by S J Sargent
“Nope.” Molly looked down at her consumed plate of food.
“Sorry. I’m just trying to lighten things up. I think it’s easy for us to think we’re in danger. When we’re not. You’re not.” Alex gazed at Molly. She nodded. “I’m serious, Molly. You’re going to be okay.”
“I know.” She smiled. “I just tend to worry.”
“Well…” Alex raised his glass. “We might as well make the most of our last night out without a curfew.” Molly raised her glass with him. “To our final meal. Not a bad place to spend it. Good food. Good company.”
Molly blushed. They clinked their glasses together.
“…and…” Molly added. “…to the quick finding of the culprit. So our town can sleep well at night. Because until we know who it is, I’m going to need some extra melatonin to get to bed every night. Unlike you, who seems to have no problem sleeping right now.”
“Well, I’ll probably be up late too,” he said. “Not out of fear, but because I’m trying to solve this thing myself. The internet is a magical thing. There’s a lot out there. I’m hoping to put the local detectives out of business.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “You watch too many movies.”
“…and that’s a bad thing?” Alex teased back. “That might be the very thing that helps me here.”
The two headed out a few minutes later, parting ways after a bit more chatter at their cars. People around Pecos were starting to get uneasy about things. This curfew was just going to make things worse. As Molly struggled to see through the snow hitting off her windshield, she turned on the radio. Anything to pull her thoughts away from it all. Her fear of what might be.
Her fear that Amy was just the first case.
Her fear that things were just going to get worse.
Her fear that she was in danger.
And unfortunately for Molly, all of her fears were going to prove to be true.
Part II
Short-Staffed
8
Opening Shift
Saturday, December 18 – 8:45 A.M.
Alex yawned as he rolled the overloaded movie return drop box cart back into the store. It seemed like more people had used it than normal, probably because they didn’t want to get out of their car. Due to snow and unsolved murder cases.
As he wheeled it in and started checking them back in, the stillness of the store caused his mind to drift to a strange and eerie feeling. His storytelling mind floated to the reality that a killer was living in their town. Walking around in plain sight.
They blended right in with the culture, going about their business while the people around them had no idea what they were up to in secret. Eating pizza. Buying groceries. Renting movies. Hiding in plain sight.
As far as he knew, the cops still had absolutely no evidence on the guy. It drove Alex crazy that they didn’t even have a lead at this point. Just like most of the town, he couldn’t sleep well last night. Not out of fear. It was out of curiosity. There was already enough criticism of the local police station for even having a detective with the lack of crime and violence that happened in town. Townies criticized the department for overspending on unnecessary personnel. Now they finally get a crack at a juicy murder case and they have nothing to show for it. This will only make that narrative even stronger.
“Today’s the first day of curfew,” Ken said as he carried a stack of movies to the front. He always looked rough in the morning shifts. And with his ‘apparent’ sickness, he looked even worse this time. Alex was surprised to see him after calling out the night before.
“So, we’re closing at 8:30 now, right?” Alex said.
“Yep.” Ken pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.
“Dude…” Alex said. “We talked about this…”
“No one’s here! We don’t open for ten minutes!” Ken pulled out a lighter and puffed as he plopped onto the counter by the soda cooler. It was moments like this that caused Alex to wonder how Ken had been able to keep a job here for the past seven years. “Plus, no one’s coming with this blizzard about to hit. I’m chalking this up to a slow business morning.” He took another big puff and blew it all over the check-out area.
“You know she can see the cameras from home,” Alex said. “She might be watching you right now.”
“If Christine was watching me right now, it would be the final evidence that she officially has no life!” Ken faced the camera and waved. “Hi! Get a life!”
Alex laughed and shook his head. “I don’t want you to get fired, bro. You need to put it out.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Ken waved his cigarette in his hand. “I’ve outlasted everyone here. Christine’s the third store manager I’ve had since I started. And she’s not going to be my last one.” Ken’s smoke was now starting to loft across the store.
“I thought you were sick, by the way.”
“I was.” Ken hopped to his feet, extending his hands out in a ta-da fashion. “And now I’m healed.”
“Dude, Molly had to cover for you last night. She had to bust her tail to cover your lazy butt. It’s already been a tough enough week for her with Amy and everything.”
“Oh, give me a break!” Ken said, as he walked over to the candy counter and snagged some Junior Mints. “It just gave her one more shift to try to win the sales competition. Not that anyone is catching up to me, of course.” He mashed out the cigarette and threw it in the trash. “How can Christine expect me to work a closing shift and then turn around and open right after that? I’m the only one she schedules like that. I swear, that chick is out for me. She’s trying everything to get me to quit.”
“You’re delusional. Why wouldn’t she just fire you?”
“Because Billy and Leslie love me.” Ken smiled. He opened up the candy and threw some back in his mouth.
Billy and Leslie were the store owners. They rarely came around, though. Probably once a month at the most. Movie Madness was one of four businesses they owned in town, along with a liquor store, a pizza joint, and the little coffee shop in the downtown square. They’d opened the video store years ago for their oldest son, Carter, a big movie fan—and a childhood friend of Ken’s. Now, Carter was grown and had moved out of town. Ken, on the other hand, took a job from them when he was at a low point and had been there since then.
