Don't Wake the Dead

by C. C. Wood

  Mal’s body stiffened next to me. “What?”

  “Steve was very upset when we spoke yesterday and I told him I would look into it,” Sheriff Daughtry continued. “Then tonight you call me with this crazy story.”

  Jonelle bristled at his words. “Crazy story?” she asked loudly. “It’s crazy all right, but it’s also exactly what happened!”

  The sheriff ignored her and looked first at Mal, then at me. “What did I tell you about bothering anyone with your stupid suspicions? And now you’re trying to drag a good man’s name through the mud.”

  I gaped at him in utter shock. “Are you saying that we made this up?” I asked. “Did you even look at the bullet holes in the van?”

  “Well, Mr. Flemming here and your friend Jonelle are licensed to carry concealed weapons.” He gave them each a hard look. “Are either of you carrying tonight?”

  “Yes,” Jonelle answered grudgingly.

  “My weapon is under the driver’s seat,” Mal replied.

  Sheriff Daughtry shrugged. “Either one of you could have fired those shots.”

  “For God’s sake, why?” I asked, my voice rising.

  “Because you think that Steven Dwyer is guilty and I refused to believe you.”

  Mal tucked me behind him, whether to protect me from the sheriff or keep me from kicking him in the balls, I’m not sure. “I’m not an idiot, Sheriff Daughtry. Surely you found some of the spent bullets in the van. Compare them to my gun and to Jonelle’s. You’ll see that they weren’t fired from either.”

  Daughtry leaned closer. “You bet your ass we will,” he growled. “I won’t have you coming into my town and causing trouble just because you don’t like the way I do things.”

  “What are you going to do when you realize that we aren’t making this up?” I asked him softly, stepping around Mal. “Are you going to ignore it the way you tried to when Mal and I came to you? Or are you going to do your job?”

  “I always do my job,” he snapped.

  “Then be my guest,” Mal said, sweeping a hand toward his van. “Tear the damn thing apart, find all the bullets and compare them. Then we’ll see.”

  “I’ll need you to surrender your weapons,” the sheriff shot back.

  “Mine is in the van under the front seat, as I told you.”

  “Mine is in my purse,” Jonelle explained. “I’ll be happy to give it to one of your deputies.”

  It was nearly two in the morning when the sheriff finally released us. Stony insisted on going home with Jonelle ‘for protection’. Initially, Mal demanded that he and Blaine stay with me but changed his mind when he found out I only had one guest bed.

  I hugged Jonelle good-bye. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “I’m sorry tonight ended like it did,” she stated.

  “Not your fault. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  She squeezed me tighter. “Me too.”

  Mal, Blaine, and I were packed into the back of a cruiser and driven to my house. By the time I made the guest bed and put blankets and pillows on the couch, it was after three and I could barely keep my eyes open.

  “Okay, you two, I’ll let you MTV Deathmatch for the bed. I need some sleep. You know where the kitchen and bathrooms are. Make yourself at home.”

  I trudged upstairs and managed to go through the motions of washing my face and brushing my teeth. The only reason I bothered to put on pajamas was because I had two men in my house, otherwise I would have been too tired to care.

  Despite the strange and frightening events of the night, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

  Chapter

  I could hear someone moving around downstairs when I woke up and, for a horrifying split second, I thought the person who tried to shoot us was back. Gasping, I sat up in bed, clutching the blanket to my chest.

  Fear washed away the last dredges of sleepiness and I reached for my phone. Then I remembered that Mal and Blaine had stayed the night.

  Sighing in relief, I flopped back against the mattress. I lay there for a few moments, waiting for my heart to return to its normal rhythm.

  The scent of coffee drifting into the room got me moving. I rolled out of bed and headed into my bathroom for a shower.

  Twenty minutes later, I came down the stairs to find Blaine still asleep on the couch, snoring. He didn’t stir as I walked past the sofa. I found Mal in the kitchen, pouring two cups of coffee.

  “Hey,” he greeted.

  “Morning.” I grabbed the half and half out of the fridge and walked over to the counter.

  “Thanks,” he said as he took the carton from me.

  I added sugar and then half and half to my cup as well. “Thank you for making coffee.”

  He smiled. “After the night we had, I figured we could use it.”

  “Yeah. It’s weird though, I went right to sleep and slept hard.”

  “Well, you didn’t sleep long. It’s only nine.”

  I shrugged. “Once I woke up, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Especially when I smelled the coffee.” We sat at the kitchen table together. “You didn’t sleep long either,” I pointed out.

  Mal shrugged and drank more coffee. “I don’t sleep much anyway.”

  “Well, what do you want for breakfast?” I asked. “I can throw something together.”

  “You don’t need to cook for us,” he argued.

  “No, but I’m hungry and it’s almost impossible to cook for only one person.”

  He laughed. “Okay.”

  I perused my fridge and realized I was going to need to grocery shop soon. I did have bread, eggs, and milk, so I decided to make French toast.

  As I mixed the eggs and milk with cinnamon and vanilla, I asked Mal, “How long do you think it’ll take for the sheriff to run the ballistics test?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. They probably don’t have a facility here and they’ll have to send the weapons to Fort Worth or Dallas. It could be a couple days. It could be a couple weeks.”

