“Starved,” she told him, still looking down at his forearms.
He rummaged through the pantry that was right next to his refrigerator. “I’m afraid all I can offer you is either a box of sugarcoated cornflakes, or half a loaf of bread. Anything else—if I had it—would require a stove and electricity to make it edible.”
Turning toward her, he held out the box of cornflakes in one hand and the loaf of bread in the other.
“Both,” she said without any hesitation. “I don’t remember the last time I ate.” Her stomach rumbled as if on cue. She flushed as she glanced down, self-consciously. “But obviously my stomach does.”
“We’ve all been there,” he said, glossing over her rumbling stomach to help her cover up her embarrassment. “Have at it,” he told her, handing her the box of breakfast cereal and the partial loaf of bread.
Maggie accepted both. If this was all he had on hand, he obviously didn’t believe in stuffing himself. “I see that gluttony isn’t one of your vices.”
Jonah laughed, appreciating that she had retained her sense of humor despite the situation she had endured.
“No, but curiosity is.” And then Jonah became serious as he asked, “What the hell were you doing out there with a hurricane about to hit the area? You were taking an awful chance with your life.”
Rather than make up an elaborate excuse, Maggie leveled with him. “To be honest, I forgot all about the hurricane. Besides, the weather bureau is usually wrong with its forecasts more than half the time, anyway.”
He watched her go at the cornflakes as if they were going out of style. She wasn’t kidding about being hungry.
“You forget about Bellamy and Donovan’s wedding, too?”
“No, I didn’t,” she answered, a little indignant that he would think she was such a scatterbrain. “I just thought I’d have enough time to get to Live Oak Ranch and then get back. When I left for the ranch, the wedding was a day away.”
He supposed she had a point. But he had another question. “And just what was so important at the ranch that you had to go right then?”
Maggie waited until she’d had consumed another handful of cornflakes before answering. “The answer to a riddle.”
Jonah frowned. She wasn’t being clear, he thought. Was that on purpose, or was she just as in the dark about her so-called “mission” as it sounded?
“What kind of a riddle?” he asked.
Rather than just give him another vague answer, Maggie leaned forward and pulled out the map she had hastily tucked into her back pocket just before the threat of being swept away by the rushing waters had her climbing up into the tree.
Then she told him the whole story, such as it was. “A couple of days ago, I got a letter from my attorney informing me that my former late father-in-law, Adam Corgan, had left instructions in his will to send this map and the note he wrote to me after he was dead.”
Well, he could see why that had aroused her curiosity. It would have aroused his, as well.
“May I?” Jonah asked, nodding at the map and note in her hand.
Maggie held out the papers for him to take. “Sure, go right ahead.”
Jonah read the note twice and was no more enlightened than he had been a minute ago.
“‘The truth shall set Elliott Corgan free.’” He read out loud, then looked up at Maggie. His brow was furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Maggie shook her head. “I have no idea. I found the tree,” she told him, indicating the map. “That was the one I was clinging to when you rescued me earlier today,” she explained. “But I didn’t find anything there that made what was in the note any clearer. To be totally honest, I have no idea why Mr. Corgan would have wanted me to have this, or what he was cryptically trying to tell me. None of it made any sense to me.”
“It’s suspicious, all right,” Jonah agreed, frowning as he glanced at the note again. Something was off here, he thought. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach, like something solid that just sat there. “Maybe the police chief has some idea what your late father-in-law was trying to say,” he suggested.
“Late ex-father-in-law,” Maggie corrected. She wasn’t related to any of those people anymore. Emotionally, she never had been.
The corners of his mouth curved slightly. “No love lost I take it.”
“Adam was okay, I suppose,” she told him charitably. “But James...” she said, referring to her ex-husband. “Well, that’s another story.”
“That makes this note you were sent even more suspicious,” he said, waving the map and note.
She laughed dryly. “You won’t get an argument from me.”
He’d been watching her as Maggie made short work of the bread and cereal he’d given her. “Sorry I can’t offer you anything more than just that bread and stale cereal,” he apologized again.
“Right now, this is a feast,” she assured him—and then suddenly she realized what she was doing. “And I’m hogging it all,” Maggie said. She tilted the open box toward him. “Here, have some of your own cereal. There’s not much left.”
He held up his hand to keep her from pushing the box toward him. “That’s okay, you eat it. I can wait until we get back to town.”
Town. That sounded a million miles away, Maggie thought wistfully. “Is that going to be anytime soon?” she asked. “My sister must be worried sick about me.”
Jonah laughed dryly. “Your sister is the reason I was out here looking for you in the first place. She was pretty scared now that you mention it. She was afraid that you might have drowned—or been blown away.”
Maggie raised her chin defensively. “She should have known I can take care of myself,” she said, doing her best not to let guilt overwhelm her. Her lips formed a pout. “You win a couple of beauty contests and everyone thinks you have cotton for brains and can’t find your way out of a paper bag.”
“I did find you up a tree,” Jonah pointed out, trying not to smile.
“Right,” she agreed. Then she said deliberately, “I was in a tree, I wasn’t floating facedown in some storm-filled ditch.”
