. I almost forgot to ask if you were going to be setting up a booth for the fundraiser tonight.”
“Yeah, I’ll be in the spare lot next to Medley’s. That’s where I was told to set my stand up, anyway. I guess the mayor wants all of the food in one location this time. I’m guessing he didn’t like having to walk around so much at the City-wide Yard Sale last summer.” Her eyes closed for a moment, as if she were trying to recall something. She rubbed the tension from her brow and lifted a finger excitedly to Edna. Her entire mood changed from what could be compared to catatonic bliss to more of an enthusiastic salesperson. “I’ve been trying out a few new barbecue sauces too. I’m going to sell a mild and a hot. I think they’ll go over really well. Make sure to stop by, and I’ll give you extra.”
Edna smiled appreciatively. “I’m sure everyone will love them. And I’ll be sure to find you to try them out if I get a chance to walk around.”
“Well, I hope you can. I have good feelings about this batch. The pigs have been nice and fat this year. The pork should be really sweet.”
Edna smiled warmly, and then raised her eyes to Alice. She winked and gave her a thumbs-up before walking away. The diversion had helped Alice more than she probably even realized.
Alice took over again, and walked Betty back to the styling chair. She felt a bit embarrassed for her reaction to the paint, but was thankful for Edna’s help. It felt good to listen to polite conversation, and it seemed to have calmed her down quite a lot.
“Alright, here you go, Betty. Let’s get you all taken care of.”
“You know — I’ve been thinking,” Betty uttered softly as she plopped herself into the seat. “Would you be willing to come to my place to do my hair from now on?”
Alice, cutti
ng-comb in hand, stared at her with confusion for a moment. She wasn’t sure how to respond to the suggestion. Edna hadn’t specifically told her not to style clients in their homes, but it was basic etiquette to keep the money in the salon.
“I’d still pay you of course, even a little more actually. You can even take some pork home if you’d like. I have way too much of it in the deep freezer right now — more than I could even dream to sell. I just haven’t been feeling great lately, and it would be nice to have one less thing to worry about.” Betty stopped speaking for a moment to stare at Alice’s reflection in the mirror.
Alice didn’t seem to be against the idea, but she still appeared to be unsure.
Betty offered more words to help convince her of the idea. “It’s just that, you know, the gossip around can be a little too much for me, and now with that second body showing up, I just can’t —”
“Actually, I totally understand, Betty. To be completely honest, I’m getting tired of hearing all of these crazy rumors too. I can only imagine how much harder it is for you.” She realized that Betty probably needed the help more than the salon needed the small cost of a roller set. She could always put the money in the drawer anyway. Edna would understand.