Why had he never realized that about her before?
11:40 a.m.
Lizzie Stanford hustled into the store after her usual morning break and whispered to Sylvia behind the checkout counter, “You won’t believe what’s happening down the street.”
Sylvia handed a customer his two dollars and forty-six cents change and waited for him to leave the store.
“What are you talking about, Lizzie?”
Lizzie straightened her sweater over her hips. “Three deputies.”
The adrenaline that surged through Sylvia was becoming all too familiar lately.
“They arrested the accountant at the department store,” Lizzie said.
“Jessica McCarthy?”
“Yes! How did you know it was her and not one of the others?”
“Just a guess.” It didn’t take much for Sylvia to put two and two together. Liam had been a wreck for most of the last ten days. He must have seen this coming.
“Apparently two deputies walked through the store acting perfectly normal and then went up to the offices. When they came back down, they had her—handcuffed and everything.”
“Did you see this for yourself?”
“I didn’t see them in the store, but word gets around fast. Half the town is standing out there gawking right now.”
Sylvia widened her eyes. “They’re still out there?”
“Yep. Squad cars and everything.”
It was time for Sylvia to put on her mayor hat. “I’d better see what’s going on. You can handle things here, can’t you?”
“Of course.”
The only people in the store were Raisa Gallagher and her two little girls in the children’s book section, and she was likely to spend a long time looking and then purchase only a couple of coloring books. Sylvia pushed briskly out the door and hurried up the street, abandoning decorum along the way.
Lizzie was right. The front of the department store was mobbed with bystanders. Most likely everyone in the store at the time of the arrest now stood on the sidewalk, along with dozens more who had been in adjoining businesses when news of the excitement burst. One of the deputies was fully occupied insisting that onlookers remain a reasonable distance from where another officer hemmed in Jessica against a squad car. A third officer was in the vehicle using the radio.
Sylvia had assumed Cooper would be leading the arrest effort, but instead he was farther up the block, well away from the commotion. He stood with his body positioned slightly in front of his brother’s. Cooper didn’t block Liam’s view, but Sylvia suspected he didn’t trust Liam to stay out of official sheriff’s business.
Sylvia jostled through the crowd.
“Did you know about this, Mayor?” someone asked.
Sylvia gave a diplomatic answer. “It’s a matter for the sheriff’s department.”
“Yes, but did you know?”
She didn’t answer. “Stand back, please. There’s no need to loiter.” Sylvia pushed on through, keeping an eye on Liam. She’d known Liam for a long time—nearly all of his life. She hadn’t always liked him, but she tried to be cordial. He could be pushy and self-centered and just a little too suave for her liking, but Sylvia was not without sympathy. He and Jessica had been an item for years. Whatever had led to the morning’s dramatic events, Jessica’s arrest was sure to affect Liam in some way. He was as pale as Sylvia had ever seen him.
Only when Sylvia reached Cooper and Liam did she turn around to see the view from their perspective. Jessica was dressed with as much chic as ever in a gray skirt hitting above the knees and a fitted rose-colored silk blouse. She wore three-inch heels, and her hair and makeup were flawless. Her head tilted slightly to one side, unimpressed with the events swirling around her.
“Good morning, Mayor,” Cooper said.
“Good morning, Deputy Elliott.” Sylvia took a position beside Cooper. As hesitant as she was about Liam at times, she liked his brother a great deal.
Cooper’s eyes were fixed on Jessica, with a glance every few seconds at his brother in his peripheral vision.
“One arrest on Main Street this week was not enough excitement for you?” Sylvia said quietly to Cooper.
“Just doing our job.”
Sylvia looked at Liam, trying to think of words to offer. “I don’t know what’s happened, Liam, but I’m sure this must be hard for you.”
“It’s my fault,” Liam muttered.
Sylvia glanced at Cooper, who shook his head about half an inch. She didn’t envy Cooper, caught between his brother and his job, but if anyone could walk that fine line, Cooper could. The crowd showed no sign of dispersing. In fact, it thickened.
Marvin Stanford turned away from the deputy doing crowd control and strode toward Liam. Sylvia slipped around Cooper and stood on the other side of Liam. While she might not know what to say to comfort him, her presence could spare him some derision or harassment.
“Did Lizzie call you?” Sylvia asked when Marv approached. He was rarely in town on a Tuesday morning, after working late on Mondays to print the Dispatch and bundle it up for the three boys who rode their bicycles around town throwing papers onto porches and sidewalks.
“This is a pretty obvious news story,” Marv said. He took a pen from above his ear. “Liam, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Marvin,” Sylvia said, “you can’t print this story for a week. What’s the rush for your questions?” The arrest of Robert Doerr amid dozens of onlookers had already given Marvin a better story than he had most weeks.
“I’ve been known to run a special edition,” Marv said.
Sylvia didn’t recall a single time in the last ten years that Marv had run a special edition. “Don’t bother Liam now.”
Marv angled himself toward Cooper. “Can I get a statement, on the record?”
“As you can see,” Cooper said, “we are arresting Jessica McCarthy. When she has been duly processed, the details will be a matter of public record.”
“Then why make me wait?”
