by Raven Snow
Then there was Tina Stenson. Tina was an old friend of Willow and Peony. They had been very close in high school before they had a falling out over something or another in their senior year. Last month, Willow had published a none too flattering public interest piece about driving under the influence. Tina had, rather infamously, driven up an off ramp in their senior year of high school. No one had been hurt, but she had plowed her father’s SUV into a police cruiser that was parked in the grassy median. Understandably, Tina had taken issue with the less savory parts of her past being brought back up.
Lastly, there was Edward Lister. He owned the diner across the street. He had inherited it from his parents and, word had it, wanted to sell. Rumor also had it that the Lainswich offices across the street greatly hurt the resale value as well as the diner’s business. Rowen wasn’t sure how much truth there was to that. Edward had never said more than two words to her, and only then when he was greeting her as she came in for a quick lunch. Rowen had, however, received a number of letters demanding she move because it hurt the surrounding businesses. As far as Rowen was concerned, it was hardly her problem if the locals were too prejudiced to come within fifty feet of the Greensmith girls. It was her problem if Edward had anything to do with the shooting, though. At the very least, he seemed worth mentioning.
“Oh, I remember Edward Lister,” said Tiffany, looking down at the list as Ben started in on some follow-up questions. “You dated him for awhile, didn’t you, Margo?”
Margo rolled her eyes. “Just for, like, a few months,” she grumbled, no doubt tired of her exes getting involved in a number of less than savory things.
“I hated that boy,” Tiffany said, wrinkling her nose as if detecting a bad smell.
That got Ben’s interest. “Why?” he asked. He must have thought Tiffany had a good reason. Clearly, he didn’t know her that well.
Tiffany shook her head. “Women’s intuition,” she said. “He was no good. You could just tell.”
“She just wants to get in on the excitement,” Rowen interjected quickly, willing Ben not to pay any mind to her mother. “She didn’t know him that well.”
Aunt Lydia cleared her throat. “In your mother’s defense, she didn’t much care for him back in those days,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically small. Even bombastic Aunt Lydia knew this was a poor time for interrupting with unsolicited opinions. “I rather liked him, myself,” she said, sharing her own anyway.
“I liked him, too,” added Nadine, her voice even smaller than Aunt Lydia’s.
Tiffany shrugged. “Well, it was just my intuition then. My intuition is usually right, though.”
Ben looked at Margo. “You were the one who dated him, right?” he asked, jotting something down as he spoke. “What impression did you get of him back in those days.”
Margo sighed. “I don’t know,” she grumbled. “He was fine, I guess.”
“He was never violent?” asked Ben.
“No,” Margo said, shortly. “You would know about as well as I do. You were in school at the same time. I think you had some classes together.”
Ben inclined his head as if to concede that point. “How was the breakup?”
“About like your breakup with Rowen,” said Margo, looking at her cousin and trying to take some of the heat off of herself. “I haven’t talked to him since if that’s what you’re getting at. I couldn’t care less about him. We’re not close.” It seemed that Margo had had her fill of being the center of attention.
Ben nodded. He jotted down something else. Rowen tried to get a look at it, but he angled the pad of paper away from her. “It would be best if you kept to yourselves for a few days. I know none of you will, of course, but I feel obligated to say it. Try not to make anyone mad until we have a suspect in custody.”
“You do have a suspect in custody,” said David.
Margo elbowed him. “Terry didn’t do it, idiot.”
David frowned. “Technically, they still have a suspect in custody,” he muttered.
“Don’t question anyone on your own,” warned Ben. He gave Rowen a serious look. He must have noticed something in the way she looked back at him, because he leaned back in his chair like he was giving up. “Or do what you want. What do I care? I’m just the police chief. Please, stay safe out there, you guys. I have enough to worry about without the lot of you putting yourselves into unnecessary danger.”
Everyone left the office and scattered to their respective cars. Tiffany tried to linger behind and ride home with Rowen, but Rowen made it clear that she wasn’t in a chatty mood. She still didn’t appreciate her mother inserting herself into all this business. Tiffany went, reluctantly, looking back at Rowen sadly as she got into Aunt Lydia’s car.
“It’s no good staying mad at her,” said Margo.
Rowen threw her a dirty look.
“Up to you, though,” Margo assured her, quickly.
“Now what?” asked Eric, sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Now, we question people,” said Rowen, earning a puzzled look from literally everyone in the car.
“You heard Ben,” said David. “You’re not supposed to interfere with a police investigation.”
“We’re not interfering,” said Rowen, looking thoughtfully out the window and toward the police station. “We’re helping him out.”
“How do you figure that?” asked David.
