[Ambys 2022: Mystery/Thriller Winner]
Discovering a dead body just minutes from her cottage in the trees is the last thing Dray Dinley expects upon moving to the remote town of Hero.
Being convinced by the town outcast and suspected murderer, Wells...
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"It was your name?"
Hours of different words and combinations later and the final password was Weldon Walden—all lowercase, all one word.
"You have got to be kidding me?" Dray ran her hands over her face and rubbed her eyes to try and regain the normal eyesight that blurred from staring at a bright computer screen for too long.
Wells ignored her and dove straight into the drive. He scrolled through the documents, scanning the titles and previews. "It looks like it's just filled with digital copies of what we found in the chest."
She peered over his shoulder, holding her hair back from falling in his face. "But there were pictures in the chest. This is just a bunch of PDFs."
"We'll worry about that later." He met her eyes. "We need to go through this again."
Dray scrunched her forehead, but stood behind patiently reading along with him. He brushed off the most viable part of the evidence like he already had a plan and that in itself worried her. Such quick decisions usually led to reckless outcomes.
The documents listed brief outlines of what Ivory had discovered about the neighborhood watch as an organization. First off, it was officially called The Watch. A snide comment on the page about the lack of cleverness had Dray wishing she could have met Ivory in person.
Another page listed that most of their endeavors involved money schemes, explaining their insane wealthiness, but other illegal possibilities were robbery, murder, and embezzlement. The second one had to be true.
All the files centered around the same core group of people on top. Sheriff Heron—or Tieg, as Ivory listed him—the new Mayor of Hero, and the President of The Watch in Lockton were into something big.
"How did she get all of this information? How do we know if anything is even true?" Dray walked away from the computer. She grabbed her hair off her neck and rested her hands on top of her head, the hair in a messy pile underneath her palms.
Wells shook his head before leaning his chin on his clasped hands. "However she did, it could have gotten her killed."
The information sunk deep in Dray's mind, settling into an uneasy reality. She closed her eyes and realized how much sense it made that Wells had so little information after all this time. Death became quite an obstacle to avoid.
Her hands fell to her sides and her curls tumbled around her arms. "Maybe we should end for tonight," she said softly.
The computer clicked shut and Wells sighed, still staring straight ahead.
Dray put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. She had no idea what step to take next and let that be enough. "I'll see you tomorrow." Her voice hung in the air a lot quieter than she intended. Something felt weak in the room and it swallowed her whole.
