Her Eyes

Chapter 7: BEDROOMS

Several days had passed since their last encounter. Alex was beginning to worry about Norma. Trouble had always surrounded her, and he was just now used to hearing her voice shouting at him through the bulletproof glass. He was almost yearning to see her, these days office didn't have much work for him since it was near the end of fall—and nothing ever happened in fall.

            Regina appeared in the doorway of his office. "Sheriff, they need you down at the Bates' house. There's a dead body." She turned and left without another word.

            Alex quickly grabbed his keys and drove off, his mind a mess. Now instead of worrying about something not happening to Norma, here he was worrying something had happened to her. How was he so taken by this woman? He'd only known her for a short while now—not to mention he only met her because she killed a man. He pulled into the lot and met the other officers at the house. He charged up the stairs to find men surrounding what he assumed to be Norma's bedroom. Alex stepped in wearily. It was the first time he had stepped foot in a woman's bedroom in years. He felt out of place in her bedroom. His mind kept wondering to— "Mrs. Bates," he shouted from across the room. She sat at her vanity with a blanket wrapped around her tight. Norman stood by her, her own personal watchdog.

            Alex made his way over to the bed and glanced at the corpse. Zack Shelby. He rolled his eyes.  That man would forever haunt this woman. "Get that out of here," he told the officers. Nothing pissed him off more than the sight of Shelby: the man that betrayed him—the man that he would have shot himself if he had gotten the chance. The smell of death was starting to get to him. He waited till the men left the room to begin talking. "What happened?"

            Norma pulled the blanket tighter around her body. "I was changing to go out to dinner, walked in my room. I opened the door, turned on the light, and there it was in my bed," she cried. She was obviously traumatized.

            Alex cringed at her words. He felt bad for this woman. She had only lived here for a couple of months and already tragedy had its hold on her. "Do you have any idea who might have done this?" he asked looking back at the empty bed.

            "It was that man Jake Abernathy, who stayed at the motel," she shouted at Dylan.

            Alex looked back at Dylan then turned back to Norma. Clearly this woman was distraught. "What makes you say that?"

            "He was asking all sorts of questions about Shelby, Keith Summers," she replied shyly.

"Like what?" he barked.

"Like how well I knew them...what I knew about what happened to them." Alex couldn't figure out how any woman could get herself into the heap of trouble this woman got herself into. "He was asking me if I had something, something that he was supposed to get from Shelby." She looked to Alex for the answer.

            He gave her a hard stare. "What was that?"

            "I don't know. I thought he was crazy! Why do crazy people keep gravitating towards me?" she shouted.

            Alex looked at floor, trying not the smile about the irony of it all. He was afraid to say anything that would hurt her feelings. He took a breath before continuing. "You get this guy's information when he checked in?" he asked.

            "Yeah, we got it. It's down in the office," Dylan answered for his mother. "I'll go get it."

            Alex took one last look at Norma before following Dylan down to the office.

There was uncomfortable tension in the air when they reached the office. The two men didn't know each other. They barely spoke two words to each other, and yet here they were. Alex tried to think of something to clear the tension. "How's your arm?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

            Dylan fumbled through papers. "It's fine...thanks." He didn't bother to look up from the papers.

Alex looked around the motel office, the tension refilling the atmosphere. He wanted to say something else, but he took the boy's distance as a cue to back off.

There was a sense of relief when Dylan found the papers. He handed them to Alex and shoved his hands in his leather jacket. "Is that all?"

            Alex stared at him. Was he asking him to leave? "Yeah...thanks," Alex stated, turning his focus to the papers. He looked back up at Dylan, who avoided eye contact. "Thanks," he repeated upon leaving. He got in his SUV and sat the papers down in the passenger's seat. He backed out and drove back to the station...and he thought Norma was difficult.