DAILY ENTRY 15
Post Holiday Blues
It’s not even midday, but Melinda Haywood is already nursing a neat Scotch with trembling hands as she stands outside her son’s bedroom door. Breathing deeply, she knocks, then enters without waiting for an answer. Leon is lying on the bed, silently staring up at the ceiling. This is what he has done - all he has done - since turning up on Christmas morning, almost a week after going missing just before the town festival. He won’t speak to anyone, not her, not the police…
…but, every now and then, he starts muttering under his breath, words that Melinda can’t understand. Where has Leon been and what has happened to make him like this? Melinda takes her son’s hand in hers and softly begins to cry.
Meanwhile, the Cougar Ridge Sheriff’s Department still has a number of open cases to deal with, not least being the discovery of Hank Thomasini’s corpse in a makeshift grave - one of a number - out in the Park forests. Orville Hayward and Shane McNamara are also missing since before Christmas, and there is also mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Jack Nero, who apparently hasn’t been seen or heard from since travelling to Washington two weeks ago. There is a connection between all these men - and Conrad Masterson and Ted Rosenberger believe they know what it is.
Sharing a bottle of wine and a box of fine cigars in Rosenberger’s office, the two old friends have lapsed into a grim and pensive silence, a name hanging in the smoky air between them like a ghost… William Dale.
“Call Walt and Jeremiah,” Conrad finally whispers. “It appears that certain chickens have come home to roost.”
And across town, as Gina Rose exits the Red Rose to head out for lunch, she is thinking of Cole Jackson and his daughter, and how her life has turned upside down this past week. But it isn’t over yet. Gina is suddenly stopped in her tracks when she sees a familiar car parked up in the street. Her blood runs cold as a handsome man emerges, a languid smile on his face.
“Hey, Gigi,” Ramon Bertolli murmurs, producing a bouquet of roses - appropriately enough - from behind his back. “I missed you…”