Whispering Pines Mysteries Box Set 3

by Shawn McGuire

  After a few seconds’ pause, she murmured, “Tucson.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “My parents live in Tucson.”

  I sat back, closed my eyes, and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Millie, please, what’s going on? If you’re in trouble, I can help you.”

  We sat in silence for what had to be three minutes before she said, “I can’t. Ask Jonah.”

  She couldn’t because she didn’t know what was going on? Because she knew but was told to not say anything? Or because he had kidnapped her? No, Jonah wouldn’t kidnap anyone. Although the twists and turns in this day just kept coming, so nothing would surprise me.

  “Is there a reason you can’t say anything? Are you in trouble?”

  She shook her head, too hard, too crisply. “Talk to Jonah. He’ll tell you.”

  Tell me what? What was going on with him? It had to be something big. Was my half-serious guess correct? Was he dragging her across the state against her will?

  “Millie, are you okay? I’m being dead serious here. If there’s something wrong, if you’re in danger, say so. I’m a sheriff. I promise, I can help. Did he threaten you? Is he forcing you to stay with him?”

  She laughed. A trilling little tinkling bells sound. “I got into Jonah’s car of my own free will. I knew where he was taking me.”

  “He brought you here on purpose? Is that what you’re saying?”

  Instead of answering, Millie thanked me for the beer and cookies and left my apartment. As I heard the door click shut at the bottom of the stairs, two things were clear. First, she came up to see me for a reason, but something was preventing her from telling me what it was. That led me to believe she was either in danger or hiding something big. Or both. Second, I needed to find out if anyone had reported Millie Gordon missing.

  I rushed down the stairs and straight to the office. After waking up the laptop, I checked to see if there were any missing persons reports for a Camille “Millie” Gordon. There was nothing online, but she and Jonah hadn’t been gone that long. Her friends and/or family might not even know she had left town yet. I could sit here and wonder about the possibilities or I could call my old captain in Madison and ask for his help.

  “Captain Grier is out of the building,” the officer who answered the phone told me.

  Great. “What is your name, please?”

  “Corporal Dufour,” he replied.

  “Corporal Dufour, this is Sheriff Jayne O’Shea in Whispering Pines. I used to work for Captain Grier.”

  He paused before saying, “I’ve heard your name.”

  The hint of amusement in his voice told me he’d also heard about the Randy/Frisky incident. He probably knew the other members of the precinct, the male members, had given me a very hard time over that incident. They’d considered me disloyal to my partner and labeled me untrustworthy. More than a year later, I stood by my decision to tell my captain about Randy’s erratic behavior. If I hadn’t, more people than Frisky Fox might have ended up dead.

  I turned on my sheriff’s voice. The one that made Reed stand at attention a little taller. “Corporal, it is very important that I speak with Captain Grier as soon as possible. We’ve got a situation up here that I need his help with.”

  “Can’t you call county?” It sounded like he was fighting off a chuckle.

  “What’s your badge number, Corporal?”

  He cleared his throat, sobering now. “Captain Grier was called to a shooting at a residence. He should be back in an hour or so.”

  “And you’ll personally pass along my message to him?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I will personally tell the captain as soon as he walks in the door.”

  And now, adding to my frustration, I had to wait. As was standard around this place, however, I didn’t have to wait long for something else to happen.

  Chapter 19

  Out of nowhere, Meeka threw her furry little head back and let loose with a long howl.

  “What are you doing?” I shushed her. “You’re going to disturb people.”

  When wolves howled, it was to either warn rival packs to stay out of their territory or to act as a sort of homing beacon so a lost member could find its way back to the pack. Or they might simply be vocalizing with their pack members, having a little sing-along or gripe session. Why Meeka would howl, I had no idea. In fact, until this moment, I couldn’t remember ever hearing her howl before.

  Scratch that. I’d never witnessed her howl. I thought that’s what I’d heard a couple times when she was outside doing yard patrol. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand what had set her off now.

  Seconds later, Jonah walked into the office. Didn’t knock. Didn’t wait for me to acknowledge him. Just strode on in, shut the door, and dropped into a guest chair.

  I stared at my Westie in stunned fascination. What the heck was that? Was she alerting me to his coming? Or had she been sending out a warning for him to stay away?

  Jonah scowled at Meeka, whose howling had settled into ruffs that sounded like she was grumbling to herself. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “Something must be irritating her.” I gave him a pointed look. “Can I help you with something?”

  “I told you earlier. I want to talk.”

  Quiet now, Meeka stood with her paws on my leg, begging to come up. Whether she wanted to protect and/or comfort me, or wanted protection and comfort for herself, I wasn’t sure. Either way, I could use her calming presence at the moment so pulled her into my lap.

  I studied the man across the desk. He clearly wasn’t going to let this go. Might as well let him say whatever he needed to say. “What’s going on, Jonah?”

  “You’re right,” he began without hesitation. “There’s a reason I came to your village.”

  “You purposely drove through a blizzard to come to Whispering Pines? Why would you put your life and Millie’s in danger that way? What’s so important that you couldn’t wait a day?”