Even though they weren’t around a lot, Billy and Leslie loved movies and loved the community rapport that Movie Madness had established in its time in Pecos. In an era of automated technology, the video store forced people to interact together. It caused locals to rub shoulders with each other. On Saturday nights in the summer, Movie Madness was the most crowded place in town. And the owners loved it.
They let Christine run the store, for the most part, just weighing in time to time to make sure everyone was happy and satisfied. The only time Alex ever saw either of them was on the rare occasion that Leslie came in to check on things and rent a Doris Day flick.
“Christine feels trapped,” Ken continued. “She doesn’t want me around, but she can’t fire me. She knows how Leslie sees me as like her second son. So she just gives me crappy work schedules every week and hopes I quit. That’s also why she didn’t choose me to be the A.M.”
Alex laughed at this. “Ken, you would be horrible as the assistant manager! You literally cuss in front of customers! And eat all the food. And smoke in the store.”
“Well, someone has to!”
Alex cracked up as he headed for the back of the store. With one hurl, he threw Friday night’s trash into the dumpster. It was odd that it hadn’t been taken out the night before. Peter always did it on his way out the door since he was the last to leave. And he was usually the dependable one.
As Alex slipped into the employee room, he noticed a few things that were different than normal. Clutter was everywhere. Movie boxes sat on stacks across the room. Peter’s work shirt sat on the counter. The name tag was still on it. Had he left the night before without a shirt on? Weird.
Alex’s mind wandered as it loved to do. He pulled out his notebook and jotted down a few things. Maybe Peter was secretly the killer and changed into his killer costume on the way out of work. Maybe he intentionally left it behind as a clue. An invitation to a game of cat and mouse.
“Bro!”
Alex popped out of his daydream. Ken stood at the door, cigarette in mouth. “Can you cover register for a bit?” Ken lit up. “I need to call my girlfriend. We got in a big fight.”
“How long are you going to be?”
Ken shrugged. “Love has no time table, bro…”
Alex rolled his eyes and went inside. Not a customer in sight. They always opened too early in Alex’s opinion. He pulled out his phone and scrolled away on his social media accounts.
Subject: Hey Alex! Are you ready to finish your Watkins Film Institute application? It was the second automated email he’d received that week. Delete. Close app.
One of the store’s regulars walked in, a young teenager who always rented Kung Fu movies. Alex recognized him from school but didn’t know his name. Before he could greet him, his phone buzzed. A text from Molly.
“Thanks for last night. I definitely feel a lot better.”
Alex smiled. He’d been thinking about her all morning but didn’t want to creep her out by texting her the day after. He barely slept the night before, thinking about their first dinner together and what he needed to do to make sure that it would happen again.
He slipped back to the classic movie section to text her back without interruption. “Me too. A great way to finish off our last night of freedom before the curfew kicks in!” Racing back to the front, he checked out the sole customer and gave him his Bruce Lee movie.
It had now started to snow pretty heavily. Alex wondered if the store would have to close early for the winter storm. And then he wondered what movies he would watch that day if he did get to go home early. Trying to pass the painfully slow shift, he looked down at his phone to see if Molly had texted him back. Nope.
“Dude…” Ken was now back up front, stiffer than normal. He looked over Alex’s shoulder through the front glass and into the parking lot. “Why is there a cop car here?”
9
Detective Bolin
Saturday, December 18 – 9:22 A.M.
Harvey Bolin poured all of his energy into his job, with his own marriage taking the expense. He was hungry for a real case. Something with more punch than petty pot dealers and teenagers blowing up mailboxes on Friday nights. He wasn’t deaf to the comments around town. Unfair criticism for the local senior citizens who complained about their tax money going to his salary.
That’s why he was the only one in town excited that Amy Powers had gone missing. Not because of his insensitivity to the family, but his eagerness to solve the crime. To finally solve a real crime. To prove his position was important to the town.
Harvey had lived in Pecos his entire life, minus the seven months he spent in Police Academy. In sixth grade, he met a police officer at Pecos Middle’s career day. That was the day he decided to go blue. He never looked back. Then came Law and Order and all the other crime shows of the early 2000s. He consumed them all before binge-watching was even a term, vowing that if the Pecos Police Department could ever afford a detective, he would be the first to get the job. His dream came true four years later when the sheriff came in and offered him the promotion after some additional funding had come in from the state.
“Hello, gentlemen,” Detective Bolin said, greeting Alex and Ken as he stood in front of the old, dusty gumball machine. Those gumballs at the bottom had to be older than most of the kids in town. Alex and Ken nodded. The fifteen-minute movie preview loop blared over the TVs, echoing throughout the empty store. With his hands on his hips, Harvey glanced around the store. Harvey wasn’t tall, but his fierce presence still intimidated the room.
“I don’t mean to scare you…” he continued. “Just doing a little research today and wanted to ask you a few questions to help me.”
