An adult stories – Mafia Magic Bk. 01 Ch. 02 by HextildaFrost,HextildaFrost Chapter 2
A Few Hours Later
“I thought you were dead.” Jess tosses her long blonde ponytail behind her shoulder and helps me sit up. “You don’t have to drink alone, you know. Cherry and I are always down for a girl’s night on the town.” She eyes the front of my vomit-stained dress.
I eye her sports bra and barely there shorts, I had yet to see her out of her old-fashioned front desk uniform. She doubles and another wave of nausea hits me, but there’s nothing left to come up and I’m able to hold myself together by using the breathing techniques the Psychiatrist had taught me in the hospital.
Her latest boy toy inspects the remains of my stomach. His face neutral as he looks over the grass and the front of my soaked dress. “This is not alcohol induced.” He pulls a small ziplock baggie from somewhere in his jogging shorts and puts on a latex glove.
Jess gives him an annoyed look. “You never stop working?”
He pops open a plastic vile with a grin, “My father always said, a good cop is never off duty.” He scoops up some of the vomit and slides it into his plastic bag. “You know mushrooms are illegal in the state of California, don’t you Ma’am.” He pulls a cell phone from somewhere in his jogging shorts. “I’m going to have to call this in.” He walks a few feet away and makes a phone call.
Jess looks at me stunned. “Arresting my friend will not get you laid.” She stands angrily and folds her hands across her chest. The Deputy should have burst into flames with the way Jess is glaring at him. “I thought shrooms are legal now anyway.”
He hangs up his phone, “They were decriminalized but not in this county. Where’d you get the Shrooms Ma’am?”
I sigh and look at Jess, “Chef made breakfast.” My throat burns.
Jess looks at her boyfriend, “I know you’re new to town but Chef cooks from these woods all the time, you’ve seen the awards he’s won for his dishes, that’s like, the whole point, organic, forest-grown, to table or some bullshit like that.”
He bends down and examines more vomit, “Humans make errors all the time. Where is…Chef’s whereabouts?”
Jess huffs.
“I left him in the restaurant.” Please be alive. Please be alive.
***
The trek back to the hotel is short. I’m slow, every muscle in my body aches. I button my sweater to cover up the grossness of the front of my dress, maybe it’ll keep the smell down too.
The Deputy Sheriff opens the heavy wood door and Jess follows behind me into the hotel. The Deputy quickly gets ahead of me and winds his way through the lobby to the restaurant area. The Moonlite Mountain Lodge is a log cabin design with an open floor plan. A few plants strategically placed around the restaurant area to give the illusion of being separated from the rest of the lobby. The low lighting makes the restaurant cozy and intimate.
The Deputy stops short, blocking me and Jess from continuing into the space. He pulls out his phone again and hits a few buttons, holding the phone up to his ear. “We have a 10-54 (possible fatality) at the Moonlite Lodge Property. Please send 10-78 (need assistance/send ambulance) and 10-79 (notify coroner), possible 10-200 (narcotics involved), 10-15.”
I stand on my tiptoes to peek around him, Chef’s booted foot is under the table. “No.” I climb over the table next to me and rush to Chef’s unconscious body.
His skin already cold and rigid.
Tears blur my vision and sobs escape me. I look at Jess, “He knows what he’s doing. He’s been eating these same mushrooms for decades. How is this possible?”
She shrugs and turns away from Chef’s body, “I’m going to call Cherry,” she leaves the restaurant area.
I watch as she crosses the lobby and makes a phone call. My mind reeling. If Chef does know what he’s doing…did he want us dead? Does he want me dead? I will be the first suspect, maybe I poisoned him? Did I identify the mushrooms correctly?
The Deputy pulls me up roughly by my arm and pulls my hands behind my back, “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used in a court of law-”
I drown out the officer’s voice as he handcuffs me and has me sit in a chair out of the way but in full sight.
My mind replays the morning over and over, each step assessed, Chef always checked everything himself, “I trust your work but one mistake with some of these plants and there won’t be a second chance for correction. We must hold them in reverence and appreciate their ability to both give and take life. Plants are powerful and so are the people who wield them.” He winked at me.
The ache rips a cavern in my chest and I can’t hold back the tears as they flood down my cheeks. I focus on my breathing and let them fall.
The next few hours are filled with uniformed bodies in and out of the hotel. Yellow tape wrapped around the restaurant area, brown paper bags taken out to the vehicles waiting in the parking lot. People writing on tablets and the flash of photos.
I watch as a body bag-covered gurney is wheeled out of the Lodge. Not the first person to die on these grounds, so I’ve heard but the only one I care about. The only person I consider family. I sigh, I have the worst fucking luck.
The Deputy appears before me, “Stand up, they are taking you into the station for questioning.”
I do as I’m told and he leads me through the lobby with my hands behind my back. A crowd formed in the parking lot, a lot of excitement for a small town.
Jess comforts Cherry, sobbing over her dead grandfather and glaring at me. A lot of people I don’t recognize behind the police tape, camera crews in the parking lot. The news doesn’t need to be here, word would travel fast enough in this small town. The amount of gossip I hear from Jess and Cherry could fill libraries.
“Is that the girl from the news?” Someone asks as I’m walked to the waiting police car. I was hoping no one would recognize me from the news, the picture they used looked nothing like me, except for the dull reddish hair. But it doesn’t matter now that it’s been said out loud. The crowd’s in agreement and glaring. Being ‘the new kid’ is never easy.
Jonny Vega, my boss and the hottest man I have ever laid eyes on, I think, leans against his old truck as he speaks Spanish into his phone.
I sigh and blush, of course now would be the time I see him again. A couple of days ago I thought I was at my lowest when they found my unconscious body in a ditch six months ago. Now I’m being accused of killing my friend and being shoved into the back of a police car.
Jonny left after picking me up from the train station. I suppose being taken off the freeway and seeing a ball of glowing light hovering over your truck would scare anyone off, even if I had no idea what was going on. I remember the weight and warmth of his arm across me in his truck. He had held me down when my seatbelt broke as we bounced through the rough forest. He left it there until we were at the Lodge. The only time I felt safe.
But then he left suddenly and I haven’t heard from him since. It’s good he keeps his distance from me, my track record is not great.
He winks in my direction and the officer tucks me into the back of a police car. Jonny gets in his truck and follows.
He’s probably going to fire me. I’ll have to leave my room, I have nowhere to go from here. If I don’t go to jail.
I felt so lucky when my Neurologist, Mrs. Ortega set me up with a job at The Moonlite Mountain Lodge with her brother Jonny Vega. A job that included room and board. Only a few short weeks ago I felt blessed, like my life was looking up, like I was going to be able to move on.
Now I’m in the back of a cop car, being arrested for a man’s death.