Pin Cushions

Chapter Nine

Waverly and I walked into the library downtown, the sound of cars honking and people shouting effectively being cut off as the door shut behind me. The sound of silence filled my ears as I looked around, a small smile on Waverly's face as she looked at the rows and rows of books that filled the building. There looked to be three floors just filled with them, this building packed full of knowledge just waiting to be discovered by eager eyes. 

If my life hadn't of ended up how it did, I had wanted to become a doctor. My mother used to tell me that my uncle was a doctor somewhere out of the country, but as I grew older, my uncle's life became a tangled mess that began to contradict itself. I still firmly believe she had only created my 'uncle' so that I could hold onto the thought that I could be something more than what was happening in my life at the time. 

As my father yelled and screamed as us, I could think about becoming a famous doctor that healed people. Not the already fucked up daughter that was surely going nowhere in life because she still couldn't pull the slide back to his glock without getting nervous, my palms getting sweaty to where they would slip off of the slide. I would always receive a small tap to the back of my head. Years later, when I do make a mistake, I feel that small tap on the back of my head, startling me before anxiety sets in.

I took a deep breath to calm myself as I closed my eyes, pushing those memories to the back of my head before I opened my eyes again. I felt calmer, but still startled at the memories that were all suddenly coming back to me since I had come to Purgatory. 

I followed behind Waverly as she started towards the first set of stairs, walking up them as a voice abruptly stopped us. 

"Excuse me, there are no firearms allowed in this library." The librarian spoke up, glaring up at me as she pushed a stamp down onto the first page of a book without breaking our staring contest.

I opened up my jacket and pulled my badge out, flipping it open for the older woman to read as she leaned over the desk to observe it's contents. "Agent Lyons, we won't be here long ma'am, hopefully." I replied, snapping the badge shut before I walked up the stairs again, hearing the librarian huff and plop back down into her seat, the chair squeaking quietly. 

I heard Waverly giggle in front of me before she reached the top of the stairs, looking down at me as I continued to climb them, looking up at her with confusion. 

"Why are you laughing?" I asked, reaching the top to stand next to her as she ran her hand through her long hair. 

"Because you're always so serious, relax." She replied, turning to look at the catalog of what books were on this floor. She ran her finger down the list, looking at the ring she had on her pointer finger with admiration. 

I always really enjoyed when women would wear different rings on different fingers instead of the customary promise/engagement rings. To me, it made them look softer while also defying the customary obligations that the older generations usually tried to oppose on the younger. 

She caught me staring, trying to act like she hadn't seen as she found the section she had been looking for, immediately waltzing over to the large shelf of books. I followed behind her, feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket before I took it out, trying to silence the loud buzzing. I looked down to see Nicole's contact on my screen, trying to call me. 

I sighed and hit the lock button to mute the notification, sliding my phone back into my pocket as Waverly began to pull several books from the shelf. She came to the large oak table in the middle of the room with several books in her arms, setting them onto the table quietly. She sat down, pulling out the chair next to her. I stayed where I was at, watching as she held her head in her hand, opening the first book. 

I couldn't help but admire her beauty, smiling softly as I watched her. I wasn't falling for her, let me make that clear right now. My feelings belonged to a certain someone, even though she probably hated me right now. 

I took time to analyze the black skinny jeans Waverly had paired with a turquoise shirt that hung off of her shoulder, a necklace dangling from her neck. She looked so soft and delicate in that moment, but I knew she was always ready to beat someone's ass in a moments notice. 

"Agent Lyons, I do believe you have a staring problem." She spoke up, finally peeling her eyes away from the history book she had been scanning over. I felt my face heat up as I looked away from her, moving towards the shelf she had taken the books from earlier. I ran my fingers over the embroidered titles, not bothering to read them before turning to sit next to Waverly. 

I picked up a random book from the pile, leafing through it, some crime scene photos popping out. I studied them for a few minutes, none of them pertaining to the information I was trying to find. I felt my phone vibrate again, pulling it out to look at Nicole's contact as she called me for the second time. I turned the phone face down onto the table, trying to ignore the pull I felt to answer it, to tell her how sorry I was. 

The search for answers was taking hours, we had books scattered all over the large table, taking up all of the empty space at this point. I was holding my head in my hands, unable to process anymore information. My brain was absolutely fried, I just felt the need to stare into space and sit for days. I didn't want to think about anything, even as Waverly was still looking over the books studiously, taking small notes. 

 I sighed and placed my head on the cold wood of the table, closing my eyes as Waverly opened up another book, starting a new page of notes. I have no clue how she was still going at it like this even after doing it for hours. She really was a person of many talents. 

I heard my phone vibrate on the table again, causing me to jump as I picked it up so it wouldn't make a loud noise, turning it over to look at Deputy Haught's phone call for the fifth time. I took a deep breath as I excused myself from the table, walking into some random book shelves to isolate myself from Waverly. 

