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TONIGHT
SMOKE CAME IN CLOUDS from the cigarette that Malekai Hamm was smoking between his chapped lips. Stella Keaton sat on her bag some ways away, leg bouncing impatiently, eyes glancing toward her wrist watch every so often. It was then, when Stella checked the time for what she could only assume was the eighteenth time since she got off the phone with Eben earlier, that she heard the familiar sound of a motor and tires trekking through the snow.
As the deputy's vehicle came to a slow stop before them, Billy peeked out the lowered window and shouted, "Your limo's here, Ms. Keaton!"
Stella jumped up from the ground, heaving her bag out of the snow and thrusting the carry on into Billy's arms when the deputy leaped out of the vehicle to lend a hand. "Service is going downhill." Before Billy could say anything in response, she turned around. "You'll be okay, Malekai?"
Malekai nodded as he took another drag from his cigarette. "My mom will be here soon to tow me in."
Glancing once more at the treacher, Stella furrowed her brows. She couldn't understand why someone would tamper with the brake lines. Malekai was a good man. She could easily say that he was the kindest and most generous man in all of Barrow, for he had never given anyone any trouble and did whatever he could to keep the roads plowed for the people of the town. Then again, it was dark and she was no expert. Maybe she assumed wrong. Maybe the brakes hadn't been tampered with after all and they simply jammed like Malekai had said.
Stella turned away from the treacher after a moment, throwing her arms up in the air as she approached Billy. "Where've you been?!"
"Sorry I'm late, Stella," Billy apologized as he tossed her bag in the car. "The keys weren't where I thought, and then I was like, wait, Rogers and 355, or Ransom? And then when I⎯⎯"
