Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 2) (2 page)
Read Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 2) Online
Authors: Karen Ann Hopkins
Contents
1
January 1, 2015
I
t should have felt nice to leave the ten degree temperature and blowing snow behind when I entered Charlie’s Pub, but I only had about ten seconds to enjoy the warmth before all hell broke loose.
The flying chair struck the wall a few feet to my right with a crash. Todd’s sharp admiring whistle snapped my head in his direction.
Todd shrugged and said with a sheepish grin, “Happy New Year, boss.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. It was bad enough to be working the beat on New Year’s Eve, but having to ring in the New Year with my irritating partner, Todd, was a double insult. Quickly pushing my frustration aside, I grasped the baton at my hip and shouted over the myriad sounds of crashing, cussing and breaking glass.
“That’s enough, folks! Everyone drop whatever object you’re about to lob at someone and listen up.”
The room did quiet somewhat, but I had to grudgingly admit that Todd’s second, more threatening call-to-attention whistle, is what finally got everyone to face us.
I took in the scene at once. Normally, the combination of the beer stein collection on the far wall, the hardwood floors and the hunter green porcelain lamp shades gave Charlie’s a quaint, northern European ambience. But tonight the place resembled a roadhouse instead. Besides several broken chairs, there was also a flipped over table and I couldn’t help wrinkling my nose at the permeating smell of whisky and beer mixing together among the shattered glass in puddles on the floor. I was just glad that I didn’t have to stick around to clean up the mess.
About two dozen patrons were standing and sitting in various positions around the room, some were amused and some wide eyed, but all were very alert. Charlie Dempsey was behind the bar, scratching his graying head of shaggy hair in dismay as he surveyed the damage to his establishment. I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for the man, though. Bar fights were an occupational hazard in this business, and unfortunately, I’d made altogether too many runs in the middle of the night in crappy weather like this because of them.
The fact that the local boys had gotten riled up on the holiday didn’t sour my mood nearly as much as having spotted my ex-boyfriend from high school, Denton McAllister, when I’d entered the building. At the moment, Denton was pointing a finger at Jory Goldblum who was holding what appeared to be an appetizer dish in his hand. But even all that wasn’t as disturbing as catching a glimpse of the lone man who was sitting in the far corner of the room.
In the moment my eyes met his, he grinned and raised his beer bottle with a curt nod.
Daniel Bachman. This must be my lucky night, I thought sarcastically.
“This isn’t your concern, Serenity,” Ben said with an angry twist to his lips.
I rounded on him. I had had about enough of the town’s people either treating me as if I was a complete stranger or with way too much familiarity. I was the sheriff now and I deserved a little more respect.
In a steady, but loud voice, I said, “Charlie’s isn’t your private playground, Mr. Goldblum.” I paused to sweep the room with my gaze to make sure that I had everyone’s full attention. “Or anyone else’s for that matter. You are all dangerously close to ringing in the New Year in county lockup.”
“I didn’t come out looking for a fight,” Ben shouted, wheeling again in Denton’s direction. Todd was quick and got a hold of Ben’s arm before he had a chance to let the dish fly. Ben quickly slouched in defeat as Todd secured both of his wrists behind his back.
“He’s sleeping with Ruby. What was I supposed to do?” Ben choked out.
I never could stand a crying man, but I made an exception in this case. Back in high school, Ben and Denton had been inseparable, so by default, I had spent a lot of time hanging around with Ben. In those days, he was too shy to raise his hand in class and I could still vividly recall the time that he’d crossed a busy highway to hold a dying dog in his lap that had been hit by a car. It hadn’t even been his dog, but you would never have known that from the tears he had shed that day. Ruby was also his high school sweetheart, wife and the mother of his three young daughters. It was bad enough to discover your wife cheating on you, but it was a double whammy for the other man to be your best friend, and way too much to expect any man to deal with calmly.
Now that I knew what was going on, I was just sorry that Todd had reached Ben before he’d hurled the dish at Denton’s head.
Still holding out a shard of hope that it was all a huge misunderstanding, I turned to Denton and asked, “Is this true?”
