Melissa turned to Stephanie. “We are a little baked though.”
“Well, yeah,” Stephanie said. “Not the same thing, and totally legal.”
Their conversation lowered into a low-volume debate between the two of them.
Riley turned back to Amber.
“They’re usually quite conservative, but get them to a wedding and all bets are off,” he said.
Amber smiled. She turned her beer glass and some of the last bubbles escaped to the surface.
“Well,” Riley said. “I should get going.”
“Your twenty minutes are up?” Amber asked, raising her eyebrows.
He smiled. “No. I was mostly just saying that to get him upset. Nick is fun to torture. It was nice talking to you. Don’t believe anything this one says.”
He pointed at Melissa as he got up and walked away. Before he reached the door, he glanced back and gave Amber a wave. She lifted a finger and nodded in response.
Melissa and Stephanie were still negotiating with the bartender when Amber reached over to the other stool to grab her light jacket and her scarf.
“You’re not leaving, are you?” Melissa asked.
Amber gave her a sad smile and nodded. “I’m afraid I am. I ran out of energy about an hour ago and I’ve been coasting on fumes.”
“You haven’t even finished your drink,” Stephanie said.
Amber covered her mouth with the back of her hand and yawned.
“We’re not falling for that,” Melissa said with a big smile. She waggled her finger at Amber. “We meet, like, one new person every two years.”
“Usually, they’re over fifty,” Stephanie added.
“That’s right—one ancient person every two years. Then, we finally meet someone our age and you’re going to run off?”
“We already met,” Amber reminded her.
“That’s right!” Melissa said. Her face lit up with surprise. Then, like it was her own idea, she said, “That’s right. I met you at the Peeping Party at my brother’s.”
“It was a leaf-viewing party,” Amber said.
“Yeah,” Melissa said. “That’s what we call it—Leaf Peeping. You didn’t come with us to the House of Horrors. You said you had already had enough horror for one year.”
“True. I did say that.”
Melissa turned to Stephanie while she pointed back to Amber. “She’s the woman whose neighbor went crazy and killed the cops.”
Stephanie’s eyes narrowed and then went wide. “That was you?”
“My neighbor,” Amber said. She swallowed. “Yeah. He lost his hand in an accident and then murdered two officers who came to do a wellness check on him.”
“That’s not the craziest part,” Melissa said. “Tell her the craziest part.”
Amber looked up and away. Her eyes scanned back and forth. “Craziest?”
“The blood,” Melissa said.
Amber gave her head a little shake and then turned her attention down to the beer glass. She pulled it towards herself a little, like she was considering taking a sip.
“The blood,” Melissa said. “They didn’t find the bodies of the officers, but they found all their gear down in a pit and it had tons of blood on it.”
“Yes,” Stephanie said. “I heard about that. That was your neighbor? Did you know him?”
Amber chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment.
“A little. I met him a couple of times. I thought he was nice. He checked on my uncle when it was really hot last summer. If he hadn’t my uncle would have probably died alone,” Amber said.
“Wait,” Melissa said. “He checked on your uncle and then your uncle died too? What makes you think that he didn’t have something to do with that?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t mean it like…” Amber started to say. She stopped herself and tilted her head, reconsidering her own memories. “It was natural causes, they said. He had some kind of anemia and the heat just knocked him out of commission.”
“Blood,” Melissa said, nodding like her point had been proven. “It’s all about the blood. Blood work is, like, most of law enforcement now, you know? My cousin Isabelle is a sheriff and she says that…”
“Ugh,” Stephanie said, rolling her eyes and sighing. “Enough with Isabelle. Amber, tell us more about this neighbor.”
“I actually don’t know all that much more than what Melissa said. He inherited his uncle’s house and he was working to clean it out, I guess. Like I said, last summer he was the last person to really talk to my uncle. He was the one who called me. He found my uncle’s address book in the house and then dialed numbers until he contacted me. That’s how we all found out that my uncle was in the hospital. Last time I saw the guy, I could tell that something was weird. His hand was…”
Amber gripped her left wrist with her right hand.
“It was amputated because of an accident. I went to go meet him in person and he was sitting there in the dark. That’s part of the reason why I called the police. I was worried about him.”
Amber took a sip of her beer. It was warm and flat. She wrinkled her nose and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Lipstick smeared on her thumb.
“What was the other part?” Melissa asked.
“Huh?”
“What was the other part of the reason you called the cops? Did you sense that he was dangerous?”
Amber narrowed her eyes and thought back to that night.
Stephanie interrupted her concentration.
“We listen to a lot of True Crime stuff,” Stephanie said. “A lot of times people say that they knew something was going to happen. On the news, they always have a neighbor who says that the killer was quiet and kept to himself. Then, later, they find someone who really opens up and they always had a sense that there was something off about the guy. Did you sense something was off?”
“Honestly? No, I really didn’t,” Amber said. “The other reason I called the police was because of the note he left me.”
“A note?” Melissa said.
Stephanie leaned closer and spoke over whatever Melissa was about to say. “Tell us exactly what it said.”
# # #
Amber looked back and forth between their avid eyes. She glanced over at her bag. On her phone, she had
