Her Eyes

Chapter 50: HOW TO BE BRAVE

Alex headed into work early. He figured if he got all the paperwork done now, he wouldn't have anything to worry about during his date. He got through about half the stack before Babbit came in. She shot him an accusing look from across the desk. "You're girlfriend seems nice."

He glared at her. "She's not my girlfriend." ...not yet, at least.

She crossed her arms in front of her—this had become her signature pose. "Then what has she been doing at your house these past few nights?"

He furrowed his brow. What was she following him? "How did you—"

"I told you I'd be keeping an eye on you. You didn't think I'd have your house patrolled?" She looked down at the desk, spying on his paperwork. "Look, Sheriff, whether she's your girlfriend or not—that's irrelevant. What does matter is what she has to do with all this."

"She doesn't have anything to do with this." He'd kill her if she brought Norma into this. She already had enough going on; she didn't need to be dragged into this as well.

She stared at him for a moment. He was slipping up. He couldn't stay consistent. She was beginning to see through the iron wall. "Then why did you bring her into this?"

"I—" She was right. He screwed up. A year or two ago, this would have never happened. This is what Norma Bates did to him. She drove him mad. He couldn't think straight, even now when his life depended on it. "You asked me where I was that night. I told you I was out looking for her son because he ran away."

She crossed over and took a seat on the windowsill. "Yeah, but you originally said that you were looking for Bob Paris." She raised an eyebrow. She knew she had him beat. "You couldn't have been looking for both of them."

He sighed to himself. His job never got any easier. "I was looking for Bob. Norma called and said that Norman ran away so I went looking for him."

"And did you find him?" Her eyes were calm, yet demanding.

He stared at her. "No." Norma probably told her Norman came home, at least he hoped she did. He couldn't make any more mistakes.

She nodded at him, staring down at the floor. "How long have you and Mrs. Bates known each other?"

Her eyes were on him now. He stared back at her plainly. She didn't scare him. Nobody scared him. Not anymore. "A little over three years."

"And how exactly did you two meet?" Why the hell did she care?

"I was out patrolling with my deputy. We saw the light on at the motel—it had just been foreclosed on, we didn't know anyone had bought it yet." It was funny really...how he and Norma met. He knew that she murdered Keith from day one. He could see it in her eyes. Those eyes held a lifetime of damage, and he knew he would fix it just for her.

"That's the deputy you shot on her property?" Her voice broke through his daze. She obviously did her research.

He didn't want to talk about it. He thought when he filed the police report he'd never hear of it again, yet here they were. "Yeah. I found out that he was involved in a sex trade and he was keeping a girl locked up on this guy's boat."

"But why were you at the Bates Motel?" He knew it was coming. He always knew what she was going to say next; she was that predictable. "How did the Bates family somehow get involved in this?"

His expression never changed around her. His stoic demeanor was reserved just for people like her—people who thought they knew it all. He was a rock—he had to be. He couldn't trust anyone. "They weren't involved. He knew I knew where the girl was so he thought he could move the girl to the motel."