by B. J Daniels
Flint’s cell phone went off again with another text. He checked it. “I’m going to have to take a rain check on that burger. Jenna Holloway’s car’s been found.”
“So tell the woman? Don’t leave her hanging?” Hawk asked Darby as Flint left. “You giving romantic advice is bad enough, but what’s that about?”
“Just saying.” Darby turned away to wipe down the back bar.
“Just saying what? Is someone leaving you hanging?” Cyrus asked, grinning at Hawk. The two of them loved to give their younger brother a hard time. “Sounds like you’re making this personal.”
Darby tossed down a bar rag and started for the kitchen.
“Leave him alone,” Lillie said, making both Hawk and Cyrus turn to look at her.
“Come on, we were just teasing him,” Cyrus said. “So what’s the big deal?”
“Why are the two of you like this?” she demanded. “Because your lives are so boring and devoid of women that you have to pick on Flint and Darby?”
Both brothers looked surprised at her outrage.
“What’s going on, little sis?” Cyrus asked, actually looking chastised. “You sure Wainwright didn’t try something with you?”
“Honestly,” she said with a sigh. “Get a life. Both of you. And leave Darby alone.”
Cyrus held up his hands as he slid off the bar stool to go to the restroom. “Guess we can’t tease either of you.”
She shook her head, knowing the reason for her thin skin was that it was only a matter of time before they heard Trask was back. Then all hell was going to break out—and all of it in her direction.
“You’re awfully sensitive,” Hawk said, studying her. “You sure everything is all right?”
“It’s fine.” She’d had enough and headed for the kitchen.
“You don’t have to defend me,” Darby said when she joined him where he was helping Billie Dee with the burger plates. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can. Sometimes they just annoy me.”
He laughed. “They do need to get lives. We should set them up on blind dates.”
“Like anyone around here would go out with them. They’re like two old crotchety bachelors living out there on the ranch.” She chuckled at the picture she’d painted of her brothers.
“I’m surprised that neither of them has asked out Kendall,” Darby said.
She shot him a look as did Billie Dee. “They think you like her,” they said in unison.
He raised a brow in surprise. “Where would they get that idea?”
* * *
WEEKS COULD GO by without Maggie running into Celeste. That was why she was shocked to see her now.
Flint’s ex had her hair done across town at the Serenity Spa and Salon. The place wasn’t as fancy as the name sounded. Maggie knew the owner, who once confided in her at a beauty supply conference that Celeste was the worst gossip in town and a pain in the ass in her chair.
Since Maggie shopped for groceries after work and Celeste had all day to shop because she didn’t work, they hardly crossed paths. Just her luck that a moment ago Celeste had come in the door of the local clothing shop.
Maggie had gone between clients to get a new dress. She was standing in front of the mirror outside the dressing room considering the robin’s-egg-blue dress when she’d heard the bell over the front door of the shop ding and had turned at the sound.
She knew her face must have fallen when she saw Celeste. She tried so hard to be pleasant and not let the woman see how much she disliked her.
“What a beautiful dress!” Celeste cried and made a beeline for her.
Maggie groaned under her breath as she turned back to the mirror.
“Special occasion?”
“Not really.” The lie caught in her throat.
Flint’s ex took hold of the price tag hanging from the sleeve and let out a surprised, “Wow. If you’re going to drop that much, it must be a really big date.”
It was none of the woman’s business, but Maggie was in too good of a mood to argue with Celeste.
“I’m glad Flint asked you out again. I’d hoped I didn’t mess things up for the two of you last night. Flint said I didn’t,” she added before Maggie could deny it as well, even though it wasn’t true and she figured Celeste probably knew it. “I’m just happy he’s found someone.”
Clearly, Celeste didn’t have as much trouble lying apparently.
Maggie could think of nothing to say, since somehow the words felt like a backhanded compliment.
“Flint is going to love that dress on you,” Celeste said, staring at her in the mirror. “I have one just like it. In a smaller size, of course. Not that you probably want to hear that,” she added with a laugh.
The clerk came over then to ask Mrs. Duma if she could be of help. Maggie winced at the solicitation in the clerk’s voice. She hadn’t been like that with her. But then she was no Mrs. Duma, was she?
After Celeste and the clerk disappeared deeper in the store, Maggie considered herself in the mirror. She’d loved the dress only minutes before Celeste had appeared. She thought she did look good in it. Did she give a hoot that Celeste said she had a dress just like it?
She stepped into the dressing room and took off the dress and hung it back on its hanger. As she put on her clothes to go back to work, she kept looking at the dress. Was she going to let Celeste ruin this for her?
Rebellion welled inside her as she took the dress and headed for the checkout counter.
“Oh, so you’re going to buy the dress,” Celeste said, sounding both surprised and maybe disappointed.
“As you said, it looks good on me and I think you’re right about Flint liking it.”
Now it was Celeste who seemed at a loss for words. Maggie didn’t give her a chance anyway as she paid for the dress and left the store, her step a little lighter. Screw Celeste. She couldn’t wait for Flint to see the dress on her.