  He crossed his arms, and I could see he was struggling with whatever was coming next. At that point, I went from annoyed to concerned. Still, I sat back and waited for him to supply the details.

  “Everything is falling apart, Jay.” He looked up at the ceiling and blinked. “I know how this is going to sound. But you know me better than anyone, so I should be able to tell you.” His gaze locked on me. “Right?”

  “Honestly? The Jonah I knew wouldn’t drive into a blizzard, so I’m not sure how well I know you anymore.”

  He leaned forward with his elbows on the arms of the chair. “Okay, here’s the thing. My position at Dad’s firm is over.”

  That was a surprise. Sort of. One of Jonah’s college graduation gifts was the guarantee of a position at his dad’s law firm once he graduated law school and passed the bar. To me, Mr. Price jumped the gun on that one. He thought he was motivating his son, but Jonah did just enough to graduate and only put forth true energy at political gatherings. He admitted that studying for and passing the bar nearly killed him. I had to agree. I’d been really worried about him at that time.

  “What do you mean your position is over?” I asked. “He fired you?”

  Jonah leaned back and sighed. “He fired me. And I’ve got until the end of March to find someplace else to live.” He winced as though embarrassed. “That’s when the lease is up.”

  “He’s kicking you out of the apartment?”

  Jonah put his hands to his face, hiding, and nodded his head. He loved that apartment. It was sleek and modern with black granite countertops, shiny chrome accents, and was one hundred percent rent-free compliments of Price, Maroney, and Associates. The best thing was its convenient, central location halfway between the UW-Madison campus and the state capital. The two happiest places on earth according to Jonah. We moved into it after college, another graduation gift. He continued on to law school, and I attended the police academy and then started working for MPD.

  “What am I supposed to do with this information?" I asked. “Feel
sorry for you?”

  His hands dropped to his lap. “No, I’m not looking for pity. I thought you’d understand, though.”

  He was absolutely looking for pity. I literally had to bite my tongue to stop myself from adding to his humiliation by telling him he’d been spoiled long enough. It was time for him to grow up and stop living off Daddy. He’d never looked so vulnerable, though, so it seemed unnecessarily cruel to express those thoughts.

  “You’re living in your parents’ home.” He gestured vaguely at Pine Time, and his tone turned nasty, instantly staunching any empathy I felt for him. “You’re sitting there thinking this was coming eventually and that I need to suck it up and get on with things.”

  “Well, since you know what I’m thinking . . .” B&B owner Jayne reminded Regular Jayne that he wasn’t our ex, he was a guest here. “I still don’t understand why you risked driving through that storm.”

  His vulnerable demeanor had also turned. “You think you’re so different from me? You think you’re better? Where did you go when I kicked you out of that apartment?”

  “You kicked me out?” Somehow, I held in the hysterical laughter dying to burst free. “We remember that incident differently.”

  “You went running straight to Mommy,” he continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “Then, when that became too much for you to handle, you moved here to the family mansion.”

  I braced at his implication and thought back to how every room in this house was trashed when I first got here. “Tripp and I worked our asses off to turn this into what it is now.”

  “Really?” he sneered. “What does that mean? You hired people to come and do the work for you?”

  What difference did that make? “I hired Tripp. I may not have done as much of the physical work as him, but I did what I could while also serving as sheriff. It was a definite team effort.”

  Jonah laughed. An aren’t-you-cute sound that made my blood boil.

  “Tell me, Jonah, when did you figure out which end of a hammer drives in a nail?”

  His eyes darkened and a chilly expression took over him as he leaned back, right foot propped casually on his left knee. “See? This is what you do. You say stuff like that, and I end up getting mad.”

  This is what I did? He purposely pushed my buttons, and it was my fault when I reacted? So my role was to ignore those jabs and let him say whatever he wanted? Had we been like this before? I remembered arguments but not this level of nastiness. Maybe I’d blocked those memories.

  Meeka leaned against me as though trying to absorb my anger and soothe my sorrow.

  “You’re taking us off track.” He inspected his highly buffed nails. “My point is, we’re not so different. In fact, we’re a lot more alike than you want to admit. We’re both driven people. Both passionate about our work. I mean, taking on a sheriff’s position after being ostracized at the Madison precinct the way you were? It inspires me to see someone bounce back after losing everything that way. Then again, you are enforcing the law in a village of, what, two hundred people?”

  “Whispering Pines has a year-round population of eight hundred and triples in size during the tourist season.”

  “Well, pardon my error.”

  He could tear me apart all he wanted, but I wasn’t going to let him pick on this village.

  “Jonah, don’t sit there and pretend to praise me. You have never supported my work.”

  “Of course I do. I just said—”

  “You constantly belittled my career. You told me once that a middle schooler could do my job.”

  He nodded as though remembering making the statement. “You’re right, that was out of line.” He paused for half a second. “I should have said high schooler.”

  How could I have been in love with this man? “Do you really have such little respect for the law? Isn’t that what your profession does? Make the laws?”

  He sat forward in the chair. “I have great respect for law enforcement.”

