“I’ll take a kiss,” Shae offered up, hoping he understood exactly what she meant by that invitation. She didn’t want to spend the week she had left by arguing with him. It had been very hard for her to accept over the course of her stay that she was no longer going to find the answers she’d thought might finally be within her grasp. She’d found something else entirely, and she wasn’t so sure what to do with the diamond she’d found amongst the coal. “I took a shower and brushed my teeth.”
“That’s my incentive, huh?” Jace didn’t hesitate, though. He strolled over and trapped her against the kitchen counter, leaning in so that his lips were inches from hers. How was it that he could still send tingles all the way down to her toes after all this time? He surprised her when he didn’t steal the kiss she’d offered. “Doc, I understand.”
Shae wasn’t in the right frame of mind to have this conversation. Her grip tightened on the mug and her throat constricted due to the overwhelming sorrow that now surrounded them.
He was letting her go.
And he understood her reason why it had to be this way.
Shae blamed her inability to speak due to the fact that she’d had too much to drink the night before. She always became overly emotional after too much alcohol, and this moment was no exception.
Jace took the cup of tea from her hands and set it behind her on the counter. He pulled her into his embrace and held her as a few teardrops escaped, though this time it had nothing to do with the loss of her sister.
“I want you to know something, Shae Irwin.” Jace’s tone became thick with the sentiment he was conveying. “I missed out on what you had to offer all those years ago. You are an extraordinary woman filled with strength and grace who will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’ll thank God for the rest of my life that we had this time together.”
Shae nodded, but she still couldn’t speak. Her tears wouldn’t stop. What was it about this town and goodbyes?
“I’m not going to ruin what time we have left by pouting like a teenage boy who didn’t win the State title.” Jace continued to stroke her back with his comforting touch, reminding her that she would no longer have him to lean on when her days didn’t go quite as planned. “I’ll continue to help you search for answers regarding Emma’s disappearance, but we’re going to spend the remainder of your time here enjoying every other second of the day and night. Are you with me?”
“I’m with you, Jace,” Shae whispered, tilting her head up to receive the kiss she’d asked for earlier.
The small lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled, though that didn’t stop him from softly pressing his lips to hers. The firm way he took control of the situation sent arousal shooting through her, and she was sitting on the counter before she even realized he’d had his hands underneath her arms.
Jace tore his lips from hers, but only to follow her jawline and the curve of her neck. She dug her fingers into his shoulders as he went a little lower, taking with him her loose t-shirt until he’d bared her shoulder. The light nibble of his teeth had her wondering what it would take to keep him home today.
“I’ll make sure to buy another box of condoms while I’m out,” Jace muttered, finally giving her reason to allow reality to intrude on this moment. His large hands were now resting on her thighs, which were bare due to the shorts she was wearing. “I should be back by early afternoon.”
Shae’s headache came back full force when she realized she’d set up a lunch meeting with Jace’s uncle. Those plans had been made when Jimmy Webb had shown up at the Cavern right before Harlan and Chester took the stage. She hadn’t shared the news with Jace.
“Okay,” Shae whispered, letting her hands slide down the front of him as he stepped back. She offered him a wary smile, thinking it might be a good thing she hadn’t told him of her plans. “Drive safe.”
“Always do, Doc.”
Jace reached for his sunglasses and wallet he’d set on the counter next to her tea, giving her a quick wink. She wiped away what moisture was left on her cheeks and watched the way he sauntered through the doorway. She wanted to have fun with him later, but the guilt of withholding something that could inadvertently affect him would eat her alive if she didn’t come clean.
“Jace?” Shae quickly hopped off the counter, wincing when the throbbing in her temples magnified with the movement. “Wait!”
Jace was waiting for her by the front door, his sunglasses already positioned on the bridge of his nose. The darkened lenses hid his blue eyes, but that wasn’t a bad thing. She wouldn’t be able to see his censure.
“I’m meeting your uncle at the diner for lunch.” Shae held her breath and waited for the warnings as to why that was such a bad idea. Detective Kendrick had to pull the officer that had been guarding her sometime last week when no other incidents occurred to back up his claim to his superiors that she was in danger. Jace’s counsel never came, so she followed up her admission with why the location would be safe. “I’ll be at Annie’s Diner, where I know practically everyone. And besides, he’s your uncle.”
“I know you’ll take every precaution to stay safe.” Jace lifted up one side of his mouth in an endearing smile. “See? I’m doing my best to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Jace gave her a two-finger salute before he walked out the front door. He was talking about their last week together and how they should relish every second given. And yes, he was also trying to give her some space and a little leeway to do what she’d come home to do. She still walked across the hardwood floor to throw the deadbolt, knowing full well he was waiting at the top of the porch steps to hear the latching of the lock.
Home.
Jace was right.
She did refer to Blyth Lake as home.
She sighed in regret as her hand dropped from the door. It didn’t matter how she viewed the town, though. Emma was everywhere. At the diner eating a banana split when their mom took them to celebrate the end of the school year, at the bank when she would ask for a lollipop from the teller, and at the lake where she would fearlessly jump off the pier. Every square inch of Blyth Lake was doused in memories of her sister. The air itself was somewhat overwhelming.
