Page 13 of The Woman Who Couldn't Scream
“No, Sheriff Kwinault would never say that. I mean, I don’t think she would. I’m new in town. When they called for extra officers to deal with the crisis, I applied. She gave me a temp job. Three months. I appreciate that, but we’re not old acquaintances. Or anything.” He took off his cap and wiped his brow. He’d been standing in the sun, and suddenly seemed to feel its heat. “Do you know Sheriff Kwinault?”
“When we were children, we were friends.”
“So you’re from Virtue Falls?”
Now Merida was sorry she’d said more than she should. More slowly, she typed, “I knew her in Baltimore.”
If he was faking confusion, he was doing a good job. “I thought Sheriff Kwinault grew up here.”
“She lived with her father for a few years.”
“Really?I knew she’d been in the Coast Guard and went around the country that way, but not—”
The radio hooked to his belt announced, “The chase is done for the day. Let the roadblocks go.”
The guy in the car behind her must have heard, because he cheered and turned on his engine.
Merida put her tablet into her shoulder bag, slid off the car, dusted her rear and looked pointedly at Officer Weston, then at the barrier across the road.
He didn’t move. “Are you staying in Virtue Falls or headed down the coast?”
Patiently she dug out her tablet again. “Staying.”
“Vacation?”
“Rented an apartment in town.”
“Really?” Now he was openly eager. “Since I’m new and you’re new, what do you say we get together and explore the coast?”
She could have simply said no, but she didn’t trust men, especially not men who worked at jobs that put them in charge. So she put on her grieved face and typed, “I’m recently widowed.”
“Oh. Oh, I’m sorry.”
She nodded and climbed in the car.
Sean Weston removed the barriers and waved her forward to the stop sign.
She figured that was that, but he put his hand on her door and leaned over. “I’ll look you up.”
She looked at him as if he were nuts and shook her head.
The guy behind her honked.
Officer Weston took his hand away.
She drove into Virtue Falls to create a new life… and at last, to get her revenge.
CHAPTER SIX
The old house was a monstrosity, a huge wooden gingerbread house, a parody of early twentieth century Gothic architecture set back on the lot on Lincoln Avenue. Dark Douglas fir trees overhung the dark stained wood, moss clumped on the cedar shingles, the windows were grimy, the yard was overgrown. This place was run-down, ill-kempt and eccentric, unlike anywhere Merida had lived before—and precisely what she wanted.
As she made her way up the front walk, she stumbled on the uneven concrete broken by huge tree roots. She clung to the railing as she climbed the porch stairs and watched her footing on the warped boards. A plaque beside the doorbell said:
GOOD KNIGHT MANOR BED AND BREAKFAST
IF NO ANSWER, WALK IN.
So she pushed the button and as she waited, she looked around. Next door, in gaps through the towering hedge, she saw a once-luxurious mansion that was now boarded up and dilapidated. On the other side, that home was smaller, newer, a tall and brightly painted Victorian house now undergoing renovation.
