Growing Cold Series

Chapter 1

“The Turtle”

The hypnotic sound of the water as it cascaded and rushed over the rocks and made its bubbly way downhill was unforgettable. You wouldn’t expect to find the urgency and beauty in a desert. Days ago, this wash was bone dry, just a hollowed sand-filled bed—an empty dry patch of abandoned waterway where dogs ran, joggers exercised, and stargazed lovers could stroll down, hand in hand, as they gazed up at the vast blue sky. After a monsoon, however, it was a rushing, swirling sound that had not been heard in almost a year.

“Hey, Tom! Come look at this!” Deb called as she carefully made her way over to the shore. The water was raging, and she had to be careful. The wash was dangerous this time of year. It was the season’s first monsoon, and the flow was angry. Deb was in her late sixties with a dark red pixie cut. The red was obviously dyed. She had been gray since her 40s but refused to accept reality, like most middle aged women she turned to the cheap box. 

She tightened the fanny pack around her stomach, which was at least three times as large as it had been before she had two kids, who were grown and out of the house by now. Pushing her glasses up her red face, she carefully tried moving closer to the water’s edge without slipping.

Tom, her husband of 30 years, let out a soft sigh. He loved getting out into nature, but his wife was over the top with it. She knew every bird, every animal, every insect, every goddamn flower in the entire state. Since she retired, she has been reading nonstop. He used to enjoy how much her interest would grow when she found a new hobby. Back when they first started dating, she took up pottery. He thought it was great when she would give him an ashtray, even though he didn’t smoke. Or the seventh coffee mug, in which the handle would be too small for even a child’s hand to grasp. But he still pretended to have fun, just to please her. 

Tom used the sleeve of his lightweight, long-sleeved denim shirt to wipe the sweat off his forehead, and he started down the hill and headed towards the wash. His blue eyes darted back and forth across the desert sand in search of rattlesnakes. He felt almost naked wearing cargo shorts, which fell mid-thigh. He knew that if he came upon a rattler, his calf-length white socks would not stop the fangs from penetrating his skin and poisoning his entire body. 

“Tom! Come look at this turtle! It’s huge!” Deb called again, this time growing impatient. They usually ventured into the wash to find Geodes and random debris flowing down the water. Often, the monsoons flood an area and wash down patio furniture or other items that Deb sends Tom down to grab and carry home. At his age, this is not the simplest of tasks, and each time, he grows increasingly annoyed with these wash hunts. Sometimes, Tom wishes that Deb would just pick up gambling at the slot machines at the local saloon or even develop a drinking habit. Anything that would keep him from having to chase these damn-flowing bodies of water. 

“I’m coming! I’m coming as fast as I goddamn can!” Tom huffed out as he stumbled down the bank. Sweat rolled down his bald head as his glasses slid down his sunburnt nose. His eyes go from Deb to the water and back to his wife. “I don’t see any Gosh darn turtles. What are you talking about, woman?”

“Over there!” She pointed across the water to the other edge. “Don’t you see it? It’s a big ol’ Sedona Mud Turtle! Except I’ll be, it’s almost a pinkish color. What do you suppose caused that? Maybe it’s a rare albino turtle!?”

Tom pushed his glasses back up his nose with his index finger and squinted his eyes toward the vicinity she was pointing at. Eventually, his eyes focused on the object along the bank. Muddy waves crashed over it as it lay motionless, hung up against a bush of desert mistletoe. As he made his way closer, he could start to see the shape more clearly. He could barely get the words out of his mouth. “No, Deb, that’s not a turtle.” 

“What do you mean that’s not a turtle? What else would it be?” She removed her glasses and cleaned them using the bottom of her Tie-Dye wolf print tank top. 

“I think..” Tom started, then stopped as he had a moment of realization.

“You think? That’s something new! When’s the last time you had a thought in that head of yours?” Deb scoffs as she glances at Tom and then back at the turtle in the water. “I don’t have any photos of a Sedona Mud Turtle. Go down there and take a picture for me!” 

“It’s not a turtle, Deb. It’s a human body.”