The room was dead silent and all eyes turned to Denton. The thirty-two year old still looked every bit the high school football star, except that now he was even more ripped. Both of his arms bulged with muscles, and right below each sleeve of his t-shirt was an elaborate tattoo. One arm was decorated with a sun burst and the other with a pouting angel that looked kind of like a porn star with wings.
He didn’t even have to answer for me to immediately know that what Ben had said was the truth. It was written all over Denton’s unusually sagging face. I inwardly sighed in sadness for Ben’s little girls.
Denton rubbed his hand vigorously through his blond hair before he finally said, “Yeah, but she’s the one who came on to me.” He glanced back at Ben and said, “Man, you have to believe me. I would never do that to you.”
“That’s enough,” I said, waving him to silence with an irritated swipe of my hand.
Denton hadn’t changed one bit since high school. He was still a self-centered, heart breaking dick, too arrogant to take any responsibility for it. And that made the sting even sharper when my body betrayed me with a racing heart and a dry mouth when I faced him.
“You’re under arrest, Denton McAllister, for disorderly conduct and assault.” He didn’t resist when I cuffed him, but he didn’t go silently either.
“What the hell, Serenity. Are you kidding me? He’s the one who attacked me and then Ruby’s brother, Nathan, had to get involved. They’re the ones you should be arresting!”
I turned him around and stared hard into his eyes. Once upon a time, those hazel eyes of his could make me do anything he wanted. I had been a lump of hormones and romantic dreams around him in high school. That is, until he cheated on me with my own best friend at the time. They say that high school memories stay with you for a lifetime. I had to agree, except those memories weren’t always pleasant. In my case, they had turned me into a very jaded adult.
“For once in your life, keep your mouth shut or I’ll find some other charges to tack on to the list. Now move.” I pointed towards the door. He shook his head in disbelief, but started walking anyway.
“Todd, can you get Denton into the cruiser. I want to talk to Ben for a minute…and you can take the cuffs off of him.” Then I addressed the crowd. “Everyone go home. Charlie’s is closed for the night.”
Quickly, people began dispersing, some with down cast eyes and others with smiling faces and Happy New Year wishes. I nodded curtly to get them moving on their way and told Charlie that I’d be with him in a minute to make a formal report. The old bar owner had already gotten to work with a mop and I moved my attention from him to look back at Ben. This wasn’t going to be fun.
“I’m doing you a favor. I’m sure the last face that you want to be staring at all night through cell bars is Denton’s, so I’m not going to haul you in. But I don’t want you going home to Ruby and the kids tonight, either. You need to get a room at one of the hotels off the interstate and sleep this one off. When its morning and you’re thinking clearer, you can go talk to her about it, but not tonight. Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, I do.” I was satisfied with his answer and his demeanor, and was about to switch my attention back to Charlie when Ben reached out and touched my arm. I looked at him with a raised brow.
“Why would she do such a thing? We have a family…I thought we were happy. How could Ruby do this to us?”
Ben’s eyes were wet and his face was pale. My heart went out to him, but I also wondered when his pain would turn to anger. In cases like this it was probably better to be totally pissed off rather than being lost in so much grief. And what could I say anyway? No amount of advice I could give him would make a difference. Ruby had cheated on him with his best friend, probably because Denton was a hot commodity and all the loving feelings were gone between her and Ben. She’d been nice enough when we were young, but she had always been a party girl. Some bad personality traits didn’t disappear or change over time. They only morphed into something even worse. At this point, no words from me were going to make Ben feel any better, and really, I was the last person in the world who should be giving him advice on the subject.
But I was tired and wanted to go home, so I lied. “I don’t know why…it was probably just a physical thing and not emotional at all. Try to get some sleep and maybe the light of day will bring you some answers.”
Ben sighed and said, “Thanks, Serenity. I appreciate you overlooking my bad behavior. I won’t do anything like this ever again. I promise.”
“You better not. Next time I won’t be nearly as understanding.”
Twenty minutes later I was finally trudging back through the snow to the car. Luckily, Charlie had insurance for just such incidents. And he’d been so relieved that no one had been injured, he wasn’t going to press charges either.