“Marvin,” Sylvia said. “I will personally guarantee that you get the information you need for a front-page story, but this isn’t the time.”
Marvin shuffled a few yards away, but he was already jotting notes.
Sylvia touched Liam’s shoulder. “Is there something I can do? I’d like to help.”
“Thank you.” Liam hadn’t budged since Sylvia first spotted him from down the street. “I got myself into this, and now I’ll have to see it through.”
Sylvia wanted to know what had happened as much as Marvin did. For the good of Hidden Falls, she needed enough information to help manage the fallout of this public scene. But she couldn’t ask now. Cooper would fill her in during a more private conversation.
She looked up to see Nicole thumping toward her.
“What’s going on?” Nicole asked.
Sylvia couldn’t—wouldn’t—answer that question with Liam standing right there, but how was Nicole to know? She gestured for Nicole to follow her and moved well down the sidewalk, behind Cooper and Liam. Neither one of them would take their eyes off the scene outside the department store.
“I saw the deputies arranging themselves awhile ago,” Nicole said. “It took me longer than I’d like to get down here.”
Sylvia told Nicole what little she knew, certain that Nicole had never met Jessica McCarthy and would not have recognized her as Liam’s fiancée.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Quinn, does it?” Nicole asked.
Sylvia didn’t honestly know. “I don’t think so.” She was going to have to quash that rumor, she realized. If Liam had been anyone but Cooper’s brother, Sylvia would have pulled Cooper away to get at least the bare facts of the case.
“Did Ethan call you?” Nicole leaned against the brick of a building.
“No. Is Lauren all right?” Sylvia realized she’d left her cell phone at the store.
“Yes. It’s not that,” Nicole answered quickly and glanced toward
Cooper. “Cooper is going to need to hear this, too.”
“Cooper is occupied.”
“I know,” Nicole said, “but it’s about Quinn. I’m not sure it should wait.”
“I’m the mayor of Hidden Falls.” Sylvia straightened her spine. And when it came to Quinn, she was far more than a local official. “Perhaps you should tell me what’s on your mind and let me decide what to make of it.”
Nicole tucked her hair behind her ear on the right side of her face. “I think he’s back.”
Sylvia’s knees went soft, and she balanced herself against the brick beside Nicole. As she heard the account of Ethan’s accidental photo, her breath quickened.
If Quinn was back, why hadn’t he called her? Why hadn’t he rung her doorbell or shown up in Waterfall Books and Gifts?
“Thank you,” Sylvia said. “I’ll take it from here.”
“What about Cooper?”
“I’m sure we’ll be in touch. You’ve done your part.”
Sylvia left Nicole and took a few steps toward Cooper. She tapped his elbow and he turned his head slightly, keeping his eyes on the arrest scene.
“We need to talk,” she said softly.
“This will only take a few more minutes,” Cooper said. “I’ll find you when it’s over.”
Sylvia wouldn’t lose another minute waiting for Cooper’s availability or fretting about the welfare of the town. She could get back to the shop, grab her car keys, and start looking for Quinn within seven minutes.
11:57 a.m.
Liam had kept his promise. He’d stayed put while deputies escorted Jessica out of her workplace. He did nothing to interfere with any of the activities or movements of the deputies. She was arrested and handcuffed, and even from his position down the street, Liam could see it was only a matter of minutes before Jessica would be in the back of the waiting squad car and on her way—where? Would they keep her in Hidden Falls or take her to Birch Bend?
“I have to see her.” Liam dodged around his brother’s form.
Cooper took one long step to block Liam. “We had a deal.”
“And I’ve kept my part. Nothing I do now will change what’s done.”
Liam avoided Cooper’s eyes and pushed past him, throwing off Cooper’s grip on his elbow. He paced up the sidewalk and wormed through the gawking crowd until he was within five feet of the woman he had thought he would marry.
Jessica looked up at Liam, but it felt as if she were looking through him or beyond him. Had she ever truly looked at him? She must have seen something in him six years ago when they began dating, and five years ago when she accepted his proposal and wore the ring he gave her.
Now the ring was only one more way she’d tossed him aside after she took what she wanted.
Hair fell across one side of Jessica’s face and she blinked a few times at the irritation, but with her hands cuffed behind her, she could do nothing. Liam moved closer.
“It’s all right,” Cooper said from behind Liam. Nevertheless, a deputy established his position two feet to one side of Liam, while another kept a hand on Jessica’s elbow.
Liam took the three steps that closed the gap between him and Jessica. Her focus changed now, and she looked into his eyes but offered no intimacy. He put his hands on her shoulders but felt no sense of recognition in his touch. Liam leaned in. With the squad car right behind her, Jessica had no place to go. Her scent, so familiar after so many years together, was both delicious and cold. Liam kissed her full on the mouth, lingering in inquiry.
Jessica offered nothing in return. The same softness of her lips and shape of her mouth that she had given so freely over the years now carried nothing. No surprise at his action. No regret at her own. No saucy temptation.
Liam broke the kiss. “If only we could have trusted our love.”
She ran a tongue over the lips he’d abandoned.
“If we had married years ago,” he said, “we could have been happy. This would never have happened.”
