The Coppersmith Farmhouse

by Devney Perry

  “You’re welcome, honey. It was fun. Did you like it?”

  “Yep. It was a good night.”

  “Next year, no eggnog,” I said. “No one drank it and I felt guilty throwing it all out. But there was no way I was going to keep it. Gross.”

  He chuckled and pulled me tighter to his side. “What’s up with Everett and Maze?”

  “Ah, she said he’s been kind of distant. Why?” I was surprised that he’d care about my friend’s love life.

  “Seeing him with her, getting a bad vibe. First at the bar. Then tonight.”

  “Yeah. He’s been a little weird when we’ve been around them lately. He’s just shy, I guess, which is a lot different than he is at work. Maybe he just puts on a good show for patients, I don’t know. But she’s, well . . . Maisy. The complete opposite of shy. They’re a lot different.”

  “Hmm,” Jess muttered.

  We were quiet for a few more minutes until I recalled my conversation with Sam earlier at the party. He had told me how much he liked the farmhouse now that it had been updated. He hadn’t been over since Ben lived in it. And the way he talked, it sounded like a lot had been changed over the years.

  “What kind of updates did you do to the house after Ben moved away?” I asked.

  “A lot. Why?”

  “Sam said it looked great. He made it sound like the place was completely different. I was just curious if there was anything still left that was Ben and Claire’s.”

  “Like I told you, I spent a lot of time here keeping it up. When I was still a kid, I did the stuff that didn’t cost much but my time. Then after I got back from the academy and had a paycheck, started doing more. Put up new siding and shutters outside. Tiled the laundry room and entryway. New bathrooms. New kitchens. I didn’t change the layout but other than that, everything is different from when Ben was here.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Wanted it to be different if he ever came back. I thought he wouldn’t want the same house that was his and Claire’s,” he said.

  I was glad he’d done that for Ben because I think he would have been right.

  “You did an amazing job, honey. I love this place.”

  I was glad he didn’t have to give it up after all. That we could both enjoy the house and our time here spent together. I wondered if that is what Ben had been going for all along.

  It was the week following the Christmas party and I was at work, sitting at the nurses’ station on the second floor. With Christmas just a little over a week away, we’d had a heavy flow of visitors, people coming in to see family members who were stuck in the hospital during the holidays.

  I had never seen so many poinsettias before, outside of a grocery store. Not a single room in the unit was without at least two. One older lady had five and she gave me a beautiful pink one to take home tonight after work.

  My last set of rounds were finished and I was double-checking I had everything done when my phone rang.

  “Hi, honey,” I answered, seeing it was Jess on the screen.

  “Georgia.”

  My heart rate instantly skyrocketed and I started panicking. His voice was filled with pain.

  “What? What is it? Is it Roe? Is it your mom?” I asked.

  “They’re both fine,” he said. “It’s Wes.”

  I let out a deep breath, my panic immediately subsiding, knowing my daughter was okay and nothing had happened to his mother.

  “What’s happened with Wes?” I asked.

  “Need you to come to the station,” he said. “Now.”

  “Okay. Should I pick up Rowen first? Or will we be done in time for me to get her?”

  “Leave her at school.”

  “Okay, I’m just leaving. Tell me, though, are you all right?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I drove nervously from the hospital to the station. My stomach was in tight knots. Walking in, I headed straight to Jess’s office. I gave out quick waves to everyone but I didn’t bother to stop.

  Every other time I’d come to the station, the blinds to Jess’s office had been open. Now they were closed shut. When I got to the doorway, Jess was behind his desk, his head in his hands, propped up by both of his elbows.

  “Hi,” I said, closing the door behind me.

  The look on Jess’s face was devastating. His eyes were red, like he’d been rubbing them all day. His hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions from running his hands through it over and over. The only time his hair looked like that was when we were in bed together and the person running her hands through his hair was me. That look was sexy as hell. This was absolutely not.

  I walked around the edge of his desk and straight into his space.

  He turned his chair to face me with his legs spread wide. Once I was close enough, his arms came around my waist and he pulled me into the space between his legs. The top of his head went straight into my belly and his hands spread out on the small of my back.

  I wrapped my arms around him, my fingers diving into his hair. Then I bent down to kiss the back of his head. I didn’t say anything, just held onto him as he held onto me. He’d tell me when he was ready.

  “Wes was found murdered this morning,” he said.

  I gasped and my muscles tensed.

  Murder in Prescott? Things like that weren’t supposed to happen here.

  And it wasn’t a nameless, faceless person. It was Wes. I knew him. Not that I was his friend. But still, I knew him.

  As I was trying to process Jess’s words, he leaned away but kept his hands at my back.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  He propped me up on the edge of his desk so we could face each other. Sadness poured out of his blue eyes.

  “Silas called me this morning. He was driving on an old county road out by his place and saw a body in the creek off to the side of the road. Went to check it out, saw it was Wes,” he said.

  I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and took in a breath. I needed to be strong for Jess. This was my chance to prove to him, and myself, that I had what it took to be a cop’s girlfriend. Jess trusted me to be that person. I didn’t want to let him down.

