By late afternoon Kelsea has called everyone to the kitchen for food. I don't know if you'd call this a late lunch or an early dinner, but everyone is happy to settle at the little kitchen table.
Everyone but Dallas.
He instead sits on the counter just inside the door, his bowl of spaghetti in his lap.
"We got lab results back." Mayfield tells me around a huge bite of garlic bread.
"What kind of results?" I quiz him, putting my fork down with a clatter to stare at him.
"We found some fingerprints at two of the scenes." He tells me. "We've been waiting to get matches back."
My full stomach drops.
I instantly regret scarfing down my bowl of pasta. I'd not been remotely hungry but knew I needed to eat so I'd forced myself to make quick work of the task, itching to get away from everyone and have some time to really think on Aries's messages.
"Aries?" I ask softly, bracing myself for the blow I know he's about to give me.
I'm surprised though when he shakes his head while he takes a huge gulp of water.
"No." He says when he swallows. "His prints didn't match the ones we found. It's someone not in the system."
"We were hoping we'd get the unknown ones back with some results we could actually use." Davenport frowns. "Now we really need to find that truck."
"So you still believe he's not working alone?" Dallas asks from the counter, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
"Has to be." Davenport agrees. "Whoever it is has stayed clean thus far though. We are still following traffic cams and any other surveillances hoping he got sloppy and got caught with a window down or getting out of the vehicle at some point. Without Carter we may never find this other person."
So even if Aries does get locked up and convicted for all of this, we aren't any safer than we were before. If he's working with someone, how easy would it already have been for them to get clear out of town without direction?
"Let's maybe talk about something else for once." Kelsea offers. "Like how good this meal you're all having is."
Everyone takes her bait to mutter appreciation for the food, but then it falls silent again.
Without Aries and the murders to talk about, what else is there between this odd group of five?
"Do you have any games?" Kelsea throws out and I scrunch my features.
"Games?" I repeat.
"We are trying to track down a crazed murderer and you wanna what? Play Monopoly?" Dallas groans in annoyance.
Kelsea whips her head around, braids flying at my face that I have to dodge.
"No, actually, I hate monopoly." She snaps at him. "I just think we need to get our minds off of everything for a little while."
"That's the opposite of what we should be doing." Dallas throws back. "We need to be figuring this out, not ignoring it."
"I'm not suggesting ignoring it." She huffs loudly. "I'm suggesting giving Missy a break from all of the doom and gloom for once."
"She can relax when he's locked up," he tells her. "We need to be doing something."
"Like sitting on the back porch?" I snap at him. "Stop being so mean all the time. You haven't even been a part of this, so your opinion on what we should be doing isn't really of your concern."
"Miss." Dallas says my name in a whisper, like a wounded animal.
"Don't." I shake my head at him. "I'm doing the best I can. What else would you have me do? Go out there and find him myself?"
"Of course not, don't be ridiculous."
"Then hush." I stare at him. "You're not helping the situation right now either."
My phone starts ringing from the other room before anyone else can say anything.
Everyone but Dallas rushes into the living room as I snatch my phone off of the table.
I pray to see Aries's name light up across the screen but it isn't him.
"Hi." I say into the phone and I hear a rustling of papers on the other end.
"Ms. Jacobs, good, I was able to catch you." Mr. Polis says back to me. "I need you to come down to the courthouse and pick up some paperwork and sign a couple more things and you're all set."
I rub my temple. "All set?" I ask, confused.
"The money," he says as if it's obvious. "Mrs. Statham was supposed to be handling this but as you know she's going through a lot right now in her personal life and isn't able to come by, so I'm gonna need you."
I run a free hand through my hair. "I can't really." I tell him. "As you know," I repeat him. "I've got a lot going on in my personal life right now as well."
"As I'm sure you do." He replies cooly. "The matter still stands I need your signatures and to pass along the paperwork to you. With the storm the courthouse is going to be closed for the next few days so if you could go ahead and come on by so we can have this handled, that would be ideal."
He's still as cold and straight to the point as he'd been when I'd gone with Mrs. Statham to the courthouse to meet with him when I'd first gotten here.
I take a deep breath and sigh it out slowly, letting my annoyed breath blow right into the receiver.
"I'll see what I can do." I say, then end the call.
