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Which was exactly where Maria was painstakingly driving her brand new mint green coupe to.
The car had been a gift for her 24th birthday. Supposedly it was from Lucas and Caitlin. Because she knew full well that the gift idea had really been Cait’s—no way in hell would Lucas think that Maria needed a vehicle of her own without Caitlin’s “persuasion”—she decided to take the ride over and thank Caitlin while Lucas was away again.
And then, if that went well, maybe she could do some prying. She was Lucas’s little sister. Shouldn’t they expect her to be a little nosy?
Besides, it never hurt to make sure the sheriff was doing all right on her own. When Lucas was gone for too long, Caitlin had a tendency to go a little… pazza.
Crazy.
There was only one car in the lot when Maria coasted carefully into the spot two down from the Hamlet Sheriff Department cruiser. That wasn’t unusual. Since Sheriff McKinley retired and Caitlin was voted in to replace him, only three people were left to run the department: Caitlin, Wilhelmina Parker and Mason Walsh.
Caity kept saying she needed to hire at least one more deputy but, either from a lack of candidates or because she was just too damn picky, they were still shorthanded.
On the plus side, there were rarely any crimes in Hamlet.
She reached up to the hollow of her throat, stroking the edge of her cross in a fervent caress. And thank God for that.
Maria was used to the station house. Since Caitlin started working there right out of school, she’d been by a hundred times. One of the most familiar sights to her was finding Willie Parker sitting behind her desk, watching a movie on the portable DVD player her three kids bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago. Just because no one in Hamlet had cable, it didn’t mean that there was no entertainment.
The player was turned on. A flash of color reflected off the lenses in Willie’s black-framed cat’s eye glasses. Music piped out of the speakers suddenly as if whatever she had playing was just starting.
A plus-sized woman, Willie’s uniform shirt accentuated her generous curves. Maria could see a gap forming where the buttons struggled to stay closed over her chest. She thought one of them might pop as she reached over to grab a stack of papers before returning her attention to her computer. She was bopping her head in time to the music as she swiveled her chair and squinted at the computer screen.
Maria liked the tune. It sounded old-fashioned, upbeat and poppy. It reminded Maria of old-fashioned girl groups from decades ago. Doo wop, maybe? Peeking around the side of Willie’s desk, she saw she was partly right. Three girls walking through the rain, singing about—
She cocked her head, listening.
—a little shop of… horror?
How lovely.
And then it clicked.
“Wait a minute,” she said, causing the older woman to jump in her seat. So engrossed in her movie and her paperwork, Willie obviously hadn’t seen Maria slip into the station house. “Isn’t this that movie about the plant that eats people? Lucas told me about it. I thought it sounded interesting.” With an amused snort, she added, “He won’t let me watch it.”
Pushing away from her desk, Willie turned to look up at Maria. Her eye shadow was a vivid chartreuse, climbing up past the rim of her glasses. “You should know by now about my weakness for musicals.”
“I do. Weren’t you watching some half-masked phantom the last time I was here?”
“It’s good,” Willie said defensively. “This one is, too, so you go on and tell that brother of yours that you’re a grown woman, sug. A silly movie won’t give you nightmares. Bev loves it.”
Ah, Jesus. Beverly Parker was all of twelve years old.
Maria sniffed. If Willie’s oldest could watch it, then she definitely would. Sometimes Lucas treated her like she was even younger than some of the neighborhood kids. Hmm. Maybe it was time she got a portable player of her own. Willie would let her borrow a movie or two if she asked.
It was worth a thought. And what was one more secret that Lucas didn’t know about?
Reaching over, Willie turned the screen off with a flick of a switch on the side. The girls’ singing abruptly died. “Now, I’m sure you’re not here because you want to watch a flick. What can I do for you?”
“Actually, I was wondering if Caitlin was in.” Since there was only one cruiser parked out there, Maria figured that she’d already missed her. “If she’s not, I can always come back. Or
try her on her radio. It’s not an emergency.”
“Let me check on the sheriff. Take a seat, sugar. I’ll be right back.”
There were two visitors chairs in the whole of the station house. Turning to take one, she noticed that one was already occupied by a very petite woman. Her friendly face was lined with faint wrinkles, a cloud of blonde hair so light it was nearly white styled perfectly with an impeccable make-up job to match. The floral summer dress she wore draped over her tiny frame spread out across the seat of the padded chair.
She recognized her at once, offering a quick smile in welcome. Maria would’ve held out her hand in greeting instead if it wasn’t so obvious that her hands were full.