“What are you talking about, you old coot? I know the difference between a turtle and a body!” Deb hollered at him. Her dark red hair was beginning to plaster against the sweat on her forehead, and her entire head was starting to look like a tomato in a microwave. 

“Oh Gosh darn it, Debra, I know the difference too! Did you grab your old readers this morning instead of your new glasses?” Tom was starting to get flustered with his wife. She was an old German woman who was stubborn and set in her ways. When she thought she was right, no one could change her mind. Tom got closer to the water’s edge, careful not to lose his footing. Grabbing a branch nearby, he poked the object and saw a grocery bag surface below the water.

“If it is a turtle, he’s got his head caught in a grocery bag!” Tom shouted back, still poking the unknown object with the stick.

“Well, maybe it’s alive, and you can save it!? Be a hero, Tom!” She shouted back, making her way down to the water’s edge. She had knee surgery last year and was still working on gaining all her strength back. She stumbled a couple of times but kept her balance. “Or it’s dead, and we can have it mounted! That would look great next to the bass on the wall!” 

 Tom reached down, grabbed the grocery bag, and gave it a yank. The bag came loose, and he fell back onto his butt. He gasped at the horror as his eyes focused on what was hidden inside the bag. What used to be beautiful blonde braids were now water-logged and soaked in mud. What Deb thought was the shell of a Sedona Mud Turtle was the back of a young girl, no older than 12 years old.

Deb’s eyes grew big as she saw the young girl’s lifeless body swish side to side with the raging current. “Oh my Lord Thomas, that’s no turtle. That’s a little girl!”

“No shit Deb, that’s what I’ve been telling you! You got the phone on you?”

Deb patted her hips, looking for pockets, before remembering her fanny pack. She unzipped it and reached inside, pushing aside small rocks, change, and makeup until she finally saw her cell phone. She pulled out her Nokia 3310 and tried dialing 911, but her hands shook so much that she dropped it. The phone slid down the bank towards the water. Luckily Tom was still sitting on his butt and was able to stop it before it slid into the water. Good old reliable Tom, Deb thought.

Tom dialed and waited for the operator to answer.

“911. Do you need Police, Fire, or Ambulance?” A young, tired voice asked.

“Probably just police and a coroner,” Tom responded, slowly pushing himself back onto his feet. He ran a hand over his bald head and gazed at the body floating in the water.

“Police and Coroner? What is the emergency?” The dispatcher asked. 

“My wife, Deb, and I were down here by the wash off of Hwy 93 by the Bottling Company, and we found the body of a young girl. My wife thought it was a turtle, but I’ve seen too many episodes of CSI to be fooled like that. It’s a young girl, and she’s deader than sin.” Tom turns his attention to Deb. “Hey Hun, you think this is that missing girl they’ve been looking for? What’s her name, Ellie? Belle Oh Christ, save us all. 

“Nelsa, dear. The little girl’s name was Nelsa. No need to bring the Lord’s name into this.” Deb responded, folding her arms across her chest. 

“That’s it!” He turns his attention back to the 911 Dispatcher. “I think we found that Nelsa girl. Is there a reward?”

By the time Tom finished asking a few more questions, several police squads and a fire truck had arrived on the scene. Firefighters used the boom ladder to get close to the water’s edge and retrieve the young girl’s body. They laid her gently on an open body bag as Detective Carlos Shrader knelt beside her. He wore a dark gray suit that hid his athletic form. At 25, he was one of the youngest detectives on the force, but he was by far one of the best. He pulled out his voice recorder and began taking notes.

“Victim appears to be a caucasian female between the ages of 10 and 12. Roughly 50-60 inches tall, I’d guess about 70-90 lbs. Blonde hair in pigtails, nude except for one shoe. The couple that found her noted that she originally had a black grocery bag around her head. Her face has extensive injuries. It appears she had been beaten severely, with numerous slashes across her face and chest.” He rolls her slightly to look at her back, then raises her arms and inspects them. 

“Appears to be scratches along her back, perhaps drag marks. She also has livor mortis on her back, which tells me she was dead on her back for some time. The skin has not begun to soften or wrinkle. There is no maceration, which tells me she has not been in the water for a long time. There appears to be two letters carved into the girl’s right hand. The letter H and the letter I appear to spell “HI” when the hand is raised upright into the air.”

