Chapter 7
For weeks, the spectral question of the girl in the forest had haunted him.
He had wondered if she was okay, if she was even alive, or if she had tumbled down a cliff in the dark. If she had overdosed or been snatched up by Adam’s associates.
Now that he had met Rachel, his worries had shifted.
He was grateful that she was okay, but he felt deeply worried that her foolishness could tie him to the scene of the crime, whether by way of offhand comment to her friends or a truth spoken in fear when goons came knocking at her house again.
The fear that overshadowed the others was that the police would bring her in for questioning and she would confess everything that had happened, Travis’s name and place of business included. It had been careless and foolish of her to come to the bar and speak to him in front of everyone.
He lived in fear of uniforms bursting through the front doors and hauling him away from the restaurant… from his spot behind the bar to a cell behind bars.
Worse still, what if the heavy hitters that Adam was dealing with saw the trial and decided to tie up loose ends? He had no doubt that they could make him disappear if they wanted to, whether he got off on self-defense or not. Everyone who cared about him would be left wondering what had happened.
What would Scot do then? How would he cope?
Travis needed to meet with Rachel. Just one more time. They had to get their story straight in case they ever did have to go in for questioning.
He felt a sharp kick of anger when he thought back to Nick’s vigilantism, anger at Nick for starting down that road and anger at himself for going along with it. But none of that was any use to him now. He could only go forward, knowing what he knew. Carrying another man’s death on his conscience.
Adam’s death in and of itself didn’t bother him. He had been a monster of a man who didn’t hesitate to get young girls hooked on drugs so that he could sell them to the highest bidder.
But the grim satisfaction that Travis felt over the death of another human being… What did that say about him? He felt fear of repercussions, but no remorse. He would do it again. And what did that make him?
”Travis.” Scot’s voice cut through the fog of his thoughts. ”If you keep cleaning that same spot, you’re going to polish a hole in my bar.”
”Sorry.” Travis tossed the rag into a laundry bag beneath the counter. Then he turned and looked at Scot. ”Did you need something?”
”I want you to run this week’s trivia night.”
Travis stared at him for a beat before responding. ”Seriously?”
”I haven’t been in much of a joking mood lately,” he said dryly. ”You may have noticed.”
Travis looked down at the bar, mulling it over.
Scot had reigned over the bar’s weekly trivia night since before Travis started working there - and he had been washing dishes in the kitchen since he was a teenager.
Trivia Night had become a treasured Pelican Point tradition.
Part of the draw was how Scot shot off the trivia questions rapidfire off the top of his head. He never consulted notecards or a cheat sheet. Sometimes it seemed like he held the sum of human knowledge in his head, like some kind of computer or demigod.
Eventually Travis learned that Scot brushed up on historical tidbits each week before trivia night; he simply had a mind like a steel trap and could commit a long list of trivia to memory before each event.
”I can’t do what you do,” Travis told him.
“You don’t have to. We’ll write up the questions and answers together. You can make flashcards, whatever you need to do.” He looked at Travis sternly. ”Just don’t let anyone see them.”
He nodded. ”Scout’s honor.”
”Have Ted whip us up a couple baskets of Parmesan fries and then we’ll sit down and hash out this week’s list of questions.”
Travis relayed the order to the kitchen and mixed up a couple of mocktails while he waited on the fries. For Scot, cranberry juice and sparkling water with just a bit of lime simple syrup. For himself, their house kombucha with an extra kick of ginger.
Once they were settled at a booth by the front window, Scot pushed a stack of index cards and a handful of pens across the table.
”Ready?”
”I guess.”
Scot put his chin down and gave Travis a level look. ”I said, are you ready?”
Travis hated this. He hated that Scot’s health had deteriorated to the point that he needed to hand off his beloved trivia night to someone infinitely less competent. He hated that acting as the MC would force him into the spotlight. He hated the stress that he carried, which turned what should be an easy task into yet another mountain that he had to climb.
But this was Scot. The man who had saved his proverbial butt more than once. The man who had acted as a mentor and father figure since Travis was in his late teens. And he was asking so little.
”Ready.” Travis put as much energy into his voice as he could. ”What are you thinking for this week?”
”Seems like ancient Rome is coming back around.”
Travis pressed his lips into a thoughtful expression to keep from laughing. ”Yeah?”
”Yeah. Everyone online. This is my Roman empire, that is my Roman empire. I bet people would enjoy some questions about the real Roman empire.”
”I love it. Ancient civilizations. Go.”
His eyes narrowed slightly as he wondered whether or not Travis was taking this seriously. Then he decided to let it go and said, ”We can start with civilizations that fell to the Romans. Did you know that there used to be a number of Celtic tribes on the Iberian peninsula?”
”The what now?”
Scot sighed. ”First question: Which four countries make up the Iberian peninsula? Write that down. Bonus point for the name of the English territory located on the peninsula.”
Travis jotted that down and then looked back up at Scot. ”And the four countries are…”
Another sigh. ”France, Spain, Portugal, and Andorra.”
”There is a country called Andorra?” Travis frowned at Scot, half-convinced that he was messing with him. Scot just gave another long-suffering sigh.
”Yes. There is a country called Andorra.”
”If you say so.” He finished writing down the answer and leaned back to take a sip of his drink. ”And then Rome?”
”Not quite yet.” Scot sat up straighter, warming to the subject. ”Next we’ll ask them to name three civilizations on the Iberian peninsula that predated the Roman conquest.”
”This feels like it’s getting a bit niche.”
”I can think of three people off the top of my head who come to every trivia night and will be able to rattle off at least half a dozen. Let’s say half a point for each one.”
”If you say so. Do you think that I should make a list of potential answers, or…?”
