To her benefit, the daylight was fading. It would be easier to approach undetected in the dark, but she couldn’t wait for full nightfall to veil her. Time was not her friend anymore.  She intended to park in Casey’s parking lot, assuming it would be empty, but to her surprise it was jammed, cars blocking each other in and back ends loping onto the street. It must have been an impromptu wake to commemorate the recently deceased Casey. If she got out of this alive, she promised herself that she would bring her father to Casey’s later.

She drove past the blood red building and turned right, away from the center of town. She didn’t want Gregory seeing her arrive before she was ready to announce it. But street parking was completely nonexistent. She turned onto a side street. Still no parking. All these people couldn’t be for Casey’s, could they? How would they all fit into the building?

She was about to give up and just find a spot close to the now defunct Two Scoops, when a car started to back up as if to pull away from the curb directly ahead of her. Reese waited. It seemed like forever as the driver checked his mirror, turned his head to look for oncoming traffic, checked his mirror again. He was slow and cumbersome to pull away and stopped midway to give her a howdy-wave. Reese controlled the urge to blare on her car horn. She reluctantly waved back hoping it would give him permission to get moving.

She zipped into the spot before he was two feet away, not even bothering with the traditional parallel parking etiquette. She hopped out and reached under her seat for the gun where she had stashed it earlier before driving off. She assessed the situation and decided she couldn’t very well walk around town with it exposed at her back. She left it on the front seat and went to her trunk where she pulled out a black fleece zipper jacket. She slipped the jacket on, went back to the driver side door and then tucked the gun securely in her waistband just as an inebriated Brian the bartender stumbled onto her, tossing her against the car door. The gun wedged between metal and her spine.

“Reese,” he said in a slur. “You came. I saw you drive by and came to escort you in.” His chivalry quickly vanished as he leaned into her like they were lovers and she bit her lip to quiet the agony of the jamming gun. She placed both of her hands on his chest and shoved him into a standing position. He smiled broadly. In his right hand was a nearly empty beer bottle swaying the opposite direction of his body, as if it might conjure some balance for him.

“Hey Brian. How are you doing?” She said, trying to sound sorrowful, not annoyed which was what she was really feeling.

His shrug was exaggerated and accompanied by a pinched expression. “This sucks. I never thought the old guy would die. I didn’t even know he had a heart problem.”

“It’s unfair, I know. He was a great man.”

“Great?” He hollered in an enthusiastic tone unbefitting the circumstances. He stumbled toward Reese again and she braced herself for the impact, but Brian leaned back and swaggered into an upright position. “He was the best!” He sprayed Reese’s face when he exclaimed “best.”

Reese wiped at her face with the sleeve of her jacket. She didn’t have time for drunken mourners. She needed to get to Gregory before he took another life. An image of her mother flashed in her mind but she brushed it to the side. She grabbed Brian’s free arm and draped it over her shoulder and clamped her hand onto his belt to hold him steady. “Come on Brian; let’s get back inside before you get caught with an open bottle of beer outside the pub.”

He stumbled in step with Reese and lifted the bottle to his face, his lips protruding in a grotesque manner in search of the ultimate elixir.  He drained the bottle and swung his hand backwards. They turned the corner and his empty hand swung forward. The crash of breaking glass behind them caused Brian to stop and jerk around, bringing Reese to a full frontal smash into the sidewalk. She braced her fall with her one free hand, the other still tangled at Brian’s waist.

Brian looked from the shattered brown glass to Reese, her thumb hooked into his belt. She looked like the drunken one.

“Reese, what are you doing?” Brian asked in a tone of amazement.

“Brian, squat down here so I can get my thumb out of your belt loop,” Reese said through gritted teeth.

He did as he was told but looked at his empty hands as he lowered his body. Reese squirmed her thumb out of its locked position and plopped onto her knees. Brian continued to stare at his upturned palms with an expression of confusion. “Where’s my beer?” He demanded.

Reese stood and swiped at her knees. Her patience slammed into a brick wall. “You dropped it. Let’s go,” she said. She yanked at the shoulder of his shirt and pulled him up. “Come on.” They managed to walk to the corner where Casey’s Pub was without further incident.

“Can you make it to the front door okay, Brain?” She asked as she forced his body in the direction of the pub.

He fumbled to turn back at Reese. “Aren’t you coming?” He asked.

“I’ll be back in a little bit. I need to take care of some business.”

“Business,” Brian mimicked and shot off a mock salute. “Bring Gregory back with you. Casey didn’t like him much but that’s okay. And tell him to bring that hot girlfriend of his. More the merrier. Right?”

“Right,” she responded vaguely and pondered Brian’s words. Gregory’s girlfriend? Who the hell was he talking about? Lucy? She was the only female Reese could think of who had ever been at Casey’s with Gregory. And Lucy certainly didn’t strike Reese as the type that Brian would call hot. He was surface deep all the way.

Reese watched Brian stagger to the steps of Casey’s Pub. He grabbed the railing and swirled around, unable to put his foot on the step. She sighed thinking she was losing precious time when another man came up behind Brian and coddled him into walking up and forward. The leader of the two opened the door and a cacophony of shrills and conversations marched down the steps. The sadness wrapped itself around Reese again, momentarily making her forget why she was standing there.  She was never going to see her Mom again. Luke was lost in some eternal abyss, possibly never returning to the land of the living, even as a ghost.  And Casey, with all his fatherly doting and preparing meals for her, was dead too. Everyone she cared about was dying. That thought snapped her back to the present. She would protect her sister. God, she had a sister! And Heather and Lucy. They gave her an infusion of determination to go kick some serious ass. She glanced at Casey’s once more and then turned toward the center of town.

