They were both quiet as Terry started the car and pulled out.
“Do you mind coming by the police department with me? Or do you want me to drop you at home?”
“I don’t mind coming in, if you don’t mind having me around. Are you going to have to clock in?”
“No. Just because this came up today, that doesn’t mean that the clans are closing in and I’ll be needed for one last stand. It’s highly unlikely anything will happen today. I’ll just talk to Sheriff Wilmot, let him know the rumor, and we can deal with it next week.”
“Sounds good. I’ll hang around, then.”
“He might want to talk to you anyway, get your opinion on whether Charley is telling the truth or exaggerating.”
“She could be doing both.”
Terry gave a small smile. “Yes, she could be doing both.”
“I couldn’t believe her house. Her apartment in Moose River was so neat and organized.”
He nodded, but didn’t have any comment about Charley’s housekeeping.
“Do you think she really loved Bobby?” Erin asked, as they pulled into the reserved parking space behind the civic center.
Terry’s brows went up. “Hard to say. I’m no expert on matters of the heart…”
“Just your gut feeling. As a cop.”
“People get emotional when they are tired or when they’re drinking. She was obviously overwrought. But does that mean she didn’t love him and is just dramatizing? I don’t think so. I’m sure she had feelings for him… I’m just not sure how deep they really were. You just can’t tell by the way people react to a death.”
“She seemed so together when it happened. Perfectly calm. She hardly gave any sign that she cared about what had happened to him. Now this…”
“The truth is probably somewhere in between. In the aftershock of a violent death, people are often less emotional than you would expect. It isn’t until everything should be back to normal—after the funeral ends and everyone goes home—that it really hits them, and they begin to grieve.”
“And then to be hit with Don Inglethorpe’s death right in her bakery, and the possibility that she’ll never be able to reopen the bakery again…”
“She could probably use a hand,” Terry said, “some counseling, maybe.”
He was obviously hearkening back to their earlier conversation that Erin might need some therapy in the wake of her traumatic experiences. Erin just rolled her eyes and didn’t take the bait.
“I’m sure Charley will be fine. And she does have family she can go back to. They can help her get over this and figure out what to do with her life.”
“You’re not including yourself in that?”
“Well… no,” Erin admitted. They might be blood, but they weren’t much of a family. Charley was young enough that she could go home, and her parents would help her. Erin hadn’t ever had a safety net like that.
She probably should have enough compassion for Charley to offer to take her in hand and help her to straighten her life out, but Erin couldn’t bring herself to take on that project.
Chapter Twenty-One
S
heriff Wilmot seemed unimpressed by Charley’s report that the clans were descending on Bald Eagle Falls to have it out. He shook his head slowly.
“No, I don’t see it. Bald Eagle Falls has never been the type of place the criminal element were interested in. Sure, we’ve had our share of moonshiners and pot-smoking high school students, but we’re not an epicenter for drug activity. There’s no market here. Why would they waste their time and energy on staking out a claim?”
Terry shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know the inner workings of these organizations. Maybe Charley Campbell could fill you in a little more about that. I just thought you should know.”
Wilmot nodded. “Appreciated. But I haven’t seen too much to bear the rumor out.”
“We have had a few bad characters around the last few days who aren’t normally part of the picture here.”
“Not unusual after a murder. People want to see where it happened. It will quiet down again.”
Terry had expressed the same possibility himself, so he just nodded. Only time would tell.
“Erin,” Sheriff Wilmot hadn’t acknowledged her up until this point, but having dealt with the possibility of organized crime invading Bald Eagle Falls, he noticed her waiting for the handsome Officer Piper and took advantage of the opportunity.
“Morning, Sheriff.”
“Can you tell me of any reason Charley’s fingerprints would be on your rolling pin?”
“Oh… well, I assume she’s the one who took it from my kitchen, so she would have gotten her prints on it then.”
“She didn’t cook with you at any point?”
“No. She’d hardly ever even been in my kitchen. We didn’t bake together.”
“And when you loaned her the rolling pin—”
“I never loaned it to her,” Erin cut him off. “I never would have given it to anyone to use on gluten doughs. It would be contaminated, and I wouldn’t be able to use it for my gluten-free doughs. I wouldn’t want to take the chance, however slim, of ever poisoning someone.”
“I see. She had led me to believe that you had let her use it. But in fact…”
“I told her several times that she couldn’t borrow any of my pans or equipment. Again… it wouldn’t have been safe for my customers. She seemed to really have difficulty understanding that. She didn’t just ask once, and she kept insisting that I would just have to wash them afterward.”
“Couldn’t you?”
“I couldn’t wash them and be one hundred percent sure that there wasn’t a single particle of flour in it. And for some people, one particle would be enough to make them sick.”
“I see.” He nodded slowly. “So, when you went over to The Bake Shoppe to get the rolling pin back, you were prepared for there to be trouble.”
“I was ready for an argument,” Erin admitted. “But I wasn’t planning on beating anyone to death.”
“Of course not.” But Sheriff Wilmot pursed his lips and seemed to be considering the idea.