  I tried not to let the worry show on my face, but Mal, ever observant, noticed it anyway.

  “You’ll be safe, Zoe. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “It’s not just that,” I explained. “I’m worried that Sheriff Daughtry is going to let his personal feelings toward me prevent him from doing what he should.”

  Mal shook his head. “I don’t think so. But I do think he wants to get all the facts.”

  I hummed in the back of my throat, but didn’t respond.

  “Zoe, this will all be resolved, one way or another. We can call someone else for help if the sheriff refuses to do his job,” Mal reassured me.

  “Someone shot at us last night, Mal! Who’s to say we survive long enough to do that?”

  He got up and came over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. “We will. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Do you think that it was Dwyer in the truck last night?”

  Mal nodded. “I’m almost positive after what the sheriff said.”

  “How did he know where we were?” I asked.

  “I’m betting he followed me here from the bar the night he hit me. He’s probably been watching us for a few days, trying to figure out how much we really know and trying to decide what he should do. I think last night wasn’t planned. It was sloppy and he was taken by surprise when he realized I was armed. He saw an opportunity and, since it worked on Hank twenty years ago, he tried to kill us the same way.”

  My skin chilled at his words. Dwyer didn’t care that his actions could have killed five people, three of which knew nothing about this situation.

  “But for all he knew, Jonelle, Stony, and Blaine weren’t involved.”

  “Murder doesn’t have a statute of limitation, Zoe. I think he’s afraid of what we might know and he wants to be sure that we can’t share it if we haven’t already.”

  I shook my head. “What a dick.”

  Mal released my shoulders and went back to the table. “I can’t argue with you there.�
��

  “So what do we do in the meantime?” I queried.

  Shrugging, Mal answered, “Work and wait. Unfortunately, we can’t leave until the sheriff returns our van, so we’re stuck filming here. I’ll need a ride into Weatherford to rent another van for a few days.” He glanced at me. “Do you mind?”

  I shook my head and went back to cooking the French toast.

  “One other thing,” he stated. When I looked up, he continued, “I’ll be staying here until Dwyer is arrested.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” I argued. “I have my shotgun and I’m angry enough to use it on Dwyer if he shows up.”

  “I’m still staying,” he insisted.

  “You don’t have a gun right now,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, but I can take care of myself without it, too.”

  I sighed. I had to admit, at least to myself, that the idea of having him here assuaged most of my fears. “Fine.”

  “I’ll help with the cooking and cleaning,” he promised. “And I’m not a complete slob.”

  I laughed. “I’m holding you to that.”

  “Coffee,” Blaine moaned as he stumbled into the kitchen from the living room. “Must. Have. Coffee.”

  Grinning, I poured him a cup. “Do you want some French toast?” I asked.

  Blaine squinted at me. “Are you an angel from Heaven?” he mumbled.

  I chuckled as I flipped the last piece of bread in the egg mixture. “Nope. Just cooking breakfast. Mal made the coffee.”

  Blaine responded with a grunt as he collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table.

  “Sorry about Blaine,” Mal apologized. “He’s not a morning person.”

  “I can see that,” I quipped.

  By the time I set a plate of French toast in front of him, Blaine’s eyes were mostly open.

  “Will you marry me?”

  I laughed. “No way. I’m saving myself for Tom Hiddleston.”

  “Okay, you and Tom wanna adopt a grown son?”

  “You’re older than me, Blaine,” I chuckled.

  “So?”

  Shaking my head I went back to the stove to make myself a plate. By the time I sat at the table, Blaine had finished his.

  “Seriously, I’m handsome, independently wealthy, and reasonably hygienic. Are you sure you won’t marry me?” Blaine asked.

  “Nope. I don’t care about money and there’s no such thing as reasonably hygienic.”

  Blaine sighed. “Fine. I’m going to take a shower then.”

  “Uh…”

  Mal grinned at me. “Stony brought us clothes. Don’t worry. Blaine won’t be walking around your house naked.”

  “Okay, that’s good. There are clean towels under the sink,” I called to Blaine as he dumped his dirty dishes in the sink.

  He lifted a hand in acknowledgement as he left the kitchen.

  Teri materialized right behind Mal’s chair. “Did he say he was going to take a shower?”

  I glared at her and gave my head a small shake, telling her without words not to do what I knew she was thinking.

  “Don’t you look at me like that. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen a naked man? Thirty years!”

  “Teri,” I warned.

  “Fine, fine. I’ll look but I won’t touch okay.”

  Before I could reply, she disappeared. Shit.

  I sighed and found Mal looking at me, his fork poised in midair.

  “Was Teri in here?” he asked.

  I nodded. “How do you think Blaine feels about spectral voyeurs?”

  Mal burst into laughter. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

  “If you say so,” I agreed mildly. I had a feeling that Teri would figure out how to make her presence known somehow.

  A few minutes later, an ear-piercing male yell came from upstairs. “Oh my God, who’s grabbing my ass?”

