The little bell hanging just above the door
rang frantically and nearly shook off its chain when Beth exploded over the
threshold and into Mrs. Paisley’s tailor shop. The girl, cheeks flushed from
being hit with warm air, leaned her palm against the wall and spread her
fingers rigidly, letting the door close itself behind her. She took the kind of
deep breath that normally would precede a grand announcement, but instead of
exhaling big news like Mrs. Paisley would have expected, she simply said, “I’ve
torn the pocket off my favourite jacket,” and slid it off her shoulders
awkwardly.
As Mrs. Paisley examined the pocket and
felt the torn stitches between her finger and thumb, Beth said quickly,
“I was in a hurry and it got caught on a
fence. I wasn’t looking.”
“No problem, dear. It’s always our
favourite clothing that this happens to, isn’t it? I’ll have it mended by this
afternoon. How’s school treatin’ ya these days?”
“It’s fine. I’m actually headed there right
now though and if I don’t leave right away I’ll be late for English. I’ll be
back on my way home to pick that up. Thanks a million, Mrs. P!”
She spun around to go.
“Wait! Won’t you be a bit chilly with no
jacket this morning? It’s still crisp before 9AM!” Mrs. Paisley called after
her, but the door was already making its way back into its frame, Beth back out
in the morning air and marching down the sidewalk towards school. It was unlike
her to take off in a hurry like that. In the twelve years that Mrs. Paisley had
known her, she had always stayed to chat. In fact, Beth consistently came into
the shop for the conversation, not the service. Mrs. Paisley decided not to
dwell on Beth’s unusually brief visit though. She’d get more out of her this
afternoon. As she lifted the jacket with the torn pocket up off the counter,
she detected the scent of men’s cologne hovering in the air. She hadn’t noticed
it while Beth was in front of her, because she had been too distracted by the
girl’s change of pace. But come to think of it now, Beth had been the first
customer of the day, so the smell had definitely come in with her, it just
hadn’t followed her out. Mrs. Paisley breathed in the unfamiliar scent and
wondered what it was doing lingering so strongly on a twelve-year-old girl. In
a town like this, no one had enough time to even think about wearing cologne.
Everyone was too busy getting in a good day’s work. The strong perfume stood
out like a shiny limousine on a dirt road, and it was difficult to think of
where Beth could have picked it up.
That afternoon, right when expected, Beth
stepped through the door. Slower this time, the bell ringing just once.
“Oh look. I’m finishing your pocket just in
time, darling. How was your day?” Mrs. Paisley inquired with a smile. She
looked at Beth, noticing there was much less of a frantic air about her than
there had been this morning.
“School was the same as ever, thanks for
asking.” Beth didn’t seem as engaged as she normally was, and her gaze kept
shifting out the window and back to the mended coat in Mrs. Paisley’s hands.
Taking the hint, Mrs. Paisley slid off her stool and came around the counter,
gesturing for Beth to turn around so she could help her into her jacket. The
girl obliged, and as she slid one arm through one sleeve and leaned back to
hook her other arm through the second, Mrs. Paisley caught a glimpse of
something dark and blotchy poking out from under Beth’s rolled up left sleeve
before her whole arm entered the jacket. There was another spot just like it
towards the back of her lower neck. Mrs. Paisley had seen her fair share of
bruises before, but not like these. She was suddenly overcome with concern for
the girl, feeling a bit of motherly responsibility over her because she had no
living parents, only an older brother, Pete. She let Beth turn around, now
wearing the jacket and testing out the strength of the new pocket with her
fist.
“Beth my dear, you are covered in what I’d
say were some nasty bruises. Did the fence do that to you after it took out
your jacket pocket? Maybe you should send Pete to tell it off.”
Mrs. Paisley had been trying to keep her question light, but
Beth looked at her with nervous eyes and shrugged off the jacket, pulling her
shirt sleeves down over the bruises. In one breath she stammered out that she
had simply fallen climbing a tree and that it wasn’t so bad and she actually
couldn’t pay for the jacket today because she had forgotten her change purse at
home and she’d be back tomorrow. With that, she was out the door more abruptly
than she had been that morning, leaving Mrs. Paisley perplexed, slightly
worried, and in possession of a jacket she would have never charged the girl
for anyway. She draped it across a rack behind her counter and sat back down on
her stool with a sigh. There were a lot of odd people in this town, but they
had all always been odd. It was something new for a girl to have turned odd.