He stops and takes a long, slow breath, accepting the gravity of what he is inspecting. This was, without doubt, the missing 10-year-old girl from town. The girl that most of the town had spent the past few days searching for until the monsoon started. The rain got so heavy that the chief had to call off the search party, much to the family’s anger. Especially the girl’s older brother. What was his name? Nate? He had to be physically restrained by officers until his parents could calm him down. They had to threaten him with being locked up, which was a little silly, considering he was still a minor. But it got him to settle down and accept that the search was over until the rain had stopped. 

By this point, the coroner had arrived, walked up to Carlos, knelt beside him, and inspected the girl himself. “What are you thinking, Carlos?”

“In my opinion, it’s homicide. No 10-year-old girl intentionally slices her face up, beats herself up, strips naked, drags herself down to a raging river, carves ‘HI’ into her own hand, and then places a bag over her face and drowns herself. But you’re the coroner, so I’ll let you write your report.” He stands and adjusts his suit coat. The coroner nods softly and slowly zips the body bag closed. He motions for two officers to lift her onto a gurney and wheel her off to transport. 

Carlos heads to his cruiser and sits in the driver’s seat with the door open. His left foot is still resting on the ground, and his dress shoes are already covered in white dust from the desert sand. He grabs his police radio and hits the talk button. “Chief, this is Detective Shrader. I’m down at the wash. Do you have a copy?”

The radio squawks, and the chief responds. “Copy that; what do you have down there?”

“It’s the Taylor girl, the one that’s been missing. It looks bad, Chief. Someone roughed her up really bad before they disposed of her. There’s a monster out there.” He let those last words hang in the air, his thumb still holding the talk button. “Who’s going to tell the family?”

There was a moment of silence before the radio squeaked. “It’s your case now, Detective. I’m afraid you’ll be the bearer of bad news. Over and out.”

The silence went dead as Carlos let the mic drop onto the floor. He leaned back against his seat and leaned against the headrest. The sun started to set behind the red rock formations in the distance. It glowed orange and red behind the perfectly, white clouds. The sound of the babbling water churning down the wash almost drowns out the thoughts racing through his head. Who could have murdered such a girl? Would he kill again before he was caught? How was he going to tell the family? 

Chapter 2

“Leaving on a Jet Plane”

“On next week’s episode, we’ll explore who Nelsa ‘Nellie’ Taylor was and what happened the night she was murdered back in 2003. If you knew Nellie or have any tips you’d like to leave, find me on Facebook and send me a message. I’ll gladly include you on the podcast. This has been the Growing Cold podcast, and I’m your host, Sadie Koop. Until next week, thank you for listening!” The upbeat female voice fades into the outro music as the middle-aged woman between Nathan and Sadie hits the stop button and pulls the earbuds from her ears.

“Oh, my God, I’m so excited for this season!” Claire exclaims. Nathan only knows her name because she has told Sadie about twelve times since the plane took off from Portland. She is a short, stocky woman who decided that 40 was a good age to dye the underside of her blonde hair purple. He wondered what the odds were that not only were they split up by a complete stranger on the plane, but that the stranger was also a huge Growing Cold Podcast fan. 

“So this Elsa girl that was murdered, how did you hear about her?” 

“Nelsa. Her name was Nelsa.” Nathan interjects without giving her as much as a sideways glance. His eyes fixed down on the crossword puzzle that he had almost completed. Claire completely ignores him, as she did the entire flight.

“Well, those details are reserved for next week’s episode.” Sadie smiles, obviously overjoyed by talking to a fan. 

“Poopie!” The grown woman pouts. “Come on, tell me! I won’t tell a soul, I promise.”

Sadie bites her lip as if she’s really exploring her options. After a moment, that warm, infectious smile comes back out.

“Ok, ok. So Nellie was Nathan’s little sister.” Sadie casually points to Nathan, who is crammed against the window. 

“That’s so crazy! Nathan from last season, right? The hunky Private Investigator?” Claire doesn’t even put two and two together. She is so lost in the conversation with Sadie that she doesn’t notice her point at Nathan or even notice Nathan at all, for that matter. “What’s he up to these days? Is he going to help you in the investigation? Cause I think you would be just fine without him too! He was kind of a jerk and seemed like a meathead.”