”There are too many. I’ll be there.”
Travis nodded. He was grateful that he would not be running his first trivia night alone and more grateful still that Scot was up for attending, if not MCing. But it also made him nervous to know that Scot would be watching him fumble his way through the questions.
”Okay, what’s next?” he asked.
Scot’s eyes lit up as he formulated another question, and that alone made the added stress of running trivia night worth it for Travis.
Ever since Scot’s body had started to fail him in small, frightening ways, Travis had hardly seen him smile. He had been too tied up in his own drama lately to give it much thought, but it was an immense relief to see Scot get his spirit back, if only for a while.
”How about the Vandals?”
”The who?” Travis asked.
”The Vandals, in Rome. We can ask which year the Vandals sacked Rome.”
”This is… ancient history? Or more recent vandalism?”
Scot looked up at the ceiling as if begging the ancient gods of Rome for patience.
”The vandals were a Germanic group that raided Rome in the year 455. Write that down.” Scot hadn’t so much as glanced at the laptop that he had brought to the table.
Travis obeyed. ”So they spoke German?”
”They spoke a Germanic language called Vandalic. Closely related to Gothic.”
He blinked. ”I can’t tell if you’re messing with me.”
”I don’t joke about trivia,” Scot said seriously. ”If you would just assume that every word out of my mouth is true, this would go a lot quicker.”
Travis chuckled. ”So the next question is… Which year did the Vandals sack Rome?”
”Sure, that works.”
”And that was 455… A.D.?”
Scot sighed and reached for his French fries. ”Yes.”
”Right.”
”Next question.” Scot brightened. ”Who sacked Rome in 410? One point for the name of the group and two points for the name of their king.”
They sat like that for half the morning, slowly working their way through two baskets of fries as Travis stacked up enough flashcards to get him through his first trivia night.
He had participated in a few, but he was never very good. Scot never repeated himself, and so the things that he learned one week never helped him the next.
Usually he just kept people”s pint glasses full and enjoyed the show. Running things would feel awkward, like a kid walking around in his dad‘s boots, but he would do his best.
The trivia topics ran from ancient Rome to modern-day Tokyo to Dolly Parton songs. There were questions about chemistry and biology and philosophy. Scot only used his computer a handful of times, and even then it was just to check that his answers were correct. They always were.
Whatever was happening in his body that made his hands fumble and his vocal cords shake, it wasn’t having the slightest impact on his mind.
At least not yet.
”That should do it,” Scot said with satisfaction as Travis wrote down the last answer and set it atop the stack they had compiled.
Scot reached for his drink and fumbled it, the last swig of red liquid splashing up toward the rim. Travis caught it before it fell off the table. As he set it upright, their eyes met with a shared pain, the acknowledgment of what could no longer be ignored.
”I made a doctor’s appointment,” Scot said gruffly. ”I go in next week.”
Travis let out a breath of relief. ”Good.”
Scot just glared at him.
”Maybe it’s an easy fix,” Travis said weakly.
Scot shook his head and looked away.
”Do you want me to go with you?”
”Absolutely not.” Scot gathered up his things and retreated to his office.
Travis was still sitting at the table, looking over his notes for trivia night, when Nick walked in the front door.
”What are you doing here, man? It’s barely lunchtime.” Nick had never been more cheerful than he was now, living an idyllic life in Pelican Point with the woman he loved.
Travis felt another stab of annoyance. If it weren’t for Nick, Travis wouldn’t be waking up at three in the morning in a cold sweat, terrified about what might be coming. Meanwhile, Nick seemed to have forgotten Adam entirely. Just a few weeks ago, he’d been obsessed. Out of sight, out of mind, apparently.
He took a deep breath and reined in his anger. Nick was a good person. He had only ever wanted to protect people, to stop Adam from hurting more innocent girls the way that he had hurt Keely. And it wasn’t Nick’s fault that Travis had gotten involved. That was on him. Nick had even tried to hide his reason for coming to Pelican Point for a while, but Travis had weaseled his way into his plans.
So no, this wasn’t on Nick. And Travis wouldn’t do either of them the disservice of pretending like it was.
”You okay, man?” Nick was frowning at him. He had waited too long to answer, and it took another second to dredge up Nick’s question.
”I came in early to help Scot with the trivia questions.” A half-truth, at best. ”I’m going to run the next trivia night.”
”Man, he must be in bad shape if he’s handing that off.”
”His mind is still sharp as ever,” Travis said defensively. ”And he’s going to see a doctor next week.”
”Good. That’s good.”
”Why are you here?”
”Just picking up some lunch for me and the girls.”
”The girls?” Travis repeated stupidly.
”Chloe and Keely are home cooking up a storm, recipe testing for that big CPR event this weekend. They worked right through lunch, and none of the food is actually ready yet, so I called in an order for some burgers.”
”Keely’s going to the CPR thing?” Travis had bought a ticket already – Nat had badgered him into it – but now he reconsidered. It was exhausting to be in the same place as Keely and act indifferent, worse still to encourage her when she spoke to him. He didn’t know how to act around her anymore, and he didn’t need one more thing to worry about.
”Well, yeah,” Nick was saying. ”She and Chloe are catering.”
”Right.” Travis took in his friend’s smile, all joy and pride. He took a deep breath and shelved his own concerns. Nick had earned this peace and happiness. He wasn’t going to ruin it.
”That’s my order,” Nick said as two bags came out of the kitchen. ”I’m gonna go ahead and run it home while the food’s still warm. We’ll catch up soon, okay?”
”Yeah, sure.”
”All right brother, see you later.” Nick gave him a jaunty wave on his way out the door.
”Later,” Travis repeated in a monotone as the door swung closed.