The Four Before Me
Page 22
He recalled the most recent town event, and how excited Betty had been to set up her barbecue stand. With a smile on her face, she had scooped an extra portion of pulled pork onto the plates of anyone who asked for more, and didn’t even charge extra for it. What had seemed like an act of pure generosity to him, had actually been a smooth way for her to dispose of the evidence quickly. With no bodies to be found, she had almost gotten away with the entire thing. Will could have continued to kill, and she could have continued saving money on pigs and pig feed.
The more that Detective Darrow thought about it, the more he wished that Betty would have just left the remains in the woods. Flies and worms were meant to eat such things — people were not. Cold sweat beaded all across his skin, and his collar dampened. His face became as white as the cloth that covered the bits of bone that had been overlooked by both Betty and Will. Had they been less sloppy when feeding the useless parts to the pigs, the scene wouldn’t have been such a difficult thing to be present for. The undigested teeth were the most upsetting thing for everyone to see.
On his way home, Detective Darrow drove past Alice’s house. She stood on her porch, sweeping the dust away. He pulled into her driveway and parked the car. While he was a little nervous, he had been wanting to check on her for a while. Her face would hopefully be a much more welcoming sight than what he’d been dealing with all day. After all, anything would have probably been better than that. He wiped the remaining nervous sweat from his face, and stepped out into the cool air once more. He walked up toward the porch, trying to appear confident and unphased.
“Hey Alice. Nice day out, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess it is, actually. What brings you over here? I thought you guys were digging today.”
He nodded, and quickly changed the subject. That was the last thing he wanted to talk about. “We are. I just wanted to see how you were doing or if you needed anything. I heard from Roger that you were thinking about moving back to Parkington.”
“Actually, about that — I did some more thinking and I’m planning on staying here in town for a while instead.”
“Really?” he replied, surprised. “I figured that you would already be packing up your things by now.”
“It crossed my mind. I won’t lie about that, but there’s something keeping me here. I really can’t explain it, and I’d feel like a crazy person if I tried to put it into words. It just feels like home, you know? Despite everything.”
“Well, honestly, I can’t say I understand. I’m just glad you’ll still be nearby though.”
Alice laughed lightly. “You don’t need to understand it. I really hardly understand it myself. I just know that this feels right. Roger even told me not to worry about the rent for a while, too, which is also a plus.”
Detective Darrow was happy to see that Alice seemed a lot like her usual self. He was well aware of her mask though. “Yeah, I had a long talk with him after we took Betty in. We didn’t think she was going to survive for a while. Roger was an absolute mess. I think he really blames himself for not seeing any of the signs. None of us saw them though. I mean, even I’m still in shock from the whole thing.”
“You know, it’s funny. He left this necklace and a letter on my porch the other day. He wrote something about it being more mine than his, and told me to take care of it. I don’t even know how he knew I was interested in it.” She lifted Sarah’s necklace from beneath the collar of her shirt, and held onto it by the pendant. “I thought I’d only told Tiffany about this.”
“That’s interesting. What’s so special about it?”
“Probably nothing really, other than it was Sarah’s. Initially, I thought it looked like something my grandma wore in her old photos, but I think I was just trying to piece every odd thing in this town together at the time.”
Detective Darrow nodded and smiled. “You’re probably right. At least it’s pretty though. Sarah would probably be happy to know that it’s being taken care of.”
“You’re right. She’d probably like that someone was wearing it, instead of just having it left in a drawer somewhere.” Alice returned his smile. “Would you like to come in? I can make us some coffee, if you’d like.”
“I’d like that a lot actually.”
Detective Darrow followed Alice inside. And there, he stayed, protecting her. He knew that years flew by as quickly as flies flew out from a hot shed, and that Benji would be out of prison in no time at all. While the true murderers would be spending their entire lives behind bars, he knew that evil was always nearby, just waiting for its chance to pounce.