Chapter 7:

            Later that night, they emerged from a back creek and pulled onto the road into town. After stopping at a carwash and then by the motel to pick up their stuff and pay their bill, they drove to a neighborhood on the northeast side of Portsmouth. As they reached a level area halfway up a steep hill, they came upon a series of old, disconnected row houses made of dark wood. Bill drove up to his house, turned into the driveway, and parked. After covering the car with a tarp, they all went inside where they got Gosnich’s switchblade out of Jamie’s prosthetic leg. They then showered, had a few snacks, and went to bed. 

           The next day, at 5:30 A.M., Griswold woke Bill and Jamie. She had a big smile on her face and was jumping up and down. She told them they had to come to the TV right away. Both were still exhausted, but they ran down to the living room as fast as possible.

            Griswold had turned on the local morning news. A reporter was discussing the arrest of Valden and everyone that was present at the setup, including those that had come to kill him. After being taken to the police station and charged with the selling and possession of drugs, Valden was asked many questions about the nature of the necklace. After he refused to cooperate, the police questioned Gosnich, who was more than happy to reveal the purpose of the necklace in exchange for a shortened sentence. The cops then looked into some of Valden’s expenses and found receipts for the necklace and magnet. Moreover, they found evidence of Valden’s relationship with Rebecca by matching his handwriting to that found on a note in her house asking her to come to Turkey Creek Lake. Besides this, one of Valden’s cronies also confirmed that he had been instructed to plant the necklace on Bill so that he would take the fall for the murder. The reporter then went on to explain that the charges against Bill had been dropped.

            “Ta-da!” said Griswold, gesturing toward the TV.

            Bill’s mouth hung wide open. He sat in silence before saying, “I can’t believe it….I’m …I’m a free man!” Bill then hugged Jamie and Griswold, much to Griswold’s discomfort. “I thought I was screwed. Seriously, you guys are like a real-life A-Team!”

            “What’s an A-Team?” asked Griswold.

            “Uhhh…never mind,” said Bill. “Again, thank you….Oh, before I forget!” He then went to the front door and lifted up a loose floorboard. He removed a small metal box, opened it, and asked, “How much is it again?”

            Griswold calmly smiled and said, “Whatever you can afford.”

            “Really?” thought Jamie. Given all of the work that they had done, she thought that Griswold would have asked for more.

            Bill then pulled four hundred dollars from the box and handed it to Griswold. “Sorry I can’t give you more,” he said sheepishly. “I’m a bit low on funds right now.”

           Griswold took the money and said, “It’s fine. We can easily make do with this.”

           “You sure?” Bill and Jamie asked simultaneously.

           “Absolutely,” said Griswold. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to get going before the police discover that we’re here.”

           “Sure thing,” Bill replied. He led them outside where they said their goodbyes as they packed up the car’s tarp and reattached the license plates. After loading their things into the trunk, Jamie and Griswold got in the car and began to drive while Bill stood on his front step, waving until he lost sight of them. 

*****

             The sun was rising as Jamie and Griswold drove and it turned the sky orange behind them. The clouds above were purple and white while the rest of the sky was a pale, dusty blue. The two drove past familiar sights as the sun climbed higher, leaving them with a clear blue sky and a brilliant morning sunshine. Griswold leaned her seat back and put her fedora over her eyes in an attempt to nap. Before she nodded off, though, Jamie said, “Hey, Griswold, can I ask you something?”

            Griswold brought her seat forward and tilted her hat back so that she could see. “Sure,” she said.

            “When Bill was paying you, why did you charge him so little? I mean, you solved his case so fast. Not to mention that we both risked our lives for this. Given all that and your current living situation, why not charge him more?”

            “Honestly,” she replied, “it’s because what he paid was quite a lot for him.”

            “What do you mean?” Jamie asked.

            “You see,” Griswold said, “a lot of my clients are people that society has either given up on or has forgotten. These people are seeking justice but face bad luck when the cops don’t turn anything up or when they, themselves, don’t have the financial resources necessary to hire help. They come to me because I can help them and, since they don’t make a lot of money, I only charge them what they can afford. No IOUs or interest. They pay me what they can and that’s that.”

            “That’s good and all,” Jamie said, “but how can you make a living like this?”

            “Some people can just pay you more than others. The money that we got today just happened to be on the lower end of the spectrum….Then, of course, there are times when rich people that have really screwed up come to me for help and I can charge them a shit-ton of money. Although these instances are quite rare, they can net me a lot of cash, making up for the money I don’t get for my usual cases. All in all, though, money, like politics, isn’t something that I worry about too much.”

            “Okay then. I have one more question, though: Why do you do all of this?”

            Griswold sighed. “That, my dear,” she said, “is a story for another day. Right now, I just need to relax a bit.”

            Jamie nodded her head. “That’s cool,” she replied.

            “If it’s okay with you,” Griswold said after a brief period of silence, “I’m just going to play something from the mixtape.”

            “Fine by me,” Jamie said.

            Griswold turned up the volume and they heard Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s cover of Blinded by the Light play. With that, Griswold leaned her seat back and covered her eyes with her fedora again. In a few minutes, she was fast asleep. Although Jamie was focused on the road and traffic as they drove back to Cincinnati, she was able to occasionally glance at Griswold. A few times, she thought she could see a small, contented smile cross her lips.

The End