Nathan can’t help but roll his eyes. Halfway through the eye-roll, however, he feels a knee shove into the back of his seat again. He grimaces and pushes back on the seat. This was the eighth time in the two hours they’d been in the air that the wildebeest seated behind them had pushed his bulbous knees into the back of Nathan’s seat. He tries to fill in the final word on his crossword puzzle, and the man-beast behind him, knees his seat so hard that Nathan’s pencil shoots across the page. He sighed, calmly closed the crossword puzzle book, and placed it with his pencil on his lap. He folds his hands over them and closes his eyes, hoping to find a bit of zen before they land.

Before Sadie can respond to Claire’s comment and before Nathan can take a full breath of peaceful air, a large beep blasts across the plane, followed by a staticky voice.

“Good afternoon, folks. This is your captain speaking. It’s currently 11:32 a.m. in beautiful Arizona. We are set to land shortly, so please put away all devices and fasten your seatbelts. Thank you for flying Frontier Airlines.” Another large beep plays as the captain’s message ends. The flight attendants collect all glasses and snack wrappers before they ensure everyone has their seatbelts on.

“We are almost there, Nathan!” Sadie beams with excitement. Nathan, still with his eyes closed, nods softly.

“Yes indeed. Almost there.”

“Aren’t you excited to be home? See your folks! Your old friends and shit?” Sadie leans across Claire and shakes Nathan’s leg. He opens his eyes and looks over at her.

“Not really. I left Plainview for a reason. I talk to my folks here and there, but not often. And I don’t have any old friends. I don’t have any friends, as a matter of fact.”

Sadie raises an eyebrow at him. “No friends, you say? Well, what am I?”

Nathan shrugs playfully. “I don’t know. Some hot, crazy podcast chick that keeps following me around. I guess, technically, you are my stalker.”

Sadie laughs and smacks his chest. “Still an ass!” 

Nathan chuckles and looks out the window. The earth was rapidly approaching as the plane made its descent. The tires skidded across the runway pavement as the plane bounced a few times before slowing, eventually coming to a stop. Sadie stretched as she waited for the go-ahead from the flight attendants to stand and grab her carry-on from the overhead compartment. As they stood and grabbed their belongings, the man from behind Nathan pushed past them, knocking Sadie into Claire’s lap. He was in his early 20s and a mountain of a man. He had to crouch to walk in the airplane and had to be pushing 300 lbs of steroid-infested muscle. His head was shaved, and he had large tribal tattoos over his giant arms. 

“What the fuck!” Sadie shouted as she fell onto Claire’s lap. Nathan’s steel blue eyes coldly glared at the man as he pushed through the people calmly waiting to deboard the plane. In his mind, he was more important than everyone else and entitled to skip the wait. 

Nathan helped Sadie back to her feet and pulled down her carry-on for her and his own. They calmly exited the plane and down the terminal to the baggage claim area. They stood off to the side near the end of the conveyor belt, watching suitcase after suitcase rotate past them. Nathan glanced down towards the front of the conveyor belt and saw the hulking pro wrestler wanna-be shove past an elderly couple to grab his suitcase. The giant then calmly wheeled his bag to the bathroom and disappeared inside. 

“Grab my suitcase if you see it, I gotta go piss real quick.” Nathan leaned and whispered to Sadie.

“What? Are you kidding? You really gotta piss that bad?” Sadie looked up at him, a little surprised. Nathan didn’t respond. He just made his way over to the bathroom and calmly entered.

He saw four empty sinks, three unoccupied urinals, and two bathroom stalls. The door to the single stall was wide open, and the handicapped stall was closed and locked. He could see the size 15 combat boots underneath the door. Nathan went back to the entrance and locked the deadbolt. He slightly twisted his head, and his neck popped as he walked to the handicap stall. He gave it a gentle knock. A loud, deep voice echoed out from behind it.

“Are you fucking stupid? It’s occupied!”

Nathan calmly knocked again. The voice boomed out again; Nathan could imagine the veins on the man’s neck popping out.