Mayfield slides the bulky headphones on his head off and looks at me. "We don't have time for this." He tells me and I roll my eyes.
"All we were going to do for the rest of the day was sit around waiting for something to happen anyway." I retort. "I need to get down there before the roads become impassable."
"You're not going anywhere." Dallas calls from the kitchen, but I choose to ignore him.
"Kelsea was right," I tell Mayfield. "As long as I'm sitting around trying to force something I'm not going to magically figure it out. My brain needs a break and I need to get out of this house for a little while before we get stuck here."
"It's not the worst idea." Davenport chimes in. "I can take her and grab some stuff from the station and the store."
"I'll go too." Kelsea says. "I want to see the outside world for a minute." She sighs, then slaps on a smile. "Not that I don't do enjoy all of your company." She says sarcastically and I laugh.
"Can we just get it over with?" I ask Mayfield and he thinks hard for a minute before finally relenting.
"Fine." He says. "Bring me back some tea." He tells Davenport and he gives a little salute.
"Let's go freeze our...whatever we all have off."
Half an hour later we leave Dallas and Detective Mayfield behind while we take the treacherous drive into town.
The road is slick and the snow falls so heavily you can hardly see even with the windshield wipers going at full blast.
Kelsea was right though, I needed out.
As much as I dreaded dealing with courthouse bullshit when I first got here, it's now a welcomed distraction from literally everything else.
It's boring and safe and mundane.
Everything my life has not been since I've showed back up in this town.
As Davenport puts the car into park outside of the courthouse and let's Kelsea and I out, I'm even more happy that we get to do this alone.
For once, no detectives breathing down my neck.
The courthouse, like much of the town, is deserted. Everyone has already bought their storm supplies and are huddled in their homes ready to ride it out by the fireplace.
Kelsea and I make our way through the empty halls to Mr. Polis's office where he stands to greet us with little enthusiasm.
"Everything is settled," he tells me, sitting down to push a couple of folders across the desk to me. "The rest of the money will be deposited at the end of the month to the account you supplied." He says and I breathe a little sigh of relief. I'm gonna owe a small fortune on that rental car.
"Where do I sign?" I ask, taking the pen he passes me.
He points out a couple of documents, mostly acknowledgements that I've received all of the information and am aware that I'm choosing to relinquish estates to Mrs. Statham to be restored and sold.
"These two folders go to Mrs. Statham when she's ready." He hands me two red folders. "And these are the ones to keep for your personal records."
I find it cute that Mr. Polis thinks I have or care to keep track of personal records. Before this moment I didn't have anything to need to show proof of.
Soon I can wash my hands of everything.
"Thank you." I tell him, meaning it.
"Oh," he holds up a hand. "And the deeds." He passes me another blue folder. "If you're still selling you'll need to have those for Mrs. Statham as well."
I flip the folder open in my lap, looking down at the document on top.
My home.
The place I'd grown up and learned to fear. The place I've now taken refuge inside of. A little piece of me will be sad to see it go now, even if I also want to watch it burn to the ground.
I flip the paper over and I stare down at the second document.
123 Woodbrook Circle, Faulkner Montana.
I don't realize how long I've been staring until Mr. Polis speaks again.
"Everything alright?" He asks, scrunching his eyebrows together. "It should all be in order."
I nod, my voice stuck in my throat.
"You good then?" Kelsea touches my arm and I flinch a little before shutting the folder and standing so abruptly that I drop the rest of the folders to the ground.
"Shit, sorry." I say, kneeling to scoop them all back up. "Thanks for everything." I say over my shoulder to Polis as I head out of the office.
"Have Mrs. Statham call me if she needs any help on the paperwork." He calls out but I'm already in the hallway, Kelsea on my heels.
I'm speed walking and she has to double step even with her long legs to catch up.
She grabs me by the elbow and turns me around to face her. "What's wrong?" I shove the folder into her hand and tell her to open it. "Deeds?" She says confused.
"Yeah." I say, still trying to stop the spiral of my thoughts.
"Why is that important?" She asks me, giving me a weird look.
I reach over and flip the pages so the other deed is on top. "A place I hate." I whisper, pointing at the address.
She studies the page a little longer then looks up at me. "A place you hate." She repeats, understanding.
Ruth Jacobs's estate.
