Speaking of school… “Why aren’t you in school this morning?”
“My mom’s really sick.”
“I don’t care,” Brad said. “She has to pay like everyone else.”
“I wasn’t st—”
Cash raised a hand. “Stop, both of you.”
He looked at Brad. “Call your wife. Ask her whether she’s been talking to Connie.”
Brad looked like he didn’t trust Austin not to run if he let go of him.
“I’ll watch him,” Cash said.
When Brad left to make his call on the Pharmacy floor, Cash asked Austin, “What’s going on? The truth, Austin.”
“I’m already telling the truth. Mrs. McCloskey said my mom didn’t have to pay for stuff from here if she got sick. She’s got a cold.”
“That seems unlikely.”
When Austin looked like he might yell, Cash said, “I believe your mom told you that. I just think she might have misunderstood something Mary Lou said.”
Brad returned. “She’s coming right over.”
“Do you want me to call Connie and get her here, too?”
“No.” Brad looked uncomfortable. Why? Why wouldn’t he want Connie here to prove Austin wasn’t lying?
“I want my mom,” Austin said, obviously needing to prove his innocence.
Cash took out his cell and dialed Connie’s number.
When Connie answered, Cash told her what was happening and she said she’d come right over.
Austin shot Brad a triumphant look and it was Brad’s turn to go red. What the hell was going on?
A small crowd had gathered at the cash register to watch.
“Let’s head over to the office. Brad, Lexie’s on cash. I assume you can leave for a few minutes.”
Brad nodded and told Lexie to send both Mary Lou and Connie to the Sheriff’s office when they arrived.
They filed out the door and again Shannon shadowed Cash. In his office, she picked up some of the info she’d printed out and said, “I should leave.”
“No!” Austin shouted, his pride clearly hurt. “I want you to see I wasn’t shoplifting.”
Shannon looked at Cash and he nodded. She stayed, moving to stand in a corner.
Connie showed up first. Austin was right. She was sick. She looked bad. Tired. Her face was thin. In fact, when Cash thought about it, in the past month, she’d been looking worse and worse. What was wrong? Last thing Austin needed was to lose his one surviving parent.
“What’s going on?” Connie asked.
Cash explained what had happened. “Did Mary Lou McCloskey tell you to pick things up from the pharmacy for free?”
“If I was sick, she said they could help me out.”
“When would you have seen my wife to ask her that, Connie?” Given the trivial nature of the crime, Brad seemed too agitated and kept putting distance between himself and Connie.
“I seen her in town one day.”
The door opened and Mary Lou stepped in. The difference between her and Connie was astounding. Mary Lou looked fresh while Connie looked haggard.
A pretty frown furrowed her brow. “What’s happening?”
Brad explained and Mary Lou shot a quick glance at Connie. For a split second, Cash thought he saw a glint of calculation in Connie’s eyes before they deadened to a vacancy that had started recently. Cash worried about depression. It made people do crazy things.
“Ye-e-es,” Mary Lou said. “I did say that we could help Connie out if she was ill.” She placed her hand on Brad’s arm and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, “She doesn’t have money.”
“I know, but we can’t afford to—”
Mary Lou cut him off. “Please, Brad, for me. Let’s just forget about this and go home.”
Brad glanced at his watch. “It’s only eleven o’clock in the morning. I can’t leave work.”
“There’s something I need to discuss with you. I’ll make us some lunch.”
Brad’s manner softened and he smiled down at Mary Lou. “Okay, honey.”
Shannon stepped forward. “You’re cleared, Austin. You were telling the truth. Isn’t that great?”
Austin smiled at Shannon, that sweet little smile he’d given her the first time he met her, and Cash felt like he’d been knocked over by a two-by-four.
Austin and Brad stood beside each other, and Austin’s smile was a perfect match for the one Brad was giving his wife. A perfect match.
CHAPTER NINE
AUSTIN CAUGHT CASH looking from one to the other. As always when he was embarrassed, he hunched his shoulders up to his ears.
Mary Lou led her husband out of the office. As she passed Connie, she said, “The next time you need something from the pharmacy, call me and I’ll pick it up for you.”
If her voice sounded a little tense, Cash thought he understood why.
He reassured Connie there would be no charges pressed against Austin and herded her out the door.
“I’ll drive Austin to school.”
He closed the door behind Connie and turned back to Austin, who was talking quietly with Shannon.
“Shannon?” Cash said.
When she looked up, he asked, “Did you see that?”
“Yep. It was pretty obvious.”
“I guess I’ve been too close to the situation for too long.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“I think that would be best.”
On her way out, Shannon squeezed Austin’s shoulder. The action said so much about her, about her depth of compassion.
She dealt with drug-dealing scumbags regularly, but was managing to hold on to her humanity.
“Austin, sit,” Cash said and walked around the desk to his office chair.
He put his elbows on the armrests and tapped his fingers together. “When did you find out?”