“What are you, retarded or some sort of homo? Use the other stall!”

Hearing that, Nathan brought his boot up and kicked in the door, which bounced off the behemoth’s knees. Nathan threw his shoulder into the door, knocked it off the hinges, and landed directly on the man. He let out a guttural scream of rage as he pushed up on the door, lifting it and Nathan into the air. Nathan grabbed the top and pulled himself up, staring into the man’s bloodshot brown eyes. Nathan smiled, which made the man hulk pout even more. Nathan responded by bringing the palm of his hand down to the man’s nose. A fountain of blood started to gush out and spill onto the dirty, white tile floor. .

The man shoved Nathan and the door out of the stall and onto the floor. Nathan skidded to a stop on his side just in time to see the man charging him like a bull. Nathan rolled to the side and scissored his legs around the man’s legs, tripping him in the process. His head bounced off the hard porcelain sink, and he got to the ground with a sickening thud. He lay there face down with blood pooling around his head. Nathan rolled him onto his side and checked for a pulse. He was still breathing and very much alive. He would live to be an asshole another day. Nathan untied the man’s boot laces so that when someone walked in, they would just assume he had too much to drink, took a shit, and then tripped on his own lace and cracked his face on the sink. 

Nathan looked at his reflection in the mirror and washed the blood from his hand. He took one last look at the pantless gargoyle lying in a fetal position on the bathroom floor in a pool of his own blood. He unlocked the door and carefully poked his head out. He quietly slipped out of the bathroom as silently as he entered and headed over to Sadie, who was waiting with their luggage, talking to a few random strangers. As he approached, he saw that she was signing their autographs. He waited patiently off to the side until she was done. As the people went on their way, she smirked at him.

“Jesus, you were in there a long time! Hopefully, you gave a courtesy flush!”

Nathan smiled and shook his head. “Whatever. You make some new friends?”

“Friends? I’m not so sure. Fans? Absolutely! They recognized my voice. How crazy is that! Random people are recognizing my voice now!” She beamed proudly. Honestly, Nathan was proud of her as well. He smiles. 

“You deserve it. Come on, let’s get our rental car.”

They approached the rental car booth and checked in. A pimple-faced teenager who was probably barely able to drive took down their information. He gave them a ticket with a number on it and told them to wait outside. Their car would be there in a few moments. Nathan thanked him, and they headed outside.

The hot Phoenix air hit Sadie in the face like a baseball bat, sucking the air from her lungs and stinging her eyes. 

“Holy fuck balls! It’s hot as hell out!” She lifted her thick, wavy brown hair off the back of her neck. She regretted wearing black jeans, a leather motorcycle jacket, and a long-sleeved Motorhead shirt. Nathan grew up in this heat and had thought ahead. He was wearing blue jeans and a light gray T-shirt. She thought he was crazy since it was only 45 degrees when they left Portland. “Is it always like this?”

“No, this is actually kind of mild. It’s going to get a lot hotter over the next few days. But that’s not the worst part.” He looked around for the rental car.

Sadie removed her motorcycle jacket, pulled up her shirt, tied it off as a mid-drift below her bra, and rolled up her sleeves. “How can it get any worse than 110 degrees?”

“Monsoon season starts soon.” Nathan ran his fingers through his dark blonde hair, which had grown out some since that fateful encounter with Sheriff Dalton. 

“Monsoon season? Are you kidding me?” Sadie fans herself as the rental car pulls up. The valet hands Nathan the keys, and Nathan, in turn, hands him a tip. They climb in, and Sadie instantly cranks up the air conditioner. “You didn’t say anything about monsoons! I thought that only happened in, like, Thailand or whatever.”

Nathan pulls away from the curb and begins driving with a smile. “Just remember, we could be driving in a blizzard with subzero temperatures headed to Fargo right now.”

“Ugh.. fucking Fargo.” Sadie groaned. “I guess you’re right. How long until we get to Plainview?”

“A couple hours.”

“Fuck my life. Two hours at an airport. Two hours on a plane. Now two hours in a car. I just want to shower and enjoy a tall, cold alcoholic beverage.” 

Nathan smiles and places a hand on her thigh. “Want to play, ‘I spy with my little eye’?”

