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Questioning the guests of 3 Alarm Coffee did nothing but irritate everyone. No one, besides Penny Nicols, had seen anything. The writers were writing. The employees were working. Penny Nicols was on break.
Pacing Main Street, while eating a microwaved burrito, Penny had witnessed the van pull up to Lydia. She’d hurried for a closer look, but right as the license plate came into view, the van backfired and a puff of exhaust clouded the numbers. She’d dropped her dinner and raced to the last place Lydia had been standing, only to find Lydia's purse lying in a puddle.
It was Penny who charged into the restaurant and sounded the alarm. At first, the crowd was too stunned to react. Then, Serene Barritt began screaming in disarming panic. “They found me,” She babbled between yelps. No one could get her to state who had found her. Or why she was so terrified.
No one could hear Penny’s pleas for help above Serene’s screeching. Against her better judgement, Penny slapped Serene’s cheek.
A collective inhale of surprise silenced the room. But Penny had to stop the lady from screaming. A woman needed help, and if the dining room feasted on the drama instead of responding to the facts, she wasn’t going to get it.
Immediately after the public smackdown, Penny retreated to the front counter. She stood beside Tamas as he called the police. She then collapsed in a bundle of breakdown on the floor.
This wasn’t the first crime she’d witnessed. All the old scenes flooded in on Penny as she recounted what she’d witnessed of Lydia’s abduction.
Serene Barritt cast a side-eye at Penny, every chance she got. Sure, the kid had slapped her, but that wasn’t what alarmed Serene. Something about Penny’s story was just a bit off.
While researching for her true crime novels, Serene interviewed hundreds of witnesses. Some were innocent bystanders. Some were victims. And then, there was a strange handful that were accomplices or villains themselves. Serene always got a tingly feeling in her gut when she interviewed them. Though these interviewees weren’t official suspects at the time, Serene’s gut had yet to be wrong. And it was churning over every word Miss Nicols said.
***
AFTER AN HOUR OF TALKING, Ethan Everett turned to his deputy and best buddy, Gus. “That’s it,” he said. “I can’t do this anymore. You’re in charge. I’m going to look for her.”
Gus had been waiting for this declaration. “You don’t even know which way the van went,” he said.
Ethan ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “What I do know is that every single second I sit here, the van gets further away. I can’t let that happen. I can’t just let her go.”
Gus swallowed. “You can’t charge after her, blind, either,” he said.
Ethan wasn’t much for emotional theatrics. He worried for his wife as any good husband might do, but he also trusted her. Completely. Now that Lydia was in trouble, without a solid suspect or motive, Ethan was helpless. Backed into a corner, the sheriff put his career on the line to find his wife.
Hobo Joe came up alongside Ethan. His newest employee at his side. “I believe Penny can help,” he said. He nodded to the short waitress.
“Is this true?” Ethan surveyed the girl.
Penny eyed her shoelaces and then shot a fleeting look of courage at Ethan Everett. “Yes,” she stammered.
“How?”
Hobo Joe answered for Penny. “Don’t ask her that, now. Just get on the road. I need my best customer back alive.”
Ethan swallowed a shrapnel of fear. “Let’s go,” he said to Penny and held open the door to 3 Alarm Coffee.