  Jess was going to be holding up the whole town. Everyone would count on him to make Prescott safe and put the killer behind bars. He’d take on the weight of all of Jamison County to make that happen.

  I buried my fears deep and steeled my spine.

  “Went up there, saw Wes in the creek. From the looks of it, he’d been there all night. Blood everywhere. Three different stabs to his gut,” he said.

  “Stab wounds?”

  He nodded.

  “Do you have any idea who did it?”

  He nodded again. “Coroner had just pulled up when Milo called, sitting here at the station. Said some kid had just walked in to report a murder.”

  “The killer walked into the station?”

  “No, it was a witness. Christ, Georgia. He was just a kid. Nineteen, twenty maybe. He was fucking flipped out and spilled the whole story.”

  “What happened?”

  “He was over at a friend’s house. Smoking meth. Getting loaded. When it got late, the place cleared out except for this woman and an older guy he’d never seen before. This woman starts bragging about how she knows Wes and can score them more drugs.”

  At the mention of Wes’s name, he dropped his head and took a minute to collect himself.

  I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling. He had known Wes a long time, even if they were enemies.

  “I guess up until that point, the older guy had kept fairly quiet. But as soon as Wes’s name entered the mix, he started to get real mad. He told this kid and the woman that Wes owed him four hundred dollars. Then he pulled out a gun and forced the woman to arrange a meeting with Wes. That’s why they were all where Silas found Wes’s body.”

  “So this older guy killed Wes over four hundred dollars?”

  Jess nodded.

  Four hundred dollars? It didn’t seem rea
l. “If this guy had a gun, why would he stab Wes?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. When they pulled up to the meeting place, the woman tore off the second the gun wasn’t pointed at her face, and the kid ran to hide in the trees. He couldn’t hear what happened but one minute this older guy was talking to Wes and the next he’d pulled out a knife and was stabbing him.”

  Bile creeped up the back of my throat but I swallowed it down.

  “Why did it take so long for the kid to get down here?” I asked. “If Wes had been stabbed, maybe he could have been saved.”

  “He didn’t have a ride. The murderer drove off in Wes’s truck. The kid had to hike out through the woods, nearly froze to death.”

  “Oh my god,” I whispered.

  Jess nodded and we stayed quiet for a few moments.

  “Did I ever tell you Wes and I used to be best friends when we were kids?”

  My eyes widened in shock. Two seconds ago, if someone had asked me if I could be more stunned, my answer would have been absolutely not. Not after Jess had described the details of a hateful and senseless murder. But here I was, speechless. I couldn’t get my mouth to work so I just shook my head.

  “Yeah. We grew up together. Me, Wes and Silas were always tight,” he said.

  “I’m so sorry, Jess.”

  “Stab wounds to the stomach won’t kill you instantly.” His eyes stared blankly at my knees. “Means Wes bled to death. Lying there alone in the cold. What do you think he was thinking about?”

  The corners of my mouth turned down as my chin started to quiver. My heart was breaking for Jess. He had spent the morning looking at the dead body of his childhood friend. And then the afternoon learning about how his former friend had been murdered.

  “I don’t know, honey,” I said, reaching out to stroke his hair. “But I hope it was good things. Memories of times when he was happy.”

  He pulled me into his lap and squeezed me so tightly, I struggled to breathe. But I didn’t say a word. I just sat there and did my best to remain strong.

  I left the station about an hour after I’d arrived, needing to pick up Rowen. Jess had a long night ahead of him and doubted he’d make it to the farmhouse before midnight.

  Sam had tracked down the woman from the party and taken her statement, which matched the kid’s. Bryant had wrapped up the crime scene and gotten an APB out for Wes’s murderer. With any luck, the killer was dumb enough to still be driving around in Wes’s truck.

  So while his deputies were working on the murder case and I was driving home, Jess was driving to the Drummond farm to tell Jack and his wife, Annie, that their son had been killed.

  I prayed the whole way home, still shocked this was happening.

  I prayed that Jess would make it through this horrible night and that he’d find Wes’s killer quickly. That he’d be able to get closure for Wes’s family, himself and the town.

  I prayed that he would find the strength to tell his friend’s parents that they would never again see their child.

  And I prayed that Rowen would grow up healthy and happy. And that I would never be on the receiving end of that kind of message.

  Two days later, Wes’s killer had not been found.

  Jess was being flooded with questions from concerned citizens. People stopped by the station all day long to see what he was doing to find the murderer. Reporters were sucking as much information from him as they could.

  The Prescott newspaper had run a special edition this morning. I’d been curious about how much the public was being told, but after reading the newspaper, I knew it wasn’t much.

  The paper was three pages and entirely dedicated to covering the murder. Considering how little information Jess had released to the press, the newspaper was ten percent speculation about the murder details and ninety percent a report on Wes Drummond’s life.

  I thought the whole thing was entirely unnecessary. About an hour after the Coffee Club met yesterday morning, everyone in the county knew that Wes had been murdered.

  Tomorrow, Wes’s murder would be making the bigger Sunday papers in Montana. Reporters from Bozeman, Billings and Missoula had called Jess yesterday to get the official press release.

