“I’ll get it!”

It was a scorching afternoon about ten days later. Andrew swung around the corner toward the phone ringing on the wall of the Limerick’s back room, hearing Liv call thanks behind him as she scrubbed the final spills of the day off the counter. He picked up.

“Thanks for calling The Limerick, this is Andrew speaking,” he greeted, picking at some dried syrup on his apron.

There was a beat of silence. “Can I help you?” he asked.

The laughter started nearly silently, then grew louder until it was piercing his ears and he had to pull the phone away to ease the pain. Then it dropped to a disorienting silence. “Let it lie,” a voice, a raspy man’s voice he didn’t recognize, said.

“Who is this?” Andrew snapped.

“If you don’t let it lie, you will get hurt. I promise you that.”

The phone call disconnected, but Andrew was still standing with the receiver against his ear as his body seemed to drain of its heat. It was Baxter, or someone working for him, that was obvious. The same thing had happened to Iris and now they were moving on to Andrew specifically. But unlike her, the threat of physical violence came with a guarantee that no hospital would be able to save him.

Once again, just like Baxter himself had implied at their last conversation. But this hadn’t been just an implication, had it?

“Who was on the phone?”

Liv’s voice behind him was cheerful, but as he turned to look at her, he saw the cheer quickly replaced with fear. “Andrew, what-“

“It was Baxter, or like a hired goon or something,” he said, finally putting the phone back on the wall. “Whoever it was said to let it lie or I’m going to get hurt.”

“Hang on.”

She disappeared back out front, then returned a moment later with Noah in tow. He took one look at Andrew as well and his expression went from confused to afraid.

“Andrew just got a threat,” Olivia said

“What, right now on the phone?” Noah asked.

“Yeah,” Andrew replied, wishing desperately that he wasn’t so afraid of this asshole.

“What did they say?”

Andrew went through the details and tried his best to stay calm. “You’re sure it was directed at you specifically?” Noah asked.

“He said I’ll get hurt if I don’t let it lie,” Andrew said. “Just like Baxter did. I’m probably the only goddamn person in this town who can’t get to a hospital if I’m hurt. There’s a target on my back. And I’m not exactly hard to distinguish on the phone considering I’m the only utter moron who decided they needed to come back after coming here from another fucking country and seeing my mum get trapped last time. So yeah, I’m pretty sodding sure it was directed at me.”

He felt bad about the outburst as he saw the brief flash of hurt come across Noah’s face. But rather than call him out on it, Noah nodded. “Iris got one too,” Andrew said softly, unable to meet his eye.

“Okay,” Noah said, his expression and voice far more neutral now. “Let’s think then. We can confront him, but as you said, you’re the one who can’t get to a hospital if he lashes out. Did it sound like him?”

“No,” Andrew said. “It was more, erm, gravelly, I suppose?”

“So either someone working for him or Baxter with one of those voice changer things,” Noah said, looking somewhere behind Andrew as he thought. “Gotcha. The police are useless, but it’s probably worth putting in a report? So you have a paper trail?”

Unless they bring it right back over to Baxter,” Andrew said, squeezing his eyes shut for a second as he tried to think. “I don’t know who to trust right now.”

“Is there anyone else it could be?” Noah asked.

“No,” Andrew snapped. “He’s the only one who’s threatened both me and Iris and is still alive. So I know it’s him, alright, Noah?”

“Andrew,” Liv said, before he could continue to unfairly take his fear and helpless anger out on Noah. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, running his hands over his stinging, overheated face. “I’m being a prick.”

“Nah, you’re fine,” Noah said, clearly distracted. “Um, Andrew, stay with Liv, alright? Either stay here or go back to our place, but stay with her, okay? Don’t be alone right now.”

“You’re not going to confront Baxter, are you?” Liv asked.

“No,” said Noah, already on his way to the door. “Leave the dishes, I’ll get to them when I get back.”

Andrew tried to ask him where he was going, but the door closed behind him. Liv looked at him, then they both ran for the door. Andrew could see it again in his mind, so clearly. The car racing over the town line, the fear that Noah was dead. And he knew Liv was feeling the same way, so it wasn’t surprising that she was right there with him.

This time, Noah was just walking down the street, not even ten feet away by the time they caught up. He turned to see both of them following. “What did I just fucking say?” he asked.

“Nothing, because you didn’t tell us where you were going,” Andrew said.

“Iris’s shop. I want to try to contact Billy again. This has taken too long, you need to get out of here.”

“I’m sick of having this conversation, Noah,” Andrew started, but Noah spun on him.

“No,” he said. “We can’t just keep putting it off because I fucked up like two weeks ago. That’s why we haven’t gone back to Iris yet, isn’t it? I’m fine to do this. And if the answer is somewhere in my head, then we can at least get the ball rolling, right? Before Baxter escalates yet again. So I’ll be back in a little while, just go stay somewhere safe, please.”

“How about I go with you?” Andrew said, instead of shaking Noah like he wanted to. “If you’re going to Iris’s shop, then there’s going to be security in place. I’ll go with you.”

Noah hesitated, then looked at Liv. She looked unsure what to say and Andrew couldn’t blame her. “We’ll ask Iris to try the spirit board again,” Andrew said. “We were making good progress there, right?”

“Yeah,” Noah said, nodding. “Yeah, we’ll do that.”

Andrew was tempted to ask if coming along would help Liv feel better about it, but he knew that going to Iris’s shop wasn’t going to help at all.

“I’ll lock up,” Olivia said, answering the question before he could ask it. “Text me. And please keep texting me. If anything changes or you go anywhere else, alright? Just…stay in touch with me.”

She looked like she still hated what she was saying, but Andrew was grateful. Because underneath it all, he was relieved at the idea of trying to reach Billy McBride again. Noah, meanwhile, reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze. Then he let go, turned, and started walking toward Iris’s shop again, leaving Andrew to chase after him.

————–

CONTINUE TO EPISODE 51 

————–