Chapter 1 #2
I gave up. After I dropped Charles off, I was headed to a compound owned by Zeke Knight, the guy I was helping with the festival. I’d only spoken to him on the phone once, but I’d bet my last hat he’d have all the stories about this Mabel.
Downtown Maplewood was exactly as quaint as I’d pictured. Lots of little shops and businesses with a big park in the middle, and people walking around at a leisurely pace.
Charles had me turn a couple of times and then, with an aggrieved sigh, he pointed ahead and told me to pull into the parking lot for the Maplewood Veterinary Clinic. Why I couldn’t have put this in the GPS, I would never know.
“Your... uh, Finn is a vet?”
“Yeah.” His tone made it clear Finn had chosen his profession solely to irritate Charles.
As I pulled into a parking space, he groaned. “Brad and Janet are here. Fuck.” But when I turned the car off, he didn’t hesitate to unbuckle his seat belt and get out.
I let him lead the way into the clinic. I pulled my fedora off as I looked around.
The lobby itself was empty, with no one waiting and no one manning the reception desk, but several raised voices were coming from somewhere in the back.
Charles used his good arm to push through a set of swinging doors to the left of the desk, stomping resolutely down a hallway toward the cacophony.
“I don’t know how to find his phone! I don’t think we ever... linked them? I don’t remember doing it. Does it require a special app?” The light baritone seemed on the verge of tears.
Charles’ shoulders hunched.
“Well, when he turns up, we’ll make him link his phone with yours first thing.” This was an older woman.
“I still think we should call the police,” an older man announced. This led to more shouting.
We turned a corner and an open doorway to the right showed a sort of break room with a table and chairs.
Only one person was sitting—a thirty-something guy wearing blue scrubs.
He was hunched over with his elbows on the table and his hands in his hair, staring down at his phone.
The other three—an older couple and a tall woman a few years older than me covered in tattoos and piercings—were standing around gesturing at each other while they loudly debated the merits of bringing in the cops.
Charles hesitated, and I didn’t blame him. This entire scene gave me flashbacks to loud arguments in my family when Dirk and I were in our early teens. My back clenched into a knot of tension.
But Charles hadn’t seemed frightened of returning to his family, more like he just didn’t want to get in trouble, so he’d have to deal. I clapped him on one shoulder and pulled him with me into the doorway. “Hey, there!” I said in as cheerful a tone as I could manage.
The guy at the table—who must’ve been Finn—glanced up first. His eyes were red-rimmed, but they filled with absolute joy when he saw Charles. “Charlie!” He jumped out of his chair and ran over to us. The others finally noticed and added their voices to the cries of relief.
I stepped back to allow Charles to hug Finn. The older couple threw their arms around both of them. I met the younger woman’s eyes over their shoulders and waved. She waved back but that was all we could do with the others blocking the doorway.
My movements must’ve caught Finn’s eye. His happy smile vanished, and his eyebrows met over his nose.
“Who’s this? Is this who you’ve been with?
” He didn’t wait for Charles to respond, just dropped the hug and stalked over to me as he looked me up and down.
He was bigger than he’d seemed sitting at the table.
He had a good two to three inches on me, and his shoulders were much wider.
His scowl deepened, but his threatening demeanor was undermined by the black fanny pack around his hips.
“You’re not a teenager. What were you doing with Charlie?
Statutory rape charges apply when the minor is a boy as well as a girl. ”
My eyes went wide, and I held my fedora up like a shield as I took a big step backwards. “Whoa?—”
“Finn!” Charles grabbed him by the arm with his uninjured hand.
They were definitely related, with similar features, and the same floppy hair.
Brothers, maybe, though there was a huge age difference.
“This is Drake. He rescued me. He brought me here so you could check out my elbow and see if I need to go to the doctor.”
I straightened my spine and nodded. “We met not even thirty minutes ago, I swear.” My heart was pounding.
Finn spun back to Charles. “Your elbow? What happened?” He held out his hand as if expecting to examine it right then and there.
Charles huffed and cupped his injured joint with his other hand. “It’s probably fine. It’s a little swollen from when I landed on it. I tripped. No big deal.”
“Sweetie, where did you go? We were so worried.” The older woman, who must’ve been Janet, kept lifting and then dropping her arms like she was restraining herself from pulling Charlie into another big hug.
Charles sighed and looked between her and—I assumed—Brad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to run so far, and I got turned around. I promise, it won’t happen again.”
None of them seemed relieved. Finn slid his eyes to me and back to Charles. “We’ll talk later. Why don’t we get a look at your elbow, Charlie—Charles.” He grimaced, then he turned to me. “Um, sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
I smiled and turned on the Derry charm, low-wattage version.
“I’m Drake. Nice to meet all of you.” Not that I’d actually met any of them except Charles.
I mentally shrugged. Would I ever run into these people again?
No. “Charles here told me all your names, so no need to introduce yourselves.” The girl in the back coughed a laugh, but I kept my gaze on Finn’s.
“He was real worried about upsettin’ y’all.
” I tried to minimize the Texas twang—I wasn’t wearing the right hat for it—but unfortunately it tended to make an appearance when I was stressed, much to Dirk’s everlasting amusement.
Right now I was only stressed about how to extricate myself from this family drama and get to where I’d be spending the night.
Finn seemed like he was trying to figure out a reason to get pissed at me again, so I turned to Charles and smiled.
“Time for me to get on with gettin’ on.” Oh, god.
I needed to get the fuck out of here. Dirk would bust a gut when I told him.
I focused solely on speaking in my regular voice.
“Y’all take care now, and I’m glad you’re okay, Charles. ” Mixed results, but I’d take it.
I took a step to the side in preparation for turning around, when I noticed the younger woman in the back holding her phone up, looking between me and the screen. Yep, time to go.
Charles’ face fell. “Do you have to leave? I feel like I owe you dinner or something for rescuing me.” He gazed earnestly up at Finn. “It’d be the nice thing to do, right?”
Finn eyed my fedora suspiciously. “Um....”
I held up my hands again, ready to make my excuses. My phone buzzed, and I grabbed it gratefully from my pocket.
“Please?” Charles had some killer puppy dog eyes.
“Um, hang on. This might be important.” It was Zeke, my soon-to-be host. Probably not important , per se, but whatever the reason for the call, I could turn it into an excuse not to have dinner with Charles and his family.
“Zeke?” I walked back to the empty lobby.
“Hey, kid, I heard you’re at the vet clinic.” His voice was raspy, as if he’d smoked and sang his way through life.
Wait, how did he know? “Yeah, I’m here. I had to make a stop, but I’ll be at your compound in a few.” It was none of Zeke’s business why I was here, no matter how he’d found out about it.
He grunted. “That vet-boy’s good people. You could do a lot worse. And his get’s livin’ with him now, right? Have them come out for dinner tonight. My tortoise needs seein’ to. I got a casserole and homemade maple butter bars. Tell that niece of mine to tag along.” He hung up.