Free Hemlock Veils by Jennie Davenport

save her life, Randolph.”
    “ After she saved yours, I hear.”
    “How do you hear things anyway? You never set foot inside with us. And with that hearing aid, it’s a wonder you know anything going on around here.”
    Arne smiled. “I could ask how you eat with that nest on your chin, but some of us have class.”
    Eustace waved his arm. As he crossed the street, he said behind him, “I’ll let that slide this time, only because you have to put up with the boss all day. I do feel sorry for you there, old friend.” And with another shake of the head, he disappeared inside the diner. It may have been a joke, but Elizabeth sensed some sincerity to it, whatever it meant.
    Arne, however, looked unaffected. “I hope you enjoy your short stay here, Elizabeth. Aside from senile geezers, the town has much to offer.” Something lingered in his brownish-blue eyes, something knowing.
    She studied them before looking down Clayton Road at the charming town, then behind her at the old-growth forest. “I think I figured that out the moment I arrived.”
    “I’m sure you did.” His eyes, still on hers, appeared to be smiling. “And don’t let Sheriff Taggart, or anyone else, scare you away. People are just protective of their homes, and protective of you.”
    “I understand.” They exchanged a smile. “But I don’t scare easily.”
    “It would appear that way, wouldn’t it?”

Chapter 6
     
     
    Henry Clayton placed the white ceramic coffee mug to his lips carefully since it still steamed. The coffee, acrid and dull, was the worst he’d ever tasted, but this diner was his only connection to the people of Hemlock Veils, and he couldn’t sit empty-handed. He’d tried cream and sugar in it once before, when Regina had insisted, but that had only worsened it. A few years ago, after he’d rejected one of Nicole’s not-so-subtle advances, she’d mumbled under her breath that his black coffee was fitting for his black soul. He’d found himself smiling when she strutted away, only because it meant he was doing everything right. She’d tried getting his attention in other shameless ways since then, when it was obvious she and Brian were on the outs, but for the most part she never acknowledged him. Hopefully, she was just as intimidated as the rest of them.
    But something unnerved him about the visitor who had arrived in the night, the one everyone talked about. Elizabeth Ashton was the only name he’d heard leaving people’s lips since he’d entered the diner ten minutes before. She was brave and mysterious and kind, most had been saying. And the heaviness in his stomach told him her presence would stir something in this town, something that would go against all he had worked so hard to build.
    “Did you see how she totally sidestepped the issue?” Nicole spewed with a low whisper. “Like her attack was nothing!” Henry wouldn’t call it much of an attack. Regina rolled her almost-black eyes, reminding him why she had always been one of his favorites here. From over the rim of his newspaper, Henry watched: she and Nicole stood at Brian, Taggart, and Eustace’s booth, Nicole bending just low enough for her breasts to stare Brian in the face.
    “Yeah, it’s something,” Brian said, only slightly distracted.
    Nicole clenched her jaw and placed a hand on her hip. She had never taken well to someone stealing her attention. For the past two years, ever since her own encounter with the beast, she had played the perfect victim. Brian had fallen for her damsel-in-distress act many times, comforting her until emotions ran hot and her end goal—and his—was quickly accomplished: in Brian’s shop, in the diner’s kitchen, and even behind the Dumpster. Henry had caught them once before, thankfully before it had progressed into something that would always haunt him, but he didn’t have to witness it to know it happened frequently. Word traveled fast in this town, and whether or not people thought Henry was just a