The Girl in the Mist: A Misted Pines Novel

by Ashley, Kristen

  I smiled. “So, you’re running.”

  She returned my smile. “I talked to Dan. He’s agreed. Kenneth has been on the council for thirty-five years, can you believe that?”

  Yes, I could believe that. I would have guessed more like fifty. I might have even guessed he incorporated the town personally and had been on the council since Misted Pines became Misted Pines.

  “I heard you were going after Gary’s seat,” I noted.

  She shook her head, but said, “Not at first. To do it right, you should start where you’re supposed to start and learn what you need.” A ballsy grin and, “I’ll go after Gary in the next election.”

  It was me returning the grin this time, though mine was happy for her, not ballsy.

  “First order of business,” she said as we moved to the counter to place our order, “term limits.”

  I was a big term limit enthusiast, which went hand in hand with being a let’s-have-a-lot-fewer-old-white-guys-running-things enthusiast.

  I had a feeling Megan and I didn’t share a party, but I also had a feeling I’d vote for her.

  I’d told her the chemistry teacher story, and she’d agreed with me, that’s all I was saying.

  She started ordering, and I couldn’t shake the feeling I was getting, so I looked to where Ray and Shelly were standing, thinking he was still aiming his glower at me, but they weren’t there.

  I turned to the seating area.

  And the instant I did, a man who’d been watching me averted his head.

  Quickly, he pulled the hood of his blue hoodie up over his hair, got up and hustled toward the door.

  My skin went cold.

  He had dark hair.

  And the man I’d seen out my office window skulking toward Bohannan’s place had dark hair and had been wearing a hoodie.

  And there was no paper cup on the table where he was sitting, and he didn’t have one in his hand.

  And he’d been watching me.

  “What do you want?” Megan asked. “I’m buying this time.”

  I didn’t answer.

  I moved toward the door, shrugging my purse off my shoulder to get my phone.

  “Delphine?” Megan called.

  Hoodie man twisted slightly at the door like he was looking back at me.

  He didn’t quite look back at me.

  He bolted out the door.

  Oh my God!

  I didn’t think.

  I bolted after him.

  I didn’t get a good look at him, but he was probably younger than me.

  And he was a man.

  He was also wearing running shoes.

  I was in low-heeled booties, which were not running shoes.

  It wouldn’t matter if I was in running shoes, he would have lost me.

  Still, I kept after him.

  Though I realized I’d need to check out the local Pilates place, because I got a block and a half and I was struggling, and he was so far ahead of me, I’d never catch him.

  In my defense, that block and a half was uphill.

  However, some type of exercise was definitely on the agenda.

  It was then someone raced by me so fast, he made a breeze that ruffled my hair, and I watched Ray’s back as he sprinted after Hoodie Man.

  Hoodie Man must have sensed he had someone in pursuit who could actually pursue, because he darted into an alley.

  Ray ran like the wind and followed him.

  I got my second wind and followed them both.

  But by the time I got to the back alley, I didn’t see them, either way.

  I stopped, wheezed, pulled my bag open, and was digging for my phone when Ray came into view, coming out of a side street and back into an alley from a block down.

  “I lost him!” he shouted. “You see him?”

  I shook my head, gathered some oxygen, and shouted back, “No!”

  He took off the other way, darting down another side street.

  I pulled out my phone and dialed Bohannan.

  “Larue,” he greeted curtly after one ring.

  “I think I…I think I just…”

  I looked one way and then the other.

  I was alone in the back alley.

  Then I went back to Bohannan.

  “I think I just saw the killer.”

  Forty-Seven

  Queen

  Ray came back to me after Bohannan ordered me to “get your ass out of the goddamn alley” and I’d gotten my ass out of the alley.

  Megan was at the corner of the block up from me, shouting, “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m coming right back,” I shouted in return.

  “You all right?” Ray asked.

  He was barely breathing heavy.

  I looked up into his sea blue eyes.

  Seriously.

  He was fabulous.

  “Yes. I just need to get back to some classes. I can’t even run a block.”

  “Was that him?” he asked.

  I knew what he was asking.

  Now that cooler heads might be prevailing…

  Maybe?

  “I don’t…he was watching me, and he was being strange, and now I’m worried that I might have overreacted.”

  Ray’s torso swung back.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I…you’re worried. About Shelly being safe. And I freaked you.”

  “You’ve probably had people watching you and being strange for a long time. I guess it doesn’t get any easier.”

  Oh boy.

  “When someone’s killing people, though,” he carried on, “it’d freak anybody.”

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “Your friend is coming.”

  I looked back up the street to see Megan heading our way.

  “She knows.”

  I turned again to Ray. “What?”

  “It’s nobody’s business, but she knows. Shelly. She knows I’m bi.”

  Well then.

  That was laying it out there.

  “We got an agreement. That’s nobody’s business either, still nobody asked. I don’t…” he searched for a word, “do anyone that means anything to me. He didn’t mean anything to me. And it’s not like I need that all the time. It’s just something I need. And he was a good go-to because he wanted no strings. It worked. No idea some crazy women were taping us. No idea they’d blow up my life.”

