CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO #2
I trudged across the parking lot twenty minutes later. Chris was heading to the hospital with possible broken ribs. Mitch had woken up handcuffed to a gurney. He'd refused to say anything without an attorney present. I wasn't sure what good an attorney was going to do him after everything he'd done, not to mention everything he'd told Chris and me.
The sun hovered over the trees in the distance, tingeing the clouds soft shades of pink and gold. Finn had finally given me permission to leave after taking pictures of me from every conceivable angle. He'd given me a crushing hug, whispering he'd see me soon, before joining Jefferies and Tommy, the other officers, in evidence collecting.
My head hurt. My heart grieved at the way Mitch's decisions had hurt so many in our community. Justin's parents, Samantha, Chris, me. Maybe even Heidi. Not to mention all the people who'd walked through the past week scared that a murderer was loose in Star Junction. I wanted to go home, take a shower, and crawl into bed.
The sound of squealing tires shook me from my stupor. I yelped and jumped, dropping my car keys as Penny's car skidded to a stop.
"Gwen! Oh, my God!" Penny burst out of the car with the kind of energy only she could muster this early in the morning.
"Penny?" My fuzzy brain tried to make sense of her presence. "What are you doing here?" I asked.
"Chris called. Said you might need someone to be with you," Penny said, looking me over.
"Chris called you?" I asked. I glanced over my shoulder at the building before turning back to Penny. "When did he—?"
"We can talk all about it later. Let's get you home," Penny said as she bustled about and loaded me into her car. If I hadn't beaten her to it, she might have tried to buckle me in. "We'll get your car later," she explained when she saw me looking at my car parked a few spots away.
The sky shifted from pink to blue as Penny prattled on. We were at my house within minutes. I climbed out of the car while Penny grabbed a plastic grocery bag from the back. "Ice cream," she said to my questioning gaze. "And stuff to make breakfast. I wasn't sure what you'd want."
"What I want is to take a shower, get some sleep, and forget this whole thing ever happened," I said.
"We can definitely do those first two," Penny said, taking my keys from me and unlocking the front door. "I'm not so sure about that last one." Penny opened the door and ushered me inside. "What do you want? Ice cream? Breakfast?"
"Both?" I said.
"Both it is," Penny declared. "Go take that shower, and I'll get everything ready."
I trudged upstairs and stripped off my clothes, tossing them in the corner. Moments later, I stood under the hot water, letting it soothe my battered body and soul until it ran lukewarm.
Walking into my bedroom, wrapped in a towel, I sniffed the air as the smell of bacon wafted in from downstairs. Exhaustion pressed heavy on me, but my stomach rumbled at the thought of food. I dressed in pajamas, prepared to crash as soon as possible.
Penny stood in front of the stove, setting the cooked bacon on a plate lined with paper towels, turning when she heard me enter. "You look better," she said with a smile.
"I feel better," I admitted as I collapsed onto a chair at the table.
Penny bustled around setting the bacon as well as cut up fruit in front of me. "One more thing," she said as she moved back to the counter. She removed a plate of pancakes from the oven where she'd been keeping them warm.
"You didn't have to do all this," I insisted.
"Yes, I did," Penny said, sitting across from me. "Now, tell me what happened, because Chris was vague to say the least."
I piled food onto my plate, tempted to make an excuse. Everything that had happened at the center floated around me like a dark cloud. Finding Justin's killer had been the focus of my life for a week. Now that the case was solved, the victory felt hollow. "It started with a text from Chris early this morning," I finally said.
As much as I wanted to pull the covers over my head and pretend the showdown with Mitch hadn't happened, I couldn't do that to Penny. She'd been by my side through all of this. She deserved to know the story.
Despite my reservations, I found telling Penny about Mitch cathartic. She gasped at all the right spots. When I finally finished, we sat across from our untouched breakfast. "Mitch Alcomb," Penny whispered. "I never would've thought it."
I picked up a slice of bacon and took a bite. "Me neither. That's the thing I can't get over. If he'd just left it alone, if he'd laid low, I can't imagine this ever tracing back to him," I said.
Penny shook her head and said, "Maybe he was nervous other people would rat him out. I'm sure it wasn't just him and Justin doing the drug thing."
"Still…" I said as I cut off a piece of pancake. With that first bite of bacon, hunger roared through my body. "I guess it all boiled down to the drug thing. Not a vendetta from the past. Not a jealous ex. Drugs."
"I'm not na?ve that people in town use drugs, but meth?" Penny said, sounding as shocked as I felt.
"I know," I said. "It makes my chest tight just thinking about it."
"What about Derek and Heidi?" Penny asked.
"It sounds like that was incidental. Mitch didn't mention it at least," I said as I cut another piece of the delicious pancakes. "These are amazing, by the way."
Penny beamed and said, "Thanks. It's my grandmother's recipe. There's a secret ingredient."
"Please, don't tell me it's love," I cracked.
"Nope, beer," Penny said.
I barked out a laugh, nearly choking on the water I'd been attempting to drink. "Beer?" I finally managed to sputter out.
"What can I say? Grandma was a wild woman and an amazing cook," Penny said with a sly grin.
"There's something else I haven't told you," I said, setting my fork down. As my stomach filled, a pleasant sleepiness washed over me. I wasn't going to make it much longer.
"Is it worse than meth?" Penny said, looking wary.
I laughed lightly and said, "Better." I thought about both Chris and Finn, my smile slipping. "At least I hope so."
Penny leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. "Now I'm intrigued," she said.
"Last night, after bowling…" I started before trailing off.
"Yes?" Penny said as she made as gesture as if hurrying me along.
"Finn asked me out on a date," I said in a rush of words.
Penny remained silent for a moment, looking stunned, before her eyes gleamed with delight. "I knew it. I knew it was only a matter of time," she declared with glee.
"That's not all," I added.
"That's not all?" she practically shrieked.
"Chris asked me out on a date too," I said.
If Penny had looked stunned before, it was nothing compared to now. "Chris… What do you mean a date?" she asked.
I grinned widely, allowing myself to enjoy the moment, a bright spot in so much recent darkness. "He insists it's a real date," I said.
"What did you say?" she asked.
"I said yes." The clock ticked on the wall. Somewhere outside, someone had started up a snowblower. Still Penny was silent. "Say something," I finally said.
"Let me get this straight," Penny said. If Penny leaned forward any more, she'd be practically in my lap. "You agreed to dates with both Finn and Chris."
My cheeks warmed as I thought of both men, one I'd known most of my life and one I'd just started to get to know. They couldn't be more different, but in ways that made each one appealing. "You're the one who said I needed to get out there and date," I said.
I could tell Penny was warming to the idea as her smile grew more enthusiastic by the second. "Is there no end to my talent? Teacher by day, private investigator and psychic by night. Now a matchmaker?" she said with delight.
I stood and collected our empty plates, depositing them in the sink. "I don't think you can claim credit for these dates," I teased.
"I'm sorry," Penny said. "Did you say something? I was too busy planning what you're going to wear on these two dates."
I turned and leaned back against the counter. A flutter of anticipation moved through my stomach. "What did I get myself into?" I asked, not even bothering to dim the wide smile on my face.
Penny's grin matched my own as she said, "Sounds like you got yourself into the potential for a whole lotta fun."
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