Alicia Culver, aspiring author and wannabe amateur detective, eased into the booth of her beloved small-town diner, The Eatery, to await the arrival of her longtime best friend, Val. The Eatery, dubbed Eats by the locals, was a small, fifties-themed, family-owned establishment and a one-stop shop for everything fried that you could imagine. From funnel cakes to cheeseburgers, Eats had it all. It also happened to be owned and operated by Val's parents, and the generous discount the owners gave their daughter's BFF had absolutely nothing to do with why it was Alicia's favorite place to eat.
The bell above the entrance door jingled, pulling Alicia's gaze from the phone in her hand.
The jingling bell hanging over the diner's entrance pulled Alicia's attention from her phone. She smiled, seeing Val slip through the door and begin weaving through the tables toward her friend. Val was a short, chubby, round-faced girl with a killer sense of humor and a penchant for proving to the world that big girls can have stellar fashion sense, too -except for today. Today, Valerie wore an oversized grey sweatshirt with the blue and white Tweety Bird sleep pants Alicia had given her for Christmas and overly large Sylvester the Cat bedroom slippers. Her dark hair was pulled up in a scrunchy on top of her head, and the scowl she was giving Alicia made it clear that Valerie wasn't pleased at being summoned from her throne bed on a Saturday morning.
"This better be fucking good, Alicia, for seven goddam in the morning," Val grumped as she slid into the bench opposite Alicia with a put-upon huff, "I was dreaming about Eric, and it was about to get good."
Alicia grinned, "Then you should thank me," she said, "cause you know as well as I do that the shock of an orgasm after so very long might have given you a heart attack, even in your sleep." Val glared murder over the table at Alicia, which only made her grin wider. "It is good, but let's order first."
Maggie, the Eatery's tiny, white-haired veteran waitress for the past hundred years, scribbled down Alicia's order for fluffy banana pancakes and Val's bacon and egg sandwich with hashbrowns. The ancient waitress shuffled off after setting coffee cups in front of each girl, and Alicia arched her brows at her friend with mock concern. "What happened with your diet?"
Val looked away from the sugar packet she had been dumping into her coffee and narrowed her eyes, "I will leave, bitch. I will walk away right now." Alicia laughed, and even Val couldn't keep a straight face. "Cheat day," she shrugged, "I'll restart Monday. Anyway, talk! I have to be at the hospital at noon for a double shift."
"Okay, so do you remember that author who disappeared last year, Ashley Graham?"
Val nodded, "Yeah, she was staying in one of the Peterson's cabins up the mountain and, like vanished two days before she was supposed to sign a contract with that publishing company or something."
"Yes, exactly! Anyway, I overheard my brother, Josh, on the phone with his friend Kevin Peterson, the son of the man who owns the cabins. Josh was telling my brother that someone told him that they heard a rumor that Kevin's dad had taken a bunch of Ashley Graham's personal belongings from the cabin she was renting and stashed them in his basement." Alicia pushed her coffee cup aside and leaned over the table, warming to the story, "Evidently, Josh and Kevin went nosing around in Kevin's basement yesterday, and Mr. Peterson caught them and lost his shit. He kicked Josh out of the house, grounded Kevin, and sent him to his room, screaming and yelling that they were idiots and needed to keep their noses in their own business, and he had better never catch them snooping around in things better left alone and on and on."
Val widened her eyes, "Shit, that's sus as fuck. Wait," she frowned, "you got all that from a one-sided phone call?"
Alicia rolled her eyes, "Speakerphone, duh! Now, shut up, there's more."
But before she could continue, their food arrived, and silence ensued for the length of time it took to pour syrup and drown hashbrowns in ketchup. Finally, Alicia glanced away from her plate and spoke around a mouthful of pancake. "So, yeah, sus, right?" Alicia paused long enough to wash another bite down with a sip of coffee, then pointed the empty fork at her friend, "Get this, though. I heard Kevin tell Josh not to show anyone the," Here, Alicia made quotation marks with her fingers, made awkward by the fork still in her hand, "'shit' they found until he could figure out what to do about it."
Val, steadily chewing, looked back at her friend expectantly but with a slight frown, "What'd they find?"
Alicia's fork clanged off the plate when she dropped it to rummage around in the backpack sitting on the bench beside her. She pulled out a stack of what looked like notebook paper bound together with a thin metal spiral. It reminded Val of someone's immature attempt to make a spiral notebook. "A manuscript!" Alicia announced, but when her friend's reply was a single arched brow, looking confused, she huffed and elaborated, "Ashley Graham's manuscript of the book she was going to publish!"