  Rowen and I hadn’t ventured far from the farmhouse this weekend. Other than an overdue trip to the grocery store, we were lying low. I didn’t want people approaching me while I was with my daughter and asking what I knew about Wes’s murder. So we stayed at home and waited each night for Jess to come back.

  Jess had arrived late on Thursday from the Drummonds’ house. Rowen had been long since asleep when he pulled in but I had gotten ready for bed and waited up for Jess, reading on the living room couch. As soon as I’d heard his truck coming down the drive, I’d hurried to the front door and met him in the entryway. After he’d shrugged off his coat, we’d wrapped our arms around each other and held tight, standing just inside the door, unmoving.

  Last night had been a repeat of the same.

  Tonight, I’d swapped the living room couch for my office chair. Earlier, I’d lit a fire so it was warm, but I was still cuddled up underneath a cozy blanket. I must have drifted off because one minute I was reading and the next minute I was in Jess’s arms and he was carrying me upstairs to bed.

  “Sorry, I fell asleep.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “Do you want to put me down so I can walk?” I asked.

  “No.”

  I wound my arms around his shoulders and buried my head in the crook of his neck, content to let him carry me upstairs in his big, strong arms.

  When we got to the bedroom, Jess set me down on my feet but didn’t let me go. He just held me close to his chest with one arm banded around my shoulders, his gaze so intense my cheeks flushed.

  “Jess?” I asked.

  He didn’t respond. He just kept his eyes on mine for what felt like an eternity until, finally, he broke the silence.

  “Had a horrible few days. Don’t know how I would have made it through if I hadn’t had you to come back to every night. I love you, Georgia.”

  I stood there motionless, holding his ice-blue gaze while his words rang in my ears. I wasn’t scared or unsure of what to say, I just didn’t want to break the silence. Because the sound of Jess saying he loved me in his deep voice was something I wanted to remember for the rest of my life.

  When I had committed his words permanently to memory, I smiled.

  “I love you too.”

  A huge smile spread across his handsome face. I took it in, committing it to memory too, before his smiling mouth dropped intently toward mine.

  The next morning, I cooked us all a big Sunday morning breakfast. While Jess and Rowen were in the living room watching TV, I made scrambled eggs, sausage patties, breakfast potatoes and French toast.

  When we’d woken up, Jess had told me he wasn’t going to the station. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a mountain of work to do, but because he needed a day off. One day to take a step back and collect himself before another brutal week as the county’s sheriff.

  After Jess had announced his plans, I’d declared it a pajama day. We weren’t leaving the house and we weren’t getting dressed. The only exception being for Roe. She could wander outside to the garage and play with the cats if she wanted, but other than that, we were staying in and we were lounging in the living room wearing sweatpants.

  And if that meant I had to watch football morning, afternoon and night, so be it.

  “Thanks, baby. That was great,” Jess said after demolishing a huge plate of nachos, his choice for a game-time snack.

  Games, actually. I learned that Sunday Night Football started at eleven in the morning with multiple games going before the one officially dubbed the night game.

  I was turned sideways in the couch, my legs extended so my feet were resting on top of Jess’s thighs. Rowen was sitting on the floor at the coffee table, glitter pens and markers scattered everywhere so she could color in one of twelve Disney princess co
loring books she had out. She had just finished coloring a page, rather beautifully I was proud to see.

  “This is for your office.” She shoved the picture in his face. “It’s messy and needs some pictures.”

  I burst out laughing. “Leave it to a four-year-old to tell you how it really is.”

  Jess grumbled but the corners of his mouth turned up.

  I was glad to see him smiling and relaxed. I’d wanted to ask him more about his relationship with Wes but not until we were together and comfortable. When he was here with us in a safe place and there would be no interruptions to our conversation.

  “You said the other day that you and Wes were friends,” I said.

  “Yep. As far back as I can remember. Must have started when I was little. Think my dad and Jack used to get together. Brought us boys along to play. Why?”

  “I was just wondering what happened. You turned out, well . . . you,” I said, throwing a hand out to indicate all of the goodness that was my Jess. “And Wes, well, he took a dark path.”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. Thought about it a lot, especially as he kept getting deeper and deeper. He was a different person growing up. All through high school, we stayed tight. Worst we did was drink. I left for the academy. Came back two years later and he was different. I tried to pull him out. Get him back. But . . . it was like he didn’t care. About anything. Family. Friends. Nothing. I asked Lissy about it a hundred times but she never would tell me what happened.”

  “Lissy?” I recalled Wes mentioning her name at the café a couple of months ago but I never had remembered to ask Jess who she was.

  “Felicity. My sister.”

  Right. His sister. He rarely talked about her and I wanted to know more, but I didn’t want to stop him while he was talking about Wes.

  “How would she know what happened with Wes? Just because she was living here?” I asked.

  “No. Wes and Felicity dated for years. Hooked up when she was a freshman in high school. Were together until the day she left. I came home the week before her graduation. Figured he’d be proposing to her. She’d be moving to the Drummond farm, gearing up to raise her and Wes’s babies. Shocked the hell out of me when I came home and he was a wreck. Couldn’t believe it when she left him behind the day after she graduated.”