Austin wouldn’t look at Cash. “Find out what?”
“That Brad McCloskey is your father.”
Austin mumbled something.
“What was that?” Cash leaned forward.
“I said, about a month ago.”
Just when the trouble started with Austin.
“How did you find out?”
“I found my birth certificate.”
“Did you question your mom about it?”
Austin picked at a hole in the knee of his jeans, enlarging it with his index finger. “Yeah. She said it was true. She said Brad wanted to marry Mary Lou instead of her, though, so she had to marry my dad. I mean—”
“I know who you mean. How do you feel about that?”
Man, it was a doozy of a thing to find out that the man you had thought was your father wasn’t. No wonder Austin had been acting out. It had to hurt like hell.
“It doesn’t matter,” Austin said, but Cash knew that it did. It mattered a lot.
“Did Mary Lou really tell your mom she could get stuff for free?”
“I don’t know for sure. I just know that my mom visits her and comes home with medicine.”
So Mary Lou was sneaking medication out of the pharmacy and giving it to Connie. Good of her to help her out, considering what she must know. If Cash noticed the similarity and Shannon noticed it, surely Mary Lou had seen it.
So when had she found out? And why was she friendly with Connie? Or was something else going on? Was she really that charitable, or was Connie blackmailing her for prescription drugs?
“Do you know what’s wrong with your mom? She doesn’t look good.”
“She won’t tell me. Just said she isn’t dying so quit worrying.”
Cash stood. “Okay, let’s get you over to school. Did you have breakfast this morning?”
“I h
ad some toast.”
Probably white bread with cheap margarine. That wouldn’t last until dinnertime.
“Let’s get a couple of burgers from the diner and I’ll take you to school after lunch.”
“’Kay.”
They stepped out of the cop shop and Cash locked up, all the while wondering exactly what kind of man Brad was.
Cash needed to ask around. How long had the McCloskeys been married? Before or after Brad had slept with Connie? Was Brad really the solid citizen Cash believed him to be? How long had he known that Austin was his son? Did he know? Was that why he’d been uncomfortable about getting both Connie and his wife in the same room together? Was there someone driven, someone deeply self-interested, hidden under that mild-mannered exterior?
This new information adjusted his opinion of Brad. Could the man be someone to watch, to suspect of dealing drugs?
Most importantly to Cash, how would knowing that Austin had a father who was alive and well affect Cash’s relationship with his Little Brother?
It doesn’t, he thought. Doesn’t affect it at all.
Just before stepping into the diner, he squeezed Austin’s shoulder.
* * *
MARY LOU DRAGGED Brad into the house, angry enough to scream. When he’d called her, she’d had to speed back from the bikers’ farm.
People were starting to notice the likeness between Brad and that boy. Certainly everyone at the police station had noticed it.
Why had it taken her so long to see it?
Because you hadn’t wanted to.
She slammed the door, threw her purse onto the floor and yelled, “How could you do that?”
Brad’s eyes widened. He stared at her purse. It had opened and cosmetics and her wallet spilled onto the floor. He bent to pick them up, but she stopped him.
“Leave it,” she ordered. This taking-control business felt good. Cleansing.
“Why did you sleep with Connie before we got married?”
Brad opened and closed his mouth, then asked, “How did you know?”
“It’s written all over that boy’s face.”
“What?”
“That boy,” Mary Lou screamed. “He’s yours, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know. Connie told me she was pregnant, but I didn’t believe I was the father.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t think I was the only one she was sleeping with.”
“Trust me,” she said bitterly. “He’s yours.”
“Are you sure? I always wondered. Connie tried to get money from me a few years ago, but I told her no because I couldn’t be sure he was mine. He is for sure, though?” Wonder filled Brad’s voice. “Really?”
“Don’t even think about bringing him home with you. I couldn’t stand the disgrace.”
Mary Lou felt tears on her cheeks and swiped them away with the backs of her hands. She hated being vulnerable.
“Why did you sleep with her when you were engaged to me?”
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Give me a break. You knew full well you were betraying me.”
“No, I mean I didn’t know what to do in bed. I was a virgin. I was embarrassed about it. I needed to know what to do on our wedding night and Connie was easy. She wanted to sleep with me and I knew I could learn everything from her.”
Brad splayed his hands out in from of him, as though beseeching her. “It was only a couple of times and then I stopped. I loved you and wanted to marry you. I still love you, honey. More than anything on this earth.”
Mary Lou didn’t know what to think of that. She was so angry, she needed to release it somehow. She looked around the living room, not sure what she wanted. And then she thought of it. She knew what would make her feel better, what had been exciting her lately. What pleased her more than it had in a long, long time.
She watched her husband while she slowly lifted her skirt. She slid off her panty hose and panties and stepped out of them.
She saw that flash of interest in Brad, that anticipation he’d begun to show when they went to bed at night.
“The children?”