“You heard him. They have their hands full right now. There’s a serial killer on the loose.” Rowen hoped that Rose had gotten in another good story on that today while they had been gone. The shooting was important, sure, but word of the killer was still the hottest news in town. It was all anyone cared about. Which was all the more reason for Rowen to solve this particular mystery herself.
“You’re not going alone,” Eric said with a sigh.
“You’re going to help her?” David asked his brother, sounding surprised.
“I’d better,” said Eric. He looked at Rowen for a moment. He smiled, though his eyes seemed more than a little tired. “She’s going to do it whether I like it or not.”
“You’re right about that,” said Rowen. She was glad she had a guy who understood her so well.
“Who do we question first?” asked Margo, already inserting herself into matters. She had every reason to help out. Not only was she clearly concerned about Rowen, but she also had Terry to worry about. Ex or not, it was doubtful she wanted him going down for a crime she genuinely didn’t seem to believe he could have committed.
“First things first, we need to head back to the office,” said Rowen. “There’s a lot going on right now, and I need to speak with Willow and Peony. There’s some things we need to discuss.”
Chapter Six
As it turned out, it had taken some convincing to get Willow back into the office. After Rowen had been shot at, she didn’t much seem to trust the place. In all fairness, as far as reasons to be afraid of a place went that was a pretty good one.
“She’s in the storage closet,” said Peony when Rowen came in and asked after her.
“Well, come on. We need to talk,” Rowen said, heading for the closet and motioning for Peony to follow. “Margo, do you mind looking over today’s article with Rose?”
Margo actually had a pretty good head for the journalism game. She could be a little lazy, but when she was motivated, she was great. Fortunately, she was plenty motivated right now. She didn’t argue with Rowen. She just went over and pulled up a chair next to Rose.
David stayed with Margo, looking more than a little like he felt very out of place. Eric went with Rowen. He was going to stay involved in this whether she liked it or not. Rowen had a tendency to wander off and question people without him which was probably a bad habit. It was one she was trying to break.
Sure enough, Willow was in the storage closet. She was sitting on a folding chair, her feet propped up on stacked boxes of printer paper. Her laptop rested on her legs, and she looked up from it when the door opened
. “Did they catch him?” she asked. Those were the first words out of her mouth.
“They have Terry, but they don’t think he did it,” said Rowen. It seemed unlikely that any of the Greensmith girls actually thought Terry was capable of that sort of thing. “They don’t have any other suspects in custody.”
“But they do have other suspects,” Willow said, latching on to her precise wording.
Rowen raised an eyebrow at her cousin. “You do know that you weren’t the one they shot at, right?”
Willow didn’t look at all embarrassed about her decision to hole up in the storage closet. “You said yourself that they don’t have a suspect in custody. That means they don’t know the motive. For all we know, this lunatic could have been happy shooting at any of us. I’m not taking any chances.” She looked back down at her laptop. “I can work just fine from in here, thanks.”
“She’s been in here all day,” Peony told them exasperatedly.
Willow frowned at her sister. “Don’t act like I’m being ridiculous. Someone shot at Rowen, remember? It seems to me like I’m the only sane one.”
She wasn’t wrong. Rowen could rightly say that she had a very good point. In fact, if she wanted her and her sister’s help, she was going to have to partly confirm her suspicions. “I’ll get to the point. Do you remember Tina Stenson?”
Peony groaned. Yes, it seemed she did remember Tina Stenson.
“Is that who was shooting at us?” Willow asked, her eyes growing wide.
“No,” Rowen said, quickly. “Well, maybe.” She tried to rephrase that before anyone could overreact. “No one knows for sure yet. She’s just one of the people we’re keeping an eye on.”
“I told you we shouldn’t have done that article about the time she rammed the police car,” Peony told her sister, crossing her arms over her chest.
“How was I supposed to know she would go insane and just start shooting at us?!” Willow demanded, glaring right back at her sister.
“Guys,” said Rowen, trying to cut in. She was ignored as her cousins continued to bicker over the details of an old article and the bearing it had on whether or not they lived or died in the next few days.
“No one has determined one way or another whether Tina is the shooter,” Eric said, raising his voice. He had a strong, deep voice. It got Willow and Peony’s attention in a way that Rowen couldn’t. “Rowen wants you to set up a meeting with her,” said Eric.
“We can do that,” said Peony.
“No way,” said Willow.
Peony glared at her sister. “We can totally do that,” she insisted.
“Are you kidding?” Willow motioned at the storage closet around them. “If I’m not coming out of here while we’re at work, what makes you think I’m going to cozy up to our would-be murderer.”
“Nothing has been proven yet,” Eric said, rolling his eyes at the two of them. “And you’re overreacting. She doesn’t want you to meet with her.”
That got the girls’ attention. Rowen took it from there. “I just want you to set up a meeting with her. It’s our most likely shot at getting her to meet up with us so we can ask some questions. Tell her that you’re working on a new article that involves her and that you want an interview.”
