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“Really?” Her voice pitched higher than she meant it to. Hank was three years older than Audrey, and as a rule they’d never gotten along when they were younger.
“I know. It sounds ridiculous.” She handed Kylie her change and receipt. “What about you? Are you visiting your folks?”
“A bit of an extended visit I guess.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I had to leave the city, so I’m back home until I can figure things out.”
“Ah, I see. Embezzle from the mafia, did you?” Audrey waggled her eyebrows.
It struck Kylie that she missed this friend. Audrey was one of her best friends in elementary school all the way through high school. She was the one friend who Kylie had kept in touch with the longest, but eventually still let go of.
“Worse. I lost my job,” she replied. She’d dreaded saying it out loud, but Audrey didn’t sneer or even raise an eyebrow.
“Ouch,” she said. “Sorry to hear that. Well, welcome back then.”
“Thanks.” Kylie gathered up the dog food and towed Captain toward the door. “It was nice running in to you. I hope I see you around again.”
“Sure thing. Oh hey, wait.”
Kylie turned back around.
“Do you remember Nick Batiste?” Audrey asked.
“How could I forget the loudest guy in our class?” Kylie snorted.
“Well, every Friday night, he and Jillene have people over to hang out in their garage.” Audrey scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Kylie. “It’s not glamourous, just people we went to high school with, but if you’re going to be around for a bit, you may as well have some fun.”
“Wait. Nick Batiste and Jillene are together?”
“Wild, right? So you’ll come?”
“Um, okay I’ll think about it.” Kylie wasn’t sure she wanted to start bonding with people from high school all over again.
“Give me a call if you ever want to come, and we can walk over together,” Audrey said.
“Sure thing.” Kylie managed a smile and tugged Captain out the door.
~ * ~
The bell above the door chimed at the O.P.P. station. The station was actually a converted old house. The upstairs had been renovated into an apartment which was currently occupied by the high school gym teacher, Derek’s best friend, Adam. The downstairs was left mostly as it was. The living room still had the wood burning fireplace, but instead of couches and coffee tables, there was a large desk, a filing cabinet, and two chairs that faced the front of the desk. Three armchairs in one corner served as a waiting area.
The kitchen was still a kitchen, but the dining room had been converted into a holding cell. Which was to say doors with locks were installed, and it had been furnished with two old couches and a coffee table with a basket of playing cards and old magazines.
The most use the holding cell got was when the Legion Hall had bingo night and some of the patrons needed to sleep it off before driving home.
Derek loved his station. Being the only full-time officer for the town meant he had the run of the place. He kept it efficient and official, but comfortable. Most folks who came to visit him were people complaining about their neighbor’s dog digging in their garden or mild vandalism.
His first job with the O.P.P. had been policing speeders on the bigger highways, so he was happy when a position in his hometown came up and lucky no one above him in seniority was interested in moving to Camden to work alone.
The person who’d come through the front door popped around the corner into the office.
“Hey Audrey,” Derek said to his friend, happy to take a break from the report he was reading. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, fine,” she said with a sly grin as she sat in one of the chairs facing his desk. “I was wondering if you knew of anything new or interesting happening around town. Maybe something unexpected.”
Sitting back in his chair, he crossed his arms. “You want to come out and tell me instead of playing this little gossip game?”
“I just ran into Kylie Martin.”
He leaned forward and picked his work back up. “Yeah, I saw her yesterday. So?”