Val's other brow raised to join its counterpart at the girl's hairline. "Mr. Peterson had that in his basement? How'd you get it."
Alicia nodded, "Hidden in his basement, yes," she amended, then held the book out for Val to take. "My brother hides everything in the same spot. Read the list of characters and then the blurb thing."
Val took the papers and leaned back, flipping through a couple of the pages until she came to the page titled Dramatis Personae. There, she read through the dozen or so names and their roles in the book. Then, flipped a couple more pages and read the blurb:
-Ten years ago, Ashton Grant left his small, one-redlight hometown of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, to start a life in the big city, but word of his sister's untimely death and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it has him returning with a whole lot of questions he intends to find answers for.
What he finds, however, is a corrupt group of officials, dirty cops, and a mayor who wants him gone and will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. Determined not to be run out of town before he gets the answers he needs, Ashton joins ranks with Billy Green, the only deputy on the small police force he trusts and the one man who might hold the key to unlocking the mystery of his sister's murder.
Will Ashton and Billy find what they need to prove a police cover-up, or will the very individuals they believe responsible for the murder of Ashton's sister silence them forever?-
Val flipped back to the list of characters and read through the names, then back to the blurb and read that again. After a minute, she lifted her face and stared wide-eyed across the table. "These are all the last names of the people here! The mayor, the police chief, the deputy sheriff, and at least four deputies I know." Val gasped, "Holy fucking shit, Ali! Tell me this isn't about that girl Brittany Grant everyone was saying fell from that overlook last year?" If possible, the girl's eyes blew even wider, "Alicia, I heard someone that girl's boyfriend's last name was Greenfield! Will Greenfield! Billy Green! Holy shit!"
The smile Alicia gave her friend held no humor, "Yeah, I don't think Brittany fell off that cliff without a bit of help. I don't think the author of that book," she pointed to the pages still gripped in her friend's hand. "Ashley Graham's disappearance right before it got published is just a coincidence, either."
Val stared down at the manuscript in her hand like it might bite her finger off before finally lifting her gaze again, "What do we do?" she asked, voice trembling.
"I've been asking myself that for hours," Alicia sighed, "I mean, what would you do if something this damning fell in your lap and the people that had been poking around and asking questions were either dead or missing? Would you chalk it up as a rumor or a strange coincidence? Or, would you dig further into the book's contents and make your own conclusions?"
The bell above the entrance door jingled, pulling Alicia's gaze from the phone in her hand.
The jingling bell hanging over the diner's entrance pulled Alicia's attention from her phone. She smiled, seeing Val slip through the door and begin weaving through the tables toward her friend. Val was a short, chubby, round-faced girl with a killer sense of humor and a penchant for proving to the world that big girls can have stellar fashion sense, too -except for today. Today, Valerie wore an oversized grey sweatshirt with the blue and white Tweety Bird sleep pants Alicia had given her for Christmas and overly large Sylvester the Cat bedroom slippers. Her dark hair was pulled up in a scrunchy on top of her head, and the scowl she was giving Alicia made it clear that Valerie wasn't pleased at being summoned from her throne bed on a Saturday morning.
"This better be fucking good, Alicia, for seven goddam in the morning," Val grumped as she slid into the bench opposite Alicia with a put-upon huff, "I was dreaming about Eric, and it was about to get good."
Alicia grinned, "Then you should thank me," she said, "cause you know as well as I do that the shock of an orgasm after so very long might have given you a heart attack, even in your sleep." Val glared murder over the table at Alicia, which only made her grin wider. "It is good, but let's order first."
Maggie, the Eatery's tiny, white-haired veteran waitress for the past hundred years, scribbled down Alicia's order for fluffy banana pancakes and Val's bacon and egg sandwich with hashbrowns. The ancient waitress shuffled off after setting coffee cups in front of each girl, and Alicia arched her brows at her friend with mock concern. "What happened with your diet?"
Val looked away from the sugar packet she had been dumping into her coffee and narrowed her eyes, "I will leave, bitch. I will walk away right now." Alicia laughed, and even Val couldn't keep a straight face. "Cheat day," she shrugged, "I'll restart Monday. Anyway, talk! I have to be at the hospital at noon for a double shift."
"Okay, so do you remember that author who disappeared last year, Ashley Graham?"
