by PJ Fernor
He grabs the slippery edge of the dirty yellow sink and stares down into the rusted brown drain.
“I have to,” he whispers.
You don’t have to.
“But I do. We both know it. What’s the use in fighting it anymore?”
There’s got to be another way here. We can think this out. Get a drink. Sit down. Think. We can think about it together. Teamwork. Like it’s always been for us. Right?
“I know what you’re trying to do and I respect it,” he says. He looks in the mirror at himself. “In a way it’s too late. Once the thoughts start, they can’t be stopped. I’m already losing control of myself. I have to protect you…”
You do not need to protect me. I can protect myself. Just stop.
He turns away from the sink and storms out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
He walks to the door and pauses.
Everything is quiet. So beautifully quiet.
He tells himself think about the holidays that are coming.
Think about Halloween. About Thanksgiving. About Christmas.
Find that spark to calm himself and focus on that.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
I know you are.
“I get the feeling… like I just can’t help it. Everything will be okay though. Everything will be taken care of. It’s been this way for so long…”
Which is why it doesn’t need to change right now. Think it over. Sleep on it. And if tomorrow comes and-
“I’ve been thinking it over for a while,” he says. “I’ve tried to sleep but can’t. This is driving me insane. And if I go insane…”
You’re not going to listen.
“I am listening,” he says. “I’m listening to myself. And I’m sorry in advance.”
He opens the door and steps out into a cold fall night.
He sees his breath and looks up. Through the trees he sees the stars.
The sky is like a blanket tonight.
But without warmth.
It’s very cold.
And cold is fitting.
He looks back and knows going back inside would be the right thing to do.
Come back inside! Please come back inside!
He shakes his head.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
He shrugs his shoulders and slips his hands into his pockets.
He begins to walk, swallowed up by the autumn night.
Chapter Eight
Another day and another meeting with Mayor Jim.
I spotted him near the front of the station and when we made eye contact, I knew it was too late. There was no escaping him.
He pointed right at me and from such a distance yelled, “There’s the person saving our town!”
That got me a look from everyone at the station.
“How about a round of applause for Allie Down!” Mayor Jim yelled.
He slammed his big hands together and it sounded like a small crack of thunder. He did it over and over, walking toward me, not really caring whether anyone else followed his lead or not.
The second I heard others trying to clap for me, I pointed and shut that noise down really quick.
I couldn’t shut down Mayor Jim though.
I was his target and the best I could offer everyone else in sight was to take him to my office where his loud mouth and even louder mind could do what it loved best.
Hear itself.
Mayor Jim loved to listen to himself talk.
“Don’t say another word,” I warned.
“Got five minutes for me?”
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Four and a half,” I said.
“Let’s make it five and call it a day,” Mayor Jim said with a nod and he started to walk.
He was like…
Johnny Barby.
That’s what it was.
If Johnny was a slime ball politician, he could pass for Mayor Jim.
Johnny was bolder though. He had no problem standing up for himself and for a fight.
Mayor Jim knew how to duck and slip away without a scuffle.
When we got into my office, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them furiously. “How’s the parade looking?”
“You tell me.”
“Did you talk to Mrs. Mickels?”
“We did.”
“We?”
“Ben. Ben Welloski.”
“Right. Yes. Of course. Great man.”
“You couldn’t pick him out of a lineup of two people,” I said.
Mayor Jim laughed and pointed at me. “I respect and appreciate all of those in uniform in my town.”
Your town? I thought.
I nodded. “I bet.”
“That’s why this parade matters so much, Allie. You understand, right?”
Mayor Jim leaned on the arm of a chair instead of sitting in the chair. He stroked his tie and stared at me.
“She’s not happy about it,” I said. “But I’m confident it’ll be fine.”
“Good. I don’t need her making a spectacle of herself.”
“We can always allow people to be on the curb a little bit away from her house too. Start it down the street more.”
“Exactly!” Mayor Jim yelled. “That’s what I’m talking about here! That’s great thinking. Keep her happy. Keep the town happy.” He stood tall and touched his chin. “I think at the end of the parade I should give a speech. No, wait. I can do better. I can be on the leading float. With a microphone.” He then held an invisible microphone to his mouth and smiled. “I can greet everyone. I can call them out by name too. Those that I know.”
“That’s a lot of work.”
“I’m a dedicated man. To this town. To these people. This is a great year to be alive, Allie. This is a great year to celebrate.”
“It’s also a very busy year cleaning up a lot of messes.”
Mayor Jim put his invisible microphone down. “Any resources you need, tell me. They’re yours. We take care of each other in this town, right?”
“Right,” I said.
“I have the parade map ready to go. I talked to Caroline to get it all drawn up for me. My assistant Jefferson is calling businesses to get this thing funded. You’re going to handle the legal side of it all. The policing and whatnot. I need candy. Lots of it. I bet I can call Bobby. His father ran the corner store years back.”
