“Who else would I put?” she whispers, still staring down at her hands as she clasps and unclasps them nervously. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we’ve talked, Payton. You’ll always be my best friend no matter where you are or how much distance separates us. I knew you were the only person I could trust about this.”
When you live in a small town, your best friend options are pretty limited, but I always knew I’d lucked out with Emma Jo. Our mothers were friends, and when we were born a few days apart from each other, there was no question that we’d be joined at the hip as soon as we could talk and walk. Everyone in Bald Knob liked to joke that we cancelled each other out because of how different we were. When Emma Jo was too shy or scared to try something new, I gave her confidence and dragged her into whatever crazy idea I got in my head. When we would inevitably get caught for that crazy idea, Emma Jo would sweetly talk our way out of it so neither of us got in trouble. She was the calm to my storm and I was the push in the ass she needed to break out of her shell every once in a while.
I never realized how much I missed her and her friendship until right this minute, sitting here next to her in the hospital. I can’t help the guilt that overwhelms me, wondering if I’d been a better friend, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened to her.
“So, Jed did this?” I ask her quietly.
She nods without saying a word, and I watch as another tear falls down her bruised cheek.
I didn’t really need to ask her to confirm my suspicions, but I needed something to say before I broke down in tears right along with her. Emma Jo admitting that I was the only person she could trust with this was all the confirmation I needed. All those pushes in the ass I gave her growing up, pushed her right into the arms of Jed Jackson our sophomore year of high school. Jed was two years older than us, a senior at the time, and I never liked him. He was a popular jock and a bully, but for some reason, he made Emma Jo happy. When your best friend tells you she’s getting married the week after high school, you keep your mouth shut and wish her the best, because you just want her to always be as happy as she is right in that moment.
My mother keeps me up-to-date with all the latest Bald Knob gossip whenever we talk on the phone, so I already knew Jed Jackson ran the town and everyone who lived there was halfway in love with him. Because of his good looks, fake charming personality, and how he’s the seventh generation of Jacksons to rule over Bald Knob, I understood why Emma Jo thought I was the only person she could trust. I’m not under Jed Jackson’s spell now, nor have I ever been.
“It started a month after we got married,” she admits quietly, sniffling through her tears and still refusing to look up at me. “You know he’s the mayor of Bald Knob, right?”
I nod, not saying anything as she takes a deep breath and continues.
“I know it’s a small town, but he’s still under a lot of pressure all the time. It’s hard being the wife of the most popular man in town, and you know I like to keep to myself. All those functions we have to attend and parties we have to throw at our house, and then there’s voting year when things get even more stressful and hectic…”
She’s making excuses for the rat bastard and I can’t stand it. I want to scream at her, I want to shake some sense into her, and I want to stand her in front of a mirror and remind her that plenty of husbands have stress, but they don’t leave their wives looking like she does right now. But I don’t do any of that. I know it’s not what she needs. What she needs is my confidence and one more swift push in the ass for old time’s sake.
Leaning forward, I hit the red call button on the bed railing.
“What are you doing?” Emma Jo asks when the static voice of a nurse comes through the speaker next to the button asking what we need.
“Could we get a doctor in here immediately? Ms. Jackson is ready to leave, and we need to get the discharge paperwork started,” I talk toward the speaker.
The nurse confirms that she’ll send someone in right away and I push up from my chair, pulling the blanket off of Emma Jo’s legs as I go.
“I’m busting you out of here,” I state, answering her question as I bend down and wrap my arms around her waist to help her out of bed, careful to move her slowly and not hurt her ribs.
“Payton, I can’t go home. He’s out of town today, but he’ll be back tomorrow night.”
Her voice is even more quiet and timid than normal, and now it’s shaking with fear.
“Good. We have time to change the locks and file a restraining order. And when he shows up tomorrow, I’ll be nice and rested and full of enough coffee to tell him to go fuck himself,” I reassure her, trying my best to keep the rage out of my voice as I leave her leaning against the edge of the bed and go to the small closet to grab her clothes.
