For Sale On Display

by Hollie Hutchins

  She looked around for any sign of a hotel, motel, or even a bed and breakfast, but didn’t see anything. She figured she would rent a room somewhere for a few weeks, until she found a more permanent place to live, but now, her intuition was telling her she was not going to find any such room to rent.

  She pulled over into the parking lot of the market and was about to walk in and ask if there was a phone she could use when she noticed there was in fact a phone booth at the edge of the parking lot. She wondered if it was just for show, or perhaps this town was so small and unknown, that even time had forgotten it.

  She put a few dimes in and was happily surprised to find it worked. She called the number she’d scribbled on the top of her state map.

  “Sheriff’s office, how may I help you?” the woman’s voice was cheery and the cheeriness of it was grating to Anna’s tired, road worn ears.

  “I’d like to speak with Sheriff Wells please.”

  “He’s out, can I take a message?”

  Anna let out a heavy breath. “No,” she said. “That’s alright. Do you know when he is expected to be back?”

  “He didn’t say,” said the woman. “But if you leave me a number—”

  “I don’t have a number to leave.”

  “Oh.” The woman was quiet a moment. “Well, you’ve got a name though, right? I can at least give him your name, maybe he can find you.”

  “My name is Anna Arnold,” said Anna. “I’m the new—”

  “The new Deputy Sheriff!” the woman said excitedly. “Yes, of course. Why didn’t you say so?”

  “I, uh—”

  “Are you in town yet, Deputy?”

  “Yeah, actually, I literally just got in.”

  “Wonderful! Are you calling for directions to the station?”

  “Not exactly,” said Anna. “I was calling the Sheriff because he’s the only person I know in town and I was hoping her could tell me where I could find a hotel or a motel or something. I need a place to stay.”

  “You don’t have a place to stay?” the woman asked. Her voice sounded concerned, which made the pit already growing in Anna’s stomach feel even heavier.

  “No, I guess I just thought I’d figure it out once I got here.” She frowned at her reflection in the glass of the phone booth. Her intuition told her she wouldn't need to plan ahead for a room, so she didn’t. It wasn’t so much that she was doubting her intuition in that moment, she knew she would have a place to stay. Instead, she was having one of those moments which occur often, in which she realizes everything is going to work out, but not in the way she initially thought.

  “There is one hotel,” said the woman. “But I know for a fact it is all filled up. My nephew works there and he says they haven’t had a free room in over a week. You shouldn’t stay there anyway, Ms. Arnold. It is full of riffraff and hooligans. Hmm.” Anna could hear a tapping sound coming from the other line, and she envisioned this woman sitting at the front desk of the Sheriff’s station, tapping her pencil against the wood and racking her brain. “Oh I know!” the sudden shift in the woman’s volume of voice caused Anna to stat. “You can stay with me!”

  “Oh, no,” said Anna. “That’s really not necessary.” Her intuition was telling her, really screaming at her, that this was the answer she had been looking for, but she was fighting it. She didn’t know this woman, but she could tell by the way she talked that she was not the type of person Anna typically got along with. Which is to say, she wasn’t a dog, since the only people Anna ever really seemed to get along with were actually dogs. “I will find a place, or maybe I could even crash at the station for a while. You guys have a jail cell in there right? I’m sure it’s got a cot.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” said the woman. “I couldn’t let you do that, not when I have an extra bedroom just sitting empty.”

  “But… But you don’t even know me.”

  “Well sure I do!” said the woman. “I’ve been going over your file all day. I ran the background check and I called your references. Besides, you’re in Idle Waters now dear, you better get used to strangers wanting to lend you a helping hand.”

  “Okay,” said Anna. “But I don’t even know you!”

  “Silly me!” she said. “I didn’t even give you my name. It’s Stella, Stella Perkins, but don’t call me Miss Perkins because that’s my dogs name. Oh, I do hope you’re not allergic to dogs?”

