Chapter 32
They left Melissa’s truck outside The Shamrock, and Melissa stood on the scooter behind Anna, wrapping her arms around Anna’s waist in the small space as they rode into the night.
It felt good to leave the town and its noise behind, the headlight beam guiding them, and they whooped as Anna sped up, her beer buzz making her more reckless, tilting left and right around the bends as if it were a motorcycle, both of them shrieking and laughing some more until the quiet surrounding them calmed their excitement to a steady contentment.
Here and there, small rodents scurried out of their way, caught in the bright light, their worlds disturbed, and as they slowed, Melissa directing Anna down a narrow track off the main road, Anna felt like herself again after the storm of the bar incident.
She would worry about the fallout from that tomorrow.
For now, there was just the night. This moment. Time pausing to let her breathe.
“Drop me here,” Melissa said. “Just in case my dad’s still awake. I love him, but he can be funny. Especially about me having friends.”
There were a few lights down near the house, and in the glow it was strange to see crops looking healthy in the fields. Anna lit a cigarette for Melissa and one for herself, pausing for a smoke before saying good night. The laughter was gone, but there was an easy quiet between them.
“What did that guy do anyway?” Melissa exhaled. “Must have been something to make you push him so hard.”
“He took our drinks.” Anna shrugged. It wasn’t such a massive lie.
He had taken them. He hadn’t stolen them, as she was implying, but he had kept them from her.
She inhaled deeply and then sent the smoke out in a cloud to vanish over the corn.
A scarecrow was crucified in the field beside them, barely ten feet away, looming over them, large and imposing, and in its jacket, scarf, and hat, it looked to Anna like some wicked half man, half creature dancing, arms stretched out wide, across the tops of the corn.
It was fucking creepy. The Farmhand, she thought, unbidden. Coming to get you.
“Did you find Bonnie in that field?” she asked.
Melissa sniffed and then shook her head.
“No. The one behind. Can’t see the break because the crops are so dense right now.
But there’s a small path.” Her voice was soft.
“Her arm was flopped out across it, forefinger curled. Like she was beckoning me to find her.” She took a last pull on her cigarette and then threw the butt down, grinding it out under her boot.
“I need to get to bed. You going to find your way home okay? Straight road, then second right. You’ll see the cemetery soon enough. ”
“Thanks for a great night.”
“Hey, that was a chef’s kiss of an exit.
” Melissa laughed again as she brought her fingers to her lips in an exaggerated gesture.
“I’m glad you moved to town. It’s been lonely being the only freak.
” Her makeup had smudged over the course of the night and in the shadows the dark looked like sickly hollows around her eyes, as if she were already dead.
She pulled Anna in for a tight hug before turning and walking toward the house.
A little of Anna’s calm evaporated remembering what Melissa had said in the graveyard. I kind of feel like if there’s going to be another murder, then it’ll be me. That car had stopped at the cemetery and made Melissa run. Maybe someone was coming after her.
“Hey, Melissa,” Anna called, waiting for Melissa to look back before speaking more. “Doesn’t it creep you out? Knowing Bonnie was murdered here?”
“Maybe. A bit.” Melissa looked out to the corn rustling quietly as if alive. “But it’s not like we can move. And anyway, she wasn’t killed here. Police say she was washed clean and put here after. Same as with Lila on the McArthur farm.”
“So where were they killed?” she asked.
“No idea.” Melissa shrugged. “The police never figured that out.” She raised a hand in goodbye and carried on walking, leaving Anna alone with the terrifying scarecrow in the silence of the still night.