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“Oh,” he said, not expecting this. “And you’re not happy about it, is that it?”

“I’m very happy! Very, very happy!” said the young officer. “I never thought Barry would propose. I kept hoping, and wishing, and now, all of a sudden, he sent me a text. Here.” And she pressed her phone into his hands. On the screen the message read, ‘I know I should have done this a lot sooner, but… will you please marry me? Barry.’

“It couldn’t be happening to a nicer person,” Dolores grunted.

“I’m going to marry Barry!” Sarah squealed, and drew cheers from her colleagues.

Chase smiled, and joined the others in congratulating his young colleague.

Which is why he was so surprised when he returned to his own office and found Barry Billong sitting in front of his desk, looking distinctly unhappy.

“Barry, I believe congratulations are in order!” said Chase, and extended his hand to the moon-faced young man, who took it limply, and shook it without much enthusiasm.

“Please close the door, Detective Kingsley,” said Barry, darting nervous glances at the door.

Chase, wondering what was going on, closed the door and took a seat behind his desk.

“I managed to slip in unseen,” said Barry, now chewing his fingernails and looking like a man hunted by a posse of bounty hunters. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to get out without being noticed. And that’s okay. But first I wanted to talk to you, sir.”

“Okay,” said Chase, smiling at the guy. “What’s going on, Barry? Why aren’t you happy? You’re getting married to a lovely girl.”

“That’s just it,” said Barry, leaning forward and swallowing nervously, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down like a jack-in-the-box. “I don’t want to get married to Sarah. You see, I’m engaged to be married to… another girl. You don’t know her, but I already met her parents and everything. So now I’m engaged to two girls, and it’s simply too much.”

Chase would have agreed that being engaged to two girls was probably one too many, but since he liked and respected Sarah Flunk tremendously, the overwhelming emotion he now felt was one of anger.“You’ve been two-timing Sarah all this time? Stringing her along? Is that what you’re telling me?”

“Don’t look at me like that, Detective,” said Barry in a whiny voice, holding up his hands in a gesture of defense. “I fell in love with Francine around the same time I met Sarah, and one thing led to another and… I never thought things with Sarah would actually develop into… whatever it is we have. But every time I tried to break up with her, she seemed so heartbroken, and so I could never actually go through with it. I tried to, but…” He hung his head. “I guess I’m just a coward.”

“But if you didn’t want to get married to Sarah, why did you propose to her?”

“That’s just it—I never wanted to propose. It’s just that these two guys… They said if I didn’t send that message they’d break my legs, and I like my legs, Detective. I like them the way they are. So they watched as I typed, and even gave me suggestions as to the exact wording of the message. They were very… insistent.”

Chase frowned.“What guys? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know who they are. I never met them before! They showed up at the dealership this morning and asked if they could take the new Toyota Yaris for a spin, and so they did, and then they parked along the road and said that if I didn’t propose to Sarah right there and then they’d break my legs, and then they’d break my arms, and maybe my neck, too—they hadn’t decided.”

“Can you describe these men?” asked Chase, thinking this was one hell of a story Barry was telling him.

“Well, they were very big, both of them, and very hairy, too, and one of them had a tattoo of a skull and crossbones on the side of his neck. Um… Oh, yeah, and they said that if I told anyone about this they’d break my legs, and my arms, and maybe my neck, too.” He sighed. “I had the impression they’d done this sort of thing before.”

“Organized crime?” Chase suggested.

Barry nodded.“It was a very stressful experience, Detective, and they didn’t even buy the Yaris, so I’ve got nothing to show for my trouble, which caused my boss to yell at me.”

“I think you better come clean to Sarah, Barry,” said Chase. “You can’t keep stringing her along, and now you’ve gone and made things worse with this bogus proposal.”

“But if I tell her they’ll break my legs and my arms… and my neck!”

“They’ll never know, Barry. Just tell Sarah the whole story, and leave nothing out.” He leaned forward. “Because if you don’t? I’ll be the one breaking your legs, and your arms, and your neck—is that understood?”

The car salesman inadvertently touched his neck and nodded furiously, then got up.

The moment the guy had left his office, Chase thought for a moment, gazing out the window of his office at the parking lot right outside the station, and then at Town Hall beyond it. Strange things were happening in this town of his, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. He certainly wished the Chief was there to help him figure it out, though.