A Dangerous Departure From Hillbilly Hollow

by Blythe Baker

  I resisted the urge to sigh with relief and pulled the forty dollars out of my purse. “Thanks for all your help.”

  Stephen walked me towards his apartment door, but before I could reach for the handle, he slid in front of it, blocking my path.

  I pulled my hand back, my entire body suddenly pulsing with adrenaline. What was he doing? I’d paid him, he’d handed over the information. What was going on?

  “You never said what you plan to do with Ernest,” he said, eyes narrowed.

  “Just looking for an old friend,” I lied.

  I could tell he didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was making it out of his apartment and back into the hallway. The dark hallway. The dark, deserted hallway. Really, all I cared about was making it back to my apartment and locking the door behind me.

  Stephen took a step towards me, a hand running nervously through his blue hair. “You can tell me. I told you a secret. You owe me.”

  “I didn’t ask for your secret,” I said. “You offered it up.”

  “Well how do I know you won’t tell anyone if you don’t tell me a secret of your own?” he asked, mouth curled up in a sinister smile.

  I shoved one of my hands into my purse and clutched the taser in my bag. “I won’t tell anyone. And you can believe me because I’m not a liar. And since you now know I’m not a liar, I’d like to make it abundantly clear to you that I have a charged taser in my purse that could bring an elephant to its knees. So, I highly suggest you step out of my way and let me pass.”

  Stephen’s smile faded, and his eyes widened. “Whoa. That got serious fast. I was just kidding.”

  “I wasn’t,” I said. “Please move.”

  He stepped away from the door, and without looking back, I threw it open and darted down the dark hallway and down the stairs. I didn’t stop moving until I made it to my apartment and locked the door. As soon as I did, my phone began to ring. Body still thrumming with adrenaline, I saw that it was an unknown number and felt certain it was Stephen. Somehow, he’d hacked into my phone and knew my number. He was going to kill me the way he had Blanche. As much as I wanted to ignore it, I couldn’t. I had to know.

  “Hello?” I asked, voice shaky.

  “What’s crack-a-lackin, pretty lady?” Tucker’s goofy drawl was the exact opposite of what I’d expected, and I nearly burst out laughing. “I was thinking we’d hit the town today. Are you ready?”

  I closed my eyes and sighed, letting my heart rate return to normal.

  “Sure, Tucker. Let’s hit the town.”

  13

  Twenty minutes later, I was in Williamsburg with a very overwhelmed Larry Tucker.

  To his credit, Tucker looked the part. Tall and blonde with a chiseled jawline. He looked like every other young, handsome man walking down the street. He drew the eye of all of the women passing by in black and denim. In fact, he looked more like a New Yorker than I did. Even after a few years in the city, I was still mistaken for a tourist occasionally.

  However, Tucker was obviously out of his depth. His brows were constantly furrowed, his forehead wrinkled in confusion. We passed by artisan soap and cheese shops, storefronts that displayed leather beanies and wool fingerless gloves in the windows. We walked into one clothing store and Tucker took one look at the exposed burnished pipes and naked lightbulbs hanging by wires from the ceiling and assumed the store was closed for repairs.

  “No, it’s open,” I said.

  “But…” he pointed to the raw two-by-fours screwed into the walls and the unfinished concrete floor.

  “It’s designed that way,” I assured him, gesturing to the other customers who were milling around the shop.

  We eventually walked through the store, but it was obvious Tucker still wasn’t convinced by my evidence. He seemed afraid to touch anything in case it wasn’t actually for sale, and he would be accused of stealing. I wanted to tease him, but it made sense. Hillbilly Hollow’s most hip store was definitely Suzy’s boutique, but even that had a small-town vibe. The clothes, while fashionable, hung on metal hangers on metal racks, and the dressing room was just a series of thick curtains hanging from the ceiling. Tucker didn’t have much experience with boutique stores, especially not the hipster ones in Williamsburg.