Two Scoops had closed over a year ago, Gregory stating that it had run its natural course of business. He kept the store with the intention of opening something different in the future, but had no definite plans. The glass front covered in brown paper blocking an inside view was a blight on the small town’s center. Businesses came and went, but the Chamber of Commerce was always quick to find new young entrepreneurs, eager to try their hand in the realm of retail paradise. But Gregory owned the strip of shops where Two Scoops had flourished for decades and was not quick to let go of his coveted storefront.

Reese had no doubt it was there that Gregory was holed up at, with the girls and Heather being held against their wishes. She knew he was waiting for her. Back to where it all began. Luke had stumbled across the truth all those years ago and had paid with the ultimate sacrifice. He died knowing the truth. Reese wasn’t sure what the truth was exactly but she had no doubt Gregory’s anguish of never being accepted by his father was part of the twisted game she now found herself in.

At the side of the building, she leaned against the brick exterior. She wanted to spend time unraveling the mystery. Why would Gregory fabricate a lie about Mr. Albreck molesting her? What purpose would it serve? Was his intentions realized when Mr. Albreck was murdered? Did he want his good for nothing father dead for the sins he committed against Heather? Did he think his father killed Luke? She wouldn’t know until she had a gun pointed at his head and demanded answers. But the priority had not changed. She still needed to get Heather and her girls out of there alive and in one piece.

She slipped a hand behind her jacket to feel the reassuring hand grip of her gun. Then she rolled to her right, slipping into the alley behind the building. One door was propped open and as she slinked past it, she was overwhelmed with the scent of flowers, both fresh and rotting. Surely, the florist shop was closing soon. She would have to act fast so no closing attendees would see her. She stayed close to the building, right hand securely holding the gun butt, ready to use it at any given moment.

Another door. She silently passed it. Another one only four feet away. She stopped and took a deep relaxing breath. She closed her eyes. She had to prepare to see her dead mother. He certainly hadn’t disposed of her yet. If he killed her in Two Scoops, it wouldn’t have been from a more kinder, gentler gunshot wound. Too many possible witnesses to hear it. No, surely her mother’s death had been a painful one. If Gregory was in fact Luke’s killer, he had no qualms viciously using a knife. She prayed her mother had known no such horrific pain.

She inhaled again and as she expelled the air through her nostrils, she opened her eyes and moved the gun from her waist and hugged it against her thigh. She crept past the other door and hopped around to the other side of the back entrance of Two Scoops.

Laughter exploded from the florist shop as a pair of young girls bolted out the back door. Reese held her breath and forced her muscles to tense so tightly, even her pulse couldn’t be detected. The girls giggled as one of them dropped her keys to the ground while fumbling for the lock. They were laugh-talking about some cute boy who had flirted with them and Reese thought they were too engrossed to notice her in the growing shadows. That was until one of the girls stopped laughing and pounded on her friend’s back. She pointed in Reese’s direction. She quickly lowered the gun to her side, hoping they couldn’t make out its outline. Reese leaned forward and whispered loudly “Surprise party.” She placed a finger to her lips and shushed them.  

The girl with the key stared in Reese’s direction for a second while the other one continued to pound on her back. “Come on. Hurry up. Bunch of weirdoes around here.”

“Stop it,” the key-girl said and shrugged off the back slapping. They hurried, but appeared to calm down a bit since Reese didn’t seem to be a direct threat.

Reese waited until they were gone from the alley before turning back to the door. She approached it cautiously, one hand on the knob and the other gripping the gun at shoulder height, barrel in the air. She tilted her head to the door, listening for any tell-tale signs of movement. Convinced that no one was lurking at the back door waiting to pounce on her, she tried the knob. It turned. No lock. Very surprising. Was someone expecting her? She used the door as a layer of protection as she slowly opened it. When no one jumped out at her, she quickly peered around the door. It was dark. She moved around the edge of the door and wished like crazy she had thought to bring a flashlight from her trusty snooping bag. She stepped into the kitchen on tiptoe, holding the door with her fingertips so it wouldn’t slam shut. It latched closed and she waited for any kind of noise. She took a step forward and then another, feeling something slimy and slippery under her foot. She crouched down and put one of her hands out. A body. A body whose temperature had already begun to drop. She pulled her hand away and stood up. She took three steps to her right and scooted forward. She took tiny baby steps, afraid she might slip on blood. Was that her mother’s blood? She felt the fingers of a complete freak out pulling at her brain cells. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about.

Her toe bumped into something solid on the floor. The something solid moaned. She crouched down again, this time feeling warm body heat from the shoulder where her hand landed. “Oh god,” she whispered. The frame was too large to be Addie and Lucy was too slight. It had to be Heather. The son of a bitch was going to kill them all. Reese groped around to touch Heather’s face, but quickly pulled away when she grazed facial stubble.

She jumped up and took several clumsy steps back until the wall intercepted her fall. She floundered in search of a light switch, but her hands only found flat wall. Where were Heather and the girls? Maybe they already got away. Somehow they had managed to overtake Gregory and escaped.

She should have felt a sense of relief for their safety, but something wasn’t right. Shouldn’t the police be there by now? Why didn’t they call the police? Reese wanted to back out of the kitchen to the alley but she followed the wall to the swinging door which led to the dining area.

She peered through the porthole and in the faint glow of a single lamp, she saw Addie and Lucy each taped and bound in a chair, facing each other. They both had red tear stained faces and were staring bug-eyed back at Reese.

Suddenly Reese felt the tip of a knife pushing against her back as the gun was wrestled from her grip.

“Welcome to the party,” Heather whispered into Reese’s ear.