Page 49 of One Vote for Murder
Royce
Early the next morning, Max came to the station to give his full statement. That brief time spent with him was the only nice part of my morning. As I kissed him goodbye and went back to my office, the stress of my conversation yesterday with Penelope weighed on me. I hadn’t mentioned that the recall election was going ahead to Max yet. I’d wanted to pretend for one more day that life was normal.
Midmorning, ignoring things became impossible. A flood of calls started coming in from concerned citizens, venting about theTown Tattlerarticle. The people who took the time to call were furious on my behalf about the idea of a special election. Their concern made me feel a little better. Appreciated. Maybe even hopeful.
By late morning, I desperately needed to get out of the station. I wanted to think about something other than whether or not my job was in jeopardy. The citizens who’d called had all been well-meaning, but it was depressing to think I might not be sheriff anymore if Michael Raiden got his way. Even though a lot of people had called to support me, Michael had managed to get enough signatures to move forward with his recall election. That was a demoralizing fact. Perhaps I’d been fooling myself all theseyears, and I wasn’t actually as popular with the citizens of Rainy Dale as I’d thought I was.
To cheer myself up, I decided to grab a midmorning snack at the Pancake Palace They had a big gooey cinnamon roll that I absolutely loved. They were addicting, and I rarely ate them because they were most likely five million calories. Today though, I felt like I deserved a treat.
As I approached the restaurant, I saw Kyle and Pervis Segrott out in front, handing out fliers. The Segrott brothers were identical twins in their midtwenties. They were tall and thin, with red hair and light blue eyes. I rarely saw one without the other.
Pervis was the quieter of the two, and when he saw me approaching, he whispered something to Kyle. They both turned to face me as I neared, looking like sheepish bookends.
“Hello, guys,” I said.
“Sheriff,” Kyle rasped, tucking the stack of fliers he held behind his back. “How are you on this fine day?”
Pervis didn’t address me; he simply gave a nervous smile.
“I’m doing just fine, Kyle.” I stopped in front of them, wondering why they were acting so squirrelly. I shifted my gaze to Pervis, who was staring at me apprehensively. “How are you, Pervis?”
“Fine,” he mumbled. “I’m doingjustfine.”
I gestured to the fliers. “What’s that you’re handing out?”
“Oh, nothing.” Kyle smiled stiffly.
I narrowed my eyes. “Nothing?”
“Nope.” Kyle shifted uneasily.
Pervis stared at his feet as if trying to see his toes through his shoes.
“Why do I feel like you’re hiding something from me?” I asked.
Slumping, Kyle groaned. “We were going to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Kyle moaned, “This isn’t how we wanted you to find out, Sheriff Callum.”
“No, it surely wasn’t,” muttered Pervis, still staring at his shoes. “I definitely told Kyle we should go to you first. But no, he said we’d do it after we handed out all the fliers. Now we have this awkward situation all because he wouldn’t listen.”
“Oh, hush.” Kyle glowered.
“Come on. Let me see what the big deal is.” I took the leaflet Kyle grudgingly handed me, and I read it aloud. “Vote for Kyle Segrott for sheriff of Rainy Dale.” I glanced up, noticing both twins’ cheeks were beet red. “You’re running for sheriff, Kyle?”
“It… it’s nothing against you personally, Sheriff. S… surely you understand?” Kyle stammered.
I narrowed my eyes. “I wasn’t aware the special election had been officially announced yet.”
Kyle shrugged. “TheTown Tattlerimplied it was moving forward. We knew it would though. Michael Raiden is behind it, and he gets what he wants.”
I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Michael Raiden did seem to be running things around here lately.
“We wanted to get ahead of the curve,” Pervis said gruffly. “The sooner we get Kyle’s name out there, the better. Name recognition is key to winning any election.”
“Right,” I muttered.