  “No,” said Anna, softening her voice. “I love dogs.”

  “Wonderful! Then it’s settled. You come on down to the station and we can meet properly. I’ll show you around the office and then drive you back to my place so you can get settled, how does that sound?”

  Anna rubbed her forehead with her thumb and pointer finger, which were starting to feel slightly numb from being exposed to the bitter North air. “Sure. Sounds good.”

  “Great, let me give you directions then, do you have a pen?”

  “No, it’s fine. I don’t need to write them down.”

  “You’ll remember them?” Stella asked, sounding doubtful.

  “Maybe, or maybe I’ll forget them,” said Anna. “Either way, I’ll find you. Don’t worry.

  The Sheriff's office was small. So small in fact, that when Anna opened the front door, it slammed right into the front desk where a woman she assumed was Stella had stationed herself.

  “Be careful!” Stella said, hurrying around to the other side of the desk and flailing her arms about. “It’s a bit of a squeeze.” She grabbed the door and held it open as Anna walked sideways through the doorway.

  “Sorry about that,” said Stella. “I’ve been meaning to buy a smaller desk for out here, that way the door can open all the way, but everything’s just been so crazy since Sheriff Urwin died. For the life of me, I have no idea how Mrs. Urwin dealt with this set up.”

  “Mrs. Urwin?” Anna said. She hung her coat up on the skinny, wooden coat rack by the door and ran her hand hands up and down her arms to try and warm up.

  “Yes, dear, Mr. Urwin’s wife was the secretary here before me. She quit though, after he died. I’m sure it was too hard for her to come here every day and be reminded of him.”

  Anna nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “I’m Stella by the way,” she said. She stuck a delicate, manicured hand out for Anna to shake. She had long, bright pink nail extensions which matched the bright pink sweater she was wearing over a pale pink dress.

  “I’m Anna.”

  Anna shook the woman’s hand and gave her a once over. She looked to be a little older than herself, maybe in her early thirties. She was pretty, curvy, with red hair and a swath of freckles covering her face. Stella’s eyes, which Anna now noticed were staring at her very intently, were a light green.

  “What is it?” Anna asked, reaching up to her face, to make sure she didn’t have any chip dust in the corners of the mouth. Before leaving the market parking lot she had ran in to grab a snack, which had consisted of a soda and an off-brand bag of potato chips covered in some processed orange powder they claimed contained “10% real cheese”.

  “It’s nothing,” said Stella. “You’re just… not what I expected.”

  “Oh?”

  “In a good way!” she was quick to add. “You’re just so young.”

  “I can’t be much younger than you,” said Anna. “I’m twenty-nine.”

  “I don’t mean it like that,” said Stella. “I guess I was just expecting someone older. Everyone I have spoken to has talked about how many cases you’ve solved, it makes it seem like you’ve been working in the field for, I don’t know, say twenty years or so.” She put her hands on her hips and whistled a single note. “You must be some detective.”

  Anna looked down at her feet, feeling uncomfortable with the flattery. “I’m just good at noticing things others don’t,” said Anna. “That’s all.”

  A bell sounded behind Anna, signaling the opening of the office door. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a thirty-something man wa
lk in wearing the typical brown uniform of a Sheriff, complete with the perfectly polished badge.

  “Sheriff Wells!” Stella cried. “Good you’re back.”

  Anna stepped aside so that there was just enough room for the Sheriff to come inside and take off his coat.

  “Sheriff, this is Anna Arnold,” said Stella.

  “Detective Arnold,” he said shaking her hand. “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow morning.”

  “I encountered a tiny speed bump in my plans, but Stella here helped me out.”

  “She called me from the road and told me she had nowhere to stay,” said Stella. “But I told her she needn’t look any further, she could stay with me!” She was beaming, looking at the Sheriff with the look of an excited puppy who wants acknowledgement for having learned a new trick.