The next day, Mrs. Paisley was heading to
her favourite little coffee shop for her lunch break, when she spotted a young
man heading towards the same place, but from across the street. She recognized
him as the new man in town, the one that had just moved in from the city. She
had first seen him last week on the corner outside the town’s grocery store
standing in the rain and talking to a girl, both of them under his umbrella.
She had taken particular notice of him not only because he was new to the town,
but because he didn’t look at all like he belonged there. He was dressed
entirely in greys and blacks, mostly gabardine, she thought, and he had on
dress shoes. There was no place for dress shoes in this town. Everyone knew
sensibility took priority over style. Mrs. Paisley had gotten a strange feeling
seeing him there on the street, in the middle of all things familiar, and she
was so caught up in wondering what a man like that could possibly want in this
small country town that she didn’t realize who the girl he had been talking to
was until she had walked a block in the other direction. It had been Beth.
Now, getting into line behind him at the
counter to order lunch, and noticing again just how strange and almost
suspicious the man looked in his fancy city way standing in the grimy, old, but
oh-so-friendly coffee shop, Mrs. Paisley thought about what he had been talking
about with Beth the week before. The way they were huddled so close under his
umbrella, they had looked like two old friends just having a quick chat.
Definitely not like strangers, which the man no doubt was to everyone in town.
She made a mental note to ask Beth about him when she came to pick up her
jacket. It didn’t seem right for a girl of her age to be getting friendly with
a man, let alone a man no one knew anything about. There was something entirely
inappropriate about the mere thought of a relationship between the two, and it
might have been Mrs. Paisley’s old-fashioned attitude, but she saw it as almost
dangerous for Beth.
The man ordered his sandwich and moved over
to the counter where it would be placed when it was done being prepared. Mrs.
Paisley watched him as he walked, and then turned back to the girl at the
counter to hand her a handful of change, not needing to state her order because
everyone at the coffee shop knew what her regular was. She smiled stiffly and
then moved along after the man to wait for her own meal. They stood together in
silence for a few moments, and when their sandwiches were set on the table at
exactly the same time, the man spoke.
“Turkey sandwich, eh? Would have been my
second choice, but I just had to try the Applewood cheddar one instead.”
“Both are good,” Mrs. Paisley said. She was
stunned at how friendly a voice the man had, and how warm the look in his eyes
was. She was expecting the same dull vibes from him that she got from his
attire.
“You’re Mrs. Paisley, right? I’ve been
meaning to visit your shop. I have a few buttons that need to be sewn back onto
something, and my landlord told me you’d be the one for the job. I figured,
since you’re the only tailor in town, but she said you were excellent.”
“Uh…yes. I am Mrs. Paisley. And you are…?”
She hadn’t intended for there to be so much skepticism in her voice, but she
didn’t add anything to soften what she had said. She simply waited for him to
answer.
“Jared. Jared Huntsman.” He said with a
smile. “I just moved here from—“
“From the city, I know. I can tell.”
“Is it that obvious? I’ve been trying to
tone it down a bit. I guess I just haven’t mastered ‘small town’ quite yet.”
“That’ll come with time I’m sure.” But she
wasn’t. City people never lasted long in town.
Jared Huntsman asked her if she’d like to
join him at a table for lunch, and with much hesitation, Mrs. Paisley agreed.
She simply had to know more about this strange man, so she could warn Beth
appropriately.
Later that day, when the sun was just low
enough to graze the roofs of the old houses, Mrs. Paisley sat in her shop, reeling
from her lunch with Mr. Huntsman. She had first sat down at the table with him
full of suspicion and not wanting anything more than to tell him to stay away
from Beth and any other young girl in town. She had had the image of Beth’s
bruises in her mind, not letting herself believe the tree story for a second.
She knew it was a long shot, but for some reason she couldn’t help mentally
connecting the city man with those dark spots on the girl’s arm. If it wasn’t a
fall from a tree, was it another person who might have inflicted those wounds?
Surely if it had been, Beth would have said something about it in the shop, or
at the very least, she would have told her brother. He was, in the typical
older brother fashion, her best source of protection. If Mrs. Paisley’s gut
feeling was right, and this man from the city had hurt Beth, Pete would be
after him with no hesitation. The worries and fears of what Mr. Huntsman had
been up to since he got to town circled around in her brain all evening, and
late into the night.