“Sounds like you’ve got this all worked out, Jim,” I said.
“Close,” he said. “Getting there. I just need to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“Well, I can’t predict the future,” I said. “Nobody can.”
“I’m worried about Mrs. Mickels. We still have to deal with her. The route goes down her street. I don’t want her outside causing issues.”
“You just seemed so confident about her.”
“I never am. She’s a thorn in the backside.”
You are too… maybe you two are from the same rosebush.
“There’s nothing we can do in advance,” I said.
“Sure there is.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I don’t know. Talk to her again. Keep talking to her. Remind her…”
“Threaten her?” I asked.
Mayor Jim stepped back. “I did not suggest that. Don’t put words in my mouth. That would be wrong, Allie.”
“That’s what you were getting at.”
“Not at all. I prefer to think of it as everyone being on the same page. Now, how are you going to handle road closures, traffic detours, and ensuring we’re all safe?”
I shook my head. “I want nothing to do with that.”
“But you are going to deal with it.”
“You know, maybe you should dig into that magic budget of yours and hire outside the town.”
“Whoa now,” Mayor Jim said. “You just took over this place. And you’re telling me you can’t handle it? Is that something you really want everyone to know? So soon?”
I folded my arms. “Why do I feel like you’re threatening me now?”
“I’m just having a conversation.”
A knock at the door broke the tension between Mayor Jim and me.
It was Muldavey.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” he said. “But someone is here…”
“Who?” I asked.
“Mrs. Mickels.”
Mayor Jim let out a loud Ha! sound.
“Muldavey, not now,” I said.
“She keeps asking for you,” Muldavey said to me.
“Muldavey. Get rid of her. Okay? I’ll call her back when I have time.”
Muldavey looked ready to argue and I gave him the ticked off mom glare.
That took care of him.
Muldavey left the office.
I knew it was coming…
Mayor Jim grinned at me.
Just what I needed right now.
To have Mayor Jim be right about something.
Chapter Nine
“Let me tell you about that one there,” Mayor Jim said to me as he pointed back to the door.
“Who? Muldavey? He’s young, yeah, but he’s smart. And he works hard. Saved my backside a few times too.”
Mayor Jim smiled that big politician smile and now pointed at me. “I see what you did there. That was funny. It’s nice when you have a sense of humor. Breaks up the murky feeling in this office.”
“Murky feeling?”
“You know it’s true in here, Allie. It’s dark and scary in here.”
“Well, this can be a dark and scary place.”
“I bet. Now do you want to hear my story about Mrs. Mickels or what?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No,” Mayor Jim said. He got closer to the desk. “Before you came back, a long time ago, she started complaining of someone watching her. Looking in her windows. Stalking her. At first, she was genuinely scared. She would call, show up here, and then I ended up on her radar. Apparently the police weren’t doing their job. She came right to me about it. What was I supposed to do? My only choice was to talk to the police personally. That wasn’t good enough for her. She started talking. To everyone. Before long, it was a mess in town. Everyone afraid of this creeper. People started seeing him even though there was nothing there. The old shadow trick…”
“Right,” I said. “Silhouettes and shapes. When people get scared, it happens.”
“There’s scared and there’s fear. Mrs. Mickels loved fear. We exhausted so many resources to handle this situation. Ready for the ending?”
“More than ready for the ending,” I said. “Closer to you leaving.”
Mayor Jim laughed again. He adjusted his tie. “It was raccoons. That’s right, Allie. Raccoons. That was the big, bad creeper. Two raccoons across the street. Their eyes lit up and Mrs. Mickels panicked. You’d think logic would be in that mind of hers, but it’s not. Be careful with her.”
“I guess my question… raccoons? Why wasn’t that found out quicker? Logic would tell anyone at that part of town, it probably was an animal. I would have had that solved in a day. No panic. No fear. No worry. Nothing.”
I snapped my fingers for good measure.
Mayor Jim didn’t take my comments offensively as I had hoped.
Instead, he clapped his hands together and said, “And that’s why you’re behind the big desk right now. You’re the one for the job. And you have the job. So I have nothing to worry about. Correct?”
“What could you possibly have to worry about?”
“The parade.”
“I told you I would handle it. At least my part.”
“Are you questioning my end of it?” Mayor Jim asked. “I’ll get every person in town outside. I’ll reroute the parade so there’s no chance of any missing it. I’ll build this up… in fact…” Mayor Jim’s eyes dazed for a second. “I’ve got a friend who can make a call. I can get some major news coverage here.”
“News coverage for a parade?” I asked.
“Think about it. The small-town news coverage. People are so busy all the time and living so fast, but here’s this small town that does it right. We slow everything down. We have a traditional kind of parade. Puts our name right in front of everyone.”
“You mean it puts your name in front of everyone,” I said. “Thinking about moving up from the mayor position, Jim? What comes after this?”