  “That’s mighty kind of you, Stella,” said Wells. He turned to Anna. “I’m sure you’ll find your stay at the Perkins residence to be a great one. Stella here is one of the best cooks in town. What I would give to have her in my house fixing my meals.”

  At that comment, Anna noticed Stella’s smile grow even wider, and she understood that this poor woman was hopelessly, desperately in love with the Sheriff.

  “That sounds great,” said Anna. “I’m, uh, looking forward to it.” It was only a half lie. Anna didn’t exactly look forward to living with this chipper, cupcake of a woman, but the idea of a good home cooked meal was incredibly enticing. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten something that you didn’t heat up in the microwave.

  The Sheriff smiled at both the woman. The three of them stood quiet for an awkward moment or two, then the Sheriff cleared his throat.

  “Well, I know you are probably pretty tired from the drive up, but if you want Detective, I was just about to go over some paperwork for this serial murder case. I can give you the rundown of what’s been going on, get you started right away. If you’re not feeling up to it though, I would understand. We could start tomorrow.”

  “Today is fine,” said Anna. “I’m eager to get to work.”

  “Good, then follow me,” said Wells.

  Anna smiled at Stella, who said she would leave directions to her house on the desk for Anna to grab whenever she and the Sheriff finish up that night, and walked down the hallway.

  They passed one other desk, which was pushed into the back corner of the main room. Wells informed Anna that was her desk, and immediately apologized for how cramped the space was. “I often go do my work at the diner anyway,” he said as they turned left into his back room office. “You’re welcome to do your paperwork wherever you’re most comfortable, as long as you’re good about not losing anything and filing it all here in the office when you’re done.”

  The office was taken up mostly by the large, dark wood desk which sat in the very center. The Sheriff took his seat behind it and motioned to the only other chair in the room. A small, leather chair without armrests that looked as if it belonged to a set of dining room chairs.

  “Alright then,” said the Sheriff, putting down the file he’d been carrying under his arm since he arrived at the station. “Where to start…” He looked down at the first page inside the file and frowned.

  “I know a little about the case already,” said Anna. “Last I read, there had been five people murdered, that latest victim being Sheriff Urwin.”

  “Make that six,” said Wells. “We had another one last night. That’s what I was off dealing with this morning.”

  “Okay then,” said Anna. “Six murders.” She pointed to the pad of yellow legal paper sitting next to the file. “May I?”

  Sheriff wells pushed the pad over to her. Anna took a pen out of the cup full of them and started to scribble down the basic facts of the case. “Before Urwin died, he was investigating the other murders, is that right?”

  Sheriff Wells nodded. “Yes, he would have been the only one investigating, seeing as he had fired his deputy just a few months prior.”

  “He fired his deputy?” Anna asked. “Why?”

  Wells shrugged. “Not sure. He hired me as a replacement, but he didn’t let me get anywhere near this case. He said it was too dangerous for a rookie.”

  Anna eyed him. “So you were hired only a few months ago, and then when the Sheriff died, the job automatically went to you, seeing as you were the only deputy?”

  “Look,” said Wells. “I know it sounds bad. I would be suspicious of me too, but I promise you I had nothing to do with the Sheriff’s murder. With any of these murders! You think I could do something like that?”

  “You mean kill someone?” Anna said. “I don’t know. I don’t know you.”

  “Not just kill someone, mame them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The victims, they weren’t just killed, they were ripped apart. Like some sort of… wild animal attack.”

  Anna wrote down another note and chewed on the pen cap, which she had secured atop the pen itself. “Interesting.”

  “If you want to go barking up the wrong tree, be my guest,” said Wells. “But I swear, you won’t find anything on me. Besides, I have an alibi for the night the Sheriff was murdered.”

  Anna raised her eyebrows.

  “I was over at Stella’s,” he said. “She offered to make me dinner.”

  Anna wrote this little tidbit down as well, adding an additional note next to it which read: Stella loves Wells. Would maybe lie for him.