The next day, Mrs. Paisley could not have
been happier to see Pete just ahead of her in the post office line up. Beth had
been in the shop earlier that day, but had once again made no effort to make
conversation. Mrs. Paisley had hit her with her strongest nosy strategies, and
gotten absolutely nothing from the girl except six dollars in change for the
mending of the jacket and a quick smile before she left. Maybe she’d have
better luck with Pete. She had to, because something strange was most
definitely going on. She could feel it all over the surface of her skin.
Once she had mailed her package off to her
sister in Switzerland, Mrs. Paisley scurried as fast as she could out the post
office door after Pete. She caught up with him just as he was about to cross
the street, and the two of them walked the next block or so together.
“It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen
you anywhere around town, young man,” the older woman accused, as soon as she
was next to him.
“Oh Mrs. Paisley! How have you been? Yes,
I’ve been going to the city quite a bit to look for a job. Working part time at
old Wiley’s farm isn’t going to carry me forever.” Pete shot her one of his
glowing smiles, the one that hadn’t changed since he was a baby. Mrs. Paisley
remembered first meeting him when he was just six days old, and was hit with a
wave of nostalgia; it wasn’t just her that was getting older anymore.
“No, but it could carry you a while longer,
don’t you think? It’s an awfully long commute out to the city every day.”
“I’m already actively figuring out a way
around that, Mrs. P. Not to worry. But you haven’t answered my question yet.
How have you been lately? Anything new in your life?” Mrs. Paisley considered
how to bring up her worries about what she had experienced the previous day,
and decided just to dive right in.
“Actually, yes Pete, there is something new
in my life, and I’m not sure it’s very good. Have you met the new man in town,
Mr. Jared Huntsman? Because he’s been spotted hanging around Beth, and I don’t
like it. He comes across very friendly, but there’s something about him that
gives me a funny feeling. He’s up to no good. I just know it. And every time
I’ve encountered Beth since the two of them were seen together, she has acted
quite distant and hasn’t wanted to stick around and chat for more than a
second. That’s not like her one bit. And when she came in to get her jacket
mended, she told me she had hurt herself falling out of a tree. Does she even
climb trees anymore? And she’s got these bruis—“
“Woah there, slow down Mrs. P. I assure
you, if Beth is acting weird, its probably just hormones or something. I
wouldn’t take much she says or does very seriously if I were you. She’s
childish and just likes to waste her time fantasizing. And as for the tree
incident and the jacket tearing, you know she’s just clumsy. She’s always
falling! She’s in that awkward stage. It’s nothing.”
Mrs. Paisley saw something sweep across
Pete’s face as he spoke, panic, perhaps? It was hard to tell. But he did have a
point. It could just be Beth’s hormones getting the better of her. She was at
that age. But as Pete assured her one more time that she shouldn’t worry, she
saw a wildness in his eyes that she had never seen before. It took the glow
right out of his smile. Mrs. Paisley hoped she was seeing things.
“I have to get going, Mrs. Paisley. I have
an appointment in the city in an hour and I can’t be late. I’ll see you.” He
patted her on the shoulder and then stepped around her, headed towards the train
station. For a brief second, he was close enough to her that she could smell
him. His cologne collided with her cold nostrils like a wrecking ball to a
house. But instead of shattering everything, it made everything come together
all to quickly. It was the cologne she had smelled on Beth. Had it rubbed off
on her clothing because he was just a little too close? Could he have been the
one who had inflicted those bruises? As Mrs. Paisley watched him walk away, an
image sprang into her mind of Pete and Beth just after their parents had been
killed in that terrible fire eight years ago. Beth had had her eyes wide, as if
they were holding in them as much sadness as could possibly be mustered before
the tears fell and all that was left was fear. She had stared straight ahead,
as if not really looking at anything. Pete though, was only looking at her. And
his expression was nothing of fear, but instead of anger and hatred. It was
like he was driving his rage into her with his pupils. Mrs. Paisley had taken
no notice of the fury at the time, too caught up with the tragedy of the whole
thing, but she worried now that it may be boiling over. If so, what was Pete so
angry about that it may have driven him to hurt his little sister?
One week later, after having not seen
either Beth or Pete, or Jared for that matter, anywhere around town for days,
Mrs. Paisley received a call. It was Jeanette from the grocery store. She
informed Mrs. Paisley that Beth had been found lying dead in a field just
behind old Wiley’s farm. She had been beaten to death. At hearing the words, Mrs.
Paisley felt the strength in her knees crumble, and all she could think of was
Pete. Did anyone else suspect what she did?
