The New Deputy in Town Read online

  He smiled as he met her gaze. He had the darkest eyes. “I like it here. I like the open country and the people. Everyone is so friendly.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “You don’t think we’re all backwoodsy local yokels?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I find you all charming and unique. Especially you.” He grinned at her. “I like that it feels as if nothing has changed around here in the last hundred years.”

  She laughed. “It hasn’t. And you’re saying that’s a good thing?”

  “Yeah. It is. There’s history here that you can feel. You know what I mean?”

  She did. It was one reason she loved coming here every summer. Everyone knew everyone else and their families. Generation after generation had stayed to work the land; they’d planted deep roots; they had shared memories. She loved that feeling of belonging.

  “Can I ask about your mother and father?”

  She met his gaze. “There isn’t much to tell. They fell in love in high school, got married young. My father was Russ Cherry. You know that big old empty house in Whitehorse?”

  “The one that looks haunted?”

  She winced. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was haunted. That house saw a lot of tragedy. My grandfather Cherry killed himself and my grandmother Cherry in that house. The place has been empty ever since.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Nick said. “Your father...?”

  “He and my mother had been childhood sweethearts. They married young and moved into the house Laci and I stay in every summer. My grandfather Titus built it for them out on the ranch as a wedding present. They hadn’t been married long when they had me, then Laci, right after that.”

  “I’m sorry, if this is too painful—”

  “No, it’s like someone else’s story since Laci and I were so young when it all happened. My father had gone into town a few weeks after the funeral. He was coming home. They said he’d been drinking. He rolled his pickup and was killed. My mother never got over his death, I guess. One day she just disappeared and was never seen again.”

  Nick reached across the table and took her hand. “You lost so many people in such a short time.”

  “Laci and I had Gramps and Gramma. They raised us. We were lucky really because we couldn’t have asked for a more idyllic childhood. I wish you could have met my grandmother before her stroke. She was the most vibrant woman. Strong, determined homestead woman.”

  “Like her granddaughter.”

  She smiled at that. “I hope to be like my grandmother someday. But those will be huge shoes to fill.”

  “I have no doubt you’ll make her proud.”

  She could hear the rustle of trees, smell fresh-cut grass and feel the slow, reassuring warmth of Nick’s hand.

  Then he drew back as he always did. “How is your cousin?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “I haven’t been able to talk to her.” Laney hated to admit it. “When I call, I’m told she’s out.”

  “You don’t believe it?”

  She shook her head. “Maddie’s upset with me and Laci because we tried to talk her into breaking her engagement. I wasn’t very diplomatic, I’m afraid.”

  He smiled knowingly. “I probably didn’t use the best tack either. She’s nineteen. Legally she can marry anyone she wants.”

  Laney let out a sigh. “I think she’s just afraid that she will never love anyone the way she does Bo. I can understand that.”

  “Who was he?” Nick asked.

  She blinked in surprise. “I...I...” She looked away. “A boy I met my first year at college. I thought he hung the moon.”

  “What happened?”

  “Life,” she said with a rueful laugh. “We were too young to make a lifetime commitment. We both went our separate ways. I heard he got a job in a large corporation back East and married the boss’s daughter. It would never have worked for the two of us. That wasn’t the life I wanted, and this,” she said with the wave of her hand, “wasn’t even close to what he wanted.” She met Nick’s nearly black gaze. “What about you?”

  “My heart’s been broken so many times I’ve lost count,” he said.

  “I seriously doubt that.”

  “It’s true. Women always think they want the strong silent type until they realize that we’re just dull.”

  She laughed, studying him as they finished eating in a companionable silence. Funny, but she was beginning to notice that he often didn’t give her a straight answer. Almost as if he was afraid she’d get too close to the truth.

  “We’d better get to the Villa,” he said as he rose from the table. “I hope you left room for buttered popcorn.” He collected the wrappers from their picnic and took them over to the large trash can.

  Laney watched him go, thinking he was the sexiest man she’d ever met. And the most intriguing. But she couldn’t ignore that underlying feeling that she would be smart not to get too close either.

  There was more to Nick Rogers than he wanted her to know. And the more time she spent around him, the more convinced she was that he was hiding something from her.

  * * *

  ON THE RIDE HOME from the movie, Nick noticed that Laney seemed lost in thought.

  “Did you enjoy the movie?” he asked, realizing he couldn’t even recall the plot. He’d spent the time too aware of the woman sitting next to him.

  “Yes. I’m just worried about my cousin,” she said.

  He wasn’t sure he believed that. Laney had been distant since the park earlier. He feared it was something he’d said. Or hadn’t.

  “I’ve been wondering myself whether Geraldine left Maddie something out of gratitude for helping her from time to time—or to keep Maddie quiet,” he said.

  “What?”

  He saw her shocked, angry expression and wondered why he’d brought this up. To get her take on it? Or to keep her at arms length?

  “I’m just trying to understand their relationship and maybe what is going on with your cousin. Geraldine supposedly didn’t have any enemies. Nor friends, from what I can tell. Maddie was one of the few people allowed in that house. I have to ask myself, why Maddie?”