Erin hesitated. “Charley said she never took the rolling pin. She said that she wasn’t the one who took it. She had never touched it.”
“Well, obviously she had touched it. Fingerprints don’t lie. If she hadn’t ever had the opportunity to use it while it was at your bakery, then she was the one who took it.”
Erin didn’t know what else to say. The next question was a logical one—had Charley been the one wielding the rolling pin when Don Inglethorpe had met his demise? Erin wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
In spite of the way the day had started and being short on sleep, Erin ended up having a pretty good day with Terry. She was able to forget about the heavy pall hanging over her and just to enjoy herself and spend time in the moment. It was almost like being on vacation. What little spare time she had was usually filled up with running errands, making lists, cleaning the house, and planning out advertising campaigns. Doing nothing was a rare treat, especially if she could do it with Terry Piper.
Erin was feeling tired, but relaxed and satisfied when Terry dropped her off at home at the end of the day. She let herself into the house and reached over to disarm the burglar alarm, then saw that it was already off. She checked to make sure that the door was shut.
“Jeremy? You home?”
He didn’t answer. Erin walked by his bedroom to put her purse in her own, and saw that he was sitting on the bed, phone to his ear. He gave Erin a little wave of greeting. Erin put her things away and went into the kitchen to feed the animals and take a look across the back yard to see if Vic was home.
Reality started to reassert itself. Erin frowned and the knot began to tighten in her stomach again. Was it only a matter of time until organized crime made it to Bald Eagle Falls? Or had it already?
Vic was just arriving home, saying goodbye to Willie before retiring. E
rin drew back from the window to give them their privacy. She looked in the fridge for anything good to eat, even though she wasn’t actually hungry. In a couple of minutes, she heard Willie’s truck engine roar to life and Vic came in the back door, smiling and relaxed.
“You look like you had a good time,” Erin observed.
“We did. I think…” Vic hesitated before finishing, “I think we’re finally over all of the bumps and can just move steadily forward.” She gave Erin a grin. “And you and Officer Piper? I got my fill of gossip at the ladies’ tea this morning. It would seem that you have been seen together around town.”
“Well, of course. Where else would we be seen?” Erin asked, trying to mask her self-consciousness. “We have been seeing each other for quite some time now. You already knew that.”
“But you haven’t slept over at his house before.” Vic’s voice was full of teasing innuendo. Erin had always been very careful not to poke her nose into Vic’s business or to tease her about her relationship with Willie, but she was starting to regret that fact. She would feel better if she knew that she had given as good as she was getting.
“We couldn’t very well sleep here, could we?” she asked archly.
Vic’s eyes got wider. “Why couldn’t—oh, because of Jeremy! Where is Jeremy?”
Jeremy joined them in the kitchen a minute later, having pulled himself away from his phone call. “Is that my sister’s voice I hear?”
“Jeremy, didn’t you know you were supposed to be chaperoning these young people?” Vic demanded, gesturing to Erin.
“Chaperoning them?” Jeremy repeated. He looked quickly at Erin, and then back at Vic. “You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“Of course I am. But you could have been a gentleman and spent the night in my apartment so that Erin could have her gentleman over.”
“I… well, I suppose… but I didn’t want to be in your way in case you brought your guy back…” He was turning quite red. “I mean, it’s one thing to have an older couple that you don’t really know around, it’s a little different when it’s your little sister, who used to be… and I don’t really know…” he broke off, scratching the back of his neck and looking incredibly uncomfortable.
Vic was laughing so hard Erin was worried she was going to pop a blood vessel.
Erin raised an eyebrow at Jeremy. “An older couple? Are you serious?”
“Well… you’re older than me,” Jeremy protested, turning from the hazard of thinking about what his sister might be doing to repair the damage his words had done. “I just meant—older than me,” he protested. “You’re older than I am. Not by that much, but…”
“I’m not much older than you and neither is Terry,” Erin agreed. “Now Willie, he’s older than either of us.”
They both looked back at Vic, who was standing with her hands on her hips.
“You just go there,” she challenged Jeremy.
“Uh, no. I wasn’t going to go there. You can do whatever you want with whoever you want.” It was going to be a long time before all of the blood suffusing his face faded. He clearly did not want to be imagining his younger sibling with Willie.
“I clearly need to find a place of my own soon,” Jeremy said. “I had no idea that it was such a hotbed over here. You guys need your privacy, and someday I’m going to need mine.”
“Not too soon, I hope,” Vic said in a parental tone.
“You’re younger than I am,” Jeremy repeated. “If you’re old enough, then I certainly am.”
“You make sure you wait until you’re ready and have someone really special that you plan to spend a long time with.”
Jeremy chuckled. “You’re going to make a good mom, Vic.”
She grinned at him, pleased. Then Vic turned her attention back to Erin. “Things went well with Officer Piper? The two of you… enjoyed each other’s company?”
“We always do,” Erin said evenly. “And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.” She looked at Jeremy seriously and then back at Vic. “We need to talk.”