  This poor guy, caught in someone else’s web.

  “I’m sorry,” I repeated.

  “She freaked out that day, she was so happy to meet you. She’s a big fan. She loves your show. She watched it with her mom. Not a lot of happy memories with that woman, but that’s one of them.”

  Now he was talking about Shelly.

  God, I’d been what I hated people being, gossipy and in someone else’s business.

  I twisted quickly and Megan was almost on us.

  “Can you give us just a sec?” I asked.

  She halted, stepped backwards a few steps, and stopped, but didn’t take her eyes from us.

  And again, I returned to Ray.

  I looked right at him and admitted, “Yes, we were talking about you, and I apologize for that too. However, we didn’t know you and Shelly have a deal.”

  He started to look mad. “You of all people know, it’s not your business.”

  I, of all people, did know that.

  I nodded.

  “She knows. Shelly. She knows about it. She’s seen it. I showed it to her. I didn’t want her seeing it somewhere else, but she already knew I’d been with him. People think she’s not very smart, but she is. She’s just a happy person. Desperately happy. She’d been faking that for a long time. I got her to a place she didn’t have to fake it anymore. Now she has to fake it again. She’s just trying to pretend it didn’t happen. Let it blow over. It’s not working.”

  “God. Again, I’m so sorry.”

  “Now she knows you know and she’s embarrassed.”

  So he wasn’t angry for himself we were whispering,
he was angry for Shelly.

  “Ray, right?”

  “Like you don’t know who I am,” he bit.

  Definitely getting angry.

  “It will blow over,” I told him.

  He stared at me.

  “It will,” I repeated.

  “Parents are taking their kids out of my programs.”

  “Small-minded people,” I said. “That’ll pass too. Kids need those programs. They need them more than the parents need to be bigots.”

  “I get small-minded people. Lived with that all my life. What about the kids?”

  I didn’t have an answer for that.

  He twisted at the waist and pointed down the street. “Was that him?”

  “I really don’t know,” I told him the truth.

  I was beginning to feel foolish, so I flipped back to our previous subject, which I didn’t want to talk about further, but he didn’t seem to be ready to leave.

  “Those women shouldn’t have done that to you.”

  At the very least, they should have cropped his face.

  “I didn’t know he was a cheat,” he said, clipped and hostile. “He got what he deserved. But not me. My parents could have seen that.”

  “I hope they don’t,” I said quickly.

  “I hope they don’t too,” he replied, glanced up and rearranged his face. “Just a sec, sweetheart,” he said over my shoulder.

  I turned to see Shelly was approaching Megan.

  “Hi, Shelly,” I called.

  “Was it the killer?” she called back, fear in her voice.

  Now what had I done?

  I shook my head. “No, I just—”

  “She saw him taking a picture,” Ray lied.

  Shelly appeared confused, of course, for I would be used to that, wouldn’t I?

  “I’m having a bad day,” I lied too.

  One side of her face scrunched in a doubtful look, but I turned back to Ray.

  “Thanks for attempting hot pursuit.”

  “Did you call Bohannan?”

  I nodded.

  “Is he coming?”

  Damn, damn, and triple damn.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think he’ll wanna talk to me?”

  How did I do this?

  “Did you see him?

  “No.”

  “In Aromacobana? See his face?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t notice him at all until you tore after him. I mean,” he tried for levity, at the same time letting me off the hook because it was clear he was a decent guy, “this famous woman just walked in, and she knew me.”

  I gave him a weak smile.

  “I just…well…I…” I didn’t know. So I said, “He can find you at the rec center, right?”

  He nodded. “And I’m a city employee, so they just gotta look me up if they need to find me.”

  “Okay, though, I wouldn’t expect it. I think I just got jumpy.”

  “That’s understandable,” he muttered.

  He started to move by, but I reached out and caught his forearm.

  He looked at it, to me, and I let him go.

  “Sorry for touching you,” I said.

  “I don’t mind. Just…what do you need?”

  “It does get better,” I whispered.

  He studied me.

  He nodded.

  Then he walked to Shelly.

  Megan came right to me.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “Me being an idiot,” I answered.

  “How?”

  “Well, a young woman’s body was pulled out of the lake while I made coffee and cinnamon rolls and watched, and maybe I’m realizing I’ve not been processing it all that well.”

  She flinched, grabbed my hand and tucked it under her arm as she led us back to the coffee house.

  “I think we’ve all convinced ourselves we’ve seen this murderer a dozen times,” she remarked to make me feel better.

  “Yes.”

  “Though none of us raced after him like we were Cagney and Lacey,” she teased.

  “I’m totally an idiot,” I mumbled, lifted my phone and walked back to Aromacobana with Megan, texting Bohannan where I’d be.

  And asking if he wanted a coffee.

  “Right, let’s go over this again.”

  We were in Bohannan’s office.