  “You don’t.” I’d been holding on to this anger for years. It felt good to let it out. “Every chance you got, you told me I should quit my job and work on my hostess skills so you could invite people over for dinner parties.”

  He smirked and settled back again. “Well, you did need quite a lot of work in that department.”

  I needed to kick him out. Not just out of my office, but out of my house. Millie could stay here. I’d make sure she got safely back to Madison.

  Jonah rubbed his hands over his face. “You baited me into another argument, Jay.”

  Had I? I reviewed the conversation in my mind. Things went off the rails when he called this house a mansion, and I asked about his familiarity with a hammer. I guess, in his mind, that constituted baiting. Or maybe he simply knew how to drag this childish behavior out of me. Was that my fault? When around him, should I constantly be on the lookout for warning signs so I wouldn’t say something juvenile or nasty?

  “This is not how I wanted this conversation to go.” He inhaled then exhaled dramatically. “Everything has gone wrong since we broke up. Don’t you see that?”

  For him, sure. Everything had gone right for me. Starting with Tripp, Morgan, and everyone else who lived here. The fine folks in this village had become my family as surely as Dad, Mom, and Rosalyn were. And then there was my job. Whispering Pines might be small but keeping things in line here was a lot of work. During the tourist season, I came home so tired some nights I could barely move. Still, there was nothing I’d rather do. Except run this B&B with Tripp.

  Jonah was still talking. “You know how they say that to fully appreciate something you have to get a little distance from it?”

  I stared at him. Where was this going?

  “I’ve never stopped loving you, Jay. I know we have some issues, but we could work through them. We never really tried that, did we? I see now, you’re a good cop. I’m sure you could get a position back in Madison. We could try again.”

  My mouth literally hung open as my mind thought of how thrilled Mom would be if I gave him another chance. She’d finally have a foot in the political world like she’d always dreamed. I’d take over status as the favored daughter since Rosalyn had broken up with James.

  Those thoughts lasted half a second before I gave myself a good hard mental head slap. And that was half a second more than they deserved. No, Jonah was delusional if he meant what he was saying. It seemed losing his Price family privileges had pushed him over the edge.

  He scooted forward in his chair again, and Meeka growled low in her chest. I clutched the fur at her neck to soothe both her and me.

  “Think about it, Jay. We always talked about being a Madison power couple. Remember?”

  No. He thought it. I never did.

  “It’s inevitable that I’ll climb the ranks at the capital.” He tented his fingers, elbows on knees. “You could eventually make it to captain rank. I’d make the laws. You’d enforce them. We’d run that town together.”

  My blood chilled in my veins. This wasn’t just about him losing his job and apartment. His dad might have finally pulled the plug, but I knew Jonah’s mom. She’d never let her baby boy end up destitute. It was a safe bet that, come the end of March, the lease on that apartment would be renewed. Jonah had to know that. He might have to go look for another job, but he wouldn’t be homeless. No, something else was going on with him.

  “What aren’t you telling me, Jonah? Whatever it is, you can say it.”

  He put a hand over his mouth, and his eyes went blank. Scary blank. Whatever was going on, it had completely rocked his world.

  The door burst open then, and Tripp stormed in. “There you are.” He glared at Jonah. “I told you, you want to talk to her, you do it with me present.”

  He dropped into the other guest chair and sat back with his hands clasped in front of his abdomen.

  Jonah shook his head. “I knew I should’ve locked the door.” He sighed and stood. “We’ll finish this later, Jay. You need a little
time to think about my offer anyway.”

  Then he left the office before either Tripp or I could say another word.

  Chapter 20

  I blew out a breath, glad to have Jonah out of my office, and relaxed. I was even happier to have Tripp in front of me. He, however, was angrier than he’d been in the hallway upstairs earlier. He shot to his feet when Jonah left, his fists clenched. Now he was pacing a short line in front of the desk.

  “What was he doing in here?” he demanded. “We discussed this earlier. I told you—”

  “Stop. I know you were not about to tell me what to do, were you? I appreciate your opinion and value your input, but don’t mistake that for being able to dictate my actions.”

  He flinched, likely as unprepared for my outburst as I’d been for his. His puffed-up anger deflated like a balloon with a pinprick hole. “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to do.”

  I let my irritation go too. I wasn’t even mad at Tripp. He was my soft place to land, as I was for him. “This has been one of the worst days ever. Let’s not take it out on each other. Okay?”

  “Agreed. He sets me on edge, though, you know? There’s something about him I don’t trust.”

  I nodded and pointed to the guest chair for him to sit again and took the one next to him. “I’m going to tell you about our discussion, but I don’t want you getting angry. Everything’s fine.”

  Tripp sat almost statue still while I spoke. Almost. His hands fisted until his knuckles turned white when I told him about Jonah’s proposal that we get back together. I grabbed one of his hands and held it tight.

  “He doesn’t really want me back. And you know I don’t want him. There’s something else he hasn’t told me yet.”

  Tripp’s clenched jaw released as did his tight shoulders. “Do you think he’s dangerous? We’ll lock him in one of the rooms and stand guard if you do.”