Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“Oh, thank God,” she said when she saw me. “I almost cried when Mr. Samuels said you were coming back. If I have to listen even one more time to Joanna talk about how little kids shouldn’t be allowed in the library, I’m gonna shank her.”
I smiled. “If you shank her, you’ll go to prison, and we both know you wouldn’t enjoy the daily structure of that. I mean, when would you have time to paint?”
“That’s a valid argument.”
“So, I have a phone now. You can call me, and you can tell Mr. Samuels to call me once I’m officially back.”
“You’re not back now?” Nico whined.
“I don’t think so, not quite yet.”
She whimpered a bit and then greeted Amanda, who smiled sweetly and gave her my number. I then explained I was going to the basement to look for some information on the cannibals.
“The ones that lived down near Parker’s Ferry?”
“Yes,” I said, surprised she knew that.
“You know, Dom wrote a song about them called ‘Around the Bend.’ That’s the only reason I know anything about them.”
“Oh, I like the title and the double meaning. Clever.”
Nico nodded. “He’s hanging out in Art History if you want to talk to him before you go searching the basement. He did a lot of research on the family before he wrote the song.”
“I think I will,” I said, taking Amanda’s arm.
“No, just leave me here,” Amanda said. “I’m calling Chief MacBain now.”
“Don’t do that,” I scolded her.
“Why? This way he can come get you so I don’t have to drive you home, and I want to have a little chitchat with him anyway.”
I groaned and walked away, hearing Nico ask Amanda why on earth Chief MacBain would be driving me anywhere.
Dominic, Nico’s brother, was a funny, sarcastic guy who owned the local record store dealing primarily in vinyl and eight-track tapes. I found him, in all his hipster glory—man bun, goatee, piercings—sitting on the thick rug between the two couches in the art room. Kids were only allowed in with a parent, as there was a large fireplace that was not safe in the least. It needed to be replaced with a gas version, but there wasn’t money for that in the local budget.
I flopped down on the couch near him, and when he looked up and saw it was me, he smiled wide. Sliding his headphones down around his neck, he reached out and patted my knee.
“What’s goin’ on, brother? I saw you leave the festival with the chief of police yesterday. You in trouble, or did he finally get your attention in a non-antagonistic capacity?”
“What?”
“The man has stopped you for the most bogus crap ever. The jaywalking was my favorite, and I only know about that one because I too was jaywalking at the time.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. The man has blinders on where you’re concerned.”
“He does?”
“When I saw you balancing the basket on your head and riding your bike a couple of days ago—I’m guessing it was last-minute stuff for the witch’s ladders—I knew he was going to pull you over. And of course, when he did, you dropped everything.” He chuckled. “Our chief doesn’t get that while in motion, you’re golden. It’s when you’re forced to stop that there are issues.”
“True,” I agreed.
“But maybe instead of letting him look like a big doofus when he’s waving at you all the time and trying to get your attention, perhaps if you stopped ignoring him and gave him the time of day, he wouldn’t be so hostile. Have you considered that at all?”
Dominic had noticed Lorne and I hadn’t? Dominic, who also ran the marijuana dispensary and was, as far as I knew, always stoned, had noticed Lorne trying to get my attention, and yet it had gone right over my head. How was that possible?
“I get it,” he went on. “He’s a cop. But still, he seems like a good guy, and he made Rick Lawrence pay me what he owed, which was epic.”
Rick Lawrence was as close to a thug as we had in our town. Most people steered clear of him. He’d been a bully in high school and still was. “I would have taken care of that for you as well,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, but I didn’t want you doing something you might regret, like turning him into a gerbil.”
I shook my head at him. “My magic doesn’t work like that, as you very well know.” In Dominic’s case, I used my magic to keep his migraines at bay with a tea I brewed, as he refused to take pills. If it wasn’t natural, it wasn’t going in his body.
“So tell me what’s up.”
I cleared my throat. “Nico said you did a lot of research on the family of cannibals that lived down by Parker’s Ferry.”
He shook his head. “They weren’t cannibals,” he sounded disgusted. “I love how shit gets twisted in this town.”