Deep Fried and Pickled (Book One - The Rachael O'Brien Chronicles) Read Online Free PDF Page A

perfumery. Do you have any idea who could have done this?”
    Katie Lee and I locked eyes. I hadn’t met Nash Wilson, but a picture of him in an orange jumpsuit with shackles on his ankles sprang to mind. I hoped he’d be like my second cousin on my mother’s side who lived with some indigenous tribe in the South Pacific. I’d never met him and no one in the family knew what he was doing. Placing my bottle of Pepto-Bismol next to Katie Lee, I whispered, “See you when I get back.”
     
     
    THE WIND CONTINUED TO kick through campus, and by late afternoon, I’d resorted to fastening my hair in a ponytail. Intermittent gusts had broken the stagnant heat and invigorated me. Five hours had passed since I’d left my room. My stomach had settled, and I’d sat through my lecture without incident. I’d even eaten a light lunch and hung out in the library to start a Psych paper on paralleling co-dependent relationships and addiction.
    I wondered what awaited me in my room. Had Katie Lee taken a bus home? Had I been gone long enough for the boyfriend drama blown over? If she’d gone home, I could tell Macy it didn’t feel right going without Katie Lee since it was her idea in the first place. This would postpone the attempt at entry into the Holiday Inn and hopefully we’d find a less illegal way to meet cute guys. 
    A Webster’s dictionary held our door open, and the wind had blown my desk papers into disarray. Katie Lee still wore her robe. I stared at the back of her head that hung off the foot of her bed and four Pepsi cans had missed the garbage can.
    “What’s going on?”
    “I just hung up with my dad. He says the New Bern police questioned Nash for forgery.”
    She ambushed me with that piece of information, and I fired back, “Forgery? For what? Where’s Nash now?”
    “Valium. I don’t know. I can’t find him.”
    “How can you forge valium? Start from the beginning. Tell me what your dad said.”
    Katie’s Lee’s soapy hair hadn’t styled well, and blotchy patches created a highway that ran south of her eyes to just north of her collar bone. She held a cold compress in her hand. “Honestly Rach, I’ve never heard Daddy yell so loud. Not even the time I sailed a pony keg on the Sunfish, and sank it in the Trent River.”
    I shut the window leaving it open only a crack. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    “‘Do you know who I just finished talking to?’ Daddy asked.” Katie Lee exhaled her frustration. “Like how would I?”
    I dropped my book satchel and perched on top of my desk. “Who was your dad talking to?”
    Katie Lee sat up and blew her nose. “Ray Saunders. Apparently, he’s some kind of detective with the New Bern Police Department. He told Daddy that Nash attempted to fill a prescription at the pharmacy in town for Valium, written on Dad’s prescription pad. The pharmacist, Kitty Klum, recognized Nash and called to verify the prescription.”
    “Holy shit. Was it Nash?”
    “Couldn’t have been.”
    “So what happened?”
    “Dad’s receptionist told Kitty that Daddy was in Beaufort, and had been for two days.”
    I stared at Katie Lee, unsure where this story was going, but curious enough to keep listening.
    “Daddy talked over me. I tried to tell him everyone thinks teenagers all look the same. She’s probably seen someone who resembled Nash.”
    “Like who?”
    “Rachael, that’s not the point. Dad just blasted my ear. He said, ‘I didn’t write any prescriptions and certainly none for Nash.’”
    I shifted my seat and told Katie Lee, “This is bambuzzled.”
    “It gets worse. Daddy got all negative about Nash and gloated. ‘Unfortunately for your boyfriend, Kitty stalled and called the police.’”
    Katie Lee pulled two Pepsis from our mini-refrigerator and tossed one to me.
    “By the time the sheriff arrived at the pharmacy, Nash, or his impersonator had left.”
    She popped the top and slurped with her eyes closed as if she wished she drank something