“Well, if it means anything,” Jonah told her quietly, “I never thought you had cotton for brains.”
The unexpected affirmative comment caused Maggie to smile. “It means something,” she replied. And then she stopped suddenly, cocking her head toward the window. “Hey, listen,” she said, alert. “Hear that?”
Jonah did as she instructed. But, he thought, he obviously didn’t hear what she did.
“Hear what?” he asked Maggie. “I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly,” she exclaimed, her eyes shining as she abandoned the empty cereal box on the scarred table and hurried toward the front window. She looked out, scanning the sky. “The storm’s over,” Maggie announced like a town crier. “Or at least it’s stopped for now.” She turned around to face him. “I think we should take advantage of the lull and get back to town before the weather decides to change its mind again.”
“Best idea I’ve heard today,” Jonah told her, although there was a part of him that would have liked to have lingered in the cabin a bit longer.
Maggie was already at the door. “What are we waiting for?” she asked. She couldn’t wait to get back to civilization.
“I need to put out the fire,” Jonah told her. When she looked at him, her brow wrinkled in confusion, it occurred to him that she might have misunderstood what he was saying. “In the fireplace,” he added. And then he proceeded to do just that.
“Oh.” Maggie felt like an idiot. She thought he was referring to something she’d felt going on between them. “Of course,” she murmured belatedly.
“You wait here while I saddle Cody up,” Jonah told her. He could see that she wasn’t the type who liked being left behind. “I’ll hurry,” he promised, closing the door behind him befo
re Maggie had a chance to protest.
Or before he had a chance to act on the feelings that were bubbling up inside him.
Chapter 4
Bellamy was helping a family of three settle into their temporary quarters because the hurricane had rendered part of their house unlivable when she happened to look in the general direction of the side entrance. She dropped the blanket she was holding and completely lost track of everything else.
“Oh my lord, he found her!” Bellamy cried. “He found her!”
Before any of the family she was helping could ask her who she was talking about, Bellamy was racing across the rec center, trying not to bump into any of the people or the cots that had been hastily arranged throughout the large room.
Bellamy descended on her sister with an enthusiasm that came straight out of their childhood. Reaching Maggie, she threw her arms around her, hugging the somewhat-bedraggled younger woman for all that she was worth.
Donovan reached Jonah and Maggie while Bellamy was laughing and crying, all at the same time.
“It’s you, it’s really you!” she exclaimed, beside herself with joy. Part of her had been terrified that she’d lost Maggie to the hurricane.
“Yup, it’s me,” Maggie managed to get out.
Bellamy was squeezing her so hard it was difficult for Maggie to draw a breath, much less actually be able to say something intelligible.
“You have no idea how scared I was that I’d lost you,” Bellamy cried. “And we’d just finally resolved all those things between us and had gotten back together.” Still hugging Maggie, she looked over her sister’s shoulder at Jonah, who was standing right behind Maggie. “Thank you!” she cried, tears sliding down her face as her eyes met Jonah’s. “I don’t know how to ever repay you for this.”
“It’s just all in a day’s work,” Jonah assured his future sister-in-law.
He hadn’t searched for Maggie in order to be thanked or praised, he’d done it because for him there was no other choice. If he hadn’t found Maggie, he would have still been out there, searching for her.
“Bell,” Maggie all but squeaked. “I can’t breathe,” she protested because her sister was hugging her even harder.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Bellamy apologized self-consciously. She released Maggie and took a step back. “I was just so sure that I’d lost yo—” Bellamy stopped talking as she took a better look at her sister. “What are you wearing?” she cried in amazement as she looked at the work shirt that was hanging off her sister’s upper torso, all but going down to her knees.
In the excitement, Maggie had temporarily forgotten all about the shirt she’d put on. Collecting herself, she glanced down. She could see why Bellamy had reacted the way that she had.
“Oh, this. It belongs to Jonah.” Because that all but begged for a further explanation, she told her sister and Bellamy’s fiancé, “My blouse was completely soaked so Jonah offered me one of his shirts so I could have something dry to wear.”
Bellamy looked quizzically at her sister’s savior. “You carry spare shirts with you?” she questioned, somewhat confused.
“No,” Maggie interrupted, “I got the shirt from his closet when we stopped at his cabin.”
This wasn’t making anything clearer. If anything, it was making things even more obscure. Bellamy exchanged looks with her fiancé.
“You stopped at Jonah’s cabin?” she asked Maggie, trying to get things perfectly clear in her mind.
Jonah could see this conversation was going somewhere that seemed destined to make Maggie uncomfortable. Rather than get more tangled up in an explanation, he waved his hand dismissively at all of it.
“Long story,” he told Bellamy and his brother. “Maggie’ll tell you all about it once things settle down a little around here.” To him it was more important to see to the survivors than explain why Maggie’d had a wardrobe change.
The recreation center was completely packed now and the people who had either lost their houses to the hurricane or had their houses so severely damaged that they were deemed unlivable would have to stay here until other, more permanent arrangements could be made. But the lucky ones would be going home soon, Jonah thought.
