The Another Try Collection

CHAPTER FIVE-3

Maddie woke the next morning and was surprised to realize she’d managed to get some sleep. Then she walked into the bathroom, saw the empty wine bottle on the counter, and remembered why restful sleep had come so easily.

I also, vaguely, remember dispensing with the glass at some point and finishing off the bottle directly...

“Yeah. Can’t do that again,” she murmured, as her head began to throb. “The aftermath isn’t worth it.”

She took as hot a shower as she could stand, then dressed casually for the morning meal at her parents’ house she’d promised she would attend.

Moving swiftly down the staircase, she scooped up her purse and keys, and headed toward the garage before she remembered she’d parked her car in the half-circle drive in front of the house.

The moment she opened the door, Maddie was greeted with several flashbulbs going off and by her count at least eight microphones thrust rudely in her face. A barrage of questions shouted at her from the various national news media representatives rolled over her like a tsunami.

Overwhelmed, she immediately stepped backward into the safety of her home, closing and then deadbolting the front door with shaking hands.

Maddie backed away from the furor on her front lawn, eyes wide, breaths coming in gasps. When the house phone began to ring, she yelped, clutching her chest.

She moved back upstairs, away from the more brazen reporters and their cameramen now daring to peek in through the first-floor windows and called Detective Kenney from her cell phone.

“Please help me,” she gasped. “There’s reporters all over the place. I can’t even leave my house.”

“What?”

Maddie repeated what she’d said.

“Hang tight, Mrs. Nibless, we’re on the way.”

She hung up and called her parents’ house.

“Mom,” Maddie said, “there’s people – “

“All over your front yard, too?” Deborah replied. “Same thing over here, honey. Something about Eric must have made the news. Your dad’s flipping channels right now, trying to figure out what the hell’s going on.”

“I called Detective Kenney. He said he’s on his way.”

“Good thinking, hon. Maybe the police can get them to disperse.”

“I’m stuck here until they’re gone, Mom. I didn’t put my car in the garage yesterday, I left it in the driveway. I couldn’t even see it from the front door because of all the people outside. No way I want to try to shove my way to it.”

Downstairs, the phone just off the kitchen continued to ring non-stop. Then Maddie noticed multiple unknown numbers ringing into her cell phone, disrupting her ability to hear what Deborah was saying.

“Mom. I’ve got call after call after call beeping in. I need to get off my phone. I will call you back when this is over, okay?”

“Maddie,” Deborah said, and it was strained. “Your dad found something. Channel five. You might want to see this.”

Maddie hung up the phone and switched on the television in the master bedroom. Then her knees buckled, and she slumped down, hand over her mouth in disbelief, her back resting against the footboard, as she watched and heard some of Eric Nibless’ darkest secrets being openly discussed on a nationally televised newscast.