The incessant throbbing of Shae’s temples reminded her that she’d left a perfectly good cup of tea on the counter. She made her way back into the kitchen where her liquid sanity had now gone cold. Setting it in the microwave, she thought about the day ahead.
Would Jimmy Webb have answers that had somehow gone overlooked all these years?
It was doubtful, but it was still a checkmark on the list Shae had mentally created on the drive from Michigan to Ohio. She would still be able to say that she’d finally done all she could to find closure as she drove away from home and left everything behind once again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Jace instinctively turned the radio down when a line of brake lights appeared before him. He grimaced as he slowly pressed on the pedal to slow his Range Rover.
Damn it.
He tapped the display in the middle of the dashboard to bring up his list of contacts via Bluetooth. Choosing Mitch’s name amongst his siblings, he waited impatiently for his older brother to pick up the line. There was a benefit to knowing the sheriff in Blyth Lake, and Jace wasn’t above using that contact when the need arose.
“What’s up, Jace?”
“Are you in town?”
The chances of Mitch being anywhere else, even his new home, were zero to none. The man had always been a workaholic, and this important role he’d undertaken would get all the attention it deserved.
“No,” Mitch replied, his irritation evident. “I’m out at Raymond Dixon’s ranch, trying to get him to see reason. Is there an emergency?”
“No,” Jace answered, thinking better of asking his older brother to have lunch at the diner to watch over Shae. He was being overprotective, just as she’d said multiple times before. She was in a public place, surrounded by old friends and neighbors wh
o would never allow something to happen to her. They’d all know to keep a close eye on her due to the circumstances. “It’s nothing. What’s going on over at Raymond’s place?”
“The son of a bitch is holed up in his house with his girlfriend, claiming that she told tell the police that he was the one who killed Whitney Bell and those other girls.” It was clear that Mitch didn’t believe that for a second, but something had to have happened to cause Raymond to do something so crazy. Then again, Raymond always did have a screw loose. “Apparently, they got into a fight over whether or not Worcestershire sauce should be kept in the refrigerator. One thing led to another, and Celeste threatened to tell the police he murdered Whitney.”
Jace was glad that traffic had come to a full stop in the left lane or else he probably would have driven into the median. Mitch had to be pulling his leg.
“You’re joking, right?”
“I wish,” Mitch muttered, a breeze aiding in the distortion of his words. “Celeste freaked out when she realized she’d pushed the crazy bastard a little too far. She called Patty, and now the Dixon ranch is surrounded by my deputies. Raymond is demanding in writing that we believe his innocence before he lets her out of that house. And trust me, Celeste will have a bag in her hand when she does, because I refuse to let her go back to that asshole. I never liked the son of a bitch, anyway.”
Jace truly hoped Mitch could get Celeste to see reason. She was older than they were by quite a few years and had always been nice in her own way. It appeared that side of her had been wiped away after all the years spent with someone like Raymond. Granted, the threat she issued was quite disgusting and downright abhorrent. Responsibility for who they turned out to be lay at both their feet.
Bottom line? They weren’t good for each other.
“I’ll let you go to deal with the crazies.” Jace was thankful he had no desire to enter the type of career that put him in the path of uncontrollable events and insane people. “Good luck. It sounds like you’re going to need it. Oh, and Worcestershire sauce should be refrigerated. You know, in case you still need to settle that argument.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Mitch replied with irritation that bordered on downright anger. “It says no such thing on the label. I forget that you can be an ass sometimes.”
Jace would have argued that Mitch was thinking of their baby brother, but the line went dead.
Priorities.
There was no doubt this argument would come up again at some point, but it certainly wouldn’t end in a hostage situation.
Jace gradually lifted his foot off the brake pedal when the bumpers in front of him began to slowly roll forward…no more than twenty feet. Damn it. Another glance at the clock on the dashboard told him there was no way in hell he was going to make that lunch meeting.
It wasn’t like anything had happened over the course of the last few weeks. In fact, it had been a little too quiet. From his understanding, Deputy Wallace was murdered on Noah’s property right after Sophia Morton’s body was found inside his house. It wasn’t long after that when Lance discovered the pictures of many missing teenage girls. Add on Whitney’s disappearance and subsequent murder, though her body had yet to be recovered, it was practically a nonstop true crime television series.
Shae’s sudden appearance in town clearly rattled the responsible party into taking a calculated risk that had paid off in waves. Leaving the ankle boots Emma had been wearing the night she disappeared was sick and twisted, but the threat had been well received.
Was that why the son of a bitch was lying low? Or was it something else?
Had Shae gotten too close before that night?
It was something to think through on his drive home. Shae had been taking every precaution he’d asked her to take since she’d been staying with him. She was meeting his uncle in a public place with people who would watch out for her wellbeing. There was no reason to call in reinforcements, but what could it hurt to have either Noah or Lance stop in at the diner to pick up some lunch?