Sadie rolls her eyes and laughs. “You are such a dork. I love it!”

Chapter 3

“Raising Arizona”

Sadie chewed on her lower lip and fingernails as she stared out the passenger window. Since they left Phoenix, the view had been about the same. The same barren desert landscape as far as the eye could see. There were a few red rock formations in the distance, a cactus here or there, and the wide open blue sky with not a cloud to be found. They never did play the ‘I Spy’ game. They just sat in silence as they drove. Eventually, Nathan broke the silence. “So, you know a lot about me. Why do I hardly know anything about you?”

Sadie shrugged, still looking off into the distance, lost in thought. “I don’t know. Maybe because you never asked?”

Nathan gave her thigh a soft squeeze with a smile. “Ok then, tell me about yourself.”

Sadie placed her hand over his and squeezed it as well. “What do you want to know?”

Nathan chuckled. “You’re going to make me pull out every detail, aren’t you? Okay, then. Where did you grow up?”

“I grew up near Toledo, Ohio.”

“Wait, so you gave me so much shit when you thought I grew up in Minnesota, and yet you grew up damn near next door to Minnesota?” He said in a somewhat playful manner.

“Well yeah, it’s fucking cold there, and I hate the cold. That’s one of the reasons I left.”

“So what was it like growing up in Toledo? That’s kind of a big city, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not Detroit, but it’s also not like Cedar Point.” Nathan asked.

“No, it’s definitely not Cedar Point, but it is very close to Detroit. I actually grew up on my parents farm.” Sadie says casually.

“No way!” Nathan looks at her in disbelief. “You are not a farm girl!”

Sadie laughs and turns to rest her back against the passenger window, drawing her legs up in a crisscross position on the seat. “Hey now, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you were this big-shot podcaster from Portland. You have this big-city attitude. You don’t take any shit. That doesn’t seem like a farm girl to me.”

Sadie laughs again and flips her hair back. “Oh, you read all those Farmer’s Daughter stories in Playboy when you were a kid, eh? No, I’m definitely not that kind of farm girl!”

Nathan laughs, “That’s not what I meant. So you know how to tend to fields, milk cows, and stuff like that? Do you have a license to drive a tracor?”

“You betcha!” Sadie says proudly. You didn’t think you were the only person in the world who could grow a garden, did you? By the way, your garden back at your cabin was not very good. I was going to give you some pointers, but then your cabin burned down. So, yeah.”

“Oh, whatever.” Nathan shook his head. So what about your family? Any siblings?”

“Yeah. I have two brothers. I haven’t spoken to them in a while, though. They were pretty mad at me.”

“Why’s that? Because you gave up the farm flannel for a Portland hipster flannel?”

Sadie smacks his arm hard, and he laughs and rubs the area she hit. “No, asshole. After I turned 18, I really wanted to experience life. I loved the farm and my family, but that’s all I knew. We were all homeschooled, so I didn’t have any friends. I just had the cows, chickens, pigs, my mom and dad, and my brothers. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to live!”

She looked down at her hands and started to frigid with her fingers.”So when I turned 18, I moved out. I had saved up some money from my chores. We never had real jobs; we just earned a little bit for doing extra things around the farm. So I couldn’t afford a very big apartment or even a small one in a decent part of town. The only place I could afford was a little studio apartment near downtown.

“Sounds like college life to me. Was it just one big hippy community?” Nathan smiles at his own joke, speeding up to pass a semi that was doing 15 mph under the speed limit.

“No, it’s actually a really bad part of town. It’s like Skid Row. The city tried to gentrify it, but they had piss poor planning. They took all these run-down buildings and just threw a coat of paint on them, expecting everything to be better. But it wasn’t. The homeless people ran that area. Most buildings were empty, which meant they were full of squatters. I paid $1500 a month for a 200-square-foot studio apartment, and I was the only one in the building who actually paid rent. The rest were junkies, pimps, prostitutes, and fucking crazy ass people. And yanno what really sucked? My apartment didn’t have a kitchen or a bathroom. The kitchen was a common area that I had to share with everyone. Same with the bathroom. Have you ever tried to shower in a building filled with degenerates and psychopaths? It was hell. Guess what got me by and kept me going.” She stared at him with her almost shaped hazel eyes.