  He did end up buying a few things. He bought his dad an “I Love NYC” snow globe, and he bought all of the Hillbilly Hollow officers a pendant of the Statue of Liberty to hang from the rearview mirrors of their cars. I tried a few times to have him buy something for himself from one of the shops, but after he walked into a store with ripped leather pants and a fringe denim vest, he decided he didn’t need anything fancier than what the big box store back home could offer.

  “I’m happy to just take it all in,” he insisted. “You shop wherever you like, and I’ll have a good time.”

  It felt strange walking down the street with Tucker right next to me. Shopping felt distinctly like a couple activity. I had the sense that everyone we passed assumed we were together, and the fact that I was shopping for a bridesmaid dress didn’t help matters. The sales associate at one shop brought me a different size in a dress and a matching bow tie for my “boyfriend.” I corrected her quickly and sent her away before Tucker could notice. The last thing he needed was any encouragement.

  Even though he wasn’t making any more obvious attempts to woo me, I knew he still had hopes that something romantic would arise between us. And as nice as he was, I knew it would never happen. I just hadn’t found the right way to break the news to him yet. Plus, if I told him too early, it would make the rest of the trip an awkward nightmare. I just needed to keep things casual until we were back in Missouri and I could let him down gently.

  “Emma,” Tucker said from behind me, sounding breathless. “That one looks beautiful on you.”

  Tucker had been waiting outside the dressing room for me to come out in a dress for ten minutes, but I kept telling him they didn’t look right to avoid having to show him, so he’d eventually left. As soon as I was sure he’d wandered off to find something to occupy himself with, I poked my head out of the dressing room and used the three-paned full body mirror in the lounge area rather than the single six-foot tall mirror hanging on the back of the dressing room door. Apparently, however, Tucker hadn’t wandered off as far as I’d hoped.

  “Really, you look like a princess. Better than the bride, I bet.”

  I gave him a friendly smile. “I don’t think that would be welcome news to the bride. I think she’ll want to be the best dressed woman at her own wedding.”

  “Okay, well maybe not as good as the bride, then,” he said, his mouth turned up in a crooked grin. “But I reckon it’d be pretty close.”

  After trying on close to twenty navy dresses, they were all beginning to look the same, but I thought I agreed with Tucker about this one. The neckline was wide and cut across the tops of my shoulders, giving the dress a vintage kind of look, but the lace overlay made it look timeless. The fabric clung close to my chest and ribs, and then flared out at my waist, cutting off at the middle of my shin.

  “Thanks, Tucker.”

  “Are you gonna get that one?” he asked.

  I hummed, uncertain. “I don’t know yet.”

  For as nice as Tucker was being, I noticed his shoulders visibly droop. He had endured just about as much dress shopping as he could handle.

  “You can go explore a bit if you want,” I offered. “I might try a few of these on again before I make my final decision.”

  Tucker looked towards the door longingly and then back at me. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  “We have our cell phones. I’ll call you when I’m done.” I shooed him away with a brush of my hands and he took a step towards the door.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I noticed a street performer at the end of the block. You could go listen to a few songs.”

  “Okay. If you insist. Just call me when you’re ready and I’ll come ri
ght back.”

  The poor man practically sprinted from the store.

  Really, there was a ninety-nine percent chance I was going to buy the navy dress I was wearing. It was by far the most beautiful one I’d seen all day. I just needed a few Tucker-free moments to take care of something. I snapped a picture of myself in the mirror and then sent it to Suzy and Billy in separate messages.

  I was in the middle of drafting a message to Billy when Suzy’s text came back seconds later.

  SUZY: YES! YES YES YES! That is the one. If U don’t buy it, I’m kicking U out of Annie’s wedding.

  ME: I’m buying it! Don’t let her replace me with another bridesmaid!

  I clicked back to Billy’s conversation. Three dots at the bottom of the screen showed me he was typing, and then they went away. They reappeared again, and then flicked away. Clearly, Billy was speechless. I smiled as I finished my text to him.