  That was about all she could do for now, until she could get away from Wells himself and do some real digging. Besides, her gut was telling her he probably didn’t do it, which was enough for her. Instead, she decided to ask about the other possible suspects.

  “What about the deputy Urwin fired?”

  “Sam Cottons?” said Wells. “What about him?”

  “Did you question him?”

  “As a suspect?”

  “Of course as a suspect, why the hell else would I be asking if you questioned him?” Anna shook her head and wondered, for a brief second, if she had made the biggest mistake of her life, moving up here to work with this imbecile. The thought evaporated soon after, however, when Anna remembered the last person she worked for, and she was suddenly very grateful about the fact that Sheriff Wells, whether or not he was a murderer, seemed like a polite man. “That’s motive, don’t you think? He was fired from his job. Maybe he decided to get even.”

  “Sam Cottons couldn’t do this,” said Wells, shaking his head. “No way. He’s harmless, couldn’t hurt a soul. He won’t even go out hunting with his dad, or so I heard. He doesn’t like the sight of blood. That’s probably why Sheriff Urwin fired him, he had too weak a disposition for this line of work.”

  “He could have hired someone to do it,” Anna suggested.

  “Maybe,” Wells admitted. “But I really doubt it.”

  “Do you mind if I question him?” Anna asked, knowing full well that she would do it regardless of how the Sheriff responded. The question was really whether or not she could interrogate Sam Cottons as the Deputy Sheriff, of it she’d have to use a fake identity to keep word from spreading.

  “Go ahead,” said Wells. “I brought you on because, well, you know why. If you’re, uh, whatever you call it—”

  “We’re called Intuits,” said Anna. “You can just call it my intuition. You have one too, mine is just a lot stronger than yours.”

  Wells nodded. “I see, well, if your institution is telling you to go after Cotton, then I won’t stand in your way.”

  The rest of their discussion focused mainly on the nitty gritty details of each murder. Where the bodies were found, what day of the week, time of day, etc. Sheriff Wells had already made up a copy of the case file for Anna, but he only remembered he had done so about halfway through the conversation, after Anna had already filled up two whole pages of notes.

  The sun had already set by the time they were finished. It was nearly seven o’clock and Anna’s stomach was growling, and since she didn
’t want to just expect that Stella would have food for her, Anna decided to stop in at the twenty four hour diner she’d spotted on her way to the station. Even though it was a cold night, Anna decided to walk. The diner was only two blocks away and she had been sitting all day. She needed to stretch her legs.

  Outside the station, Anna tied her scarf tighter around her neck and pulled a small knitted hat from her pocket. She pulled it on, over her hair, which was dark brown and which she had recently cut into a shoulder length bob. Anna had never cared much about fashion. She tried her best to look good, or at least, to look professional. She wore a lot of tight black skirts and flowing tops. She liked not having to spend much time on her appearance in the morning, so her simple wardrobe combined with an easy haircut suited her lifestyle. She was on the taller side, coming it at around five eight, and she was fit, though not necessarily that strong. She knew she pretty, but plain, and she was fine with that.

  She nearly slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk outside the door the diner, but luckily, she was able to grab the door handle in time to balance herself.

  Inside there was a handwritten sign which read “Please Seat Yourself.”

  Anna took the booth in the back corner and waited patiently for a server to arrive. The waiter appeared at the table not thirty seconds later.

  “Hello there,” he said. “How’s your night going so far?”

  “Fine, thanks,” said Anna. She thought about asking how this man’s day had been, guessing that was probably how most people would respond in this small town, but she really didn’t care and she wasn’t interested in faking it.

  “My night has been fine as well, in case you were wondering,” the guy said with a snarky smile. He placed a menu down in front of her and flipped her coffee mug over so it was right side up. “Coffee?”

  “Yes, thank you,” she said. He poured from the pot he had in his hand. “I’m, uh, glad you’re having a nice night.” Anna said, trying to recover from her previous rudeness.