  “Because Maddie is sweet and nice and—”

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” Nick said looking over at her, wondering if that was true.

  She turned away from him as if to look out the side window into the darkness.

  “Did you notice how much Geraldine was paying Maddie?” he asked.

  “Two dollars an hour,” she said, “which proves that Maddie was helping her out of the goodness of her heart—not some dark ulterior motive.”

  “Or Maddie was getting a lot more than two bucks an hour so she wasn’t about to ask for more.”

  Laney glared over at him. “You’ve spent time around Maddie. Do you really believe she’s a blackmailer?”

  He had to admit Maddie was the furthest thing from his image of a blackmailer. “But Maddie is all messed up, even you have to admit that or she wouldn’t still want to marry Bo Evans.”

  “You won’t get any argument out of me in that regard, but she wasn’t blackmailing Geraldine Shaw.”

  “Someone apparently was. Which brings up the question of what Geraldine had to hide.”

  “Nothing.”

  He shook his head. “Most people have something to hide no matter how small.”

  She cocked a brow at him. “Like you?”

  The question surprised him. Even in the dim light from the dash, he could see that she was serious. He’d thought he’d been so careful, but obviously he’d made her suspicious somehow. He grinned. “We all have our little secrets. Even you, I’d bet.”

  He saw something fleeting in her eyes. Laney was an open book. Or was she? Maybe it was true. Maybe everyone really did
have things they wanted to hide.

  He quickly changed the subject back to Geraldine. “You said her husband died last year?”

  “At the end of the summer. Laci and I had already left when it happened.”

  Nick frowned. “I didn’t see his grave up on the hill. In fact, the only grave near Geraldine’s was an unnamed child.”

  “Geraldine lost her daughter a month before the baby was born.” Laney’s voice was flat. She seemed resigned to talking about Geraldine’s murder rather than what he had to hide although she obviously wasn’t happy about it.

  “She never had any other children?”

  Laney shook her head. “My grandmother said Geraldine never wanted any children. The baby had been Ollie’s idea. There is some sort of birth defect that ran in Geraldine’s family. I guess she feared it would affect her baby—and she was right.”

  Nick took that in, kicking himself for bringing this subject up in the first place. No wonder Laney was leery of him. He would come on to her, then pull away as if he didn’t know what he wanted. That was just it. He knew what he wanted. Her. And under other circumstances...

  “As for Ollie, her husband,” Laney continued, “he was back in Minnesota visiting relatives when he died. His last wish was to be buried back there.”

  Nick chewed that over for a moment. “Doesn’t it seem funny to you that Geraldine wouldn’t want to be buried beside him?”

  She shrugged. “She had more ties to Old Town Whitehorse than Ollie. The house belonged to her grandparents who homesteaded here. I guess she wanted to be where her roots were. All her relatives are buried up on the hill.”

  He drove down the long road that ended just past her house. He understood roots better than she might imagine.

  “So your roots are in Texas?”

  “No,” he said too quickly, then shook his head. “I have no real roots.”

  “That’s right, you said your family was in the military and you moved a lot.”

  He could feel her gaze on him, feel her trying to understand him. “You’re lucky. Your roots are here. I envy you that, the kind of history you have here.”

  “We all make our own history,” she said. “Few of the young people stay here anymore because there aren’t enough decent-paying jobs. Life here is changing.”

  “That’s too bad.” He studied her face for a moment as they neared her house. “What about you? Do you think you will ever settle here?”

  “My sister is determined to. At least that’s what she says.”

  “What about you?”

  “I do love it here and, being an accountant, I’m sure I could make a career here.”

  “But?”

  She looked away, biting down on her lower lip before she said, “It would take the right man for me to stay.”

  Nick felt her words pierce his heart. That right man definitely wasn’t Nick Rogers.

  * * *

  LANEY KNEW HE WASN’T GOING to kiss her. As he walked her to her door, she heard his radio in the patrol car squawk. He trotted back to the car. She listened as the dispatcher told him there’d been another attack outside a bar back in Whitehorse.

  “You’d better go,” she called to him. “Thank you for dinner and the movie. It was nice.”

  As she started to open the front door, she heard his boots on the porch steps. An instant later, he spun her around and into his arms. And the next thing she knew, he was kissing her.

  And then he was gone, leaving her standing on the porch, wondering if she’d only dreamed the kiss. But even she couldn’t have dreamed such a kiss. Or such a man.

  Nick Rogers left her dazed and wanting more. And while her analytical mind didn’t like the odds, her heart was willing to bet it all on him.

  Chapter Ten

  On a hunch the next morning, Nick e-mailed the department that handled births and deaths in Minnesota and inquired about an Oliver “Ollie” Raymond Shaw who had died last summer while on a visit from Montana.

  They had no record of Ollie’s death. Nor did Montana.

  At the Milk River Examiner, Nick asked Glen Whitaker to see if Geraldine had run an obituary for her husband. Sure enough. The obit said Ollie had died in North Pond, Minnesota, almost a year ago to the day.