  ME: I found a dress for the wedding! Were U serious about me buying U a suit because I don’t think it will fit in my carry on? (: I have a favor 2 ask. Call me when U get the chance.

  I had just slipped out of the dress and back into my jeans and sweater when my phone rang. It was Billy.

  “Hello, Doctor Will.”

  He laughed. “Hi Emma. First of all, I can find my own suit, but thanks for double-checking. And second,” there was a long pause where I wondered whether the thick brick walls of the store had interfered with reception. “You look beautiful in that dress.”

  My cheeks warmed, making me glad we were on the phone and not talking in person. “Thank you. I had to try on a million dresses, but I finally found a winner. Suzy likes it, too.”

  “Did Tucker help you pick it out?” he asked, his tone only half-teasing. Before I could respond, he sighed. “Sorry. You’ve explained the situation multiple times, and I need to let it go. Tell Tucker hi from me.”

  “I would, but he isn’t here right now,” I said softly. “He was getting tired of dress shopping.”

  “Amateur,” Billy said, sounding much more chipper.

  “Completely,” I agreed.

  “So, what do you need from me?” he asked.

  “I know you’re at work right now, so I don’t expect you to drop everything and help me out, but I need help with a bit of research.”

  “Is the internet not as good over there in the big city as it is back in Hillbilly Hollow or something?” he teased.

  “Well, Hillbilly Hollow is free of Larry Tucker, which makes it the perfect place to conduct this secret research.”

  Billy lowered his voice, even though Tucker wasn’t around, and even if he was, he wouldn’t have been able to hear Billy. “You don’t want Tucker to know about what you’re looking up?”

  I nodded. “Yes, exactly.”

  “Okay, I can do that. What do you need me to do?”

  “I have a list of taxi drivers in New York City that could be the man who ran me over a few months back, but I need you to help me weed some of them out.”

  Billy sighed. “I don’t know, Emma…”

  I knew Billy didn’t approve of my search for the cab driver who had hit me, but I also knew he would find a small level of satisfaction from the fact that he was helping me with a project that was being kept secret from Tucker. I was hoping that would be enough to convince him to help. Because I really didn’t want Tucker to find out just yet. If he did, he would surely try to stop me. Or, because he was a sheriff himself, he might force me to go to the police. And while I did want closure where the accident was concerned, I didn’t necessarily want to press charges. It would be easier to handle this the way I wanted if I kept Tucker out of it for as long as possible.

  “I’ll do it with or without you, Billy,” I said. “But I’d rather do it with you.”

  I could hear him breathing on the other end of the phone, and then he let out a sigh of resignation. “Okay, I’m on board.”

  I resisted the urge to celebrate, and instead took a deep breath. “Thanks, Billy. I can always count on you. I’ll send you a list of the names and addresses. The guy I had help me found everyone by the name of Ernest, Ernesto, and Ernie. But the cab driver who hit me went by ‘Ernest,’ so I think you can just stick to those. Doing that will leave twelve names. I’m looking for a guy with curly dark hair and a thick black beard that touches his chest.”

  “The guy that helped you?” Billy asked. “Who got you this list?”

  “Just a hacker in my apartment building.”

  “A hacker?” he said, sounding disbelieving. “Are you sure you aren’t taking this too far, Emma? I don’t want you involved with any dangerous people.”

  So, that was a clear sign that I definitely shouldn’t tell Billy that Stephen had been extremely threatening as I’d left his apartment. I didn’t need him to know exactly how much danger I was putting myself into.

  “He’s just your run of the mill tech geek. He helped me get a list of names from a city database. Easy peasy.”

  “Maybe if that city was Hillbilly Hollow. But this was in New York. I’m sure there was a lot more standing between him and that information than a password of 1234.”

  “Are you still on board or not?” I asked, peeking through the curtain to be sure Tucker hadn’t snuck back into the dressing room while I was distracted.

