28 Days(34)

The town liked tradition, and there was nothing wrong with that. He just wished that the current residents wouldn’t pass on their prejudices to their children. It hadn’t been warranted all those years ago and it wasn’t warranted now. But everyone was set in their ways and he couldn’t see change happening anytime soon.

“Alex,” Saige called, “you remember Agnes?”

He groaned inwardly because he’d hoped Saige would run with the questions that they’d planned and leave him in the background to listen in.

Agnes would remember him, and it wouldn’t be with fondness.

“Yes”—he stepped forward—“I remember Agnes.”

Saige raised a brow at his tone, but turned back to the smirking woman.

“I’m surprised it wasn’t you who ended up in jail. I was so shocked when Quinten was arrested and convicted. That boy wouldn’t have hurt a hair on anyone’s head.” She looked down her nose at Alex. “You, on the other hand...You’re the one that I thought would end up incarcerated.” Agnes shook her head while Alex clenched his jaw closed so that he wouldn’t ruin this for Saige.

They both wanted answers, but he didn’t want to disappoint his brother’s girl by acting before thinking, which he’d always done before.

“I will say that I agree with you about Quinten, but have to disagree about Alex,” Saige said slowly, and he could hear a tinge of anger in her voice. “Right now though, we’re trying to find something that will clear Quinten or, at least, something that will cause more doubt on his guilt so that a stay can be requested.” Saige paused and looked to Alex.

He moved beside her, holding his tongue on his thoughts about Agnes, and instead pleaded, “I know you couldn’t care less about me, but what you said about Quinten is true. He isn’t guilty and we really need answers to try and get him a retrial, at the very least, before it’s too late. Please help us.” You old bat. He grinned.

Agnes flushed and gazed around the pharmacy. No one else was present, but he did catch her son lurking in the drug dispensing area. Alex had a vague recollection of Paul and remembered him being away at school around the same time that Saige had been. Paul always used to be in the pharmacy whenever he would go in, messing with one thing or another. As a boy, Paul could never be still, but that seemed to have changed as he watched Alex and Saige with his mother.

“I’m not sure how you think I can help. I told the sheriff back then that I hadn’t seen anyone with Saige, or Quinten lurking around. I mean, of course I’d see Quinten in town.” She waved her hands around and became flustered. “I’d see him grocery shopping or, on occasion, going inside the bar. I didn’t see him all that often with Jocelyn. She tended to go off on her own, if you know what I mean.”

Alex glanced at Saige and knew that she held the answers they sought, but, for now, her memories were locked away. He could see that Saige was trying to remember. Her hand went to her forehead and rubbed.

“What about strangers? Did you see any around town before I disappeared?” Saige asked Agnes.

He didn’t think it was a stranger. It was someone who knew her, and he had a feeling that it was someone who knew Quinten as well. But the big question was who?

“You know we get a lot of tourists through here, so yes, there would have been a lot of strangers. Perhaps”—she looked at Alex and then quickly back to Saige—“the, um, person who took you hadn’t even been into town.” Agnes shrugged. “I honestly didn’t see anyone looking suspicious. I liked Quinten. He was a good man who was trying to build something for himself. If I’d known something, I’d have told the sheriff or that handsome detective, but I didn’t know anything.”

Agnes caught sight of her son in the background and appeared as startled as he did. Paul tried to disappear and in the process of trying to escape their attention, he knocked a tub of pills to the floor. They fell and scattered like Skittles.

Both Alex and Saige jumped slightly at the noise and watched as Paul quickly tried to get them back inside the tub while his mother fussed around him. “We’ll need to order more. We can’t use them now.” Paul gathered them all up and dropped them into the tub he righted. “What a waste. Be more careful,” Agnes berated, and if Alex had blinked, he would have missed the look of hate that crossed Paul’s features.

Paul had always been a bit strange but they always considered him harmless. Now, though, Alex wondered about him and his interest in their discussion and wondered about the look he’d thrown toward his mother.

Alex caught the tail end of the conversation as Saige wrapped up with Agnes, which wasn’t much.

“I promise,” Agnes smiled, disappearing into the back of the store.

Saige slid her arm into his and tugged him outside where she let out a deep sigh. “God, I get the creeps just being in the same room with him.”

“I’m presuming you mean Paul?”

“Yeah.” She shook her head, and said, “Forget that for now. What do you think? Does she really not know anything?”

“I missed the last bit, but she was always the best liar in town.” He wiped the sweat from his brow and frowned. “He looks familiar.” Alex pointed toward a man who was just climbing out of a black Lincoln Navigator.

“Detective Coulter Robinson,” Saige supplied. “He said he might show up around here.”