“But people will see me. They’ll know,” she whispers uneasily.
When I pull out a white Bald Knob Wildcats t-shirt and see splatters of blood on the neck, chest and arms, I forget all about keeping the anger out of my voice so I don’t freak her out. Tossing the shirt into the garbage can next to the closet, I walk back over to Emma Jo and squat down to my rolling suitcase, pulling out a pair of black dress pants similar to the ones I’m wearing and a peach sleeveless sweater, handing them to her as I stand back up.
“So, let them see you. Let them know that the man they elected to run that town is nothing but a dickless pussy with shit for brains,” I speak through clenched teeth when she gently takes the clothes from my hands. “Maybe if we’re lucky, the whole town will turn on him and burn him at the stake in the middle of the town square. If not, I’m just gonna need a hell of a lot more coffee so I can be in the right frame of mind to plot his death.”
Exhaling loudly, I give Emma Jo a reassuring smile. When she returns it and asks me to help her get changed in the bathroom, I know I definitely made the right decision getting on that plane. Everyone in Bald Knob might like Jed, but if he comes anywhere near my friend, Jed is dead.
CHAPTER 4
Recorded Interview
June 2, 2016
Bald Knob, KY Police Department
Deputy Lloyd: I know this is a difficult time for you right now, Mrs. Godfrey, but I need you to answer the question.
Starla Godfrey: I just don’t know if my heart can take this right now, Buddy.
Deputy Lloyd: Mrs. Godfrey, this is an official sheriff’s office investigation on record. Could you please not use my first name?
Starla Godfrey: I am eighty-years-old and I’ve earned the right to call anyone whatever I please. I think we should discuss the fact that you’ve been living here for three months and I have yet to see you attend a service at Bald Knob Presbyterian.
Deputy Lloyd: Mrs. Godfrey, please try and focus. We brought you in today because you are a witness to one of our suspects threatening the victim. I need for you to tell me exactly what you heard Miss Lambert shout the night of the murder.
Starla Godfrey: That girl got herself all citified and does a lot of yelling now. She yelled at my poor Bo Jangles when he took a tinkle on her foot. He was so terrified I couldn’t get him to go outside the whole next day.
Deputy Lloyd: Weren’t you the one who placed a call to Mrs. Jackson’s home right before the body was discovered and told her that Bo Jangles was outside barking at something in her backyard? So, you must have been able to get him out at some point, which would make your statement false. I need to remind you that this is a sworn testimony you’re giving here today, Mrs. Godfrey.
Starla Godfrey: Don’t try to trip me up with your fancy detective words, Buddy Lloyd. I’ve seen every episode of Cagney and Lacey, and I know what you’re trying to do here.
Deputy Lloyd: I’m not trying to trip you up, ma’am, I just need you to answer the question. What did you hear Payton Lambert shout at the victim on the night he was murdered?
Starla Godfrey: I’m a good Christian woman, young man, and I could never repeat what she said. Let’s just say it had something to do
with removing a man’s body part and killing him with it.
Deputy Lloyd: Can you tell me exactly what body part Miss Lambert referred to?
Starla Godfrey: I can tell you the only ones I’ve ever seen were Mr. Godfrey’s, God rest his soul, and they weren’t all that nice to look at. Is that what happened? Did he really choke on them? I just can’t imagine that’s a good way to go. He was such a nice young man, too. Well, I’ll say a prayer for him on Sunday that it was quick and painless. You’ll be there to join me, won’t you, Buddy?
Deputy Lloyd: Mrs. Godfrey, please sit back down, I’m not finished with the interview.
Starla Godfrey: Bo Jangles has been locked up in the house all morning and I need to take my back pills. You come to church on Sunday and we can finish our talk then. There’s a potluck after the morning service so bring something nice. And don’t be going down to Knob Grocery and just picking up a bag of cookies. What you need is a woman in your life. Someone who can make these things for you. I hear Emma Jo is single now. I always thought you two would make a lovely couple.