However, that didn’t mean that his job, as well as that of the other members of the team tasked with rescue efforts for the town, was over. Far from it. There was still a great deal to do.
But he wanted to do one more thing before turning his attention back to rescuing the residents of Whisperwood. Jonah wanted to get a second opinion on this so-called riddle that had all but sent Maggie to her death.
“Has anyone seen the police chief around recently?” he asked his brother and Bellamy.
“Chief Thompson?” Donovan asked, surprised that Jonah was looking for the man. “I just saw him. He brought a stranded couple to the rec center in the last hour.” Donovan looked around the area. “There he is,” he declared, spotting the chief halfway across the rec center. He pointed toward the man for Jonah’s benefit.
Chief Archer Thompson picked that moment to look in their direction. Seeing that Donovan was pointing at him, the chief headed toward the group to see what he wanted.
Tall, lean, with an authoritative air about him and very few gray hairs despite being in his midsixties, the chief smiled warmly at Maggie as he approached the small group.
“I see you found Maggie,” he said to Jonah. “Nice work. Are you all right?” the chief asked the young woman, politely making no reference to her unorthodox oversize attire.
Maggie nodded, appreciating the man’s concern. “I am now.”
Since she was back, safe and sound, the chief allowed himself to comment on her initial disappearance. “Fool notion, going out like that in a storm,” he admonished her. “Didn’t you listen to the weather report?”
“In my defense,” Maggie told the police chief, “there was no storm when I left—and the weather bureau only gets things right a fraction of the time.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “But it was the day before your sister’s wedding.” He would have thought she would be busy helping her sister with the details for the wedding. “If you don’t mind my asking, why were you out, running around the countryside like that?”
Jonah decided to step in. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he told the chief. He took out the map and the note that Maggie had given him. Glancing at Maggie to see if she had any objections about sharing this information with the chief—she apparently didn’t—he handed both over to Thompson. “Maggie was looking into this.”
Jonah saw the chief raise an eyebrow and in the interest of brevity, he explained, “Adam Corgan left instructions in his will for the map and note to be sent to Maggie upon his death. We’d like to know what you make of it?”
All the chief needed was one glance at the map to tell him that he was looking at the Live Oak Ranch. The accompanying note, though, proved to be more of a mystery.
“‘The truth shall set Elliot free.’” Thompson read, then looked up at Maggie and Jonah. “What truth?”
“To be honest, that was what we were hoping you might be able to tell us,” Maggie confessed.
Thompson frowned, looking at the note again. It was just as obscure on the third reading as it had been on the first two.
“Well,” he said slowly, “this obviously has something to do with Adam’s older brother, Elliot.”
“The one who up and disappeared years ago? Wasn’t he rumored to be that serial killer?” Donovan asked. Everyone but the chief looked at him in surprise. For the most part, Donovan had just been listening to what the others were saying, but this had made him think back to the stories he’d heard shared from decades ago. “The one who killed those six young women? That was, what, forty years ago, wasn’t it?”
Thompson suppressed a sigh. This had been hushed up by Corgan’s family but after all this time, the
chief saw no reason to keep it silent any longer.
“Exactly right,” the chief said grimly.
Maggie felt totally bewildered. “He was a serial killer?” she cried.
“I’m afraid so. The Corgan family paid good money to have this covered up. But with Adam dead, this was bound to come out,” the chief said.
Maggie looked at the note again. “What do you think it means?” she asked the chief.
The look on the chief’s face grew grimmer. “It means that you should stay away from anything that has to do with this case.” He glanced from Maggie to Jonah. Neither one looked as if they were in the least bit intimidated. “I’m serious, you two. I don’t know what Adam had to have been thinking when he wrote this or why he would have wanted to pull you into this family mess after all this time. But I guess now we’ll never know, since Adam’s not going to be answering anyone’s questions anymore.”
“But maybe Elliot could,” Jonah suddenly said, speaking up. If anyone should know what was behind this riddle, it would be the man the riddle specified by name. “Do you know where he is, Chief?”
“Yes,” Thompson replied, making the decision to end his own silence. “He’s in Randolph State Prison in Austin. Has been for forty years.”
“Then he was convicted of killing all those women?” Jonah asked.
Stunned because she’d never known any of this when she was married to James, Maggie asked, “How was this not public news?”
“I told you. The family paid to keep this quiet,” the chief said.
“That money they paid, did that include you?” Jonah asked.
“I had other reasons,” Thompson answered without elaborating any further. He was long passed the point of getting annoyed by careless questions. “What’s important is that Elliott was found guilty by a jury of his peers and he’s been incarcerated for the last forty years,” Thompson said quietly. “The bastard got what he deserved,” the chief added with genuine feeling and finality. “I was serious before,” he said to Maggie and Jonah. “I want you to stay away from this. There is no ‘truth’ to set Elliot free. He killed all those poor young women who, as far as was known, never did anything to him except to have the misfortune of crossing his path. The man needs to go on paying for his crimes.”
Colton 911: Cowboy's Rescue Page 4