Page 49 of Forever Dark
Eric Wilson sat behind the front desk with his boots up on a chair, staring at a tiny television perched on the counter.On the screen, a woman in a torn nightgown was running from something rubber and ridiculous in a castle corridor painted to look like stone.Thunder cracked from the TV speaker.The creature roared.The actress screamed again.
Eric turned his head.“Jesus!”
His eyes dropped at once to the gun.
“You’re not going to shoot me for watching bad movies, are you?”
For a second Selena just stared at him.
Then she let out a breath and lowered the pistol.“I thought you were strangling someone in here!”
A grin spread across his face.“No.Just murdering cinema.”
The ridiculousness of it drained the tension out of her so fast it left her slightly unsteady.Selena slid the gun back into place beneath her jacket.
“You really shouldn’t have that on so loud when you have guests… I’ll leave you to it.”
“Wait.”Eric swung his boots off the chair and stood.“Now you’re here.”
He crouched behind the counter, rummaged around, then came up with two squat glasses and a bottle.Even before he poured it, Selena could tell from the color and the label this wasn’t the cheap stuff people kept for show.
Eric came out from behind the desk and handed one glass to her.
“I’m not the only one around here who looks like they need a drink.”
Selena almost refused.Then she caught the scent rising off it and paused.
Peat.Smoke.Salt.
She looked at the label.“Lagavulin?”
Eric smiled, pleased with himself.“I love a good Southern bourbon, but those Scots know what they’re doing.”
She gave in.She lifted the glass.He touched his gently against hers.
“Hey, to Elmsview High and the good old days.”He smiled.
“To Elmsview,” she said.And for once, that sentiment didn’t stick in her throat.She wondered why.
The whiskey hit warm and deep.Smoky on the tongue, then a slow burn down the throat that settled into her chest in a way the room hadn’t.Good stuff, and more generous than she would have expected from a man running a roadside motel in a county this small.
A pair of old chairs sat against the far wall near a brochure rack filled with faded tourist leaflets.Selena took a chair.Eric settled in the other, television still muttering behind the desk while some doomed actor tried to warn people not to go into the tower.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then Eric said, “What are you doing up so late?”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
His gaze stayed on her a second longer than it needed to.“Is it about Brenda Colter?”
Selena nodded once.“Word travels fast.”
He gave a quiet laugh.“You’ve been away from Harlan County too long.It always travels fast.Everyone knows everyone’s business.”
On the screen, music swelled as someone opened the wrong door.Eric glanced toward it, then back to Selena.
“Is it true she was murdered in the old church tower?”