Deputy Lloyd: Mrs. Godfrey, we’re investigating the murder of her husband. The one that happened just a few days ago. I don’t think that’s appropriate at this point in time.
Starla Godfrey: She kept staring over at you when you were at her house the other morning. Every time you turned your back, she had her eyes on you. And those were eyes of interest.
Deputy Lloyd: They were? She was? Like, every time I turned around or just-
*Recording stopped abruptly*
CHAPTER 5
Coffee keeps me going until it’s acceptable to drink wine.
—Coffee Mug
“I don’t think this is a very good idea,” Emma Jo warns me, glancing around her living room nervously like someone is going to jump out from behind a piece of furniture and yell at her.
Which makes this idea all the better and will help calm her nerves, hopefully keeping me from taking Emma Jo’s car and driving around town until I find the asshole responsible for making her jump every time she hears a noise.
“When have I ever had a bad idea? It’s just wine, Emma Jo, not crack. You’re thirty-years-old and you’re allowed to have a glass of wine. Or ten. I’m leaning more toward the double-digit area, just so you know. And since you don’t own a coffee pot, the wine is what’s going to keep me from killing anyone,” I explain, pushing the glass of Moscato into her hand and raising one eyebrow until she brings it up to her mouth.
“Oh my. This is delicious. And did you really just ask me when you’ve ever had a bad idea? What about that time you made me go skinny dipping in Fligner’s Pond? Or when you stuffed my bra with your dad’s rolled-up gym socks?”
I laugh when she takes another huge gulp, lifting my legs up onto the couch next to her, and then taking a drink from my own glass.
After the doctor finally showed up and discharged her, I got Emma Jo’s car out of the parking garage, picked her up at the front door, and off we went. With a stop at a hardware store in Louisville and another at a liquor store, I drove her home and spent the rest of the afternoon changing her locks while she took a shower and got comfortable. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get Emma Jo to let me take her to the sheriff’s office to file a complaint and a restraining order against Jed.
While she was in the shower, I called and left a message and told them to send someone over as soon as they could. I’m hoping if I can get her to drink enough of this wine, she won’t be mad at me by the time they show up. If they show up. It’s now after six o’clock, and if someone doesn’t get here soon, I’ll march down there and raise hell. I guess there’s no better way to let Bald Knob know I’m home than by making a scene in the middle of the sheriff’s office.
“I think I’ll have some more, please,” Emma Jo says softly. “And then we can talk about all the bad ideas you came up with over the years.”
I shake myself out of my thoughts to see her holding her empty wine glass out toward me with a smile. Grabbing the bottle, I refill her glass and top off my own, setting it back down on the coffee table.
“First of all, I had no idea Fligner’s Pond was infested with leaches and that a stray dog would come up and shit on our clothes while we were swimming,” I explain. “If I recall correctly, when Sheriff Cooper caught us running naked in between houses, you did quite well telling him we were hiding behind the bushes of Mr. Landry’s house and refused to come out because we’d started a Neighborhood Watch and we weren’t allowed to leave our post.”
Emma Jo rolls her eyes, taking another drink of her wine, and I continue.
“Second, how was I supposed to know that when you changed into your white t-shirt at gym everyone would be able to see the red stripes of my dad’s socks through the material? You brought that one on yourself.”
It doesn’t take long before we’ve finished two bottles of wine while laughing and reminiscing about all the stupid stuff I convinced her to do growing up. She asks about the shop and about Benjamin, already knowing almost everything about both because my mother calls her mother two seconds after we hang up the phone. I want to ask her more about Jed and why she’s put up with his abuse for twelve years instead of talking about Benjamin, but I’d rather see the smile on her face right now than the sadness from earlier in the hospital. I open another bottle of wine and I tell her all about Liquid Crack’s franchising and Benjamin’s refusal to take no for an answer.