Jessica shook her head and let out a slow breath onto his face. “I gave you every chance to make something of yourself.”
The words stung, and Liam stepped back.
“If you’d done your job and gotten Quinn’s accounts when I first suggested going after them,” Jessica said, “maybe we could have avoided this.”
“Quinn has nothing to do with your choices,” Liam said.
“You’ve never had enough ambition. I had to have ambition for you, and now you’ve ruined even that.”
“I have plenty of ambition.”
She scoffed in laughter. “I’m the one with all the guts. You had opportunity, but I was the one who knew what to do with it. We could have been partners.”
“I was going to marry you. We were going to be life partners.”
“And I could have made sure we had a good life, but you weren’t even smart enough to see that.”
“I only wanted you, Jessica. You would have been enough.”
“You’re so naive.”
“You could have just broken up with me. Why did you do this?”
“Do what?” She looked at him with clear, untroubled eyes.
“Jessica.” His voice hushed with hurt.
“Liam, don’t pretend like you’re going to stand by me now,” Jessica said.
He could hardly say he would. Undoubtedly he would have to testify against her and give voice to the suspicions that ultimately led to enough evidence for her arrest.
“Go away.” Jessica turned her face away from him.
Cooper tugged on his shoulder. “That’s enough for now, Liam.”
“It’s enough, period,” Jessica said. “I don’t want to talk to either of you.”
One of the deputies opened the rear door of the squad car while the other put his hand on Jessica’s head with enough pressure that she folded herself into the backseat. In a few seconds, the engine was running and the vehicle carried Jessica away. If the trip—for now—was just to the small Hidden Falls sheriff’s station, it might as well be to the moon. Jessica was lost to him.
Liam turned to Cooper. “Did you hear what she said?”
Cooper nodded.
“She’s acting like she’s innocent—like this is my fault.”
“It’s not,” Cooper said.
“She was prepared to ruin me to get what she wanted.” Liam shoved down the knot in his throat.
Cooper said nothing, which was just what Liam wanted him to do. He didn’t want anyone to say he was lucky this happened before he married Jessica, or that she never deserved him, or that clearly she’d never loved him, or that he was better off without her. Behind his back, someone would say they never understood what Liam saw in her in the first place. People would say all sorts of things because they thought it was helpful to take his side, and none of it would be. In the face of the truth, no one would understand Liam’s pain.
“Do you want a ride home?” Cooper asked.
Liam shook his head. “I’ll go get my car.”
“I’ll make sure she’s treated well.”
“Thank you.” Liam turned to walk back to his office.
Cooper’s voice rose over the murmurs of the crowd, encouraging people to disperse and go on about the day.
When a woman’s voice called Liam’s name, he didn’t turn around. Behind him, her footsteps quickened.
“Liam! It’s Miranda. I just need a minute.”
He stopped and let the woman who lived in the apartment directly above his catch up, steeling himself to politely tell her he wasn’t in the mood to talk about what she had seen outside the department store.
“I just have a question,” Miranda said. “I knocked on your door a couple of times.”
“I haven’t been home much the last few days.” Liam couldn’t force a smile, but he provided an appropriate pause into which she could speak.
“I left my box of heart disease brochures with you at the fair on Saturday,” she said.
Liam nodded. “I�
�m afraid the storm got them.”
“I don’t care about the brochures,” Miranda said. “But there was a manila envelope in the box. Did you see it?”
His heart crashed against his breastbone.
“Any chance you picked it up and took it to safety?”
Cautiously, he shook his head. Was she asking whether he’d read the note the envelope contained? Was she the one who left it there for him—the one who’d sent the first blackmailing note as well?
“I think that’s all moot now,” he said, guarding his tone.
“What’s moot?” Miranda looked genuinely puzzled. “Did you read the note?”
“No.”
“Well, neither did I. Now I’ll never know what it said.”
Hadn’t she written the note?
“You’ve lost me,” Liam said.
“My friend is organizing a murder mystery dinner as a fund-raiser for the high school drama department,” Miranda said. “She thinks she’s having great fun writing cryptic notes about meetings and the like.”
“Notes?”
“In unmarked manila envelopes. I already missed one envelope she claims she slid under my door, but I never got it. Apparently I missed a breakfast meeting in Birch Bend, and she was not in the mood for excuses.”
Liam could hardly breathe.
“Oh well,” Miranda said. “I knew it was a long shot that the envelope might have made it to safety, but I thought I’d ask.”
“Sorry I couldn’t help.”
“I know it’s silly to worry about the note. It just struck me that in the wrong hands someone might read something sinister into it. I guess I’m not very good at this mystery business.”
Neither am I. “Your friend can’t hold the storm against you,” Liam said.
“I suppose not. Sorry about …” Miranda waved a hand toward the space the squad car had occupied.
“I have to go.” Liam turned and lengthened his stride as fast as he could.
The note was not for him. All those sleepless nights. All those jittery cups of coffee. All those hours of fear and dread.
It was all a mistake. The note was not for him. No one had known about the missing money.
At the corner, Liam leaned against the wall of the sporting goods store and let his shoulders heave with the effort of regaining breath.
Hidden Falls Page 56