Page 21 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

Seriously? I said a detective had drugged me and snooped around my property and that was all the help I got? Local law enforcement wasn’t going to be any help. They were going to ignore me like all the freaking handymen and end up sending someone young and inexperienced. And there was no way in hell that they were going to believe me. I was the crazy lady on the hill. I tossed my phone down on the kitchen counter beside Detective Reed’s note.

I wanted to scream and throw things, but instead I took a long slow breath. My head was foggy. I needed to calm down for a minute and figure out what to do. But all I could think about was the fact that I was running out of time. I could hear the hands of a clock counting down in my head and I couldn’t silence them.

I snatched the letter off the kitchen counter, trying to distract myself from the ticking noise.

Violet,

I had a great night with you and your son. You are a wonderful mother and Zeke is an adorable kid. Let me take you both out tonight so you can try that chicken parm when it’s hot from the oven. I’ll be by at seven to pick you two up.

-Tucker

Tucker my ass. He was Detective Reed. Our relationship was purely business related. He thought I blew up some random suburban home nearby. And he didn’t know anything about anything. I hope. I looked around the kitchen. There was nothing here that incriminated me. But there was upstairs. In my bedroom where Detective Reed had most certainly been last night. I thought about the pistol hidden beneath my floorboards. I needed to get rid of it. If there was even a small chance Detective Reed had seen it, police officers would be showing up arresting me instead of helping me.

I ran back upstairs and lifted up the floorboard. Everything still seemed like it was in place, but that didn’t mean anything. I would have put the items back where they belonged too if I had been snooping.

Last night had seemed perfect. But it wasn’t. It may as well have been a dream. Romance wasn’t something I was interested in. A stranger infiltrating the home I'd worked so hard to fix up so my son could have a normal life? Not happening. Leaving said house for a meal surrounded by whispers and stares? No, thank you. I couldn’t believe that he suggested going out to dinner. The thought was so awful it made me cringe. Detective Reed clearly didn’t know me at all.

I lifted the gun out of the floorboard. No one really knew me. And they certainly didn’t know what I was capable of. I’d do anything to protect my son. Anything.

I tried to clear my head. I tried to calm down. If Detective Reed had seen this, would it matter? He searched my house without a warrant. The case would be thrown out in court right away. I didn’t watch TV anymore, but I had seen enough crime shows in high school to know the importance of a warrant. He’d be thrown off the force, I wouldn’t be thrown into prison. But I didn’t know how realistic TV shows were. What if they depicted that small fact wrong? If there was even a chance that I could go to jail for having this gun, I needed to get rid of it.

The pistol felt heavy in my hand. I had never fired it before. I had never fired any gun before. I turned it over and for a moment I saw red. Blood dripping off the handle. Down the barrel. Dropping in splotches on the ground. Blood was everywhere. I closed my eyes, willing the memory to fade.

When I opened my eyes again, the gun was clean, like I had just scrubbed it. There wasn’t a single trace of blood. I took another deep breath. If I was lucky, maybe the memories would stop haunting me once it was out of the house. Not that something being out of sight ever really took it out of mind for me. I could still picture my stepfather holding it like it was yesterday. Taking his gun hardly seemed like a crime. I had just been protecting myself. I hadn’t done anything wrong. But I was pretty sure that the more time that faded, the guiltier I’d look. My mother had warned me about lying. And it was about time this pistol ended up in the same place that all my secrets did.

Chapter 10

Tucker

I ran my hand down my face and then looked back at the screen. I had scoured every database, but the consensus was always the same. There was no gun registered under Violet Clark. Which meant she was in possession of an unregistered gun. Which meant I had a decision I didn’t want to make.

It was still early, I had come in an hour before my shift so that Damien wouldn’t be breathing down my neck. But I didn’t know what else to search. I was completely out of ideas. Violet Clark was a ghost. No Facebook page, no Twitter account, no Instagram. Nothing came up under any Google searches either. I tried to search the mysterious Joel as well, but without a last name I didn’t have much to go on. Last name. Maybe I had her last name wrong!

Most of the cops were out patrolling, but there were a few sitting at desks nearby. I walked over to the closest one. “Doyle, I got a question about a local for you.”

“Big bad detective coming all the way over here to talk to us lowly folk,” he said. “This must be good.”

His friend snickered.

I hadn’t set up the hierarchy here. I don’t know why they gave me shit when I had done nothing but be nice to them. Ignoring their sarcasm was always the best tactic. “Have either of you ever met a Violet Clark? She has a son named Zeke and she lives on…”

“You mean the crazy lady on the hill?” Doyle’s friend asked.

My blood started to boil. “She’s not crazy.”

Doyle’s eyes seemed to bug out of his face. “She is. It’s a fact. And why are you asking about her anyways? Some case that’s too high level for us?”

“No. Personal reasons.”

They both laughed.

“I just need to know if Clark is definitely her last name.”

“Violet Clark. Always has been and always will be. If you know what I mean.” Doyle laughed.

“Why?” I knew what Doyle had meant. But if he had the audacity to say it, I was about to punch him square in the nose. “I’m hoping you’re about to say it’s because she’s incredibly independent and you could see her choosing to keep her name when she gets married.”

“No. I meant because no one’s crazy enough to marry that psycho bitch.”

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