Val nodded, "Yeah, she was staying in one of the Peterson's cabins up the mountain and, like vanished two days before she was supposed to sign a contract with that publishing company or something."
"Yes, exactly! Anyway, I overheard my brother, Josh, on the phone with his friend Kevin Peterson, the son of the man who owns the cabins. Josh was telling my brother that someone told him that they heard a rumor that Kevin's dad had taken a bunch of Ashley Graham's personal belongings from the cabin she was renting and stashed them in his basement." Alicia pushed her coffee cup aside and leaned over the table, warming to the story, "Evidently, Josh and Kevin went nosing around in Kevin's basement yesterday, and Mr. Peterson caught them and lost his shit. He kicked Josh out of the house, grounded Kevin, and sent him to his room, screaming and yelling that they were idiots and needed to keep their noses in their own business, and he had better never catch them snooping around in things better left alone and on and on."
Val widened her eyes, "Shit, that's sus as fuck. Wait," she frowned, "you got all that from a one-sided phone call?"
Alicia rolled her eyes, "Speakerphone, duh! Now, shut up, there's more."
But before she could continue, their food arrived, and silence ensued for the length of time it took to pour syrup and drown hashbrowns in ketchup. Finally, Alicia glanced away from her plate and spoke around a mouthful of pancake. "So, yeah, sus, right?" Alicia paused long enough to wash another bite down with a sip of coffee, then pointed the empty fork at her friend, "Get this, though. I heard Kevin tell Josh not to show anyone the," Here, Alicia made quotation marks with her fingers, made awkward by the fork still in her hand, "'shit' they found until he could figure out what to do about it."
Val, steadily chewing, looked back at her friend expectantly but with a slight frown, "What'd they find?"
Alicia's fork clanged off the plate when she dropped it to rummage around in the backpack sitting on the bench beside her. She pulled out a stack of what looked like notebook paper bound together with a thin metal spiral. It reminded Val of someone's immature attempt to make a spiral notebook. "A manuscript!" Alicia announced, but when her friend's reply was a single arched brow, looking confused, she huffed and elaborated, "Ashley Graham's manuscript of the book she was going to publish!"
Val's other brow raised to join its counterpart at the girl's hairline. "Mr. Peterson had that in his basement? How'd you get it."
Alicia nodded, "Hidden in his basement, yes," she amended, then held the book out for Val to take. "My brother hides everything in the same spot. Read the list of characters and then the blurb thing."
Val took the papers and leaned back, flipping through a couple of the pages until she came to the page titled Dramatis Personae. There, she read through the dozen or so names and their roles in the book. Then, flipped a couple more pages and read the blurb:
-Ten years ago, Ashton Grant left his small, one-redlight hometown of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, to start a life in the big city, but word of his sister's untimely death and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it has him returning with a whole lot of questions he intends to find answers for.
What he finds, however, is a corrupt group of officials, dirty cops, and a mayor who wants him gone and will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. Determined not to be run out of town before he gets the answers he needs, Ashton joins ranks with Billy Green, the only deputy on the small police force he trusts and the one man who might hold the key to unlocking the mystery of his sister's murder.
Will Ashton and Billy find what they need to prove a police cover-up, or will the very individuals they believe responsible for the murder of Ashton's sister silence them forever?-
Val flipped back to the list of characters and read through the names, then back to the blurb and read that again. After a minute, she lifted her face and stared wide-eyed across the table. "These are all the last names of the people here! The mayor, the police chief, the deputy sheriff, and at least four deputies I know." Val gasped, "Holy fucking shit, Ali! Tell me this isn't about that girl Brittany Grant everyone was saying fell from that overlook last year?" If possible, the girl's eyes blew even wider, "Alicia, I heard someone that girl's boyfriend's last name was Greenfield! Will Greenfield! Billy Green! Holy shit!"
The smile Alicia gave her friend held no humor, "Yeah, I don't think Brittany fell off that cliff without a bit of help. I don't think the author of that book," she pointed to the pages still gripped in her friend's hand. "Ashley Graham's disappearance right before it got published is just a coincidence, either."
Val stared down at the manuscript in her hand like it might bite her finger off before finally lifting her gaze again, "What do we do?" she asked, voice trembling.
"I've been asking myself that for hours," Alicia sighed, "I mean, what would you do if something this damning fell in your lap and the people that had been poking around and asking questions were either dead or missing? Would you chalk it up as a rumor or a strange coincidence? Or, would you dig further into the book's contents and make your own conclusions?"
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