Nathan looked at her solemnly. “No, what?”

“I turned to drugs. Coke, mostly. When you spend all your time with drug addicts, eventually, you become one yourself. So I developed a really bad cocaine habit, and I almost died a few times.” She looked away from him, ashamed of her past. He reached over and took her hand firmly in his and pulled it to him, kissing the back of it softly.

“Everyone has demons in their past. I know I do. I don’t judge you or fault you. How did you manage to kick the habit?”

“I was broke. I literally had nothing left. I sold all my belongings. I was so desperate for money that I was almost ready to start doing deplorable things. The city came and condemned my building. They didn’t even realize I had a lease or was paying rent. Not that it mattered, considering I was about 6 months behind on my payments. Anyways, the cops came and kicked us all out. One of the pimps there, he called himself T-Bone. The crazy asshole wore 8 pagers on his belt, even though they didn’t work. No one wore pagers anymore at this point, but he did!” She laughed as a tear rolled down her cheek.

“He offered to let me come stay with him and his girls at this crack house a few blocks down. I had a decision to make. There were two roads in front of me. Either I go with this pimp to a crack house and start turning tricks to support my drug habit, or I admit defeat and run back to Mommy and Daddy with my tail between my legs.”

“There is no shame in admitting defeat,” Nathan spoke softly.

“Well, I sure as fuck felt shame going back home. My brothers locked me in my room for a week as I went through withdrawal. Fuck! That was so rough. But yanno what was more rough than that? The look of disappointment in my parent’s eyes. It broke my heart because I knew I broke their heart. So after I got cleaned up, I knew I had to do something to redeem myself.”

“And that’s how you got into podcasting?”

“Long story short, yes. I started doing a little research here and there and started trying to help find missing people. Eventually, I got the podcast up and running. The ad revenue was enough for me to move to Portland and get a decent apartment.” Sadie watches the landscape move outside the window.

“Why did you pick Portland?” Nathan asks.

“For one, it was the furthest I could go west without falling into the fucking ocean.” She laughs. “Also, because of Cedar Point being right next door. Near Toledo is a Cedar Point National Park and Amusement Park. It made me feel like I was still kind of at home without being at home.”

Nathan gave her a soft smile.

“Anyways. Eventually, I saved up and got the condo we are staying at now. My parents never said it, but I feel like they are a little proud of me now.” Sadie continued.

“Well, they should be proud of you! You helped bring down a serial killer sheriff and a child-molesting school coach. You brought real change, and you brought it in a real good way.” Nathan thumps his hand on the steering wheel to drive home his point. Sadie shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess. I spoke to my oldest brother last night. First time since that whole Cedar Point thing went down. He was pretty blown away. He didn’t think I had it in me.” She chuckled. “I guess I’ll always just be his ‘lil sis.”

“Well, to the millions of people who listen to your podcast and all the lives you affect, you are a hero.” Nathan gives her a soft smile before moving his eyes back to the road.

Sadie looks at him momentarily, then suddenly leans over the center console and throws her arms around him in a giant hug, almost causing him to swerve across the center line. 

“I fuckin love you!” She plants a big kiss on his cheek before plopping back in the passenger seat. Her cheeks slowly turned a soft shade of red. That was the first time she had said those words to him. “I mean… “

Nathan turns to her with a smile and raises his hand to rest behind her neck. He pulls her in and kisses her softly on the lips, “I love you, too.” 

The romantic yet awkward silence was quickly broken by the sound of Sadie’s phone ringing. She slid it from her pocket and squealed as she saw the caller I.D., her finger quickly swiping the screen to answer the video call.

“RUTH!” She exclaimed as the familiar face of her dear friend Ruth appeared on the screen. 

“SADIE!” Ruth exclaimed back with the same excitement. “I see the plane didn’t crash! I was starting to worry. You said you would call me when you got to Plainview!”

“We aren’t there yet, Ruth. It’s a long, boring two-hour car ride from Phoenix.” She smiles as she stares at the screen. She holds the phone up to Nathan. “Say hi, Nate!”

