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pictures, wall-hangings were straight out of the Walmart “art” section, the furniture was leather, but looked out of place. Dee Dee clearly made good money and had no idea what to do with it.
    “It’s not what you think,” Charlie said.
    “I can’t believe this. I thought you were different, but you’re just like all the other assholes around here. You talk some big game and act like some out-of-town smooth-talker, but as soon as you get in my pants, you toss me aside like I’m a fucking piece of shit.” In the throes of her discontent, Dee Dee looked to be having a hell of a time getting her shirt straight.
    In an effort to defuse things before Dee Dee stomped out without giving him a chance to explain, Charlie slid forward to the foot of the bed as Dee Dee stomped back and forth between he and the master bathroom, arm still not fully through her shirt sleeve. He still had his wallet in hand. “Dee,” he said, and pulled a picture out of his wallet, “have you ever seen this girl before?”
    Dee Dee stopped and stared at Charlie, then cocked her head like a confused puppy, her tantrum derailed. It seemed she was trying to figure out if she should still be mad or if Charlie was playing some kind of a mind game. Her hand reached forward toward Charlie’s wallet, and she snatched the picture of the young brunette, wearing a big grin and hugging an oversized teddy bear. The girl in the photo was very pretty, and it looked like she’d been laughing just before the photo was snapped. “Hmm. I don’t recognize her,” Dee Dee said. “She’s cute. Is that why you came into the club? Are you looking for a dancer you know or something?”
    Charlie stood up and pulled his pants on. “Honestly? I really can’t say what she’s doing nowadays. Last I heard she was in the area. I haven’t seen her in a while and figured it was about time we caught up.”
    Dee Dee looked him over, and her eyes dropped in shameful reproach. “Oh my God… I’m so, so sorry, Charlie. I just—”
    Charlie stepped close to her and put a finger to her lips, before laying a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Don’t worry about it.” He smiled and waited for Dee Dee’s face to lighten. “Just lead me to those waffles you were telling me about.”
     
     
     
     

Chapter 3
     
    Sergeant Perez preferred to eat at the Daily Diner around noon or one in the afternoon, the least busy time of day, when the first-shifters were already busy at work and the third-shifters were fast asleep in their beds or passed out. Bluff Falls was more or less dead from noon to five, and Perez liked to take advantage of that, forgoing his usual lunch and dinner of gas station food for a hamburger or maybe breakfast for lunch. While he still ate his morning breakfast there on occasion, he wasn’t a fan. It wasn’t so much that the roughnecks were bad company, as most of the guys in the diner for breakfast were either on their way to work or to bed, but they were always so dirty; the whole town seemed to be constantly covered in a thin layer of filth, beneath the surface and always there. Perez hated that the oil and mud lingered under everyone’s nails, even if the rest of them looked presentable. He felt the grime in his bones.
    Perez sat alone at the counter and read through the local paper, assuming someone would break through his peace and quiet any minute. As usual, that unpardonable interruption came in the form of his partner, the ever-present Sergeant Nikki Hamill, sunglasses still on indoors. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun on the back of her head, she wore a powder blue button up shirt for a change, and she had a bounce in her step. She was a morning, noon and nighttime person, if there was such a thing. Her energy annoyed Perez, particularly since she was always telling him that he needed to exercise more or that they should go on a run together in the mornings. He generally looked at his partner, fifteen years his junior, with a patient