The deed right there in her hands, glaring back at me.
The home she inherited when my Great Uncle Terrance died. Just thinking of him makes my skin go clammy and my eyes burn with emotion I don't want to feel.
The one place in this town I've refused to go back to. The place Dallas and I might have been sent to had Ruth not decided to decline her duty to us as next of kin.
Any foster home would have been better than having to go back there with her. She's not the one to blame. Not the one who did anything to me, but she knew. She'd heard. She knew why he wasn't part of our family anymore, and she'd chosen to marry him anyway. Chosen to share that home with him and be his wife and love him until his dying day knowing damn well what he did to me.
I've always hated her for that.
Hated that she could stand by someone like him and ignore it.
If there is anyone in this world I've found it easy to hate, it was him. Terrance Jacobs. The original monster of the Jacobs clan.
"I think I know where Aries is hiding." I whisper to her, voice shaking a bit.
"Oh my god." She drops her mouth open. "You really think he'd be there? You own that property now."
I nod. "They wouldn't think to look there." I say. "It's been just sitting since she died. Mrs. Statham has been there but I guarantee she hasn't been checking in on it recently. It's also on the side of town that his cellphone pinged from."
"Jesus." She says, shaking her head. "I guess...I guess we need to go tell Davenport."
I chew on my bottom lip, still staring at the deed in her hands. Still batting away little memories. Still running away from them and forcing them back into the furthest part of my brain.
"Yeah." I tell her. "I guess I have to."
"You don't want to tell them, do you?"
I shake my head. "Of course not." I sigh. "I don't know what they'll do to him, but I don't have a choice. They're so sure about it. It would be wrong and selfish to hide it."
"But?"
"But of course I don't want to." I admit again. "But I have to. I've got to tell them where to find him."
"Are you going to go meet him there?" She asks and I look up into her eyes.
"I don't know." I wrap my arms around the other folders against my chest. "I don't know if I can go there. He doesn't know why. I never told him. He just knows I hate them."
I let Kelsea wrap her arm around my shoulders and lead me quietly out of the courthouse.
I expect Davenport to be waiting for us outside, but he must still be down at the station or the store.
I take out my phone and shoot him a text and he tells us he got held up but that he's still down the street at the Quicky Mart.
He tells us to wait at the courthouse for him, but I don't feel like standing around. Not while I hold the information I've got.
So Kelsea and I pull up our hoods and begin walking.
It's a short walk up the road, and though the weather around us feels like being inside of a snow globe that a child won't stop shaking continuously, I welcome the cold shock.
We make our way through the parking lot and walk to the front of the store but we don't see Davenport at first.
We swat at the snow in our faces, dipping under the awning at the front entrance of the store and look back into the parking lot sprinkled with a few cars of people getting last minute blizzard supplies.
"There he is." Kelsea calls over the whipping of the wind and I follow her pointed finger to the middle of the lot where Davenport stands talking to another man. I start to walk that way when she yanks me back. "Holy shit, look." She is still pointing and I squint to see what she sees.
Parked right beside Davenport's car is a old beaten up white truck with blacked out windows.
"Oh my god." I whisper. "Who is that?" I look quickly to Kelsea and back again.
The man with Davenport turns slightly and through the snow I can recognize his features across the lot.
"Dude, that's that cop." She tells me, stepping in closer to me.
I watch in horror as the two men laugh about something and then shake hands before Officer Gillians opens the truck door and hops inside of it, rolling the window down to say something else to Davenport before he too gets into his car.
"Get inside." Kelsea grabs me and jerks me into the store, pulling us far passed the row of cash registers. "Text him and ask where he is."
I do as she says, sending the text as if I don't know already exactly where he was.
He replies quickly saying he is heading to pick us up and I text back that we were in the store waiting for him.
We give it a couple of minutes before we share a scared glance and head back out front of the store.
Gillians is gone, and Davenport's car waits for us right outside of the entrance.
We climb into the backseat together, Kelsea squeezing my hand.
"Get everything settled?" He asks, driving us back out of the lot.
"Yep." I say quickly. "You?" I ask, and her grip gets tighter.
"Sure did." He says cheerfully. "Let's get back to the house. I'm dying for more of that spaghetti."
Kelsea and I share a glance as he turns back out onto the main road.
What the fuck did we just see?