Chapter 2
“Uh…Ms. Lauren…ma’am, me and Jessie are heading over to Lou’s BBQ. Would you like some supper?”
Looking up from her laced fingers, Lauren unfolded her legs from a lotus position and hung them over the side of the cot. The young deputy, Derry, stood outside her small ten-by-six cell, unable to maintain eye contact with her, unable to stop fidgeting.
“Your sheriff, what’s his name?” she asked calmly.
“Sheriff Santiago Stillwater.”
“Stillwater,” she said. It had a nice flow; she looked forward to drowning him in frustration and regret.
Rising, Lauren approached the deputy. “Since I’m not under arrest yet, do you mind giving me my phone. I need to cancel my resort reservation for the night, the deposit of which I’ve lost because your sheriff chose to be a barbaric asshole.”
The deputy looked toward the front of the building where another uniformed man, presumably Deputy Jessie, waited.
“Don’t worry,” she assured Derry. “I won’t say anything to Sheriff Stillwater about you leaving me here alone.”
His face reddened.
“You wouldn’t be alone. Audrey’s here.”
“The admin?” she asked with a raised brow.
“Are you going to deputize her?” She looked at her purse sitting on Derry’s desk.
“I’m being respectful and pleasant, Deputy, but if I don’t get my phone, the first call I make will be to my lawyer.
She’s in California but she can be here in hours, and I don’t imagine that this little town can afford a multi-million-dollar lawsuit. All I’m asking for is my phone.”
“Ms. Audrey, can you hand me her bag,” Derry said, unlocking the cell door.
Lauren waited patiently as an older White woman, with an air of disapproval, handed Derry the purse.
Lauren thanked Derry and dug through her oversized bag.
“Did anybody check my purse for weapons?” she asked, knowing they didn’t.
One deputy looked to the other. “Jesus Jessie, you didn’t check?”
“You’re the one that brought her in, that was your job.”
Grabbing her wallet, Lauren pulled two twenties and handed them to Derry.
“I’m teasing, there are no weapons in my bag. Is the food good?”
“Best on the mountain, probably best in the county.”
She smiled, not because she felt particularly happy, but because she needed allies. “Well, I’ll trust you to get me the best they have that’s not meat. Right now, I’m primarily plant based.”
“Ma’am, how you g’on be primarily plant based and want to eat BBQ?” Deputy Jessie asked, as if the request was the craziest thing he’d ever heard. Unlike Derry, he was White with blond hair in a buzz cut. He didn’t look much older than Derry, but he held himself with a little more confidence.
“Shut up Jessie.” Derry frowned then looked at Lauren again almost pleadingly. “If it’s the best food you’ve had in Tennessee, will you promise not to call your lawyer on me?”
“I was only messing with you Deputy Derry.” She smiled. “You’re entirely too adorable to sue.”
His light brown skin became flushed. “We’ll be back in about twenty,” he said, taking her purse once she’d taken out her phone.
“You took a sucker’s bet,” Ms. Audrey, the admin, called out from her desk not long after the deputies left.
Lauren stopped typing on her phone and looked over at the other woman.
Ms. Audrey was paler, less tanned, than Deputy Jessie; maybe in her sixties.
She had a kind of retro look with her dyed blood-red hair in victory rolls and waterfall curls against her neck.
She wore an orange blouse and blue pants.
She had a flare that Lauren would expect in New York or Paris, not some backwoods town in Tennessee.
“Lou’s daughter, Draya, is a real vegan, not this primarily plant-based stuff.
A month ago, her daddy added a whole little vegan menu which Draya manages in her own separate section of the kitchen.
Draya’s granny, Mama Kadie, didn’t call it vegan, but the old woman didn’t do meat or dairy.
It’s true what Deputy Derry said though, you won’t find better BBQ in these parts.
Now,” she asked, making her way toward the cell.
“What are you up to over there on that phone?”
“I have to find lodging. That is, if I don’t end up in this cell as an overnight guest.”
“There’s a bed and breakfast about five blocks away. Carolina will give you a bed if you need it.”
Lauren nodded. “What’s the name of this town?”
“Shrouded Lake.”
Lauren googled it.
“Population of thirty-five hundred,” Lauren muttered.
“Oh, I reckon it’s way less than that now. The young ones are leaving left and right, getting jobs, and going to college in the cities. We don’t have a lot here, but we still got good schooling for those who choose it.”