“Is this about Amy?” Alex hoped. Of course it was.
Bolin nodded. “Did you know her?”
Alex stepped back.
“Oh. Well, yeah. But I didn’t know her very well. We were just in the same class. Well, in the same grade, I mean. I didn’t even have any literal classes with her. I don’t even think I talked to her ever.” He finally stopped his nervous rambling.
“Relax,” Detective Bolin said with a smile. “I’m not interrogating you. I’m just going around to the different places in town that she had a membership or shopped regularly to see if they can remember the last time they saw her. That’s all.”
Alex forced a smile.
Bolin pulled out his little phone, the modern-day detective notebook. “Her parents said she had a membership here?”
Ken stepped up. “Sorry, my coworker is such a weirdo. I’m Ken. Yes. I think she did.” He shook Bolin’s hand with a caked-on grin. “We would be happy to help.”
Ken walked him to the side counter behind the registers and pulled up her account. Bolin’s eyes continued to scan the area as if there were a hidden wedding ring lying around. He took note of the empty boxes behind the register which Ken loved to leave there in celebration of his laziness. Harvey took a big breath in. The smell of old carpet and expiring candy formed a signature scent that could only be found in an old video store or a decaying movie theater.
Alex came and peeked over their shoulders as Ken scanned Amy’s account with the detective. “Do you think this will lead to anything?”
“I’ve learned to never draw conclusions.” Bolin squinted at the screen. His face showed nonchalance. It had basically been at a standstill for the past several days. They’d found Amy’s body in the back of the park on Thursday night. Lifeless. And not any signs of foul play. Bolin was still waiting on the autopsy report. In bigger towns, it was a quicker turnaround. But with Pecos, they had to bring in a team from an hour away. “You never can tell what something will lead to in a case like this. I’ve chased plenty of dead ends in my time.”
“Have you ever had a case like this here?” Alex replayed the lack of local crime stories he’d heard growing up.
“No.”
Ken typed away. “Okay. She was here last week, actually. Says she rented The Matrix. But never turned it back in…” Ken looked up at the Detective as if he had just stumbled upon the missing puzzle piece to the entire case.
Detective Bolin leaned forward for a closer look. “Can you print this off for me?”
Alex looked up to see a young couple standing at the other end of the counter, waiting to check out. The girl clung to the guy’s arm, the kind of affection Alex longed for. “I can get you on that far register.” He grabbed their movies and started to ring them up. “Have you looked at our pre-viewed movie collection behind you? Big Christmas sale right now. ’Tis the season!”
“Oh!” the girl said. “Hold on.” They turned around and shopped for a bit. Alex used the opportunity to slip back over to Ken’s computer to get filled in on the info. He was just as anxious about Amy’s case as Detective Bolin was. Or perhaps it was excitement.
The thought of Movie Madness playing a role in the case made things much more interesting.
“So, what do you think, detective? Alex asked. “Is this a big clue? Find the movie and we’ll find the girl?”
Bolin smiled. “Let’s leave the casework to me. It’s never as simple as they make it out to be on TV.” He patted Alex’s shoulder, like he does when his dog fetches a stick. “I’m just gathering information right now.”
The two customers came back up to Alex with three movies to buy, along with a dill pickle. The only thing that surprised Alex more than Christine wanting to sell those gross snacks was the fact that people actually bought them.
“Great choices!” He lied. The pickle didn’t bother him too much. His mind was too distracted by this new piece of evidence. The missing movie. Amy had actually come in days before her
abduction and checked out a movie, never to be returned. Alex’s mind wandered as he handed the couple their movies and sent them off into the blizzard together.
“I might be back at some point.” Bolin picked up the paper from the printer and neatly folded it. “Thank you both for your time this morning.”
Ken saluted. “You got it, detective.”
“Absolutely,” Alex said. “And if you need anything else from me, let me know. I’m willing to help solve the case.”
Bolin left without acknowledging Alex’s statement. Alex turned to Ken and hit his shoulder. “Dude!” he said. “What if…that movie is a clue? She rented it and never turned it back in! So it’s out there somewhere…”
Ken shook his head.
“So it’s probably sitting in her bedroom and he’ll find it later today. Big deal.” Ken went back to his counter resting spot. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
Alex paced around, playing out all of the wild ideas racing around his mind. What if Movie Madness somehow played a vital role into this mystery? What if the missing rental was the key detail in cracking the case?
10
Permission Denied
Saturday, December 18 – 11:51 A.M.
Snow had officially covered the roads. The snowplows were cranked up and clearing the way for the few brave souls out driving in it. Alex gazed out at the parking lot, like a monkey in a zoo waiting for closing time. There were days he wondered why he still worked there. As an avid movie fan, Alex thought that this could be the dream job until he finished film school.
But making movies and renting movies are two very different things.
He could write as many dynamic stories at night as he wanted, but it still didn’t make up for the mundane, forgettable life he lived in Pecos. He dreamt of leaving. The only thing holding him back? Well, everything.