Nathan smiles and turns to the phone. “Hey, Ruth! How are my boys?”

Ruth is quickly trampled on the couch by two large Rottweilers. “I think they recognized your voice! Good Lord dogs! Get off my damn couch!”

Nathan chuckles as he watches the chaos. “Tango! Cash! Sit!” He gives a sharp whistle, and the dogs instantly sit and cock their heads at the phone. 

“Oh sweet baby Jesus on a loaf of bread, you need to teach me all these damn commands if you ever want me to watch these damn dogs again, now, you hear me?” Ruth barked at Nathan.

“Yes, ma’am,” Nathan smirked, knowing that word would get a rise out of her.

“I told you not to call me Ma’am! You little jackhole!”

Sadie laughs and moves the phone back. “Oh, Ruth, please never change.”

“I haven’t changed in all my life; I ain’t gonna start now. So, how much longer before you all get to town?”

Sadie shrugs. “Not sure, hopefully soon. I gotta piss like a racehorse.”

Nathan points out the front windshield. “Not too much longer now. Look, you can see the bottling factory in the distance. That’s at the very south end of town.”

“Sweet!” Sadie looked out the window then back to her phone. “I’ll shoot you a video call a little later, ok Ruth? Give the boys lots of hugs and kisses for us!”

“I ain’t kissing those dogs, they be licking their buttholes all day long with those mouths!” Ruth scrunched up her nose in disgust. Sadie and Nathan both laughed.

“Ok, Ruth, We’ll talk soon. Take care!”

“You too, hun!” Ruth said before hanging up.

“So what’s the deal with this random ass giant bottling factory in the middle of the desert?” Sadie asked as she slowly stretched, being seated for hours in a plane and then a car was starting to get to her.

“Well, Plainview used to be a huge mining town. They were mining gold handover fist up until the mid-1940s. Then, in 1946, a random fire started deep inside one of the mines. No one could ever tell if it was intentional or accidental, but regardless. It caused one of the supporting walls to collapse, which allowed water from a nearby natural spring to burst into the mine. It flooded the entire operation and killed a good dozen or so workers. The mine lay dormant for a good ten years. Then, in 1956, Peter Goldberg came into town and bought the entire mine. He turned it into a bottling factory. They take water from the spring, filter it, bottle it, and sell it to rich white people in L.A. for 10 bucks a bottle. That company literally saved this city. I think almost everyone either works there or has worked there at some point in their lives. It’s gotten so big it takes up the entire south end of town. “

“Wow, that’s crazy! Why do they call it Plainview?” Sadie asked, taking in the surroundings as they pulled into town. 

“From what I was told, it’s because they didn’t try to hide the mine from anyone. A lot of times, prospectors would try to hide the fact that they were pulling gold from a mine. Not here, though; they were pulling gold out right in plain view. Hence the name.”

“Fuck, that’s cool. Much better than Red Rock Springs or something generic like that.”

“Yeah, I guess.” 

As they approached the town, Sadie took in the sights. The bottling plant was a large, six-story mirrored building that must have taken up 1200 acres. She wondered where exactly the well was and how they brought the water up. As they drove past that, they started to enter the downtown area. “This place looks like something out of Tombstone!” Sadie said in awe as she looked out the window. Plainview still had that Wild West feel to it, with an old saloon, a courthouse, and a jail from the 1800s.

“Well, Tombstone is in Arizona. Lots of cowboy stories from around here. I’m sure a few of the locals will be happy to claim that their great-great-grandpa was the one who killed Billy the Kid. But most of them are all just full of shit.” Nathan slowed the car and pulled into a parking lot in front of a wide two-story building with a huge wrap-around porch on the ground level and a matching porch on the second floor. 

Nathan put the car in park and turned off the engine. “I think we are here.”

Sadie read the big sign that hung above the door. “Birdie’s Bordello, Bed and Breakfast. No fuckin way! This is the coolest hotel I’ve ever stayed at.”

“Remember,” Nathan corrected. “It’s not a hotel; it’s a Bed and Breakfast.”

“Well,” Sadie turned to him, confused. “What the fuck is a Bordello?”

Nathan smiled. “A Brothel”