* * *
TRASK DIDN’T HAVE any trouble finding Johnny Burrows’s house. His friend answered the door at the split-level in a newer subdivision of Gilt Edge with a look of shock followed quickly by concern.
“What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk,” Trask said, pushing his way in. “Are you alone?”
Johnny nodded. “But my fiancée will be back soon and my father called earlier. He’s going to come by. What’s going on?”
“I stopped by the construction site last night.”
His friend’s eyes widened in alarm. “Why would you do that?”
“You might recall that I’m back in town to find out who killed Gordon.”
“What does the site have to do with Gordon’s death?”
“I wish I knew, but I think it’s somehow connected.”
Johnny waved that away. “That’s crazy.”
“As crazy as me thinking you’re in some kind of trouble?”
“I appreciate your concern, but you shouldn’t be here. If anyone saw you—”
“I wasn’t the only one at the construction site last night,” Trask continued as if his friend hadn’t spoken. “Someone broke in and tore the place apart as if looking for something.” He saw that now he had Johnny’s full attention. “I thought the person might have been looking for these.” He pulled out the three file folders and dropped them on the end table next to him.
Johnny stared at them but didn’t move. “What’s in them?”
“Why don’t you tell me.”
His friend looked at his watch. “I really can’t do this right now. My father—”
“If you’re in trouble—”
“You’re the one in trouble. Trask, you shouldn’t have come back. It’s too dangerous.” He still hadn’t moved to pick up the file folders.
“You already know what’s in the folders, don’t you, Johnny? Aren’t you even curious to know who broke in and tore up the office looking for them?”
Johnny looked away, but not before Trask saw fear. “Is what’s in those folders the reason Gordon was murdered?” His friend started to protest that he couldn’t possibly know. “Whatever you’re hiding—”
“It isn’t about Gordon’s murder. I swear.”
“All those years we’ve been friends, I really thought I knew you,” Trask said. “Could I have been that wrong about you?”
Johnny met his gaze. “I’ll tell you everything. But not now. Meet me tonight. At the creek where we used to go all the time when we ditched school.” When Trask got Johnny in trouble. “Give me an hour. But I swear. It has nothing to do with Gordon’s death.”
Trask looked at his friend and hoped with all his heart that it was true.
Johnny swore at the sound of a vehicle pulling up in the driveway. “That’s my old man now. You know how he is. He’d drop a dime on you in a heartbeat. Go out the back way and, Trask? For your own good, don’t come back here. If the wrong person saw you here...”
Trask went through the house, exiting out the back door, but not before he’d heard Johnny arguing with his father just like old times.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JENNA’S CAR WAS found in a gully only a few miles from the Holloway farm. Her purse and the bag she’d packed weren’t inside. Nor was there any sign of an injury or a struggle. What was odd was the lack of footprints near the driver’s-side door. If Jenna had been in the car when it went off the road and still alive, she would have gotten out of the car. There would have been tracks where she’d climbed out of the ravine.
Suspecting that the vehicle had been pushed off into the gully, Flint checked to see what gear the car had been left in. Neutral. Jenna Holloway hadn’t been in the car when it left the road. There was a good chance that she hadn’t gotten into the car and left her home at all.
“What are you saying?” Anvil demanded when he told him Jenna’s car had been found and that he should come down to the sheriff’s department.
“Are you sure you don’t want your lawyer present for this?” Flint asked when the farmer showed up alone.
Anvil shook his head adamantly. “Given what he charges me an hour, no. Just tell me.”
“The car was found in a tree-filled gully. It probably wouldn’t have been found for months except for some boys hunting rabbits. They stumbled across it.”
“You say her purse wasn’t inside?”
“No, and no, I don’t think the boys took it. I know them. They’re good kids. Jenna wasn’t in the car when it went off the road. It appears that someone wanted to hide the car.”
“You think she got out of it and got into someone else’s car, then tried to hide hers? Why would she do that?” Anvil asked, sounding near tears.
“Jenna might have dumped the car herself and gotten a ride somewhere. But as you said, why?”
Anvil shook his head as if it was all beyond him.
“Maybe she’s terrified of you and doesn’t want to be found.” It was one theory, but not the one Flint believed anymore.
“I’m telling you, she’s run off with that other man,” Anvil said with a groan.
“Or she’s dead and has been since the night you argued with her.”
The words seemed to hit Anvil like a fist. “I don’t understand how you can still think I killed her.”
Had the man never seen a cop show? Kill your wife, get rid of her car, do everything possible to make it look as if she’d left—including packing a few things in a bag and making sure it looks as if she took her purse.
“You have to admit, it looks suspicious, Anvil. You washed the clothes you were wearing, you cleaned up the kitchen, you even mopped the kitchen floor.”
The farmer looked confused. “I told you I got blood on it. Would you have had me leave it?”
“Whose blood?’
