No Good Men by Thea McAlistair

Author:Thea McAlistair [McAlistair, Thea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, Lgbt, 1930s, age gap, Historical, Gay, Dark, Mystery, anxiety
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

SOMETHING CRASHED, STARTLING me awake. I jumped to my feet, a hundred unpleasant thoughts running through my head. Martin’s hallway blurred around me. I leaned against the wall to brace for the deathblow I was still sure was coming.

But nothing happened. More clanking came from the direction of the kitchen, but much softer this time, and a small voice saying, “Oh, drat!”

“Pearl?”

I stumbled into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was Pearl using a chair to climb up and root through the cabinets. Several pans had fallen onto the floor. She had a small iron percolator in her hands, trying to fit the pieces together.

“I’m making coffee,” she announced.

My mouth fell open. How had she gotten back here? Had last night been some kind of weird dream? But no, blood still stained the table, and pieces of the broken vase and iris stems littered the floor.

“Who’s there?” shouted Martin from somewhere behind me.

“Alex and Pearl,” I answered.

He appeared in the door to the hallway a few seconds later, bedraggled and lost-looking, with hair falling into his face. He held the rifle but kept it aimed at the floor.

“What are you two doing?” he demanded.

“Making coffee,” Pearl repeated with a roll of her eyes, like Martin and I were the ones being unreasonable.

He sputtered for a moment, then groaned as his knees buckled. The rifle thudded to the ground. Luckily, I was close enough to catch him before he dropped too far. I dragged him to one of the kitchen chairs, and he collapsed into it like a house made of straw.

“Hey Pearl, can you come here a second?” I called. She climbed back off the counter and came to me. Her eyes lit as I produced a quarter and pressed it into her hand. “Go down to the diner on Pi–” I stopped. Best not send her where someone shot at us. The place was going to be crawling with police anyway. “Go to the deli on the corner and ask the girl behind the counter for a paper cup of coffee. If she makes a fuss about it, tell her that Dr. Martin had to deal with an emergency in the middle of the night. Okay? You can keep the change.”

She nodded enthusiastically, no doubt already plotting what she could do with fifteen cents all to herself. “Okay, Mr. Dawson!” she said as she skipped out the door. “Back soon.”

“And be careful; it’s going to be hot!” I shouted after her just as the screen door slammed back. I doubted she heard me, but she was smart enough to know to slow down while holding hot liquids. I was desperate to know how she had gotten away from Bella, but at the moment, I just needed her out of the picture while I figured everything else out.

“You didn’t need to do that,” mumbled Martin.

“No, I definitely did,” I answered as I slid into the chair across from him. I tilted my head until I heard my neck crack. Sleeping sitting up was not ideal.

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