Never Die on a Cold Night III

The Return of Her.

By: JP Leonard

Narrated by: JP Leonard

As Stacey walked over to the alcohol, the sheriff turned slightly to check out the guy in the booth. At the same time, the guy in the booth looked his way and smiled, nodding his head as he did so. The sheriff nodded back, then returned to his forward position just in time to see Stacey placing his drinks on the bar.

“Who is the guy in the booth?” the sheriff asked Stacey.

“I don’t know, Joe; I’ve never seen him before?”

“How long has he been there?”

“Pretty much all this evening. Why, what’s going on?”

“Nothing, I was just curious. When are you getting off, Stacey?” the sheriff asked.

Stacey was one of those people who always thought the best of everyone, which is one of the reasons the sheriff liked her so much. Everybody liked Stacey, which is why her bar was always full. Not only did she have a great personality, she was a very intelligent woman. She had actually gone to Stanford University but had thought about going to MIT because of her fascination with computers. However, she stuck with Stanford and majored in computer programing with a minor in business. However, because of her highly above average skills, she was approached by a certain government official hearing of her prowess with computers. He had wanted her to work with a bunch headed for the Wright-Patt air force base, but she couldn’t wait to get back to Carson City where a certain young man had been placed in the sheriff’s department as their new deputy after leaving the air force. The young and bright Joe Blackman.

Now she had been there in Carson City for 15 years and didn’t regret a day of it. She hadn’t even been disappointed the wedding had been called off 18 years ago; it was all her fault anyway. Her father was dying, and her mother had already passed a year before, and even though he had tried to make like he was ok, she knew her father was a total wreck. Joe hadn’t even tried to stop her from leaving, not because he didn’t care, but because he loved her so much. Joe had even gotten close to her father when they had flown to California to give her mother and father the good news. She wasn’t surprised how much her father liked Joe when he had met him because they both were military men. Her father never liked any of the young men she knew, which is why her parents sent her to stay with her auntie Mag.

As her mind came back to the present, she noticed the guy in the booth simply because she knew it was a form of a new type of computer, she’d heard of but never seen. A portable computer a person could carry with them. Thinking about what Joe asked, she responded, “I don’t know...about 11, I guess. What do you have in mind?”

“I thought I’d take you over to Jose’s to get some of that Mexican food.”

“Why?” Stacey asked. “Why don’t we eat here tonight…we’ve got some of that golden fried chicken and onion rings you like so much, then we can go to my place and...”

Just then, Sheriff Blackman received a call on his two-way radio from one of his deputies. “Hold on, Stacey, I got to get this,” he said as he got up from the stool he was seated on and walked toward the door of the bar opened it and walked outside.

“Ok, Steward, what’s so urgent you have to disturb me now?”

“Sheriff, something terrible has happened, you need to come to see this...it’s awful sheriff, I have never seen anything like this in my life. You just got to come and see.”

By this time, the sheriff had started to get miffed. He hadn’t even drunk any of his beverages yet. “

Hold on Steward, calm down. What exactly is going on?”

“It’s Ms. Henderson. Sheriff, she’s dead.”

©1995, 2019 John H. Powell, Jr. (P)2020 John H. Powell, Jr.