“Okay.” Vic nodded. She would know that they needed to discuss the living arrangements before too much more time passed, but she didn’t know there was more to it than Erin’s need for privacy or the difficulty in keeping Jeremy’s presence a secret from Terry Piper.
Chapter Twenty-Two
T
hey all withdrew a little reluctantly to the living room and sat down. Erin sighed.
“Jeremy… we’re going to need to know what’s going on. We can’t just keep hiding you here. You really need to fill us in.”
He chewed the inside of his cheek. “It’s not that easy.”
“A lot of things are hard. But you still have to deal with them. You need to tell us what it is you’re running away from. What you’re hiding from. Don’t try to tell me that you just need to find yourself. You could have found yourself a home without hiding from the police.”
“I really can’t talk about it,” Jeremy protested. “I don’t want to get anyone else in trouble.”
“Well, if you’re in trouble, you’re already getting us in trouble, because we’ve been aiding and abetting you. You’d better tell us just what it is that you’ve gotten us into.”
“Erin,” Vic protested, “we don’t need to know everything. Jeremy is entitled to his privacy…”
“Is the Jackson clan trying to take over Bald Eagle Falls?” Erin asked flatly.
Vic stared at her, mouth open. Then when neither Erin nor Jeremy laughed, she looked at Jeremy, who was no longer red with embarrassment, but as white as a ghost.
“The Jackson clan doesn’t want anything to do with Bald Eagle Falls,” Vic asserted.
“They didn’t,” Jeremy agreed. “But because of everything that’s been going on lately, they might just have changed their minds.”
Vic shook her head. “That doesn’t make any kind of sense. What would they want to do with Bald Eagle Falls? There’s nothing here. The biggest criminal enterprise is jaywalking, and there’s only one street you can even cross against the lights. There’s no reason for the clan to bring any of their crap here.”
Jeremy was looking at Erin. “How did you know?”
“I have my sources. So explain to me how you’re involved here. Were you sent to scout it out? To keep an eye on things? Are you supposed to do something, or just sit back and report on everything that happens?”
“I was supposed to be involved,” Jeremy said with difficulty. He gave Vic an apologetic look. “They wanted me to… to do things that I couldn’t.”
“Who wanted you to?” Vic demanded.
“They said… it was time for me to prove myself. That I’ve just been living off the clan and getting all of the benefits, and I hadn’t paid my dues. So, it was time to join an operation and show that I was really Jackson material.”
Erin shook her head.
“So, you were supposed to do what?” Vic demanded. “Kill Don Inglethorpe?”
He cut his eyes toward her and his expression didn’t change. He swallowed and kept his eyes down, lips tight.
“Is that it?” Erin asked. She had assumed that he would be involved in some lower-level activity. Reporting back to his organization on numbers. Maybe testing out some drug distribution or trying to spot the soldiers from the opposing clans. She hadn’t expected it to be anything big.
“I don’t know who killed Inglethorpe,” Jeremy said cautiously. “It wasn’t me. It wasn’t anything to do with me.”
“But if you had stayed home, it would have been,” Vic suggested.
“I don’t know. It might have been clan. They had more than one thing going on. I’m sure there were lots of ways I could have cemented my position with the clan.”
“I don’t understand,” Erin said, shaking her head. “I get that these organizations run along family lines… but… you’re saying you don’t have a choice whether to be involved or not? If you’re a Jackson, you’re expected to be a criminal, doing whatever
it is they want you to?”
Jeremy chewed on his lip. It was Vic who tried to put it into words.
“You’re raised that the Jacksons are on the side of the angels. Anyone who opposes them is obviously on the devil’s side. So that makes it right to protect your family’s safety and freedom. It’s okay to do things that you’ve been taught were wrong, because that’s part of being a Jackson and protecting our way of life.”
“Did they expect you to be like that too?” Erin demanded. “I mean, you were just a kid before you left home. A minor. They didn’t ask you to break the law for them, did they?”
“It’s small things when you’re younger,” Vic said. “Little things are easier, and then it doesn’t bother you as much when they ask you to do the big things.”
“Like killing someone?”
Vic looked at Jeremy. “I was never told to kill someone. I was told to get rid of problems, yes, but no one ever told me anything like that.”
“Soldiers aren’t really told ahead of time what they’re going to be asked to do,” Jeremy said quietly. “I guess they figure that you’ll do what you’re told in the heat of the moment. You don’t have time to think about it, you just do what the boss tells you to do, and if you feel bad about it after, you have a drink and you laugh about it with the others, and then you’re one of them, and you can try to forget about the details.”
Was that how it had been for Charley too? Just acting and reacting in the heat of the moment, until she wasn’t a living, breathing individual anymore, but a robot, programmed to do what the mob wanted her to do? Was it any wonder that she hadn’t shown any emotion after Bobby had died? That she hadn’t known what she felt like at the time, not until weeks later when she was faced with another death and the potential loss of her business?
“Then what are you doing here?” Erin challenged Jeremy. “It seems to me that if you wanted to avoid the clan and start life fresh, you wouldn’t come to the one place that they’re concentrating on at the time.”
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