Jace had brought his Range Rover to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. He didn’t hesitate to shoot a quick text to Lance, asking for the favor. Noah was most likely up at the lake with the Schaeffers working on those new cottages that Rose had switched contracts on with regards to the renovation companies.
Once that was done, he began going through the events of the afternoon he’d first arrived home. It was the same day that Shae had come to town, so who had she interacted with that would cause the killer to take such deliberate action and risk getting caught in the process?
The answer to that question brought him back to what his brothers believed this entire time—someone they all trusted and had known their entire lives was a murderer.
*
“And you told this to Sheriff Percy the next day?”
Shae had always known that Jimmy Webb had been an eyewitness the night of her sister’s disappearance. For the longest time, there had even been rumors that Jimmy had been the one responsible. No one had proven otherwise, yet the community had somehow managed to sweep that accusation under the rug when it became too much to bear. After all, how could someone who’d been born and raised in Blyth Lake be responsible for something so evil?
“Yes, which is why Percy scoured those woods from top to bottom.” Jimmy pushed away his lunch plate to make room for the coffee the waitress was about to set down in front of him. Sure enough, Molly was right there with the standard porcelain cream mug that had been a staple of this diner since the day it opened. “Thanks, Molly.”
“Can I get you a cup of tea, Shae?” Molly’s tone contained that particular pity Shae had come to loathe. She’d chosen the location due to the safety of the place, but she should have realized that meant word would get out and every seat in the diner would be taken for a chance to eavesdrop on her conversation. “I had Cassie get that English Breakfast tea you tried to order your first night here.”
Cassie was the daughter of the infamous Annie Osburn. Both of their past deeds had been fodder for the gossip mill, so one would think they would take special care to treat others with respect. Who knows? Maybe that’s why Cassie had ordered Shae’s favorite tea.
“I’d like that, Molly,” Shae responded with a tight smile, wanting more than anything to get back to her conversation with Jimmy. “With milk and sugar, please.”
“Coming right up.”
Molly departed, but her absence only highlighted those patrons sitting at the counter listening to every word uttered. Every click and clank of the silverware touching the plates of those eating lunch were amplified as everyone waited to hear what Jimmy said with bated breath.
“Shae, I drink. It’s a known fact that I go on a bender a couple of times a month.” Jimmy took a sip of his coffee with no remorse in how he lived his life. He set the mug down with a thud. “I’ve spent time in jail. I wasn’t the best son, brother, or uncle to my family. I’ve been divorced twice, and they’ve rightfully taken me to the cleaner each time. I own my mistakes, but let me make one thing perfectly clear. I know what I saw that night, and that was your sister walking down Seventh Street before—for some unknown reason—heading back into the woods.”
“What do you think happened to her?” Shae asked, truly wanting his opinion. “My parents never got over the pain of losing her. At times, it seemed that they’d even forgot they had an older child. Not that I blame them. We all dealt with our grief in our own way.”
“I think someone snatched her from that area, just as the police suspected from the get-go.” Jimmy’s face was leathered from years of drinking and working odd constructions jobs here and there in the blazing sun, but the disgust written in his features was unmistakable. “I’ve gone over and over that night, recalling each and every vehicle parked on Main Street and Seventh Street. There wasn’t a car or truck that shouldn’t have been there.”
Shae understood what Jimmy was trying to convey to her, but she was still left in the dark as to who was
responsible for abducting Emma. Jimmy believed there was someone walking among them whose soul was as black as the ace of spades.
“The cemetery is on that end of town, so I couldn’t tell you if someone parked in the lot and got her out that way. Then there’s the fact that she could have gone back to that bonfire. Who’s to say one of those teens didn’t do something they regretted, trying their best to get rid of the evidence.”
It was obvious that Jimmy was waiting for her to deny that scenario from the way he looked at her over the rim of his mug. He took a drink, which reminded her that Molly should be returning to the table with a cup of tea. Shae bought time before addressing his supposition, because she personally knew the majority of those teens in attendance that night.
A quick look toward the kitchen had Shae noticing that Molly was setting the tea bag, creamer, and sugar next to a steaming cup of water on a tray. Calvin, Harlan, and Chester were eating quietly at the counter. Sheriff Percy had a booth to himself in the corner, though she had to remind herself that he no longer deserved that title.
Miles Schaeffer was having lunch with his two older sons on the other side of the diner. Their relationship certainly hadn’t been what some would say was on solid ground for quite some time. Given the fact that Clayton Schaeffer had almost burned Lance’s house down with him in it didn’t help matters any. Wes seemed to be the one keeping the peace. That wasn’t surprising, given that Chad was nowhere to be found to do the job himself lately.
It was Billy Stanton’s presence that bothered Shae the most. He was having lunch with Julie. It was common knowledge that the two of them were involved, but their newfound relationship was still mind-blowing. Julie had been distraught the day after Emma’s disappearance, as had Brynn. They had both witnessed Billy admitting to the police that he had only danced with Emma that night because he felt bad for her to have such high hopes of winning him over.
Billy’s behavior and disregard of the fact that a girl’s life had possibly been in jeopardy was nauseating and something that Shae would never be able to forgive.
Unlocking Lies Page 16