“Don’t assume that, Allie,” Mayor Jim said. “I care about this town too much to leave it. I just want everyone to feel the same sense of pride I feel. And it really has been a lot. There’s so much talk still going on. About Laura.”
I nodded. “That’ll fade with time.”
“I’ve had to push reporters away. And some news outlets. The story writes itself. It’s juicy as anything. I don’t want that here, Allie. I don’t want reporters sneaking through town, talking to the locals, turning us into some documentary online.”
“So now you’re going to sell me the parade as a distraction.”
“No. Proof of moving forward. Our town and our people are resilient and move on. No need to live in the past. Especially with you here now. I trust you a great deal, Allie.”
“Then let me do my job.”
“First thing should be to get rid of Mrs. Mickels.”
“Muldavey has that covered.”
Mayor Jim chuckled. “I will bet you the entire existence of this parade that she’s down there waiting for you. Complaining to Muldavey about everything. From the color of the grass to how warm the sun is in the summer.”
“You think that?”
“I know it,” Mayor Jim said. “I lived through it with her.”
Before I could say anything else, the door opened and Muldavey stood there again.
“Told you,” Mayor Jim whispered.
“I’m so sorry,” Muldavey said.
“Let me guess, she won’t leave?” Mayor Jim asked.
“She won’t leave,” Muldavey said.
“What does she have to say?” I asked.
“Tell you what,” Mayor Jim said. “I’m going to get out of here. This feels like a good time to exit. You’ve got your hands full, Allie. Good luck. Keep up the good work. I’ll be in touch again. Like always.”
“I can’t wait for it,” I said.
Mayor Jim laughed one more time.
He shook Muldavey’s hand aggressively.
Then he left the office.
“I’m glad he left,” Muldavey said.
“That makes two of us,” I said. “What’s the deal with Mrs. Mickels.”
“I’m sorry, but she wants to talk to you. She kept insisting. So I took her to your old office. Just to get her away from people. I can tell she likes attention.”
“Good.”
“That only helped for a minute. She kept demanding to see you. I explained you were in a meeting. That it would be a while. She told me she would wait for the rest of her life. And that she felt safer at the station than at home.”
Now that intrigued me. “More raccoons?”
“What?” Muldavey asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “What is her big problem now?”
“Well… it could be our big problem too.”
“How so, Muldavey?”
Muldavey swallowed hard. “Mrs. Mickels keeps saying someone was murdered near her house last night.”
Chapter Ten
“There you are,” Mrs. Mickels said to me as I entered my old office.
She stood with her arms crossed, her eyes worn and tired. This was a woman who hadn’t slept much last night, if at all.
“I’m sorry about the delay,” I said. “I was in a meeting.”
“With our mayor.”
I didn’t respond.
Mrs. Mickels laughed. “I saw him walking through here. I’m sure whatever he had to talk about was more important than a dead body, right?”
Mrs. Mickels’ voice carried through the office and out the open door.
I looked
back at Muldavey. “Why don’t you go get us two coffees, please. Close the door behind you so I can speak with Mrs. Mickels in private.”
Muldavey gave a quick nod and exited the office.
I pointed to a chair. “Want to have a seat and talk?”
“No need to sit. There’s a murder to solve.”
“Okay. I need to know everything before we get too worked up here.”
“I haven’t slept yet,” Mrs. Mickels said.
“Why didn’t you call this in last night then?”
“I was thinking about it all night,” she said. “What I saw. Of course everyone in this town thinks I’m crazy. I needed to see you in person to make this right.”
“To make what right?”
“So you’ll take this seriously enough and handle it.”
“Mrs. Mickels, murder is an obvious big deal.”
I thought about the story Mayor Jim told me. The raccoons. Chances were, this was just about the same. We were coming up on Halloween and Mrs. Mickels was visibly stressed and irritated, mostly because of Mayor Jim’s parade route.
Last year there were teenagers trashing front porches.
Whatever Mrs. Mickels saw was probably something similar.
“This is a big deal,” Mrs. Mickels said. “That’s why I came to you. Right to you. I’m not going through anyone else. Just you and-”
The office door opened.
Mrs. Mickels pointed. “And him.”
I turned my head and saw Ben.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “Mrs. Mickels is here to report a murder.”
“A murder?” Ben asked. “Who was murdered?”
“I’m not going to look at a dead body,” Mrs. Mickels said. “Are you insane? I know how these things go. Bad enough I’m here reporting it. If I go near the body then the killer will target me next.”
“Mrs. Mickels,” I said. “Forgive me for asking, but were you watching any scary movies last night? Something about serial killers?”
“Heavens no,” she said. “I don’t like that stuff. I don’t like any of it. And while we’re at it, I don’t like this time of the year. At all. Dressing up and scaring one another. I don’t need that at my front door. Or on my street.”
She looked at me and lifted one eyebrow.