“Mm-hmm,” Lauren muttered, half listening. “There’s a lot of outdoor stuff.”
“These are the Smoky Mountains; no more beautiful place on God’s green earth.”
“Well, it looks like the God’s green earth is gobbling up your little town. We passed a lot of boarded up businesses as Derry brought me here to the station.”
“Yes, well that’s the God’s honest truth,” Audrey said sardonically. “These last years have been hard on Shrouded Lake. With the influx of drugs and the COVID, those businesses that haven’t closed are suffering, and our elected officials can’t seem to turn things around.”
Lauren frowned, magnifying an image. “Do you mind telling me about this place here?”
Audrey made her way over to the cell and pressed close into the bar to get a clearer view of Lauren’s phone.
People out here were way too trusting.
“That’s the town’s namesake. That lake is a dark haunting place with a dark haunting past. The sane folks of this town keep away.
The part of the lake that’s in this county is privately owned by three families.
But the part of the lake that’s in Olympus County, that’s the tourist side, brings the town of Meadow Glen good money. ”
“Have you lived here all your life?” Lauren asked, because knowledge was power.
“All my married life; which means I’ve been here well over thirty years.”
“Ohhh,” Lauren smiled slightly, putting her phone in her back pocket. “So, you’ll know all the tea. What’s up with the drunk lady who crashed her car? Why does she get treated with kid gloves while I get thrown in jail for saying a drunk’s a drunk?”
“Oh no, you didn’t!” Ms. Audrey said, eyes widening before she laughed and slapped her hand over her mouth as if that would hide her reaction.
“Oh yes, I did.” Lauren nodded.
“Child, that woman is Mrs. Veronica Archer. She’s been a drunk since I moved here, but she was a pretty, rich one, so different rules. Nowadays she’s not as rich but she still hasn’t had any real consequences because she’s the mayor’s mother.”
“I knew it! I knew your boss was a fu…a freaking corrupt, cowardly son of a bitch. I promise you, if I’m not out of here soon, he’ll regret he ever laid a finger on me.”
“Well, with your very…delicate personality, I’m sure he already does.”
Lauren’s brow rose.
No one had ever considered Lauren delicate and based on the bless your heart vibe she got from that statement, neither did Ms. Audrey.
“The sheriff isn’t a bad man, he’s just inherited an overwhelming mess. But mark my words, one way or another he’ll make sure Veronica Archer accounts for the destruction she caused up on Old Lotty Road.”
Yeah, right.
“If we weren’t talking through the bars of a jail cell I might give him the benefit of the doubt, but now I just wish my knee succeeded in connecting with his balls. At least then he’d have a reason to—”
“Wait. Tell me you didn’t try to kick Santiago Stillwater in his privates?”
“I tried to send those motherfuckers so high inside him, he’d choke.” Ms. Audrey’s eyes became wide and unblinking. Lauren wondered if she was having a stroke. “Please, forgive my language, but not my behavior. That man doesn’t deserve the grace he was given.”
Ms. Audrey backed away from Lauren and began tidying her immaculately organized desk. Stopping abruptly, she faced Lauren again.
“You may want to rethink staying in Shrouded Lake longer than you have to. Being on the bad side of the Archers and the sheriff…” Audrey shook her head.
Lauren smiled and knew she looked feral, because that’s how she felt. She wanted to fight. And being on those people’s bad side sounded like the exact place she needed to be.
“Well,” she said, softening her demeanor. “They’ll have to deal with me at least through the night. Then maybe I’ll leave. And maybe I won’t.”
“Forgive me for being nosy, but what is it that you do that you can drive around the country with no care to where you end up?”
“I do money, and I do it well. All I need is my knowledge, my computer, and good Wi-Fi service.”
What she didn’t need was people knowing she was running.
Flashing back to the conversation she had with her mother and sister, her face flushed with anger and embarrassment…
because who does that? They all claimed to love her, all of them.
Yet not one of them gave her the respect of letting her know what was happening before she, say…
sold her house, took a six-month sabbatical from work, and planned to marry a fucking cheat.
They were selfish and cowardly and if loving her didn’t mean anything, at a bare minimum, she deserved their loyalty and respect.
The front door of the building opened, and Lauren was ready to fucking fillet the sheriff of Shrouded Lake, but it was the young deputies who stepped through the entry.
Fighting back tears, Lauren closed her eyes and softly patted her hand over her heart. It was going to be okay; her heart would heal from this pain, one day it would heal.