“An article that involves her?” Peony repeated, sounding skeptical. “Like she would believe something like that.”
“She might,” Willow admitted, looking reluctant to say as much out loud. “She’s pretty self-absorbed.”
Peony went silent as if considering that. “I guess you’re right about that.”
“Tell her that this is her chance to set the record straight,” said Rowen. “If she’s the narcissist you seem to think she is, she’s not going to pass that up.”
“I’m not going to meet up with someone who wants me dead,” said Willow.
“You’re not,” Rowen assured her. “You’re just going to arrange for a meeting with her and then call me. I’ll do the actual ‘interview’ if it makes you too uncomfortable.”
“Where are you going to be?” asked Peony.
“We have two other people to look into.” Rowen left the storage closet to see if Margo wanted to join her. She seemed pretty invested in all of this, after all.
Margo and Rose were poring over an article on Rose’s desktop when Rowen came out. Eric was on her heels. “Who are you going to go after first?” he asked, clearly intending to tag along.
“Roland Davies,” said Rowen. He was the one that she hoped it was. Tina seemed unlikely, and she didn’t want it to be another one of Margo’s exes. She couldn’t imagine how Margo would deal with any more personal drama in her life right now. “He seems like a likely suspect, right?”
“For the shooter?” asked Rose, pushing her chair back from her desk. “Totally. That guy is a creep. He was outside the office a couple of days ago. I called the cops on him this time. He was standing right outside the office with this horrible sign. I’m not sure what he thinks he’s going to accomplish with that thing. Not even the locals like him. He’s vile.”
“Want to come with?” Rowen asked Margo.
Before Margo could answer, Rose spoke up. “Oh, let me go,” she begged. “I’m so sick of staring at this computer screen, and I absolutely loathe that man. If you’re going to put the screws to him, I want to be there for it.”
“Someone will have to stay here and mind the blog,” said Rowen. Now they had two big stories to keep up with, after all. “And I’ve already got Willow and Peony on a mission of their own.”
“And you certainly can’t do it,” Margo said sarcastically. “This whole place was your idea, but I think you actually write the least around here.”
“Only when there’s something that needs looking into,” Rowen said in her own defense. “It’s not my fault if that happens all the time, is it?” She wasn’t about to let her cousins run into danger all on their own. She was much more comfortable taking the lead when it came to stuff like this.
At least Margo didn’t seem like she cared quite enough to argue the point. “I’ll stay here,” she said with a sigh, motioning for Rose to go on. “I’ll, ya know, hold down the fort and all that. You two be careful.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll see to that,” Eric assured her.
“I guess I’ll keep an eye on you here,” said David, looking a bit lost.
“Keep an eye on me?” Margo scoffed. “You can help me finish proofreading these articles.” David reluctantly began doing just that as Eric and Rowen left with Rose.
The drive was a fairly lengthy one. Rose fell asleep in the back in the amount of time it took them to find, roughly, where his place must be. Roland lived out of the way, much like Jason had. Unlike Jason, it wasn’t on a straight shot of a country road. There were a lot of trailers and RVs where Roland lived. Finding the right one was tricky. They drove through bumpy dirt side roads and crowded dusty lots looking for the right place. All the mailboxes were on the main road, so it wasn’t like they could tell just from an address number.
“Pull over,” Rowen said, eventually.
“Here?” Eric looked around, skeptical. It wasn’t the best of neighborhoods to be leaving a nice car. Already some people on a nearby porch were unashamedly staring at them. Eric, quite clearly, didn’t belong in a place like this. “Are you sure?”
“We have to pull over some time, don’t we?” Rowen unbuckled her seatbelt. “You can wait in the car if you want.” She knew he wouldn’t, but she felt she should at least offer. It was touching that he worried about her, but things like this she could probably manage all right on her own. She reached into the back and gave Rose a nudge. “Wake up, sleepy head, we’re here. You’ve gotta stop pulling those long nights at the office.”
Rose blinked. She yawned and looked around. “Are we here?”
“Yep,” Rowen said with a nod. “Eric’s parking now.”
Eric sighed and pulled off to one side of the road. He put the car into park and made sure to lock it at
least three different times once they had gotten out. If someone was determined to strip his car for parts, Rowen wasn’t sure that a lock would stop them, but she didn’t say that out loud.
“Do you know where you’re going?” asked Eric.
Rowen shook her head. “It’s gotta be one of these in here, though, right? The mailbox was out there with the others. We just have to figure out which one is Roland’s.”
“Hey!” Eric called over to the people watching them from their front porch. “Do you guys know where a Mr. Davies lives? Roland Davies?”
The people on the porch continued to stare for a moment. Slowly, one shook their head.