“Who did it?” She spat into the phone,
tears beginning to burn the edges of her eyes.
“Nobody knows. Word on the street is though
that it was Jared Huntsman, you know that new guy in town? I wouldn’t be
surprised.”
“And I wouldn’t go believing rumors like
that before there has been a proper investigation.”
Mrs. Paisley let the phone fall back into
its cradle and hunched over the counter, sobbing. That poor girl had surely met
a brutal end. Mrs. Paisley felt the pain of grief and regret settle in her
stomach for having not done something as soon as her theory had sprung up in
her mind. She was going to have to pull herself together and figure out how to
throw an accusation she had absolutely no proof of at someone she had trusted
for so long, and she’d have to do it soon.
Flipping around the sign on the shop’s
front door so that it read “closed”, Mrs. Paisley walked up the road in the
direction of Pete and Beth’s house. She wasn’t thinking of the danger she might
have been putting herself in, she simply had to talk to Pete. If he had had any
part in Beth’s murder, she wanted to hear it from him, or at least see the
guilt in his eyes when she accused him.
As she forced herself forward and up the
stairs to the front door, she heard voices shouting in the kitchen. One of them
was Pete, and one of them she wasn’t sure of. The unfamiliar voice was much
louder, almost hysterical.
“You’re sick, you know that? I should have
been down here the second I knew what was going on. You’ve made a huge mistake,
Pete. It was never her fault.”
“Now, Jared, let’s not get too worked up.
It was her fault. As a kid she always
played with matches. She was reckless. I know
she’s the one who started that fire. And ever since, she’s made my life more
difficult. I never asked to be burdened with a little sister to take care of! I
want my own life and now I can finally have that, don’t you see?”
“All I see is a selfish monster. You don’t
deserve to have the life you want anymore.”
Mrs. Paisley heard a low thump, a few
scuffles, and some more muffled accusations. She gave up simply eves dropping
and threw the front door open. The two men, Jared and Pete, were sprawled on
the kitchen floor, Jared having pinned Pete down, still yelling at him while he
struggled. Mrs. Paisley lunged forward, and shouting for them to stop
immediately, tugged violently at Jared’s shoulders. He didn’t resist much, and
stood up after a second, staring at Pete on the ground, with hatred in his
eyes. Mrs. Paisley looked from man to man, and then motioned for Jared to go
out to the porch.
Once she was alone with Pete, she looked at
him coldly, observed his now bloody nose and swollen eye, and said,
“He’s right, Pete. I don’t know when you
turned into this evil man you are now, but you don’t deserve to get what you
want.” To her surprise, all Pete did was nod and lay his head back down on the linoleum,
cupping his nose with his hand. Mrs. Paisley found the phone and called the
police. The next few hours went by with her on auto polite, not stopping to let
her emotions catch up with her, so it wasn’t until very late that night that
she got the full story from Jared.
He had met Beth on his first afternoon in
town, and they had hit it off there in the bookstore and ended up talking for
hours between Religion and Self Help. The large age gap wasn’t an issue, he
said, because he thought both of them just really needed someone to talk to who
would just listen, and they had started spending whatever time they could
together. He told her about leaving his troubled ex girlfriend behind in the
city and coming to live in town to simplify his life for a little while, and
she told him about how Pete had been hitting her. It started out as threats,
she had said, but in the last few months had escalated to physical abuse, at
least once a week before he left for another job interview. That’s how her
jacket had been torn, and why she had smelled of Pete’s cologne. He was all
over her. Beth made Jared promise not to tell anyone though, because she was
handling it and she would never want her brother to get in trouble. She knew
Pete blamed her for the death of their parents, and she knew all he wanted was
to be rid of her, but she was convinced that the problems would be sorted out
once he got a job in the city and felt like he was accomplishing something.
That’s why Jared had promised not to tell. He had fallen for her positivity,
and now he hated himself for being so naive. Hearing the story, Mrs. Paisley
shared his self loathing for not having spoken up when she had figured it out.
She hadn’t wanted to believe it was possible.
It wasn’t until months later when the trial
was over and Pete was convicted of first degree murder that anyone else knew
for sure what had happened between Beth and her brother. Pete had killed his
sister because he couldn’t handle having to take care of her while she grew up,
all the while irrationally blaming her for the death of their parents. The town
mourned the loss of a young girl, and worked to recover from having been home
to such an evil and disturbed young mind as Pete’s.