I was slipping my gloves on and almost to the car when I noticed Daniel standing beside his Jeep. Apparently, he was waiting for me. I was in the process of weighing the pros and cons of stopping to talk to the former Amish man when he pushed away from his vehicle and strode over, meeting me halfway to my cruiser.
“Happy New Year,” he said sweetly.
I chuckled and my breath spread out into an icy mist between us. “Not much happiness going on around here.”
“It could be worse.”
I risked looking directly into his eyes and said briskly, “Oh, yeah, no one’s dead this time, but Ben probably wishes he was.” I shook my head. “Dammit, I don’t understand why people do this to each other. If Ruby wanted out, why not just be up front with Ben. And then again, why would she even want out; three beautiful girls, a nice house in the suburbs, and a great guy. What’s the matter with her anyway?”
Daniel smiled at my little tirade, looking down at his booted foot as he pushed snow around briefly before meeting my gaze once again.
“I’d really rather be talking about us.”
“Us?”
“You know, you…me…us.” His white teeth flashed in a brilliant smile and I was once again completely at a loss as to why this gorgeous guy was stalking me.
He was so tall and his shoulders were so broad that he actually provided a nice break from the wind that was gusting hard enough to catch the loose snow in the parking lot and spray it up into the air in wild sheets of bitter cold around us. I was even tempted to take another step closer and steal some of the heat that seemed to radiate off of him, but I controlled myself and stood still.
I had a sudden vision of Daniel, minus the Carhartt jacket and the flannel shirt. I knew that underneath all those winter clothes was a well-defined chest that connected to washboard abs. I definitely didn’t want to think about his firm butt or his strong thighs so I quickly forced the image to evaporate, and squarely met his gaze. Unfortunately, looking at his wide spaced brownish-black eyes and the amused set to his jaw that was covered with a few days’ worth of black stubble wasn’t much safer. He was too damned handsome for his own good.
“We’ve already discussed this. It’s not a good time for us to get involved.”
His amusement quickly evaporated and he snorted. “What are you waiting for? We’re both available and we’re highly attracted to each other. We survived a harrowing experience together…what more do you need to simply go out for dinner and movie with me?”
Maybe I was being a complete idiot. I had issues—I knew it. But letting Daniel into my life was about the scariest thing I had ever faced. A gun pointed straight at my head was more welcome than the prospect of putting faith in any man, especially him.
“This is just a game to you, isn’t it? The minute I agree and go out with you, you’ll grow bored and move onto someone else. So why the hell should I even bother?”
His eyes widened for an instant in understanding and then he took a measured sigh. “Someone must have really betrayed your trust for you to be so paranoid.”
I smiled and nodded, “Yep, I won’t deny it. Just look at what went down in there tonight.” I pointed at Charlie’s with an angry thrust of my arm. “Ben and Ruby were supposed to be living the dream, with kids and a dog, the whole package. Now their lives are ruined. They’ll probably be divorced and both sleeping with new partners by this time next year.”
“I get what you’re saying. I really do. But it doesn’t have to be like that for everyone…or for us. I’m a patient guy, Serenity. And I have no problem waiting for you to figure out how unreasonable you’re being. Besides, we’ll have that long drive up north with only the two of us in the Jeep and then a whole week in a secluded Amish community together to discuss this. So I’m not overly concerned with your avoidance at the moment.”
The return of his smug expression cut through the honey warm desire that had been spreading through me by simply standing too close to him. He thought he had it all figured out, but I was determined to show him that he didn’t know anything at all.
The cold air once again sent a chill through me and I zipped my jacket up to my neck and said, “Actually, there’s been a change of plans.” The sudden arch of his eyebrows was priceless and I quickly hurried on, “I’ve decided to leave tomorrow after all.”
“But you know that I have to finish the Mayor’s guest suite. He has visitors arriving this week and I promised him,” Daniel said carefully.
I shrugged. “Sorry, Daniel, I have a tight schedule also. Since I’m officially on vacation in six hours, I’d like to be on my way. Perhaps I’ll get lucky and Bishop Esch and that Rowan fellow were overreacting about the mystery on their hands. I might be able to wrap things up quickly and you won’t need to make the trip at all.”
