Reluctant Suspicion

Chapter One Sometimes the harsh realities of life seemed too much to bear. When circumstance tried to overwhelm her, the only thing that Molly Ashton knew to do was to keep on going. So after squirting cleaning fluid onto the bar, Molly pushed her cloth in lazy circles, wiping away her woes with the water rings. Going through the motions of tending bar was something she’d done for her whole adult life, just as her parents had done before her. Growing up here with her brother had given Molly an affinity for the place, and she was proud of it. Being that she was the only member of her family left alive, the reins were hers, and she worked hard to make Ashton’s Bar a success. But tonight her mind wasn’t on business, it was elsewhere. “Buck up, Mol,” Joel said from his regular perch on the other side of the bar, while he shook his empty glass in her direction. “Just cover the cracks with a smile?” Molly said and took his glass. Dipping below the bar, she reached for the warm metal handle on the door of the glass washer. On opening it, the flurry of scalding steam clouded her, causing her to lean back out of the mist. “Service industry and all that,” Joel said. “You’re depressing the patrons.” Molly scanned the dismal sight in front of her. Ashton’s had always been bustling on a Friday night, except they couldn’t be accused of being busy tonight. The rectangular space had stools along the L-shaped bar, a dozen tables dotted around, and couches flanking the swing-door entrance. Fewer than a dozen people occupied her workplace tonight. In addition to Joel, there were two older women at the bar. A couple of couples occupied the couches, and there was a group of women seated next to the old Wurlitzer jukebox. “If what happened to Steven wasn’t bad enough in itself, it’s affecting business,” she said. “Way to have a heart,” Joel said. “Make up your mind! One minute I need to forget it, the next you want me to shed more tears.” “It’s a shock to lose anyone, especially someone you’ve known for so long,” Joel said. “I’d known him all my life. Both you and I did. You guys used to hang out.” Cal and his g**g of high school buddies were always hanging around together, Joel and Steven spent most of their teenage years in this bar or in the park opposite where they’d play sports and ogle girls. It wasn’t a surprise that everyone knew everyone around here. There were less than a hundred families in this suburb. The city border was a dozen miles away, but it didn’t matter that they were so close to the metropolis. Their area had a small-town mentality where everyone knew everyone else’s business. “I hadn’t heard from him for years. He left town when he finished school, didn’t he? What was that? Ten years ago?” Joel said. “Longer than that now, you should know when you left high school. You think you’re younger than you really are,” Molly said, taking the glasses from the washer to dry them off and put them away. “Steven was full of ambition back then. He thought he could own the world.” “I didn’t think we’d ever see him again.” “It was only a couple of months ago that he got back into town,” she said. “I was over the moon to give him a job. I like employing people I can trust, and you can’t get more trustworthy than Steven North.” During his high school years Steven was known as being a straight-A student, though he never really had to study to get the grades. He was good with the girls, and his reputation was one of being respectful and never pressuring a girl into anything. More often than not the girls were the ones trying to move things along with him. “I’ll bet he regrets coming back now,” Joel said. Molly narrowed her eyes at him. The beer tap wasn’t far enough away from Joel for her liking tonight. Usually she considered him harmless enough, she’d known him all her life, but Molly didn’t feel like shooting the breeze with anyone right now. Joel too had left town to make his fortune; he’d gone so far as to leave the country, in fact. But it was all for naught, and he’d returned to town a couple of years ago worse off financially than he had been when he started. His trouble was that he liked to party too much, especially back then, so anything he earned was frittered away. Since he’d been back, Joel had frequented Ashton’s and was here almost every night. Tradition seemed to be that the youngsters fled town as soon as they could. But more often than not, they returned poorer. Though Molly herself didn’t fit the mold; she had never lived anywhere except right here, in this structure. The solid plastic of the tap she pulled toward her filled her heart with dread. Even with all the changes she had made to the place, it was still her father’s bar. It would always be her father’s. In an attempt to better herself, she was working through an online course to gain a business degree. But it was purely an academic exercise; she had no intention of leaving Ashton’s. Supervising this place was all she knew, and while she didn’t work behind the bar every night, she rarely left the building. “What are you going to do?” Joel asked, as Molly handed him the glass of draught beer. She accepted the bill he proffered and turned her attention to the register. “I have a “help wanted” notice up in the front window,” Molly said, watching the two women who’d been at the bar get up and leave. “I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” “It’s been up there for two days. Do you think anyone will really want to work here now?” Joel asked. “What choice do I have?” she asked and handed him his change. “I can’t staff the place myself. Vanessa is the only employee I have left.” “You should employ more women,” Joel said. “They have nothing to be afraid of.” “Neither do the men,” Molly said. “I grew up here. Thirty years I have lived in this very building, and I’ve never known there to be any