A Rock and Family Vacation
[32]
Raymond Cadell was apparently busy but the people at the front desk sent along a junior officer to pull them aside and take down a statement about their encounters. He was immensely courteous, checking in with Clare first and making sure she was all right. She gave her side of the account, mentioning how nervous she felt. The junior officer assured her and everyone else that they would make absolutely sure that their stay in town was safe and problem-free.
Eventually, he turned his attention to Lacy. He was broad-shouldered with ruffled light hair and a well-tailored uniform. Blair absolutely noticed that her younger sister restlessly fussed with her legs and had trouble meeting the officer’s gaze. She fluttered back and forth with the intent not to appear suspicious while clearly feeling something she wanted to conceal.
The officer was patient as she confirmed some details about when the incident happened but that she was not present. Blair provided the surprise for everyone as she revealed that she saw the men in green and the other guy when they were driving over to Broad Street this morning. She described their white van but unfortunately hadn’t focused on the license plate. She did stress that they were quite close to the beach house, which put pressure on the speculation that they had intent to rob it. At this realization, the officer picked up his writing and typing pace so that the form could be filed. Eventually, the conversation drifted towards Brooke.
She was quite disconcerted by the way that the policeman looked at her. It wasn’t traditionally unsettling. So many times when she was younger, way too young to understand, people gawked at her and projected the cruelest little paper cuts of emotion about her being weird just because she grew up sooner than others.
She once heard a teacher casually call her a “little whore” just because she needed a larger bra than hers. It was after class and Brooke was checking in to see if the teacher was still there so that she could ask her some question she’d since forgotten. Brooke didn’t enter the room at first after hearing that comment, she waited and waited until the teacher and her associate had shifted to a different topic. When she finally entered, the teacher had wide eyes but slipped on a look of friendly compassion. She knew so many painful truths behind faces.
This officer looked at her kindly, too kindly. But that was stupid, kind was good. It hurt because she had to peer back so far for a moment like this. There was the precious oasis of Eliot or Elie or whatever. And nothing before that. No strangers who felt like they truly saw her for who she felt inside.
That was also ridiculous though. There had to be little moments, but they tended towards people who didn’t care. People who forgot you seconds later. This random man in a uniform looked at her like she was truly the child beneath the suffered malice of her father and isolation of the life he ordained for her, the heart without the protective armor. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to laugh, cry, or scream out at everything deep inside. Whatever the intention of the entity that possessed her daughter and transformed her, Brooke felt a flicker of relief to enjoy a moment like this.
They implied Eliot was a single father. There was no way they could reveal the weird supernatural aspects of their vacation, but Brooke resolved to at least hint at the creepy activities going on in the country club. The officer nodded while wearing concern and uncertainty on his features. Brooke framed it as an obligation where young people like herself and… and the other girls had to privately entertain rich old gentlemen. The way the officer flinched felt like an encouraging sign.
“Thank you, Ross. I should be able to take it from here.” A voice cleared out of the chatter as a bulky man in a gray, seersucker suit with a red tie tucked his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat. He wore the same hat as everyone else and doffed it with a bow. Casually, he apologized and tugged at his lapel, explaining he was just in a formal business meeting. Blair quietly puzzled about that but recognized that there were a lot of business and politics she didn’t understand when it came to the police. Then, her eyes widened.
“Excuse me, sir. Where did you get that ring? Is it a local thing?”
In Raymond‘s right hand, he held exactly the same ring that the three old men at the country club were wearing. Her heart and mind absolutely raced with questions and theories. She was going to absolutely lose it if he said that it was a mysterious gift too.
“This ring here? Part of my earlier business. Give it a look. Supposed to make you feel better.“ He held it out for their scrutiny and Blair nervously asked if she could touch it. Raymond squinted and passed it to her. Finally.
Some part of her desperately hoped that actually holding and feeling the ring would allow her some epiphany about this mystery. But it was just a normal ring with a slight bit of warmth from being handled by Raymond.
She held onto it as long as she reasonably could before she had to hand it back, but she started to pass it to Lacy before she turned away. Clearly, rings were going to be as persona non grata as a multitude of other things for the stubborn girl. Instead, she passed it to Clare to transfer back over to the sheriff.
*HSSS*
As soon as the ring touched Clare’s hand, furious sounds and swells of light bloomed, as though she held a tiny version of a Fourth of July sparkler. In fear, Clare chucked the ring at the junior officer’s table. As soon as it left her flesh, it went perfectly still, dark, and inert. Blair absorbed every aspect.
Chuckling with a nervous lilt, Raymond retrieved the ring and inspected it quietly before announcing, “Well, you don’t see that every day. Guess I’m gonna have to look up what kind of material can set off like that with perspiration. Darnest thing. Let’s just put this little feller away for right now, before he gets too excited. Rebecca, leave a copy of your full report on my desk. We’ll investigate your case properly. We can send a squad car around this evening to check up on y’all. And I promise to personally check in if anything comes up. Good day to you folks, enjoy the Point. A lovely little piece of heaven down here on Earth.”
The junior officer smiled at Raymond and nodded before brushing back her long hair and facing the Shore family. Clare looked confused and disoriented as she asked, with concern, “What happened to the other officer?” Frowning, Rebecca inquired, “What do you mean, sweetie? An officer you spoke to at the front?”
Clare shook her head with certainty. “No. There was a nice man who took down everything we said before the sheriff guy arrived.” Rebecca appeared quietly concerned as she moved her mouth around a few times and asked, “Has Clare here experienced any memory ummm or… Not doubting you, sweetie… just trying to understand.”
Her family also looked at her with concern and uncertainty as the disparity resolved. Clare claimed that there was a young male police officer who was with them, Ross, but now suddenly Rebecca was. Rebecca confirmed that she didn’t know any Rosses who were officers at this station.
