Page 51 of Final Inning

Julian just wanted to make things better in Buckbert someday. Julian would end up being the mayor of Buckbert eventually. It was just inevitable, and everything. She could be the mayor’s wife. Everyone in town already knew her and talked to her, anyway. They would be special people.

If the FBI didn’t screw everything up, anyway.

The FBI agents were there to hurt people. To bring up the past. Destroy people's worlds. That was the last thing she wanted.

It was all Hagan’s stupid fault. It was always Hagan causing so much trouble now. She should just leave. Go make trouble elsewhere.

Uncle Ted came in. He'd been getting more and more irritable the longer the FBI agents had been in town. Hagan didn't have the right to do this to him, to upset him this way. He was almost fifty, what if he had a heart attack from this or something?

All Hagan ever did was make trouble.

Valeria thought he should just fire Hagan. Why didn’t he just make Hagan go away?

Hagan was probably sleeping with somebody important or something. That was probably how she got her job. That's probably how she got the FBI there, too.

Uncle Ted had said Hagan had called in favors, maybe she was just giving favors instead. Hagan was probably just a slut.

Her brother talked about Hagan and sex all the time. Really nasty stuff he wanted to do to her and everything.

"Uncle Ted, what's wrong?"

She did care about him very much. He'd always taken care of her. Protected her. In spite of all the other stuff she didn’t like to think about.

Since what had happened to Julian's dad so long ago. Probably because Uncle Ted had found her at the softball field alone that night, after she had told Uncle Ted she didn’t want to do the secret stuff he’d wanted anymore. It had felt wrong back then.

Now, she was used to it, though.

She had jumped out of the police car and run off that night, finding her way back to the ballfields. Just to think. She just hadn’t wanted to go home.

Ramey’s bat had been there; Valeria had found it. She’d just been taking it home so it didn’t get lost. She hadn't really been stealing it. She wouldn't do that. Yes, she had been mad Ramey had gotten the best bat for no reason other than her dad had bought it for her—but she hadn’t really been stealing it.

Uncle Ted had known that, and he’d taken care of things for her. He'd taken her home that night. Then he and her mom had gone outside to talk about everything.

About what had happened.

Valeria couldn't really remember all the details of that night. She'd just been a kid. She did remember her mom and Uncle Ted talking quietly a lot—about bad things. They had lived together for like three more years after that. Before he had wanted to live with someone else. She understood that, too; her mom could be particularly difficult to live with. But, Valeria’s mom and Uncle Ted had still been together, they just hadn’t lived together. They slept together all the time, still.

Even now.

Valeria tried not to think about that part when she was with Uncle Ted. It felt too weird. Kind of gross, really.

"Just some trouble with the FBI, honey. Don't you worry about it." But he was really angry. She could see it in his eyes. It always scared her when he was that angry. His hand flexed on her arm, like he wanted to hold her close again.

"Well, we only have one FBI agent in town now. That girl one. Someone saw her with Hagan in here earlier, and asked. I guess the guys had to go do other more important stuff than find out who hurt Harper. Everyone was talking about that woman. How pretty she is. And Amy said she’s really nice and friendly. That kind of thing. I just want them all to go away. For everything to be good again.”

Valeria always heard the good stuff first at the store. It was the center of everything Buckbert. Yes, she’d run the grocery store, and Julian would be the mayor. As soon as he stopped sleeping with that Hagan bitch first.

"Just one left? Wonder what they found?" He had that weird look on his face. The one that said something had upset him again. He could be kind of sensitive—and a little bit paranoid, too.

"I doubt they have found anything. What would there to be to find? You're good at your job, Uncle Ted. Right? Nobody will find out the truth?" He had promised her that she would be okay. He had always taken care of her. Always.

“You know I am, baby girl. I’ll be back to pick you up when your shift ends, if you need me to.”

“I have my new car back. Jamie took it to the dealer and got the tire fixed. I’m good.” Ted had helped her find a good deal on her new SUV. It wasn’t the color she’d wanted, she’d wanted purple, not black, but…she had wheels again. Two days without her car had driven her crazy.

If her old car hadn’t broken down by the ball field that night Harper had died, none of this would be happening now.

She was thinking about Ted and what he'd said, when she looked up.