trouble... not any serious trouble.” “Three men have died on your doorstep in the last six weeks.” “It’s your doorstep too,” Molly said. “Yeah, but I’m not trying to employ guys and asking them to be out after dark.” “True.” “Three victims, all local, murdered in the same way.” “I am aware of that,” Molly said. “I read the headlines too. Steven was one of my best workers. When news of his murder came out, the other two i***t barmen working for me ran scared.” “Why not employ women?” Joel asked. “Funnily enough, they will be safer.” “I need a guy here,” Molly said. “I do. It’s not exactly unheard of for things to get rowdy in here on the weekend.” “You need muscle,” Joel said. “Yeah, but look around you, Joel,” Molly said. “There are three men in the room right now, and all of them are on high alert. Even you have a suspicious glow behind your paranoid eyes.” “We’re not used to being the victims,” Joel said. “We’re used to being the perpetrators, so it’s natural for us to be on guard… Especially when you know how they died.” “No one knows how they died,” Molly said. “Everyone is just throwing their theories into the ring.” “They were all n***d, in their homes, after having enjoyed themselves.” “So?” Molly asked. “What does that have to do with anything?” “I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone that the killer is a woman.” “The press is only speculating,” Molly said. “The cops have nothing.” “We don’t know that. The newspapers say that they have nothing, but they could be closing in on her as we speak.” “Doubt it,” Molly sighed. “We know how useless cops are. They’ll be lucky to ever find the murderer.” “Murderess. Business will slow down until they get her, so will your hirings. But your dad paid this place off, right? It’s yours?” “Yeah,” Molly said. “That’s not the point.” “What is the point?” Joel asked. “Forget it,” Molly said. “I just need… someone. Anyone who can double as security.” “So anyone male,” Joel said. “A knight in shining armor.” Molly exhaled a laugh. “I’d take a squire in rags at this point. As long as he is old enough to serve liquor, I don’t care about the rest of the package.” Molly glanced over Joel’s shoulder. The women by the jukebox were arguing about money. The redhead dismissed the other two and began to move toward the bar, so Molly saw this as her cue and headed toward the fridge. The group of females weren’t ordering the house wine, so Molly made sure to keep a couple of bottles of what they were drinking chilled for them. By the time the redhead had reached the bar, Molly had popped the cork. “Perfect,” the redhead said. Molly put fresh glasses onto a tray with the wine in the middle. “We aim to please,” she said. The redhead handed her a couple of bills. Molly retreated to the register and got the change, but when she turned back, the woman had already taken the wine to the table. Molly rolled her eyes and walked around the curve in the bar. Descending the step from behind the bar to the front of it, she crossed the hardwood floor to the women’s table. Collecting up the old glasses in one hand, she didn’t interrupt as the women whooped about one of their latest conquests. “Where’s all the talent in here tonight, Mol?” Belinda asked. Belinda and her sister, Melissa, were locals as well, and she had gone to school with both of them. Belinda was larger than life. She had big hair, big eyes, and a big heart behind that big mouth. It was no surprise that her younger sister was quiet and withdrawn, especially in comparison. Though the redhead was seated with the sisters tonight, Molly was unfamiliar with her identity. She had never been in Ashton’s before. “Home scared,” Molly said, while trying to hand the redhead her change, except she was dismissed with a shake of the redhead’s hand. “One for yourself,” the redhead said. Molly looked at the cash in her hand. With what was left she could have her own bottle of wine, not that she would. But never being one to argue with a customer, she tucked the money into her apron, realizing it would cover her newspaper subscription. “You’re joking!” Belinda exclaimed. “They are all terrified, because of Steven and the others?” Molly lifted one of her shoulders and gave the table a wipe. “I suppose we would be too.” “A woman being attacked by a man is a different thing,” Belinda said. “I don’t know what the men are all so worried about.” “You’re just horny,” the redhead said. “What’s wrong with that? I’m familiar with the feeling myself,” Belinda said. Her attention was on pouring out the wine in equal measures. “This place always had talent, always. There was always something to look at, especially behind the bar. The under agers used to try their luck in here when we were at school just to get a look at Cal… remember, Mol?” “That was a long time ago,” Molly said with half a smile. “We’ll try to do better for the next time you’re in.” The squeak and rush of wind on her legs told Molly that she had another customer. She thanked her lucky stars but didn’t screech with delight because the echoing thud of the door on the doorframe came all too soon, signaling that whoever the new entrant was, they were alone. “I’ll take what you’ve got now,” Belinda said, with her eyes fixed on the latest patron. Molly lifted her head from her wiping to see all the women staring agog at the door. They were all frozen in the moment. One had her hand on her glass, the other had her drink halfway to her mouth, and the third’s glass lingered on her lips. Molly grabbed the wine bottle from Belinda before it tipped to spill and as she put it on the table, she took a quick glance over her shoulder. Whoever he was, he was a new face in here. His dark scrutiny scanned the room, and if she didn’t know any better, she would say he was looking for someone. It was only when his shadowed brow stopped on her that Molly knew she was right.