Midnight Blue (Book 3)

Chapter One

Midnight Blue

Chapter One

Sunday Morning Revelations

Martin Cooper woke up hungover in the Redwood County jail. He had hit rock bottom. The saloon owner wiped his mouth and felt the morning stubble of his unshaven face. Sheriff Dauber had arrested him last night when he paid a visit to Victoria Spencer.

Dauber had warned him to stay away from Miss Spencer, but he needed to talk to her alone. Hannah Walker, her guardian, shot at him when he tried to climb the stairs to her apartment. On impulse, he drew his gun, and that is when Dauber saw him and arrested him.

Cooper sat up on the cot and then he saw her. She was standing in front of his jail cell wearing a midnight blue gown.

"Get out here. Leave me alone, you whore!" yelled Cooper.

He stumbled forward, grabbing the bars of his cell. The apparition of Belle Stanton leaned her head back and laughed with a delightful smile on her face.

"I mean it. Leave me alone," shouted Cooper.

The deputy was carrying in kindling to start the stove for coffee when he heard shouting.

"What's going on?" asked Deputy Jesse Cowan, as he unlocked the door to the jail cells.

When he opened the door, he saw a disheveled Cooper with bulging eyes pointing at the wall ahead of him. It was a look of sheer madness as he yelled and shook his fist.

"Who are you talking to, Cooper?" asked Cowan.

"That whore. Can't you see her?"

"There ain't nobody here. You're seeing things. Go back to sleep. Breakfast ain't for another half hour."

Cowan stepped out of the area and locked the door. He shook his head, realizing what hard alcohol does to a person. He stoked the stove to take the chill off the office on this frosty March morning. When Cooper heard the click of the lock, the apparition disappeared. He fell onto the cot and laid his arm on his sweaty forehead.

He loved Belle Stanton, but she didn't love him. Belle was Victoria Spencer's mother, and she loved Charles Spencer. It was all Victoria's fault. Ever since she came to Redwood three months ago, Victoria had been a reminder of his past. She was the spitting image of her mother. When Cooper saw Victoria, she bought back memories of Belle, and now Belle was laughing at him.

He sat up and laid his head in his hands. Reality had set in, and he was in big time debt. Next month, Claude McIntyre would be in Redwood to collect the thousand dollars Cooper owed him from a poker game. Cooper knew his desk in his office was piled with past due accounts, and he was behind in his loan payment to the bank.

Even if he used the money, he had stashed in his office to the pay the bills, it would leave him with nothing but the day-to-day saloon cash. Ever since Dauber shut down the moonshiners in the area, Cooper had quit watering down his liquor.

"Damn that Dauber. And damn Victoria Spencer. I am going to make her wish she never set foot in this town."

* * *

Victoria woke up on Sunday morning with a hangover. She had over-celebrated her grand opening. This morning she was paying the price as the twenty-year old young woman laid in bed with a pillow over her head, blocking the sunlight. She climbed out of bed after hearing a knock. When she opened the door, Hannah was standing in the hallway with a breakfast tray for her.