“Jenna’s. The nose bleed. I’ve already told you all this...” Anvil buried his face in his hands. “She’s not dead. She can’t be.”
“There is still a chance she’s alive and just not ready to come back.”
He hated giving the farmer too much hope because Anvil grasped on to it like a log in a flood.
“Even if she did take off with this other man, she’ll eventually come home,” Anvil said. “She’ll want the rest of her things. Or maybe she’ll tire of him.” His voice broke.
“You would take her back?”
Anvil’s tear-filled gaze held his. “You don’t throw twenty-four years away like it was nothing. I behaved badly, I’ll admit it. I should never have struck her. I swear on my life I never will again.”
“Then let’s hope we hear from her soon.”
“You need to find the man she was seeing,” Anvil pleaded. “He knows where she is.”
“Anvil, we don’t even know for sure that there was a man. She could have just told you that.”
“I thought you said she could have met him online.”
“I can’t find any evidence that she has used any of the computers available to the public in town.”
“Then it’s someone she met in town or one of those prisoners she wrote to.”
“As far as the prison has been able to determine, none of the men she wrote to have gotten out of prison.”
“But they might have had a friend on the outside who she was in contact with.”
Flint studied the man. Anvil seemed determined that they find this other man. To take the focus off himself? Or because he really believed Jenna had taken off with this other man?
* * *
LILLIE WAS BEHIND the bar working when she saw the two men come in. She recognized Emery right away, but while he looked familiar, she couldn’t place the larger man with him.
She felt a start at seeing Emery. It had been years since that family had lived around there.
Emery pulled up a stool at the end of the bar and sat down. The large man sat next to him.
Lillie had a bad feeling about Emery turning up now, with Trask only back in town a few days. Her heart was pounding as she walked down the bar.
“What can I get you?” she said, tossing two bar napkins down in front of them. The two smelled like a campfire. Or a cabin fire.
“Remember me?” Emery asked with a bad grin. He appeared to be missing quite a few teeth. When he’d come in, she’d noticed that he was wearing flip-flops and limping.
She pretended not to recognize him. “Sorry?”
“Emery. Emery Perkins. Your boyfriend’s former stepbrother.”
“I didn’t think your parents were ever married.”
“A technicality. Trask is still my bro whether he likes it or not. And this is an old family friend, Vernon. Ya might remember him.”
She shook her head. “It’s been a long time. So what can I get you?”
“A couple of beers to start,” Emery said, looking disappointed that she didn’t remember them. Or maybe disappointed that she hadn’t reacted to hearing Trask’s name.
“So ya ever see Trask anymore?” Emery asked as she put two drafts down on the bar in front of them.
“I guess you haven’t heard. He left town nine years ago,” she said, sounding as disinterested as she could. “I haven’t heard from anyone who’s heard from him.”
“I thought he was the love of ya life. I’m sure if he was back around these parts, he’d come see you.”
“I’m dating Junior Wainwright now, so I really doubt it.” She started to turn away.
Emery grabbed her arm. “Listen to me, sweetheart,” he said, lowering his voice. “I know he’s back and I know ya know it. Tell him I want my money. A thousand dollars
. Cash.”
She looked down at his hand on her arm, then at him. She also lowered her voice. “Touch me again and I’ll break that arm.” She jerked free of him as her brother Darby walked up.
“There a problem here?” Darby asked.
“No problem,” Emery said. “Just havin’ a friendly chat with yer sister.”
“Why don’t you finish your beers and move on along. My sister’s too busy to chat right now.”
“No problem,” Emery said and picked up his beer and downed it. As he slid off his stool, he met Lillie’s gaze. “We’ll finish this some other time when yer not so busy.”
The large man with him chugged his beer and the two left.
“Wasn’t that Trask’s stepbrother? Emery or something like that?” Darby asked. “I recognized that other one too.”
She shrugged. “I handled it, but thanks for being there for me.”
“Always.” She could feel her brother eyeing her. “Odd, them turning up after all this time.”
Lillie said nothing as she picked up their dirty beer glasses and went back to work, her heart in her throat. They knew Trask was back. For some reason they thought he owed them money? How long before they went to the sheriff?
* * *
TRASK DROVE TO the spot where he was to meet Johnny even though it was early. Fear for Lillie had him drained. He sat back in his pickup seat and closed his eyes, hoping to rest. So much had happened since he’d been home. Home. He smiled to himself.
Gilt Edge wasn’t home yet, but it would be once he proved he didn’t kill Gordon. He knew Lillie didn’t trust that he would be staying. She was thinking of the old Trask, who’d had his reasons for not wanting to spend the rest of his life in this town where everyone knew his business.
That Trask had grown up. He’d seen worse since he’d left Gilt Edge. Every family had their skeletons in the closet, their dark secrets, their screwups, he’d realized. He wasn’t unique. Nor was his family.
He must have fallen asleep. He checked the time. Johnny was late. He told himself that he shouldn’t have been surprised. Whatever was going on with his friend, the man didn’t want to share it.
