A Niceville Paranormal Mystery: Season 1, Episode 6

Nerves in Niceville

Previously in Niceville: Still shocked from her friends death, Carrie is faced with a decision. Consult or let the local police figure out who killed her friend. The stakes are high. The tension is higher.

Season 1: Episode 6

Nerves in Niceville

We sat there with my phone ringing. I sure hoped that he answered. I was eager to get this call out of the way. It rang once. Twice. Three times. It sent us to voicemail. We sat there feeling a bit dejected, but before we could even decide what to do next, my phone started spurting out the jazzy little ringtone I use for random phone calls. It was Chief.

“Hello?” I said quickly.

“Hey there,” he replied.

“I wanted to answer your question from earlier, that is, if you have a second to talk.”

“By all means. I’ve been waiting for you to come by or call.”

“I will work this case if Mandy can help, and get paid, as well.”

There was silence. It stretched on and on. I’d almost given up and was considering if I should just hang up on him when he said, “I was running numbers. She’d make about three dollars less an hour than you.”

She nodded vigorously at me.

“That’s fine. We can make that arrangement work.”

“Okay then, we’d be glad to have you both aboard. You make a great team. Now, there are a few things I guess I’d better tell you…” he trailed off.

This filled me with dread. I just had a feeling he was going to tell me, tell us, something that I didn’t particularly want to hear.

“It’s nothing big. But we can’t give out paper files for this case. You will both have to come get fingerprinted and pick up laptops with digital access codes for the case. This is a high profile case compared to most things in Niceville. We can’t have it leaking around.”

My stomach settled. Of course. And who the hell used paper files anymore?

“Uh yeah? We closed up early due to some issues. Want us to swing over this afternoon?”

“That will be great. Give us about an hour. I’ll make sure that everything is ready for you.”

“Okay, Chief. I can’t wait to get to work. I have personal investment in helping you with this.”

“I know you do. I know you do.”

And he clicked the phone off. No goodbye. No thank you. Just click.

“He’s such an asshole sometimes,” I groaned out.

“Well, yeah. Did you just figure that out?” Mandy answered, smiling at me.

“I don’t know. He’s just really making me mad right now.”

“Stress honey. It’s the stress.”

“Probably. I think my craptastic day is lowering my BS tolerance.”

“You’ve earned that right.”

We sat there in silence for a few minutes. We were just enjoying the opportunity to have coffee and a snack. Afterall, we had an hour to kill before we could go pick up the stuff that would allow us to be productive.

“I froze when I saw her,” I said.

“What?”

“I froze up. When I saw Sylvia’s ghost. I wanted to say something, but all I could do is look at her for a second. Then, I thought about the cameras and how they’d be checking them. They’d have saw me talking to myself. I felt terrible afterwards because she darted off. I didn’t say a word.”

Mandy looked at me for a moment, clearly contemplating something. Her face was knit up in her thoughtful expression. Over the years, I’d come to recognize that look to mean a lot of things. Sometimes it was scrutiny. Sometimes it was anger. Most times though, that look was more pensive and resigned. It turned her pretty face a little sour. There were crinkles at the edges of eyes and her lips drew in and became barely more than a line. And almost always, after a moment or two, she brought her hand up and placed it under her chin. Right on cue, she placed her hand right under chin.

“Gee, I think you did the right thing. You can’t risk anyone finding out about you. Well, I mean, I guess what I meant to say is you can’t have people knowing everything. They’d use you and abuse you. I know it must have been hard though.”

“It was terrible. It all happened so fast.”

She reached out her hand across the desk between us and took mine. “You know I always have your back?”

“I know,” I said. I smiled at her. Friends like her were hard to find. I was one lucky chick.

“We will nail that son-of-biscuit-eater to the wall when we find him!”

I snorted.

“What?”

“You know I aim to cuss as little as possible, but I can’t think of one creative word to call the person who did this.”

“Oh yeah. Well, I cuss plenty, but I aim to cuss less for you. What ya got? See if it makes you feel better?”

“They are a maniacal bastard.”

“Did that help?”

“No.”

“Sorry, Sis.”

“Life. Let’s clean up and get ready. If we are there early, it’s okay. I want to get down to the police station.”

“Agreed.”

We headed out of the backroom office. We cleaned up the stuff we’d used to snack on, poured ourselves one last cup of coffee, and started wiping down the front room. After that, Mandy and I went to the back and split kitchen duties. She took cleaning, and I took dough and batter prep. Most of my dough and batter could prepped the night efore. That meant I could, or Mandy could, just pop it in the oven the next day. It just had to refrigerated overnight. I had the space, so it was the best plan. We made quick work of it.

“That should do. We can come early to do the rest,” I said.

“Sounds good,” she replied as she washed our coffee cups out. “Ready to head out?”

“I am.”

We headed out the back, locked up, and crawled in Mandy’s car. My car was cranky. I needed to have it worked on, but most places were easy to access without one here in Niceville. I tried not to bother. I had a bike. I loved to walk. It was only on rare occassions when Mandy was busy or my car wouldn’t start and I actually needed it that I wished I could get a new one. It just seemed like such a waste when it would get such little use.