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For the briefest instant, Brooke clung to some aspect of that which made sense. She had felt relief at being with and questioned by someone who saw her as a simple young girl. It mattered because it was a male officer, but that didn’t make any sense, because she had been talking to this female officer the entire time. No one showed up except for Raymond and no one else left.
Brooke scrutinized the junior officer adding a few casual notes while smiling politely at Clare. She had long, surprisingly loose hair in more of a dishwater blonde color with fair streaks than the lighter tone that Brooke and her girls shared. The officer seemed rather dainty and skinny compared to her expectations, but she didn’t want to discriminate. Also, her teeth were amazing and made Brooke viciously jealous.
Despite all the assurances, Clare was firm and concerned that no one took her at her word that there was another junior officer at some point. Blair put an arm on her shoulder and whispered comforting words, but Clare still looked like she wanted to cry. Lacy watched the female officer and also appeared unsure.
Rebecca urged the little girl to go get a drink of water. She dug into her desk and came up with a brownie with gobs of frosting. She explained that it was from the last volunteer drive about a week ago and still seemed good. Clare accepted the brownie and offer of water before hugging the officer around the shoulder and telling her, “Please be okay, I’m sorry if I did something bad.”
This left the poor officer perplexed but showing her best smile to console the kid. She could only imagine this single dad had it rough with three girls and this other kid, Brooke, he seemed to be looking after today or something. She wasn’t really clear on that, but the girl didn’t give her any warning signs of concern that it was a kidnapping and the guy seemed nice and as emotionally thrashed as she would expect for dealing with all those girls.
She bid them a cheery farewell as she finished up with their paperwork. The weird thing with the ring stuck in her mind. Raymond had left around lunchtime just as he said. She knew he had a lot of stuff in his life that he didn’t like to talk about. Good old Southern boys things. At least they treated the female officers fairly otherwise, but she always felt like she was on the outside of every social event.
Although, something else nagged her. She didn’t feel naturally comfortable in her uniform. It was like something was rubbing her the wrong way. She was surprisingly self-conscious of her bust.
Maybe it was thinking about that poor 16-year-old who had to deal with all that at such a young age. She wanted to give them all hugs. It sure seemed like those kids had a rough vacation with the dad doing his best to keep their spirits up. Rebecca resolved to stop by their rental house and check in on them when she was off-duty.
She willed herself not to blush. She wasn’t stopping over because she thought the dad was a little bit cute or anything like that. But he had an amazing face, soft yet strong, a total writer’s face, befitting a freelancer author, as he stated. If he ever wanted more information about the police station for one of his books, she could show him around and…. With a cough, she felt really flush and turned on her desk fan to circulate more air.
He was almost twice her age! And his eldest was only a few years younger than her. Get your mind out of the gutter, girl, he scolded herself. Stretching and messing with her uniform until it felt comfortable enough that she could ignore it for a few moments, Rebecca walked over to the front of the station near the metal detector and cracked her neck with a quick look outside.
The seagulls were fighting over a dirty hot dog bun on the sidewalk. Impishly, she imagined strolling out and asking them to break it up. It wasn’t long before she grabbed plentiful amounts of coffee and walked back to her desk to officially finish and file the paperwork for Raymond.
She had a few other things to complete as well before she could properly take a break. After about thirty minutes, she got up from her chair with a clear conscience. Peeking out front again showed that the seagulls were still fighting but without the hotdog bun. Also, there was a white, conspicuous van parked across the street. It exactly matched the description the teen had given. And she didn’t have her freaking phone or anything nearby!
Rebecca considered shifting over to at least get a mental picture of the license plate but there wasn’t enough glass to surreptitiously accomplish that. If she went outside and strolled to get a better line of sight then she just knew that the suspect would just take off. And the wall in front was so tall that she still wouldn’t be able to get a good look from where she was.
A man got out on the passenger side and walked around the vehicle. He wasn’t wearing a green uniform and he wasn’t lanky like the other one, but he was wearing a business suit. She could also tell that he had something small in his hand, but was too far away for her to resolve more than that. He approached the station.
Rebecca backed away from the window and retreated to her chair. The guy had to be coming over here. Rationally, she told herself that she was just seeing what she wanted to see. Get some people needing to track down some suspicious guys and suddenly there are the bad guys right at her doorstep. Just like the little games of Cops and Robbers she loved to play with her older brother, when he was still alive. Totally convoluted scenarios of criminal busting convenience.
The front door swung open, but she was too far back to catch more than that. Her heart raced for no good reason. Her regular firearm was in the weapons locker, but she had a heavy-duty taser in the right drawer next to Smarcy‘s oldest chew toy.
She listened diligently for footsteps or anything else. There was nothing. She leaned back in her chair. This was crazy and she was acting spooked and suspicious for nothing. This was the middle of a police station, if the guy had a weapon then Dolores was going to catch him with the machine or the wand.
“Rebecca Coleson.”
She turned around to face the man who’d exited from the white van. Attentively, she scrutinized his features to remember them later. Black-framed glasses. Blonde hair a shade brighter and lighter than hers, thick but not too long. Looked to be in his 60s with a prominent beard. Most peculiar was he wore a dark, grayish almost-black ring on his finger exactly like the one Raymond had shown off. It took her a moment to realize that he hadn’t phrased her name like a question.
“I am Officer Colson. Who are you?”
The mystery man scowled. “That’s inconsequential, Rebecca. What matters is I need just a moment of your time.”
She felt irritated as she sat up and folded her arms. “You’ll get it if you’ll explain what you’re doing here.”
“No.”
A moment later, Rebecca Colson ceased to exist.