“Well, take a load off, get comfortable, and be prepared to get the crap scared out of you.”
“What the hell are you watching anyway?”
“The Conjuring. Riggs said the second movie is his favorite, but insisted I start here.”
“I think I remember seeing this when it came out. Don’t think I saw the rest, though.”
“The rest? Wait, there is more than two?”
“A bunch more, I believe.”
“Well, fuck.” I sigh, not sure I’m up for having the shit scared out of me on a regular basis. Been there, done that.
He laughs at me, the asshole. I bite my lip, not sure what to talk about now.
Thankfully, he takes the lead. “So what’s it like being back after all this time?”
“Surreal. If it weren’t for this place, I wouldn’t have come back at all,” I admit. “What about you? What makes a man become the sheriff of a dying town?”
He opens his mouth to refute my words, but I shake my head at him. “I remember what it was like before I went to prison, Shepard. It might not have all the trappings of a city, but it was a beautiful, prosperous town. The place I came home to isn’t the same place I left. So what attracts someone to come here when I can’t see this town lasting another ten years if it doesn’t sort its shit out.”
“I don’t think it’s as simple as sorting it out. People work. They try, but crops keep failing. The weather, until recently, has been erratic and unpredictable. The town’s largest factory closed, leaving many people out of work and creating a shortage of jobs. It’s just been one thing after another. It’s hard to prosper when you’re just trying to stay afloat.”
I nod, conceding his point before leaning forward. “Be that as it may, I didn’t ask why everyone else is still here. I asked what keeps you here, Sheriff.”
He scrubs his hand over his face. “The job offer came up five years ago. My grandparents were gone, and I’d taken a job at mylocal PD. But it just felt… hollow somehow. I know they’d have been proud of me. Heck, my grandfather encouraged me to work in the city. I got job offers in Boston and Phoenix, but neither appealed to me. I can’t even tell you why. I was at the point where I thought I’d chosen the wrong career. I found no joy in strapping on my gun and belt. And then I ended up at a group therapy session, believe it or not, for grief survivors. I went to support someone else who wanted to go but didn’t want to go alone, and I don’t know, I guess some of it resonated. Turns out it wasn’t the job that was messing with me. It was a whole lot of untackled issues. So I went back every week and eventually worked through things. The job came up here—it wasn’t far from where my grandparents were raised, or where my mom grew up, and it just felt right.” He shrugs as I study him.
“I know this town is dying. It fucking kills me to watch it rot from the inside out because I don’t know how to stop it, and somewhere along the way, this place became important to me.”
“It really is all about perspective, isn’t it? Through my eyes, this place was my prison, somewhere to escape from. From your vantage point, it became your haven.”
Before he can say anything else, Riggs walks back in with a tray laden with the leftover pasta from lunch, pizza, a bottle of water, and a beer. “Wasn’t sure what you wanted,” he says, handing the tray to Shepard.
“This is great, thanks.”
“No problem,” Riggs replies before sitting on the sofa beside me again. He starts up the movie, and we settle in. After a few minutes, I realize it’s not nearly as tense between us all as I thought it would be. A cop, a con, and a killer—I guess fate really has a sense of humor.
My eyes get heavy, so I wriggle until I’m comfortable lying on Riggs, who lifts his arm to wrap around me. I hover for a while in that in-between space between asleep and awake, listeningto them talk. I likely won’t remember much about what they’re saying, but the low timbre of their voices is soothing. I sink deeper into my trance-like state.
“I don’t get it.” Shepard’s voice is softer than usual as he tries not to wake me.
“What’s there to get? Calliope and me fit together more than you and her ever will. And I’m not saying that to be a dick. It’s just a fact.”
Shepard grunts, and for a moment, I think that’s the end of it before he speaks again. “I read her file. And when you came on the scene, I read yours too.”
“Figured you would.”
“You don’t fit as well as you think.”
Riggs sighs. “Come on, man, is this the part where you try to warn me away? Are you gonna tell me I’m not good enough for her? If you think I don’t already know that, then you’re not as smart as you think you are. She quiets something in me. Soothes my rough edges a little. I don’t know why, and I sure as shit don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. So yeah, she might be able to do better than me, but that means I’ll put in the work to be the man she needs.”
“Just like that?”
“Yeah, just like that. And honestly, Sheriff, if you can’t say the same, then you don’t deserve her either.”
“You’re talking about me being interested in her, and yet it’s your arms she’s lying in.”
“She doesn’t belong to either one of us. She had half her life stolen from her. Fifteen years of people telling her what to do, how to act, and what to wear. She hasn’t been allowed to figure out who she is or what she wants, so I’ll be damned if I try to take that power from her now. She likes me, but I can tell she likes you, too. Do I find it fucking weird you’re a cop? Damn straightI do, but it doesn’t matter what I feel. This is about Calliope. If testing the waters with you is what she wants, then so be it.”
