Snuffed Out - Tim Myers [30]
“We can’t afford any upgrades right now; you know that as well as I do. Besides, I don’t see how what happened to Aaron could have been our fault.”
“Most likely you’re right, I worry too much.” That was patently false, as Pearly was one of the most serene men I’d ever known.
“So that’s it,” I said.
He said, “Harrison, you certainly don’t have to, but you’re most welcome to join me on my rounds tonight. I like to walk around the property and make certain all is as it should be on the grounds.”
I wanted to say no, but how could I, when I was keeping Pearly from his own personal life? “Just let me grab a jacket.”
“There’s a chill in the air tonight, no doubt about it.”
We walked down the stairs and out into the night. Pearly said, “I’m afraid I let my batteries go dead in my flashlight.”
“We’ll manage,” I said as a breeze from the river nudged us. I was glad I’d remembered my coat and zipped it up against the wind.
“Hey there,” he suddenly called out into the night, and it ; took me a second to spot the person he was hailing. The sound of Pearly’s voice made the figure jerk, but it was too dark and we were too far away for me to see who it was. I saw the stranger’s hand go back, and for an instant I thought they might have a gun. Then the glass window at The Pot Shot shattered into a thousand pieces as the alarm went off inside.
Pearly and I raced after the culprit, but it was impossible to find them in the darkness.
Panting and nearly out of breath, Pearly caught up with me under a nearby streetlight as the taillights of a car disappeared. “Did you get a license plate number?” he asked.
“No, it happened too fast. I didn’t even see what kind of car it was,” I admitted. Some keen observer I’d turned out to be.
“That brings up one more item on my list.”
“What’s that?” I asked as we walked back to River’s Edge to survey the damage.
“We could use security lights around the building, with some motion sensors.”
“I’ll call Ann Marie in the morning. Whether it’s in the budget or not, we’ll find the money for that.”
He patted my shoulder. “Now let’s go see if we can clean up that mess.”
I phoned the vandalism in to the police department, and once the dispatcher found that there was no one hurt, she promised to get someone out there first thing in the morning. The virus that was going through the police department had left them severely short-staffed, and she was frank about their nonemergency response time.
It took us an hour to sweep up all the glass and mount a sheet of plywood over the hole until I could call the insurance company and a glazier in the morning. We found a jagged piece of brick among the debris, and though I doubted it would yield fingerprints, I still picked it up with my handkerchief and set it aside. An errant thought raced through my mind. Was it possible Heather had thrown the brick, instead of a vandal? No, I knew she despised Sanora, but I couldn’t see her acting out so destructively.
Before we started cleaning up, I’d asked Pearly, “Should we call Sanora and tell her what happened?”
“There’s nothing she can do about it tonight. Why ruin a night of rest for her, since it may be the last one she gets for a while?”
“Why do you say that?”
Pearly said, “Wouldn’t you say this is a message for her? We saw for ourselves that it wasn’t exactly a random act of violence, now didn’t we?”
“It did seem pretty deliberate. Can you start on those lights in the morning?”
“I’ll put it at the top of my list. You might also consider mounting some security cameras around the perimeter.”
“Even if I could afford it, I’m not interested in living in an armed camp. Tell you what. I’ll see if Morton can step up his patrols out here if anyone ever shows up tomorrow.”
We surveyed our work, then locked the store back up. Pearly said, “Well, if there’s nothing else, it’s been a long day.”
“Thanks, Pearly. For everything.”
He shrugged. “It’s my pleasure, as well as my responsibility. I’ll see you in the morning, Harrison.”
I saw him drive off, then mounted the stairs