“Your mom showed me a picture of him one time. He’s really good looking,” Emma Jo states, swaying to the side and sloshing some wine on her yoga pants.
“Not as good looking as Hot Guy in the hospital. You should have touched his chest. It was all chesty and muscly and pretty.”
She giggles, clinking her glass to mine.
“I’m so proud of you, Payton. You got out of this town and you made something of yourself. You got out, and I just sat here and did nothing. I sat here, and I didn’t go skinny dipping, and I didn’t stuff my bra, and I didn’t drink wine, and I just let him order me around and I let him hit me. Over and over, I let him do it. Why did I let him do it?” she whispers, sniffling and bringing the wine glass up to her mouth and drinking quickly to stop herself from crying.
“Rule numero uno of wine drinking – there is no crying in wine drinking. Rule number B…I don’t know, just drink more wine and don’t cry. I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re okay so drink more wine and don’t cry,” I demand, the wine buzz strong with this one.
Setting my glass down on the coffee table, I decide it might be time for me to stop drinking if I want to make good on my promise to Emma Jo. I won’t be able to make sure either one of us is okay if I pass out on the couch. We sit in silence for a few minutes as I look around the living room. After I made the phone call to the sheriff’s office, I took the rest of the time Emma Jo was in the shower to wander the house. To an outsider, it’s the perfect home for a happily married mayor and his wife. It’s an older home, just like all the houses in Bald Knob, but every room in the house has been updated and upgraded, filled with nothing but the best carpet, furniture, appliances, and home entertainment systems. On every table, across the fireplace mantle, and hung on every wall are pictures of Emma Jo and Jed, documenting everything from when they were dating, to their wedding, to buying their first home, and each one of Jed’s mayoral induction ceremonies.
If I was a stranger walking into this house, looking at all of those pictures, I would believe the fairytale. I would believe that the mayor of Bald Knob is a good man and a loving husband. I would believe that the smile on Emma Jo’s face in every photo is a real one. Looking at the handful of framed photos scattered around this room with the eye of a friend, even if I haven’t been here for all of those events, I can see that the smile never reaches her eyes. I can see that she always stands a few inches away from Jed like she’s afraid of touching him, and I can see the tight clench of his fingers wrapped around her hip, or her shoulder, or her side, l
etting her know with the pinch of his hold that he’s never going to let her go. And not in a devoted, caring way either.
A knock on the front door makes both of us jump and Emma Jo stares at me with wide, frightened eyes.
“It’s okay, it’s fine,” I reassure her with a pat on her thigh as I get up from the couch.
Even though I know it’s probably someone from the sheriff’s department, because I have a feeling when Jed comes home and finds the locks changed, he’ll be doing a lot more screaming than knocking, the look on Emma Jo’s face as her eyes dart back and forth between me and the front door makes my heart pound in my chest.
“Just in case,” I tell her with a reassuring smile as I grab a heavy glass object in the shape of a triangle from the side table, glancing at it as I move to the door.
“Number One Mayor and Number One in Our Hearts,” I read under my breath, rolling my eyes and raising my arm, bringing the stupid thing up above my head as I get to the door.
“Who is it?” I shout, looking back over my shoulder and giving Emma Jo a cheerful smile.
“Sheriff’s department,” a muffled voice calls back through the door.
With a relieved sigh, I unlock the new deadbolt and fling the door open.
“YOU!” I yell in shock, my eyes widening when I see who’s standing on the front porch.
“Me,” Hot Guy from the hospital replies, glancing up at the award I’m still wielding like a weapon over my head. “Can you put that thing down? I don’t know if you’ve had your coffee yet, and I don’t trust you.”
My arm drops from over my head, but I don’t put the heavy glass down. Instead, I aim the pointy end right at his uniform covered chest.
“Did you follow me here? What kind of creeper are you?” I ask, thrusting the award closer to him.