Niceville Paranormal Mystery: Season 1, Episode 12

Call Me What?

Previously in Niceville: Carrie Cooper discovered her friend and local business owner, Sylvia, dead on Sylvia’s coffee shop floor. With a request for investigative help from the local police, Carrie and Mandy set out to question citizens of Niceville. After a rough night, Carrie learns some news about the local Chief of Police. The following day, she has a date withe Connor. While on the date, she gets a text from Mandy, who thinks she’s being followed. Upon arriving at Mandy’s house, she finds a mess. While waiting on the deputy, she and Connor kiss. Then, they get down to work.

Season 1: Caramel Macchiato Murder

Episode 12: Call Me What?

After we parked, I got out of the car with deliberate slowness. I was in no hurry for the argument that was about to ensue. In all reality, I knew I should have called all this in immediately, but I didn’t know how to figure out if I could trust Chief or not. To make everything worse, he’d been acting really weird by telling me I really needed to open and not telling me that I was a suspect when directly asked. I guess I had to trust my gut. Now, I had to pay for it though.

“Hello,” I said in a mock cheery voice as I approached Danny and Chief Jefferson. “What’s going on boys?”

“I’d like to ask you the same thing, if I’m being real honest,” Chief said. “Some weird things have been happening tonight, and oddly enough, I haven’t gotten a call about them. I do, however, have a rogue deputy running all over town doing down low investigations into serious crimes. Care to explain, Carrie?”

I hesitated. I mean, I didn’t really want to, but I was a woman with a plan. “I will if you do.”

“Excuse me?” Chief said. “Explain what?”

If the circumstances were different, I’d have laughed. His face was turning a deep shade of red, and his mustache was twitching a bit.

“First off, would you all like to join me inside for this discussion?” I asked.

Danny nodded. Connor did too, but Chief just glared at me. I marched on by him, unlocked my house, and went inside. Connor was close on my heels, and he gently touched my arm.

“Should I make a pot of coffee?” He asked.

“Yeah, I think that’s in order. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s the least I can do to help.”

I whirled around at noise and saw Danny and Chief coming through my door. “Connor is making some coffee for us. Make yourself comfortable while I run change clothes.”

Danny nodded and turned towards the sofa, but Chief just kept glaring at me. If he thought I could be intimidated by that look, he was wrong. We’d both buggered this up. He shouldn’t have withheld info from me, assuming he did, and I shouldn’t have withheld from him.

I shut my bedroom door just barely harder than necessary. I yanked off my clothes, and I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. I was wiping off my makeup, not caring who thought I looked rough, when I heard Chief say, “Why are you here, Connor?”

“Carrie and I were on a date tonight.”

That was his only response. He didn’t say anything that would give details. He was a good man.

“Oh? I didn’t know you two were dating.”

“We were actually out on our first date.”

“Sorry to hear it got interrupted. I bet you two would make a nice couple,” Chief said. I felt myself soften towards him just a tiny bit.

I made a big production out of exiting my bedroom so they heard me.

“Coffees almost done,” Connor said. “Everyone tell me how you like it.”

A chorus of black rose from around the room. He snickered. “Simple enough. Give me five minutes, and I’ll have it to you.”

“Thanks,” I said, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek.

He smiled down at me. “Don’t mention it. Need anything else?”

“Nope,” I said. “I’m just going to have a little chat.”

I pointedly looked at Chief. “I think we both have a bit of explaining to do. I won’t tell you a word unless you answer a few questions.”

“Okay but did you or did you not get a call or message from Mandy tonight?”

“I did. Do you know where she is?”

“No, I figured you two were together so I came over here. She hung up abruptly. I’m a bit concerned about her.”

“As we should be. But tell me something before I tell you what all I know. Were you trying to buy Sylvia out?”

The color drained from his face. “I mean, yeah, but my real estate dealings aren’t really your business are they?”

“If it makes you one of two suspects I have for Sylvia’s murder, then they do matter. It looks pretty bad that she kept turning you down, you kept asking, and then she turns up dead. And to put the cherry on top, you didn’t even mention any of it to anyone I can find. So what would that look like to you if you were in my shoes?”

He glared hard at me for a moment. “Bad. It looks bad when you put it like that, but I swear, I didn’t touch a hair on that woman’s head. I just wanted to open a large establishment there. I wanted the ultimate coffee and donut shop. She didn’t want to make more donuts, and she was notoriously bad about running out real early in the morning.”

I didn’t mean to, but I laughed out loud. “Do you know how cliche that sounds?”

“I do, but it’s the truth. I can give you the info to the man that’s been helping me out with the offers.”

“I’d like the info, but I believe you. I just want to know why you didn’t mention it.”

He dug through his wallet and handed me a business card of some guy. “Here it is. I guess, if we are being honest here, I didn’t want this exact thing happening. Does that make sense?”

