As Alek pulls up out front of Carrie’s place, the butterflies begin their dance in his tummy. It’s a big house, but there are more bodies rolling around inside this one than his: both parents, three sisters, four brothers, and a grandmother. A proper family lives here. A proper family who, according to Carrie, are all out today. The house isn’t as big as the one he came from – not as much money here as Reid has to throw about – but Carrie’s not one of the scholarship students either. She lives ten minutes out of town, twenty minutes from his home, and situated well off the main road, so he doesn’t worry about anyone seeing him here. It’s early days yet, and one thing he’s learning is not to advertise his latest infatuation too soon, and not just because Valerie will make fun of him.
“This is a small town, Alek. It’s kind of stuck in time, a very particular time with a set of very particular expectations,” she’d said a few weeks ago at dinner. “You start seeing a girl, taking her out in public – and sweet Jesus, I am not telling you to sneak around like you’re ashamed – but out in front of everyone? Meeting their parents, for the love of God? Once it’s in the open, child, you don’t get to enjoy anything in private. Everyone’s watching, and every girl with dreams that revolve around a white dress and a charge card she doesn’t have to make payments on is looking at you like you’re the prized hog at the fair.”
“Hog? Well, as long as it’s the prized one…”
They’d laughed, but then she’d gotten serious again. “Ask yourself how much you’re going to have to apologize for, Alek Howard. Think before you do something dumb, that’s all I’m asking.”
Now, he’s sitting in the driver’s seat. In his backpack is a box of chocolates, Fair Trade and expensive, the kind Carrie likes; buying them seemed like a good idea at the time, but now… he’s not sure about taking them in. Is it too much or too little, or should he just turn up empty-handed and see what happens?
It’s only been a week, jeez. He used to think he was being generous – if his father had taught him nothing else it was generosity – but Alek’s wondering if it sends the wrong signal. Creates too many expectations, too soon. Valerie’s voice is in his head nowadays. Shit, he can’t even give a girl a box of chocolates without second-guessing himself.
How much are you going to have to apologize for?
The front door to the house opens and there’s Carrie hanging in the doorway, all that long dark hair, wide-set dark eyes, slow smile, and tanned skin.
Alek grabs the backpack. He’ll see how things pan out.
* * *
“Mornin’, Valerie.”
Sheriff Obadiah Tully is a barrel on short, skinny legs. His uniforms are specially made, but even personalized tailoring isn’t a silver bullet, not with his eccentricities of form. Valerie thinks it unfair that Tully shouldn’t have to worry about being beach-body ready; she’d love for him to be afflicted with just a small degree of the self-doubt that comes with being female. But nope, he just hitches his utility belt where it hangs under the awning of his gut with a peacock flourish.
“Sheriff. What brings you to my door?”
“Well, not exactly your door is it, Valerie?” Tully’s never quite got over his pique at that.
As Tully’s investigation into Lily’s disappearance went nowhere, Valerie’s complaints got louder and louder, while her husband got drunker and drunker. Tully got vengeful. Obadiah took it upon himself to sometimes tail her when she drove home late at night, or follow her up and down the aisles at the supermarket, making sure she knew he was there. He’d convinced both the State Police and the FBI that Lily Wynne had run away from home; under his telling, the honors student became a hellion with a turning of the tongue.
Then Chase Wynne emptied their bank accounts and left Mercy’s Brook.
Then the bookstore where Valerie worked closed and she was out of a job.
Then the house had to be sold and things looked pretty grim.
That was when Reid Howard stepped in – almost a year to the day after Lily’s vanishing – and offered her a job and a home and a child, of sorts. Tully wasn’t brave enough to keep tormenting her after that, so it made Valerie wonder just what the hell Shitheel Tully was doing here now.
“Is there something I can help you with, Obadiah? Or are you just here to exchange pleasantries?”
“I just thought you might like to know that Lucius Anderson passed.”
“Passed what? Wind? Passed: that is the stupidest term I’ve ever heard.” Valerie’s blowing smoke to cover the effect of the news, but unease and not a little sadness are making her stomach churn. She swallows, thinking of the last time she spoke with Lucius – well, argued with him. She thinks of the envelope on the kitchen table, the distinctive handwriting. “What happened?”
“Home invasion,” says Tully. He pushes the hat back on his forehead, showing the receding gray hairline and the indentations where the band is too tight.
“Home invasion? Around here?” Her disbelief is clear, and it’s not like the Sheriff should expect anything else, but still he draws himself up, a bantam rooster puffing his chest like he’s about to do battle.
“You know there are meth labs back in the woods. There are folk passing through our little town who’re happy to do ill. You should know that better than anyone, Valerie Wynne.”
“What would some meth-chef want in Lucius Anderson’s home? He didn’t keep anything there, not when he had an entire drugstore filled with medicines.”
“Well, maybe some meth-chef wouldn’t know that?”
“Isn’t it something you should be figuring out?”
“You know, I’m only here as a kindness, seeing as how he meant something to you. Or maybe he didn’t.”
“Whatever passed between me and Lucius is none of your business.” Valerie’s hand on the doorframe is shaking, and she can feel cold sweat breaking out under her arms, down in the small of her back. She clears her throat, thinks of the letter inside again. “Look. I’m sorry, Obadiah, I don’t want to pick a fight with you. I’m just… shocked. I’m shocked, is all.”
He shuffles back a few steps as if surprised by her conciliation, then nods. He narrows his eyes and asks in an offhanded manner, “You hadn’t spoken to him recently? Lucius? He didn’t mention anything to you?”
And Valerie sees where this has been leading. “Like if he was afraid of anyone? Or he’d seen someone hanging around outside at odd hours? Like that?”
“Yeah, like that.”
She shakes her head. “Obadiah, you know things didn’t end well between me and Lucius.” And truly they had not for he’d thought she would fall into a marriage with him after Chase left. “I’m the last person he’d confide in.” But she thinks of seeing him in the supermarket last week, how he looked like he wanted to say something but then turned away. She shrugs, makes a peace offering of her hand, which Tully takes in surprise. She hopes she hasn’t laid it on too thick. “Will you keep me informed? I did care for him, no matter what happened.”
She closes the door before he’s at his car. She doesn’t hear if the engine starts or not, if he leaves the estate. She’s got other things on her mind.