In Hell: When Love Kills A Small Town Mystery

Chapter 39

The little apartment over Rosie's was small, but warm and dry. Cash's fingers traced a line from Lori's inner thigh to her knee. She parted her legs slightly, and he moved with a slow rhythm. She winced as the brief sharp spasm rippled through her body. He could feel her soft body beneath him arch with pleasure.

"Deck," she muttered.

Suddenly, Cash went limp.

"What is it?" Lori asked. "What did I do?"

He grabbed his jeans and quickly dressed. Lori sat on the bed in the apartment above Rosie's café. She looked hurt and confused. As he bolted toward the door, he heard her call his name, but he tried to ignore her.

"Where are you going," she shouted?

"Leland's," he said. "I left something there. And I need to get it back."

*****

The police tape around the Lassiter's front door reminded Cash of the yard rolls they'd pranked as kids. No one was around. The house was as deserted as an abandoned cemetery. Cash tried the back door knob. It was unlocked. He quickly made his way to Mary Lassiter's bedroom.

A sigh of relief escaped him. The album was exactly where he'd dropped it. He scooped it up, sneaking back out the way he came.

*****

He was sitting on the bed examining the picture book when Lori joined him with a cup of hot cocoa.

"Do you really think there's an unexploded bomb at the old factory site?

"I'm praying not. Coffin liked to hurt people," he said, "but I think he got almost as much pleasure out of scaring them. I mean the threat of something like that. It's pretty horrific."

"But I catch myself imagining the ticking of that thing. Like Doom's Day waiting to happen."

"Those feelings will pass," he said, giving her a smile that melted something deep down inside her.

He fingered the edges of the book in his hands.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's a scrapbook that Mary Lassiter kept," he said. "See, here's the factory back then."

"Looks a lot different," she said.

"That's my mom. My dad," Cash said.

"Coffin and Dixie Ashlon," Lori said. "They're all here. Look how young."

Lori was reading the captions beneath the photographs.

"Start over," she said, "I came in at the middle of the picture show."

"Okay," he said.

She rested her chin on his shoulder. Cash flipped the pages to the first photograph. He slowly flipped to the second.

"Wait a minute," she said. "Go back."

"What?" he said, flipping to the first page. "What is it?"

"I don't know. Something's bothering me. Oh, look," she said. "No caption. All the others have notations under them. See," She flipped quickly through the album, "There's nothing about this one. And Cash, look how the others are yellowed. They look, I dunno, older than this one."

"Maybe, you're right. I see what you mean," Cash said.

"I wonder if Ms. Lassiter put this picture in later?"

"Don't know," Cash said. "But it should be simple enough to find out. Let's see."

Cash gently removed the photo from the album page and flipped it over.

"That's strange," Lori said. "Nothing's written on the back."