“It does,” I said, “But it sure as heck made me feel like I couldn’t trust you. Why did you push for me to open the day that Sylvia died?”

“Oh, I wanted to know where you were while I cleared your name. You see, protocol would have been to hold you for questioning at the station, but you’d had such a bad morning. I didn’t want to do that to you.”

I felt a little warmth rising up in me. Connor placed a mug of coffee in my hands. “Here,” he said. Then he handed one to both Danny and Chief.

“Awesome. Thanks,” I said to him. Danny and Chief both thanked him too. He went to get his own mug.

“I thank you for that, but why not tell me the truth?” I asked.

“I knew you’d react the way you did when I finally told you in your office. I couldn’t blame you. I’d have felt the same way.”

It all made sense. I can tell he wasn’t making anything up, so it was my turn to fess up.

“Okay. I have some info. When questioning folks, I got some valuable intel I didn’t share with you. I have two suspects, well, three I guess, but I’m thinking this has narrowed it down to one.”

“Now you wait just a second. Three?” Chief said.

“Yeah. There was a man that Sylvia fought with. I think he’s harmless. There was you, and I think we straightened that out. And then there is Becky.”

“Becky? The girl who runs Sylvia’s cash registered part time?”

“One in the same,” I answered.

Danny interjected, “Apparently, she was fired the day before the murder. She failed to mention that to the police or Mandy and Carrie when they talked to her. That seems pretty suspicious to me.”

“Well I’ll be damned. It sure as hell is,” said Chief. “I can barely believe it.”

“I know, but something is very off with that situation. Tonight, I was out with Connor when I got a text from Mandy. She said she thought she was being followed. I went straight out to call her, but she didn’t answer. Connor and I headed to her place, and we found her purse by the porch, the door looked messed with, and the living room was a disaster. There was a definite scuffle in there. I called Danny because we go way back, and I knew I could trust him with this. He came right on over. We do have crime scene pictures.”

“You called Danny.” Chief said.

It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Because you could trust him,” Chief added.

“Yes,” I said again. I was beginning to get impatient.

“And you couldn’t call me.”

I just nodded.

“Because you didn’t trust me.”

I sighed. “Not at that moment. We’ve cleared that up. I’m sorry, but you held info from me.”

“You withheld info from the police!” He half bellowed.

“I did no such thing. I was scheduled to talk to you tomorrow, and I’d already told Danny some of it,” I said.

He rounded on Danny who gave me a go screw yourself look.

“You knew and held out on me too?” Chief said.

“It’s not like that. She told me she had some suspicions about you. I was deciding what to do with it. But we don’t have time to fight right now. We need to find Mandy. I’m worried about her. We are just wasting time.”

Chief sighed dramatically. “Fine, but don’t think that I’m not pissed off at both of you.”

He took a long and deep drink from his coffee mug. “This is good. Thanks,” he said to Connor.

“No problem.”

“I guess you are in on all this now, but do me a favor and don’t breathe a word about this outside this room. You hear me now?”

“Yes, Sir,” Connor said. “I won’t say anything. I just want to help where I can.”

“All right. And you all were going to call me… when exactly?” Chief asked.

“I hadn’t decided yet. And I’d made Danny promise not to quite yet. I was worried that if you had something to do with Sylvia that you might have taken Mandy. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

I watch an entire range of emotions go over Chief’s face. First he looked mad, with his red face deepening in color. Then, he looked sad with the corners of his eyes scrunching up, but he landed on proud.

“I’m glad you trust your judgement enough that you took the chance on not telling me. Now, don’t let that happen again. You hear me?”

I nodded. “Loud and clear. I just couldn’t take any chances.”

“Of course not. Both of them have been dear to you for as long as I can remember. And for what it’s worth. Sylvia was my great-niece.”

“Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that,” I said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay. I just wanted you to know why I felt like I could bother her so much. It was because she was family. I wasn’t harassing her.”

“No, that makes sense.” I thought of Aunt Holly and my mom. I thought of my baby sister. We were always harassing each other a little, but it was with good humor in mind.

The room was silent. No one knew what to do or say next. Just because we had cleared the water didn’t mean we were safe yet. Mandy was still missing, and Sylvia was still dead. My number one priority was to keep the murders to a single devastating blow. I couldn’t let anyone else die.

I had a plan forming in the back of my mind, but it was reckless and stupid. I was definitely not going to tell the others, but I was going to keep it in mind for if we didn’t have progress very soon.

I’d make sure and rescue Mandy… no matter the cost I had to pay.

I looked at Chief. “Truce?” I asked, holding out my hand so we could shake on it.

He stared at it so long I thought he might have been going to ignore it, but then he grasped my hand in his. “Truce, but always try and trust me in the future. I’d never hurt someone in this town. You are all my family, and I take care of my family.”