  I tried. I really did. I managed to contain the laughter until I glanced at Mal. Then retaining any sort of dignity was impossible. I howled and cackled until tears ran down my face.

  There was no way life would ever be boring with this odd trio.

  Unfortunately, my good mood was dampened when my phone rang and I saw my father’s name on the screen. He’d probably heard about what happened last night. He had friends in the department and some of his work buddies sometimes listened to the police scanner. Like it was a hobby.

  I hadn’t thought about calling him when I got home this morning because I was so exhausted I could barely function. Though I doubted that explanation would fly when I shared it with my father.

  Taking a deep breath, I answered the phone, “Hey, Dad.”

  “You’re alive,” he declared baldly.

  “I’m sorry, Dad. Really. It was so late when the sheriff released us from the scene that I came straight home and went to bed.”

  “You should have called me.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  My father exhaled and said, “Don’t ever scare me like that again, baby. And if something does happen, please call me as soon as it does.”

  My heart hurt, the sharp ache caused by guilt and remorse. “I will. I promise.”

  “I love you, Zoe.”

  My eyes began to burn as the memory of last night returned, the fear and knowledge that my life might well end. “I love you too, Daddy.”

  He cleared his throat, but when he spoke, his voice was still rough. “Now, I want you to tell me what happened.”

  I sniffed and took a moment to gather my composure, then I did as he said.

  Chapter

  After hearing about what happened, my father wanted me to move back home with him and my mother, but I refused. I didn’t want to put my parents in danger.

  “Zoe, I want you home where I can make sure you’re safe.”

  “Dad, Mal is staying with me. I promise, I’ll be fine.”

  “Honey, I have a shotgun and a thirty-eight. You’ll be safer here with me,” he argued.

  “Mal has a gun too, Dad. I’m not moving home and putting you and mom in danger.” I didn’t mention that the gun in question was currently in the possession of the sheriff’s department. For all I knew, Mal had another weapon stashed away. “And you bought me a shotgun when I got the house, remember?”

  He paused after that. “Okay, well, I feel a little bit better knowing he’s armed too, but does he know how to shoot?”

  “He’s licensed to carry a concealed weapon. He had to take a class.”

  My dad sighed and I knew that he was going to let the argument go for the moment. “Okay, but if anything else happens, I won’t take no for an answer. You’ll be moving back into your room until the sheriff gets it straightened out.”

  I hadn’t mentioned the things that the sheriff had said to me, or his accusation that Mal, our friends, and I were making this up. My dad was usually a laid back guy, but if he heard about what the sheriff had said, he would lose his temper. I didn’t want to think about what he might say or do if that happened.

  I also didn’t want to think about what my mother would say if my dad got arrested. She would definitely blame me, and our relationship was so tenuous right now that I doubted it would survive something like that.

  In the end, I decided it was best not to mention the sheriff’s allegations to my dad and focus on reassuring him. I also promised to check in daily.

  Now, all Mal and I could do was wait.

  Three days after the accident, Mal got sick of biding his time, expecting the sheriff to get back to him. He’d called and left message after message, but no one called us back. He was still staying with me and Stony and Blaine were staying with Jonelle.

  “If we’re stuck here, we might as well work,” he finally declared.

  The work consisted of filming promo footage of me and assembling bits and pieces from the episodes to add to the intro for the show now that I was a permanent addition. Jonelle insisted on doing my hair and make-up for the trailers and teasers that Mal
wanted to film.

  When she saw the first episode of me on camera, she turned to me and said, “From now on, you need to wear makeup when you film.”

  “I did!”

  “Wear more,” she stated.

  It took several days of intense work to get it all finished, but once it was done, I was pleased with how it looked.

  Mal also took the time to show me the show’s social media pages and group email account. When he found out I didn’t have any personal pages of my own, he insisted that I set them up so that viewers could contact me if they wanted to.

  I didn’t complain too much because Jonelle had been on me for several years to set up a Facepage or Instashoot account or whatever the heck they were called. She willingly helped me create the accounts and set up my first few posts. Then I discovered a website called Pinterest and promptly spent the next three hours looking up recipes and decor ideas for my house.

  By the time we completed everything, it was time for the episode they shot in my house to go online.

  I decided that everyone should come over and watch the show on my smart TV. I would cook dinner and we would relax.

  Between work and the silence from the sheriff’s office, the last week had been hectic and tense. We all needed to blow off steam.

  By six o’clock on the night the show was to go live, everyone was crowded around my kitchen table. Even Teri had joined us, despite the fact that I was the only one who could see or hear her. As I often did, I found myself acting as a sort of translator between her and Jonelle, and eventually the others.

  It was fun. We ate, drank, and laughed. It was how I always wanted family dinners to be at my house growing up.

  As an after dinner treat, I’d made chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and suggested we eat dessert in the living room while we watched.

  Jonelle, Stony, and Blaine headed into the living room and Mal helped me gather the bowls of cake and ice cream.

  “You know, we don’t usually watch the show the night it’s scheduled to go live,” he mentioned casually. “We’ve watched it so many times during the screening process that we’re sick of the footage.”