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CHAPTER 19
Marissa laid in bed with her head buried beneath the covers. She’d tired herself out answering her mother’s questions about who could’ve sent the message around, who had access to her phone, who knew about the prank? Etc. She had no answers and was even confused herself and more so now that she’d had some time to think about it.
Why would someone drag this up now? And where did they get it? It’s obvious that it was meant to undermine the whole issue with the coach, to make her look like a liar or worse. Her stomach felt like the bottom had dropped out, and the thought of seeing anyone else ever again made her want to crawl into a hole and die. She was giving serious thought to asking her parents to send her to stay with her aunt in Florida.
The good thing is that with all that was going on in the world, the principal had brought up the idea of online classes to finish out the year, something she’d gladly grabbed at. She could’ve choked her mom when she started going on and on about her daughter not hiding out like a criminal, that only people who had something to hide ran away. Thankfully dad had put a stop to that madness.
Her phone hadn’t rung once, unlike just a couple of days before when it wouldn’t stop going off. She wasn’t sure which was worst. Loneliness covered her like a shroud, and she dug deeper under the covers, searching for some warmth since her whole body was starting to feel like a block of ice.
Andy Simmons had been the head of the tech department down at the police station since graduating from MIT. With his credentials, he could’ve gone to work for any one of the leading tech labs in the country, but the thought of home had never left him since the day he had to leave for college all those years ago.
Some people had called him all kinds of fool for not spreading his wings and escaping the nowhere small town for someplace bigger and better, but Andy knew then what a lot of people were only realizing now many years later. Small town life is the shit. Away from all the hustle and bustle, a man can find time to breathe and enjoy the better things in life.
Sure he could’ve been making five or six times what he’s making here somewhere else. But he knew that he’d have to sacrifice something in either place and had chosen to sacrifice wealth for peace of mind. Besides, he wasn’t doing too bad with his publications, something he’d just gotten into, and then there was Detective Sparks.
The woman seemed hell-bent on keeping him on his toes. Before she came along, the most he’d have to do was help out the neighboring towns once in a while, or sometimes someone from one of the bigger cities would reach out for a helping hand with something that needed his expertise. Briar Reef was not exactly teeming with crime after all and especially not the sort that would need his help.
Now here in the last couple of months, he’s been busier than a two-dollar trollop on nickel night. He loved every minute of it. So though he grumbled some when she sent him to the inn to look for hidden cameras, he was buzzing inside like a kid hopped up on candy. He kept his face void of expression though when he arrived, for the many onlookers who were still milling around.
Who knows why people are so fascinated by death and murder? It’s all the town would talk about here lately. That, and what was going on between his Detective Sparks and Riley O’Rourke. Even his wife Maisie, who tends to mind her own, was sticking her nose in. Now usually, an outsider coming in and snatching up one of their town’s leading citizens right after his wife had died, no matter the circumstances, would’ve had the mavens up in arms.
But Detective Sparks was different. She’d been introduced to the town by one of its lost sons for one, someone who everyone thought highly of, and on top of that, the girl fit right in. She didn’t have any of those big-city airs that some use to get by on. In fact, until she opens her mouth, you’d think she was local born and bred the way she’d taken the time to get to know the town and its ways.
Andy liked her fine when all was said and done and murders aside, he appreciated the new boost she’d brought to his career. Well, not her personally, it’s not like she was out there killing people, but he could honestly say that since she took the job of lead detective in their one-horse town, things have been jumping.
