“This is Melody Rue, one of our town vets,” Molly says. “Melody, meet Hailey Tarrant. She’s sitting in and listening. Maybe we’ll get her to say some words, but it’s up to her.”
“I understand.” The drop of her smile and the slight nod are telling. She’s connected my surname to my father. “We’re all pretty nice, if I dare describe us that way?” She takes a seat to my left.
Two men come in next. The first is the bigger, taller one, with thick black hair swept into a ponytail and a menagerie of tattoos on his arms and face. He studies both me and Melody, though she’s checking her phone, then he ambles to the other side of the table to drag out a squeaky chair.
The second man, lanky-limbed, red-haired, and wearing cowboy boots, is tall and puts me in mind of a long tangy, orange cocktail. He waits for an introduction, and Molly pats his shoulder, though she’s more than a head shorter.
“Hailey, meet Rasmus. He runs a computer repair place down the street.”
“Pleased to meet you, Hailey.” Rasmus slides along the wall, pulls out a chair next to Melody, then reaches behind her to shake my hand. It’s firm but brief, as well as long fingered. He has a tattoo of a snake made of cogwheels and machinery on one side of his neck. “Are we talking about the last book, Molly, or just swapping gossip?”
“Not sure yet. That’s Esau, there, Hailey.” She indicates the big glowering man. “Need a tattoo, ask him for one. He’s got some spares.” She chuckles. “Not that he’s doing me or Ron.”
“One day, Molly.” His voice is deeper than a canyon. He greets me with a click of his mouth as he crams his body into his chair, pulls out a pack of cigarettes that he eyes for maybe two seconds, then tucks away. Then he sighs. “Lulu’s not coming. She’s got a late shift at the minimart.”
“So that’s all of us then. Ron?”
He closes the door and parks at the other end, while Molly edges along the wall to her seat to my right.
Having seated myself, I study the group. Small. I thought this would be bigger.
Melody sways closer. “Gossip is code, just means anything to do with the weirdness in town. Don’t mind Esau, he just likes to look scary. I look after his pets, and he has a tortoise he lets ride his Roomba.”
My grin alerts Esau but he only grunts and shakes his head. “Lies, all dirty lies, whatever Melody whispered about me.”
“So!” Ron slaps the table with his hand, interrupting the laughter. “Meeting nineteen of the Weirdos is in session. We were reading this new one,Talismanby Stephen King.” He taps the book that Molly slides across. “But my better half and I figure we’ll keep this one confined to letting you meet Hailey, who is the daughter of the dearly departed Simon. Plus, any gossip you may have.”
“Thank you.” I fold my hands over my handbag then pull it down onto my lap. That way I can hug it without looking obviously nervous. Maybe it’s the number of new people,maybe it’s freaky Clay, maybe it’s the past day’s happenings. Or all of that.
Ron continues. “So, Hailey, as Melody told you, we call the weird happenings gossip. This room is swept for bugs by Rasmus before each meeting, because the book club is really an excuse. Revenant is plagued by a plethora of weird, and it’s been on the increase ever since they switched on the LHC.”
“True. True,” Molly adds, and everyone murmurs agreement. “We’re trying to find out if the first LHC in Europe has caused any such happenings.”
“Okay.” There is one in Switzerland that was built decades ago. One of the benefits of Father’s work is knowing that sort of thing.
“Hailey has some new…” Ron studies me. “Information. A new side to this which is most curious.”
He’s hinting without making me seem a revelation. This is good. Gives me an out.
“But first! Let’s hear from you all. Anyone seen anything?” Ron spreads his hands. “We had the last palpable pulse from the collider only yesterday. I heard about that deer secondhand from Dale, who is not a member, and he heard it from a hunter at the lake. It was apparently a male deer, and the hunter saw strange holes that were not bullet holes, peppering its head and upper torso, like it exploded from inside. The corpse has gone and drifted out and sunk deep, middle of the lake, so I doubt we can retrieve it. Anyone?”
“Me.” Melody raises her hand. “I have a six-eyed owl report. A client said it was up in a tree on the forest’s edge, north of town. He wasn’t drunk, or so he tells me.” She smiles, shrugs, which elicits few laughs. “I think it’s genuine. No body or bird for me to examine, so again, we have no absolute proof.”
“Proof will come. I can feel it in my bones. Anything else?” Molly peers around the table.
I’m sure she’s referring to me and Kail, with thatfeel itremark.
“I thought…” Esau begins, slowly drumming his fingers on the table. “Thought I saw a huge man sneaking through town this afternoon. A stranger that stuck low to the shadows and had odd lines on his neck that might be tattoos, might not, and I’d bet my life they were not.” He stops drumming, sweeps us all with a hard stare. “I saw him going north. Lost track of him. I got busy with a client.”
A chill trickles down my backbone. That man had to be Kail. Is he stalking me? Or only the town?
“Might just be one of Zedder’s creepy band of no-gooders,” Rasmus suggests. “Assholes.”
“Zedder?” I ask. “Who is that?”
Esau zeroes in on me. “He runs an outfit he calls the Shredders. They’ve got their digits in much of the bad doings in Revenant. Stolen goods. Drugs. Cars. Repurposing vehicles they bring in from elsewhere. The sheriff, Baxter, he ain’t done much about it.”
“Huh.” Frowning, I shift in my chair. “Yet you know it all?” That seems odd.
