Chapter 10
NEIGHBORS AND NON-MURDERS
“How did I not detect your British accent?” Eyebrow angled, I tap my fingernail on the teacup where it rests beside me on her back porch. The gap in the railings for a wheelchair ramp allows me to look out over Molly and Ron’s garden.
“Because I haven’t one? An old friend introduced me to the pleasures of tea. Ron thinks I’m a fool, but he still drinks it instead of coffee, when I tell him to. Don’t you?”
Ron barks a laugh. “I sure do.”
The gentle teasing between them has brought my panic down several notches. My hangover headache has lessened too.
While Molly has pulled over a cane chair, I’m sitting cross-legged on the timber floor of the porch. Why? I don’t know. It feels good to gaze out across their backyard toward the old fence. Flowerbeds add splotches of red and purple. Somewhere, far away, a donkey is hee-hawing.
Revenant always did have a few people pretending to be farmers. One Easter, a chicken wandered into our house and laid an egg in a shoebox. I smile at the memory.
“So, it’s tea for breakfast?”
She ducks her head and looks about as if we might be raided or something. “Good for the sex organs. Well, it might be?”
That makes me chuckle.
Considering Ron is still armed, we do have a deterrent should Kail return. Ron has parked his wheelchair at a table behind us.
Kail…
“Did I do that wrong? Shooing him away with guns?” And harsh words.
“You’re asking me, dear? I know nothing.” She flaps her hand when I glance up at her. “Apart from the Collider’s general strangenesses.”
“But he is one of those. A strangeness. Dad wrote me a note that said the institute was aiming to make special soldiers out of parts. Called them frankenstructs.” I shudder. Even saying it makes chills run up my arms and down my spine.
“I heard you say that. Well now. That’s quite the piece of knowledge. Hmmm. Sounds to me like occult magic not science. As for shooing, I don’t know if what we did was right, but he looked dangerous.”
“And mean? Did he look that?”
“Can’t say I saw any meanness. No, Hailey, he did not look mean. Just confused and big and … and hurt? Surprised myself, saying that.”
Hurt? Fuck. My lip has ended up bunched under a corner of my teeth. I let it uncurl.
Not mean. But he was a monster. How could a stitched-together man be anything but? “He never denied what I accused him of.”
And I haven’t told them about how Kail removed that other man from my door in the middle of the night. That adds a different flavor to this.
Ron interjects, “Nope. He did not deny he was a monster.”
“Dayum.” I sigh. “I did do wrong. He could have murdered me earlier, and he didn’t.”
I lay in bed with him all night, let him inside me, and he didn’t harm me, unless I count having an amazing orgasm that blew my mind for a few seconds. I prop my elbow on my knee and smoosh my hand over my face.
“Understandable. You were scared. He wasn’t what you thought he was.” Molly reaches over to pat my shoulder. “We still don’t know who he is. Not really. Tell me though, if it ain’t prying. You think your dad was murdered, Hailey?”
“Yes.” Saying that out loud hits me in the gut with a new dollop of sadness mingled with a pinch of despair. “I want to figure out who would do that.”
“So…you don’t want me to shoot that sewn-up man if he comes here again?” Ron asks.
Sewn-up makes me think of Kail lying under a sewing machine. I shouldn’t laugh at that. Besides, it’s a good question. “I don’t know. Guess not?”
Here I am trusting Molly and Ron, and I barely know anything except they are good neighbors, and they have weapons as well as the cane and wheelchair.
“You need some food too. Let me make you something then you are going to come into town with us, today, to our shop.”
What if whoever meant to murder me finds me there? It’ll be public, that should be a deterrent? I open my mouth, unsure of what to say or do.
Molly tsks, raises a finger.
“Say nothing. I demand this. We’re not leaving you alone.
It’s unsafe. Plus, you will love the pastries from the bakery across the street.
And again, if it isn’t too private, we should talk about this whole murder business.
We know people in Revenant and might be able to do some enquiries for you,” Molly enunciates that like it’s important then smirks and leans back in her chair.
I eye her over the cup’s edge while I hold it in two hands and carefully sip the hot tea. If I do this, I have to tell them about everything that happened last night…excluding the sex. I might be endangering them.
That sex, though… I’m blushing, and I hope they don’t see that and wonder why.
I could say no and go my own way, but if they can help me, why not? I’m out of date with what’s changed here and don’t have enough local knowledge. By myself I’ll be flailing around in the dark trying to get people to talk to me. This sounds promising.
I lower the cup and smile. “Thank you, Molly, Ron. I would love some help. But only what you feel you want to do.”
“Feel we want to do? For sure. All for one and one for all, hey Ron?”
“Yup,” he says. “And the true crime shelves need sorting.”
Shelves? True crime? What have I done? “You run a bookshop?”
They both nod. “Pages and Pottery,” they chorus.
“Okay. I have to tell you about another thing though, so you know that my presence, in your shop and all, it could put you in danger.”
They lean in and listen avidly while I relate the story of how Kail hauled off the man at my back door then only Kail returned to…speak to me.
I’m beetroot red halfway through the tale, but they say nothing, and when I’m done…
“Pfft. We’re in. Right, Ron?”
He chuckles. “Certainly. We wouldn’t miss this bit of excitement for anything. You’d have to beat us away with a stick. We’re in. All systems go, Miss Hailey.”
I’m eyerolling, amused, and lost for words but also grateful. “Thank you, again.”
Squiggly octopus cat arrives, dramatically leaping onto the railing then down next to me, with his tail hair flying.
He purrs like an affection machine while rubbing his cheek against my leg.
Patting him, or her, gives me an opportunity to simply sit there in the warm morning sun and rearrange my thoughts. I really need to settle on a name.
“Is he yours?” I toss back to the McCluskers.
“Nope,” says Ron. “Ours is out front sleeping, and if she sees this ’un, there might be some ruckussing.”
“Ruckussing.” Molly laughs. “Not yours, Hailey?”
“No. Though it surely seems set on staying with me.” It butts me with its forehead. “Less assaults please, Squiggle cat.”
Today I need more time for thought rearranging than on a normal non-murdery day. Not that anyone did get murdered, though I could be wrong there. This topic has been on my mind since I arrived.
“That’s a cutie,” Ron says. “So, you didn’t bring him with you?”
“Nope. He just appeared.” I rub between his eyes with my forefinger, and he soaks it up, contentedly, then flops to the timber.
“Guess I’m staying then, hey?” He purrs louder as I stroke from his head all the way down to his soft tail.
I twist in place to ask my new friends and awesome neighbors a vital question.
“Would you have some cat food I can borrow?”
“We got plenty, don’t we, Ron?”
He nods. “We can loan you some for Squiggle.”
“Thank you. Guess that’s your name then?” I tell the cat. Kraken was a bit too crazy.