  “Yes, I’ll help. I just wish I was there with you,” he said. I could imagine him running his hand anxiously through his hair the way he always did. “Promise me you’ll take Tucker with you.”

  “Now you want me spending time with Tucker?” I teased.

  “Em, promise. Please.”

  I could hear the concern in his voice, the worry. Billy really did care about my safety. In that moment, I wished he was there with me, too. If it was him instead of Tucker, I wouldn’t have hesitated to have him help me track down Ernest or solve Blanche’s murder. He worried about me, but Billy never held me back.

  Just as I was about to open my mouth, I lifted my head to look in the mirror and was met with a pale white apparition instead. Startled, I jolted backwards, slamming into the partition between my dressing room and the next. Blanche was standing in front of me, her hair frizzy around her face, eyes wide and focused on me.

  I wondered why she didn’t speak. True, Preacher Jacob’s ghost had never been talkative, but the spirits of Melody Campbell and Prudence Huffler had always had plenty to say. Still, every ghost was different, I supposed.

  I could see my breath. The dressing room had become unbearably cold all of a sudden. My teeth chattered.

  “Emma? Are you there?”

  I could hear Billy talking in my ear, but the conversation felt like another lifetime. Staring at Blanche’s foggy form in front of me, nothing in the real world seemed to matter.

  I blinked a few times, trying to focus. When the spirits appeared, it was usually to deliver a message, to give me a clue. I needed to pay attention.

  “Emma?” Billy was becoming more and more frustrated on the end of the line, his voice wavering somewhere between panic and anger.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I spun away from Blanche, facing the opposite wall, and tried to forget she was there, though the hair on the back of my neck was standing up. For some reason, this ghost creeped me out in a way the others never had.

  “I promise,” I said in a rush, not entirely sure whether I meant it or not. “I’ll take Tucker with me.”

  “Okay, good. Send me the information. I had a couple cancellations this afternoon, so I’ll get back to you pretty quickly, assuming I’m able to find stuff on all of these guys.”

  “You’re a lifesaver, Billy. Thank you. I’ll send everything right now.”

  “You owe me,” Billy said.

  That was the second time I’d heard that phrase that day, but luckily it sounded much better coming from Billy than it had from Stephen.

  “I know.”

  When I hung up, I held the phone to my chest for a second, half-hoping that when I turned around, Blanche would be
gone. I took a deep breath.

  As I expected because of the icy chill racing up my spine, Blanche was still standing behind me. Just as she had been on the street the night before with Tucker, she was moving her mouth but no sound was coming out.

  “I don’t understand what you’re trying to tell me,” I whispered. “If this is a clue, I’m not getting it. I need something else.”

  Blanche’s eyes stayed blankly fixed on me, looking through me rather than at me.

  “Was your death foul play?” I asked. “It would help if you could say something aloud.”

  Maybe she didn’t like being criticized for her silence. Blanche’s eyes shot open wide, her mouth flattened into a hard line, and then just as she had every other time I’d seen her, she flickered once and then disappeared.

  14

  If the sales associate overheard me talking to myself in the dressing room, she didn’t mention it while she rang up the navy-blue dress for me and placed it in a black garment bag. I draped the bag over my arm and walked out into the day. It was warm, especially in contrast to the ghostly chill of the dressing room, and I stopped in the doorway to let the sun spread over me like a blanket.

  I took a deep breath and was surprised by the staleness of the air, the smell of car exhaust and of the nearby garbage can. I’d lived in New York for years, but a few months back on the farm had made me used to the smell of nature. I missed it. Much more than I thought I would. Even though I’d been hesitant to head back to New York City so soon after moving to Missouri, part of me had still expected to enjoy the trip more. But as every day passed, I was more tempted to forget about Blanche’s possible murder and go back to the farm. However, if Blanche’s boldness was any sign, she wouldn’t let me forget about her. I had to solve this puzzle if I wanted any amount of peace.

  “There you are.”

  I turned to see Tucker leaning against the brick wall of the boutique. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he looked like a real New Yorker in every way.