  I was getting a lecture because I’d been a naughty girl.

  And I was trying to focus on that and not get mad that he was treating me like the idiot I’d been, and further not focus on how I might be able to get into acting out a “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” fantasy.

  “Larue,” he called.

  I focused on him.

  “If we think we see a serial killer, we don’t chase him, are you with me?”

  “You’re pissing me off,” I shared.

  His brows rose. “I’m pissing you off?”

  “Yes. I didn’t think. Yes. It was a kneejerk reaction. Yes. Pretty much anyone runs when chased. But I’m telling you, Bohannan, he was creepy. I felt it before I even looked at him.”

  “And you didn’t see his face, but he was wearing the same hoodie he wore when he was outside by the lake.”

  “Not the same. I don’t know if it was the same. They were just both blue and hoodies.”

  “You didn’t tell me it was a hoodie before. You said it was a sweatshirt. You’re telling me it was a hoodie now?”

  “A hoodie’s a sweatshirt.”

  “A hoodie’s a hoodie.”

  Damn it.

  He had me there.

  “It was a hoodie. I should have said it was a hoodie because it was.”

  “Sure?”

  Was I?

  I nodded.

  “And he just happened to be hanging at Aromacobana, waiting for you to show when it’s random you hook up with Megan to get a coffee.”

  “You’re making me feel stupid.”

  “I’m making you think.”

  “Are you going to quote Confucius to me?” I asked.

  I knew instantly we were about to get in our first fight, and I was the one who shot across the bow, because that wasn’t the right thing to say.

  “What I’m asking,” he said slowly, “is for you to tell me if he followed you in, or if he was in there waiting for you. You said he didn’t have a drink. If he’s following, I gotta know that. If he’s waiting for you, I gotta know that. If he might have been waiting for someone else, I gotta know that. I gotta know everything about this guy if he’s our guy, and if me asking you questions about it makes you feel dumb, suck it up.”

  “So you don’t think I’m being an idiot?”

  “No, I think you need to share what the fuck happened.”

  “I told you.”

  “What did you read on him?”

  “I didn’t read anything. I felt it.”

  “Someone watching you.”

  “Something wrong. But yes. When I turned, he was watching me.”

  He blew out a breath.

  I crossed my arms on my chest.

  He was in his office chair, turned to face me.

  I was sitting on the arm of the club chair in the window.

  “You know, you chasing a man down the street is going through MP like wildfire right now.”

  “I know,” I said between my teeth.

  “We’ve thankfully managed not to have a full-blown panic. That won’t help.”

  “Bohannan, I already told you I feel like I screwed up, and yet I still feel right. About what, I don’t know. But how many young men flee from fifty-three-year-old women?”

  “Do you think he was paparazzi?”

  “Could be, but they don’t normally run. They chase.”

  “So we’re back to the beginning, we don’t chase serial killers.”

  Without a word, I stood and headed to the door.

  Bohannan got there before me and put a hand to it.

  Stupid, fast men.

  I looked up at him.
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  “I’m attempting to leave,” I said with forced civility.

  “Don’t do that again, baby.”

  “I already know it was foolish.”

  “I didn’t want to say this, but I also didn’t say it because I thought you knew it.”

  “Say what?”

  “You are not a queen.”

  “What?”

  “You are not a queen.”

  “Bohannan…what do you mean?”

  “Larue…you are not a queen. If you’re used, you’re a pawn. Now, are you understanding me?”

  I sucked in breath.

  Because yes.

  I was understanding him.

  “Hawk’s signal from your fob goes two places. To Hawk, and to the house up the hill. They saw you run down the street and head into an alley, where you had no reason to be, and called me before you did, but they’d already rolled out. You’re covered. Celeste is covered. I just need you to be smart.”

  The FBI had already rolled out to rescue me.

  Ah, hell.

  “I didn’t think. I got…I just want this to be done.”

  He pulled my stiff body into his arms.

  “We all do, baby.”

  I wound my arms around him.

  “I don’t know who to ask,” I said. “Megan might have noticed if he was there or if he followed us in, but I don’t want to alarm her.” I tipped my head back. “Or you could ask Ray.”

  “The guy who chased after him for you?”

  “He didn’t chase after him for me, he just chased after him better than me.”

  Bohannan’s beard quirked.

  But I nodded. “He was in Aromacobana when we got there. He and Shelly were waiting for coffees. He said he didn’t notice him before I went after him, but maybe if someone talks to him, it might jog his memory.”

  “Rec center guy.”

  I nodded again.

  “Harry hit him up before, since he deals with a lot of kids and their parents, as maybe a lead for someone who might know something about Alice. But I’ll get Jace or Jess to stop and have another chat with Ray.”

  “So, we’re not going to fight?”

  He appeared bemused.

  “What?”

  “You were getting pissed.”

  “So were you.”

  “That normally ends in a fight. Is this the way we’re going to fight? We get mildly annoyed and then stand holding each other?”

  “It works for me.”

  He was a unicorn.