  Glen made a copy of the obituary for him and asked, “Any leads on Geraldine’s murder or that other case?”

  Nick wished he could tell Glen that he’d found the person who’d beaten him up. He doubted Glen wanted to hear that Nick suspected it had been a woman with a baseball bat.

  “Not yet,” he said. “But you’ll be the first to know when I do.”

  Back at his office, Nick contacted the state department of investigation in Minnesota only to be told there was no town by the name of North Pond. No funeral home by the name of the one Geraldine Shaw had said in the obit had handled the arrangements. No cemetery where Ollie Shaw was said to have been buried.

  Oliver “Ollie” Raymond Shaw had been born in Minneapolis, but as far as Minnesota knew, Ollie hadn’t died there. Nor in Montana.

  Nick sat for a moment, taking it all in. He’d been around cops long before he’d became one. Maybe that was why he felt as if he’d been a cop for way too long. He’d seen too much. And yet as the pieces started falling together, the picture that started forming made him sick to his stomach. Sometimes he hated this job.

  On impulse, he unlocked the bottom desk drawer and took out the cell phone as he’d done each day since he’d arrived in Montana. Only all the other times there’d been no message.

  His heart began to pound, fear making his palms sweat as he turned on the phone and retrieved the message. He told himself he was prepared for the worst. A message telling him to get the hell out of Dodge because Keller had found him. But he’d always known that by the time he was sent that message, he’d probably already be dead.

  Maybe that was why he’d feared the other message as well. The voice on the other end of the line was flat, official. The message was short and sweet.

  “The trial’s been moved up. We’ll need you here by the beginning of next week.”

  A blade of ice wedged itself in his heart. He had to go back to California. He recoiled at the thought, but if he didn’t return, he’d have more than Keller to worry about. As if Keller wasn’t enough to cause him sleepless nights.

  Next week.

  A part of him wanted to run. But there was no place he’d ever be safe. He’d known that when he’d come to Montana. Not even out here in the Big Open would he ever be free of his past.

  In the meantime, he had a murder on his hands. He picked up his car keys and headed for Old Town Whitehorse. At the edge of town, he spotted Chaz pulling a large red wagon, his dog walking beside it.

  Nick pulled over when he saw the expression on Chaz’s face.

  “I guess you heard Prince got in trouble again,” Chaz said quickly as Nick got out. “But I’m returning everything he borrowed.”

  “Borrowed?” Nick asked, looking into the wagon. It held a variety of items, everything from a garden sprinkler to a TV remote.

  “Prince took all of this stuff from people’s houses?” Nick asked, picking up an old baseball bat.

  “He’s really smart. He knows how to open screen doors.” The boy’s shoulders slumped. “He’s been going into people’s houses and taking things.”

  Nick stared down at the bat in his hands. The bat was weathered and cracked. In one crack there was a dark red crusted substance that unless he missed his guess was blood.

  “Where did Prince get this?” Nick asked, trying to keep his voice even.

  Chaz shrugged. “I don’t know where he got any of the stuff. I’m going from house to house and letting people take back the things that belong to them. And apologize for Prince like my aunt told me to.
”

  Nick nodded, trying to decide how best to handle this. “This bat looks familiar. Will you do me a favor? Keep track of who takes what so I can write up a report. Don’t make a big deal out of it. I don’t want any of the residents to press charges against you. You think you can remember who takes what?”

  Chaz nodded quickly.

  Nick placed the bat back into the wagon. “After you return everything, write it all down and I’ll stop by and pick it up, okay?”

  “Yes, sir. And there won’t be any more problems with Prince. My aunt says I have to keep him on a chain in the yard at night from now on.”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Nick agreed before climbing back into his patrol car and driving up the road to Maddie Cavanaugh’s.

  * * *

  LANEY STUMBLED ACROSS the Web site quite by accident. It was amateurishly done with lots of bells and whistles and bright colors.

  She almost didn’t click on the “Take a Tour” of prospective dates. But her curiosity got the better of her.

  The first face that came up was no surprise. Violet. It was an awful photo, cropped down from a regular photograph into a mug shot. Poor Violet. Laney was sure the woman hadn’t agreed to this photo, let alone being on the site.

  The next prospective date was a woman who lived in Whitehorse. Laney couldn’t remember her name, but she recognized her face. What was interesting about the photo was that Arlene had left some of the background in this one.

  With a start, Laney realized that the photograph had been taken at the engagement party that Laci had thrown for Maddie and Bo.

  “What’s going on?” Laci asked, coming into the room. “Did I hear you swear?”

  Laney hadn’t realized she’d even spoken. “You aren’t going to believe this,” she said to her sister as she quickly clicked to the next photo.

  “I know that woman. She was at the party,” Laci said as she pulled up a chair.

  “I suspect they were all at the party,” Laney said as she advanced through the photographs until hers came up. Her mouth fell open—just as it was in the candid snapshot that Arlene Evans had taken of her at the engagement party.