“Pizza day at school,” she said, suddenly breathless. “They won’t be home until four.”
Mary Lou wanted to try something new, and she needed to do it now, not wait until tonight.
She should tell him to kneel on the floor in front of her and do it right here in the living room. She couldn’t, though. Her parents had raised her to be a good girl too well.
If she took Brad to their bedroom, closed the curtains and whispered to him what she wanted, he would do it. She was sure of it.
Mary Lou took his hand and led him upstairs.
They fell onto the bed together, where Mary Lou whispered in his ear, asking for what she wanted.
He pulled back and stared at her, shocked, but a sweet smile spread across his face and he said, “Yes,” then did it.
It was sinful.
It was wonderful.
* * *
CASH DIDN’T MAKE it out to the high school in Haven until Tuesday afternoon, shortly after two. All of the students either drove here or took a school bus. They represented a wide portion of the county’s population and he hoped that one of them had heard something about meth in the area.
He passed Liam Wright in the hallway just before he ducked into a classroom for his next class.
Cash stepped into the school office. The secretary nodded and told him to go on into the principal’s private office.
Harris Newcombe looked up when Cash entered. “Sheriff, it’s good to see you.”
They shook hands.
“What’s up?” Harris asked.
“I’ve heard a rumor there’s meth somewhere in the county. Have you heard or seen anything at the school? Kids are usually the first to find this kind of stuff.”
“True. I haven’t heard about meth specifically. I can call some students to the office, if you like.”
“Who are they?”
“If anyone in this school knows about the drugs it will be one of these three. They’ve all been caught and charged with possession in the past.”
“Any cell time?”
“No. They got off with warnings. There’s been nothing since then, but that was only four or five months ago.”
He got up to speak to his secretary. “Marjorie, call Steve Brett, Rod Crew and Tony Bayer to the office.”
“Sure.”
They arrived five minutes later and none of them looked happy about being called to the office. Nor did they look like drug dealers or addicts, more like ranchers’ sons or budding rodeo stars.
“This is Sheriff Kavenagh from Ordinary,” Principal Newcombe said. “He needs to talk to you boys about drugs in the area.”
Almost as one, they groaned.
“We don’t do drugs,” Steve said, clearly frustrated. “It was only that one party.”
“Where did you get the marijuana you were smoking?”
“From a guy we’d never seen before, but he was a friend of one of the bikers over in Monroe.”
“Have you heard of anything else coming from the bikers lately?” Cash asked. “Or anywhere else locally?”
“Like what?” Rod asked.
“Like meth?”
“I’ve heard there’s a lot of it in Montana, but I’ve never seen it here in Haven.”
“Have you heard of it anywhere in the county at all?”
They shook their heads. Cash pulled three business cards out his wallet.
“Here’s my number. Call if you get the slightest sense that it’s here. The stuff’s deadly. There’s already been one overdose. I don’t want to see any of you involved in it.”
Cash stopped in to see Mike Gage in Monroe. Same thing there. Yes, Mike had heard about meth in Montana. No, he’d heard nothing about it in their area. Yes, he would keep his eyes and ears open and would instruct his staff to do the same. Somehow, the county had managed to dodge the meth bullet. Until now.
* * *
ON WEDNESDAY, CASH exited the grocery store with bags piled high. He filled the bed of his truck with the food.
“Hey,” he heard behind him.
Janey and Shannon were walking from the candy shop.
“Where are you two off to?” he asked.
“I’m taking Janey out to lunch,” Shannon answered.
“Are you stocking up for tomorrow?” Janey peered into the bags in the truck.
“Yep. The grocery store was a madhouse.”
“What’s tomorrow?” Shannon asked.
Both Janey and Cash looked at her strangely. “Thanksgiving.”
“I totally forgot!”
“It’s at Cash’s place,” Janey said.
“Will you come?” Cash made sure to keep his expression neutral, but he wanted her there.
“The whole family is going.” Janey brushed strands of black hair away from her face. “You’ll be home alone if you don’t come.”
“Okay.” Shannon grinned. “What should I bring?”
He shrugged. “I’ve got all the food. How about a bottle of wine?”
He had a sudden thought. “How would you feel about stopping in Ordinary to pick up Austin and his mother, Connie?”
Cash knew that unless he invited them to dinner tomorrow, Austin would have no Thanksgiving celebration and that would be wrong.
“Sure,” Shannon said. “No problem.”
“You remember where he lives?”
She nodded. “Do you need any help with the cooking?”
“No!” both Janey and Cash shouted.
Shannon frowned. “Oh-kay.”
Janey took her elbow, grinned at Cash behind her back and steered her toward the diner. He mimed wiping his brow at the close call, then drove home to brine the turkey.
* * *
AT TWO O’CLOCK on Thursday afternoon, the Wrights invaded Cash’s small home. He’d pushed all of the living room furniture against the walls and had moved everything else he could into the two postage-stamp bedrooms.
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