Page 60 of Coach
When Trix let out a cry at the racket, I just flipped out.
I jumped up, ranting and raving as I grabbed Trix’s leash and my shoes.
At first, I think my intentions were to just take a long walk. To clear my head. To ground myself. To hopefully give the neighbor a chance to finish what they were doing.
But after a long loop around the town, I started back home only to hear sawing from the other side of the duplex.
I was just done.
I had to get away.
I needed a distraction.
I needed somesilence.
And, yes, to a lesser degree, I also wanted some answers.
Because I had more questions than them.
My head was spinning with all the names and crimes of the residents of Shady Valley.
I mean… a few years back, a bunch of men had died of poisoning. There’d been whispers online that a female revenge assassin had been responsible.
A revenge assassin poisoner?
What surreal world was this?
Then there were the many blogs and articles about the organized crime organizations in Inyo County, California.
Suddenly, I was imagining everyone I passed was some kind of murderous psycho or drug lord.
Which, in turn, made me feel a little like I was losing my mind. I mean, I might as well get fitted for a tin hat.
I wanted someone to tell me I wasn’t crazy.
So I packed Trix into the car and drove to the most levelheaded person I knew to tell me exactly that.
Only to find that he was harboring a criminal. That he’d made me go with him to get said criminal’s dog out of a shelter.
My stomach had been sinking the whole walk up to Saul’s workshop. Because I knew. Without asking, I knew. The only way he would aid and abet a criminal… was if he was one himself.
I mean, not that I judged all criminals. People did stupid things without thinking. They pulled pranks that went awry. They got involved with drugs. They got desperate enough to do sex work.
I wasn’t judging.
But I also believed that some people belonged in jail, that some individuals were too dangerous to be out in the world with innocent people to torment.
I had personal reasons for believing in some forms of law and order and the punishment that went along with it.
So it was a big relief to learn that not only Saul, but most of his buddies, went away for defending women, not terrorizing them.
That said, it didn’t exactly help my spiral about Shady Valley and its residents.
So far, I’d been able to avoid having any contact whatsoever with Konstantin and Mikhail at the pool hall.
I kept my head down.
I did my work.