Mandy drove us down into the middle of town. It was a busy time of day, so it took some time to get there. The good news was that by the time we arrived, I was pretty sure we’d be able to easily pick up what we’d came for. Mandy pulled her little car into a spot, and we got out. I realized we really hadn’t talked the whole way there. While we were great about comfortable silence, the day was starting to wear on us both.

When we entered the police department, we went to the front desk. I recognized the lady setting there.

“Aunt Holly?”

She looked up. “Carrie! Baby girl! What are you doing here?”

I laughed. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“I changed jobs last month. Didn’t your mother tell you?”

I cringed. “No. She did not. She didn’t even tell me you moved back to town. I’m assuming you have?”

“I sure have. I’ve been wanting to get in touch with you.”

“Well, we are in luck. No, nothing about today has been luck for me. You remember Mandy, right?” I said, recovering my manners.

“Of course! She’s practically family. Five years doesn’t erase that. Nice to see you, sweetie!”

Mandy looked happy. She’d always loved my Aunt Holly. We’d both been sad when she moved out of town five years ago for work. I still saw her three or four times a year and talked to her about once a month until the last six months. Then, work had taken over her life. I’m guessing that’s why she moved back and changed jobs.

“Well, I don’t know why you’re mother is being her usual self, but I’ll call you in the next couple days to catch up. How can I help you?”

“We are here on business. The murder that happened this morning. We are consulting on it,” I said, attempting matter of factly.

She went pale. “Okay. So you need to give me IDs.”

We handed them over.

“Chief, come in here.”

He came hurrying out. “Ladies! I have the laptops and codes in here. We need to talk business though.” He beckoned us back. On the way around the counter, I stopped long enough to give my Aunt Holly a big hug.

He lead the way down the hall into his office. It was, like the rest of the police department, outdated and bland. Flat browny beige carpet that you couldn’t tell what the original color was and beige walls. It looked like a depressives worst nightmare. I’m speaking as one.

He gestured for us to take our seats. He slid over two surprisingly nice laptops. He caught my eye, must have seen the gleam of surprise, and said, “We got a grant last year to update our computers. Please don’t break them.”

“Of course. That’s great,” I said.

“It was,” he added. “We have another one coming in a few months for some remodels in here.” He gestured out into the hall.

I nodded.

“Do you have any questions? You can call me after you read the file and get a few ideas?”

“Not really. Can I ask around town to see what people are saying? Try to keep my ear to ground for gossip.”

He hesitated. “You can. Just be careful People are very nervous about police these days. Best not to let them realize that you are helping with the case necessarily. Just make it seem like personal interest because you found her, and she is your friend. You know, spin a web.”

I looked at Mandy. I hesitated. I hated that he was telling us to lie, but I also understood. “So lie?”

“No. Not if directly asked. Just don’t volunteer it. You are just consulting. It’s a murky area. If you are just chattering with people, you don’t have to make it clear you are asking questions. If you find something useful out, tell them that way we can question them further. I don’t want it getting out that we use…”

So lie. Noted. That’s how he works. Wait a minute. “That you use what?”

“Witches. Psychics. Whatever you are…” he said trailing off.

I felt anger bubbling up in me faster than a cauldron in July.

“Okay. We get it.” Mandy told him. She must have sensed my unease. “What else?”

“Just try not to make a big fuss. We don’t want the attention of the whole town.”

“You know that’s too late, right?” I said.

“Well, you know what I mean.” He gave me a genuinely frustrated look. His mustache twitching rapidly like a cats tail does when it’s aggravated. “Just don’t go shouting from the rooftops.”

“Clearly.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Are you okay?”

“No. It’s been a long day.”

“I can sense your strain. I suggest some rest.”

“There isn’t time. I’m afraid if we rest, set around, something else could happen. I need to work. Are people working on this?”

His face turned red, and he puffed out his chest. “Of course people are working on this. There was a murder of a local in my town this morning. We aren’t just sitting around here and doing nothing waiting to see what happens next. I don’t like the…

Before he could finish, Mandy cut in, “She didn’t mean it like that. She meant it like what are they doing… You know, so we don’t overstep.”

That isn’t what I meant.

The red started draining from his face immediately. “Oh! I totally misunderstood. Now… Now… well I guess I’m just a bit silly and stressed myself today.

“Carrie gets it, don’t you?” Mandy said looking at me pointedly.

“Yes, of course.” I tried to smile.

“Well, I’m going to let you ladies out of here. Call me later or in the morning.”

“Okay,” I replied.

We filed out of the office. I was glad my aunt wasn’t at the desk. She was, no doubt, on the phone to my mother telling her what I was doing. Which wasn’t legal, but this town knew nothing about legality.

When we exited the building, Mandy looked at me darkly. “Sorry about that, but we need these case files.”

“I know. Did you realize they didn’t even bother fingerprinting us?”

She laughed. “Yeah, I mean, they aren’t on top of it.”

“No. Not at all. To be honest, letting my aunt have that job was a mistake. I’m glad she’s back in town, but she’s a gossip and a half. And like does he know she’s a damn witch too?”

We both laughed as we sat down in the car.