"This is Lyons." I said blankly, trying to conceal any emotion that may seep through my voice. 

"Rose, can we please talk about earlier." Her voice was filled with sadness, the realization of how much I had hurt her hitting me like a high speed freight train. I was trying to decide when I would be able to talk to her, Waverly's voice startling me back to reality. 

"Stephen Dee Richards!" She shouted, jumping out of her chair in excitement. I immediately hung up the phone, walking back over to Waverly as she waved the book at me, point to a man's picture. 

"Is this our guy?" I asked, raising my eyes as I tried to read the chapter about him, but Waverly kept moving in excitement. 

"Yes!" She exclaimed, slamming the book back down onto the table loudly, not caring about the other patrons in the library apparently. "He killed a family in Nebraska before killing his neighbor. He was on the run for a long time, actually spending time in Purgatory. This book speculates that he was actually killed in Purgatory by Wyatt Earp and not brought back to Nebraska like the newspapers reported. The man that had returned to Nebraska had an entirely different accent as to what people close to Richards knew him to speak with, his skin also very dark, whereas Richards had always had a lighter complexion since birth." 

I nodded in surprise, actually considering this man as our suspect.  

"Is there anymore evidence pointing to him?" I asked, looking down at the several notes Waverly had starred. 

"Well, there wasn't a lot of child murderers documented during the wild west, with Richards having come through Purgatory, I'm highly certain that this is our guy." She said, closing the book she had in her hands.  

I nodded, not satisfied that we had sufficient evidence to point all of our resources at him, but we had searched for hours and only come up with him. He was really all that we had. 

We placed all of the books into the return bin, climbing into my car as I headed back towards the police station, hoping Nicole wouldn't be there. 

I pulled into a parking spot, Waverly practically running to our office to tell the others as I stayed behind, looking at the directory. I found the morgue, walking down several hallways to finally get to it. 

I stepped into the cold room, the mortician bent down, holding the scalpel over the little boy we had found earlier. "Are you here to observe?" She asked, standing up straight as she blatantly checked me out. 

"Well I just wanted to take a look at the body and your notes, I had assumed the autopsy had already been performed." I said, the woman chuckling as she shook her head. 

"The cops here are slow, you have to be patient." She replied, bending to make the first cut again, speaking into a recorder. 

"Sorry I'm late, I had to finish some reports." Nicole came into the room, a few files in her hand as she suddenly put on the brakes once she caught site of me. "Agent Lyons, you're not needed in here." She spoke coldly, feeling a pain in my chest as she looked at me blankly, showing me absolutely no emotion.

"May I speak with you outside?" I asked, hoping she would see the pleading in my eyes, agreeing to speak to me. With a sigh she nodded, holding the door open for me. 

"I'll be back, Laura." She stated before she shut the door behind me, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked at me, waiting for me to say something. I wasn't sure what to say to her, how I would make the situation better. I didn't want her to be angry with me, but she had every right to be. If the situation were flipped, I would probably never talk to Nicole again. 

"Deputy Haught-"

"Stop right there, I can tell this isn't going to be sincere from how you just addressed me. I'm halting this conversation until you can figure out how to talk to an 'incompetent' officer, and I'm very busy right now." There was pure venom in her words as she turned and went back into where the mortician was performing the autopsy, leaving me to stand alone in the hallway. 

I was speechless, I had never thought she would speak to me in such a manner, I didn't think she had it in her. I felt defeated, I didn't know how I was going to make the situation any better at this point, what could I say to her that would make her understand how sorry I was for saying what I had?   

Hours later we were all standing around in the office, trying to figure out where the hell Stephen Richards was. Finding out about him may have seemed hard, but this was proving to be far more difficult than we all had expected. 

"What about near the old mines?" Dolls asked, looking at Waverly, trying to help out, even though we had absolutely no clue where to look. We all hoped Waverly had all the answers, she was the history buff after all, but she was just as clueless as we were. 

"It didn't say where in Purgatory he had stopped, I have no clue." She ran her hand through her hair in exasperation, knowing we were all relying on her, even though that wasn't fair to her. 

Nicole was in the room with us as was Nedley, allowing them in in order to get more information on the places we were naming. 

"The mines are surrounded by woods that have some abandoned cottages that were used by hunters back then." Nicole finally spoke up, her eyes never meeting mine. She hadn't acknowledged my presence the entire time she had been in our office, giving me less and less hope that we would be able to fix this. 

"Well, then we can search near the mine and the cottages." Dolls said, nodding at everyone. "Deputy Haught, you can go with Lyo-" 

"Oh, I'm declining to work with Agent Lyons on this case." 

Well, fuck.