by Linda Conrad
Jake took the sheriff’s word as gospel. He had all the respect in the world for Wes. At odd moments in the past few hours, the two of them had silently bonded over the loss of their friend Jim. His partner’s death was a shared link between them—a devastating and excruciating tie.
Now Jake sat waiting to talk to his boss about what would happen to Mary after she was released from the hospital. The Bureau needed a fresh plan for her as well as for the rest of the mission, but Jake’s brain was too fried to be of much help in devising any schemes for the future. He could barely decide what to do for the rest of the day.
Looking up through the tidy chaos that arose around the FBI’s team of forensic investigators, Jake saw SAC Gerald Benton heading in his direction.
“You sure you don’t need medical attention?” the SAC asked when he came close.
Ripping off the bandage Jake had allowed the paramedic to tape over one of his cuts last night, he found no fresh blood. “All healed.” At least physically.
“I don’t think you’ve had a chance to meet the special agent who’s due to arrive momentarily, Pierson. He’s newly assigned to the investigation here in Honey Creek. You two will need to spend time together.”
“Ah… About that…”
SAC Benton waved away any objections. “I know. You’re off the mission. But the information you’ve already collected will be invaluable. After your critical-incident debriefing, I expect you to give the new man all the time he needs.”
Jake shook his head slowly. “I’ll write a wrap-up report. Then I’m done. You can have my badge and gun. America will have to get by rounding up bad guys without me. I quit.”
His boss regarded him carefully then sat down on the step beside him. “The FBI lost a good man when they lost Jim Willis. And you lost one hell of a partner. But Jim wouldn’t want you to make any hasty decisions. You’re a damned good undercover operative. Take some time off. You’ve earned it. Don’t throw away a stellar career.”
A stellar career? Not so much. A career full of psychotic disassociation was more like it. Years of dropping out of your own personality in order to become someone else wasn’t exactly Jake’s idea of the most heroic choice in occupations.
“My decision isn’t hasty, Benton. I’ve been thinking about quitting for several years. For Jim’s sake, I only wish I had gotten out before it was too late.”
“You have to take a mandatory psych eval after your debriefing on the shooting. Talk to the psychologists about your partner’s death. Give them and yourself time.”
Jake stared at the ground, trying to dredge up some loyalty to the Bureau or some emotion over having had to kill a man. But all he felt was empty. His partner was gone. The love of his life had walked away for good. Any residual feeling about the job couldn’t compete.
“I don’t need therapy. Sorry, Benton. I’m just finished with the FBI for good.”
SAC Benton threw up his hands and walked away, muttering something else about more time. But within fifteen minutes his boss was back with the new special agent assigned to the Honey Creek case.
“Pierson, this is Ethan Ross. Talk to him.”
Jake looked up and nodded, but he didn’t bother to stand or shake hands. It wasn’t his fight anymore.
“I’m sorry about your partner, Special Agent Pierson.”
“Me, too.” Jake finally came to his feet. “There isn’t much I can tell you about Honey Creek or the people here that you can’t read in my reports, Ross. It’s a nice little town for the most part.”
“I’ve been going over the transcripts of that computer tap you managed at Walsh Enterprises,” Special Agent Ross told him. “Nice work, but I’m afraid there’s nothing there to help the investigation. We did get a lucky break in the case, though.”
“Yeah?” Jake didn’t care. He was having trouble caring about anything but Mary’s safety.
“Damned right.” Agent Ross nodded and went on with his explanation. “There’s suddenly no real need to replace you with an undercover operative in Honey Creek. We’ve come up with a new informant. A volunteer. Someone with better access than you had. This person is already a part of the community.”
Confused, Jake shook his head in denial. “Nearly everyone in this town is a suspect—if not for our RICO investigation then in one of the murder investigations.” He searched through his mental notes for who the volunteer informant might be but came up empty.
“Our new informant has already been vetted and is definitely not under suspicion.” Ross spoke with a deliberate but friendly air, almost as if this investigation was just a walk in the park. “Having someone like this informant on our team will be exactly what we need to break the case.”
“Good for you.” But Jake didn’t give a damn.
Sure, he wanted a name for the person who’d put out the order for his execution—the name of the unsub’s boss. But he wanted that info only in order to be assured of Mary’s safety. Jake had a gut feeling Wes’s murder investigations might turn up persons of interest a hell of a lot faster than the Bureau’s RICO investigation would.
Jake agreed to write up his report as fast as possible and send it on to Special Agent Ross within the next twenty-four hours—along with his formal resignation. He couldn’t wait to wash his hands of this investigation—or of the entire FBI for that matter. They didn’t interest him.
Nothing did. Not without Mary.
When he finally had the time to do a serious inventory of what mattered to him now, Jake wasn’t sure he could find anything to take her place. Maybe he never would. At the moment, the only spark of interest he could find buried under all his emotional and mental baggage was a nagging worry about Mary’s safety.
He clung to the tiny but real emotion like a lifeline, and went off to plead with SAC Benton for long-term protection for her.
“You did what?” Wes was staring at him as though he’d announced he was taking up cannibalism.
“I quit the Bureau. Once I debrief, go through the regular internal investigation on the clean shooting and write my report, I’m gone.”
The forensics team had finished up hours ago. The bodies had been removed. And SAC Benton and Special Agent Ross had taken off for the field office. A special cleanup crew would be sent in to complete the rebuilding on the leased house. Then it would be returned to its out-of-state owner’s possession. Everything else was supposed to go back to normal in and around Honey Creek, allowing the FBI’s investigation to continue unimpeded.
But Jake was having trouble moving away from this spot, these woods, and vaguely understood he couldn’t seem to find much enthusiasm for leaving town.
“I see,” Wes said quietly. “What do you plan on doing next?”
Jake shrugged a shoulder and looked toward the woods, at the pines and firs that were beginning to get under his skin. He breathed in the heady scent of sage and that woodsy musk peculiar to this valley and regretted having to leave at all. On the other hand, everything here reminded him too much of Mary. Was too intimately connected to her in his mind.
“No clue yet,” he finally replied. “The only thing I seem to care about is making sure Mary stays safe.”
Wes scowled. “I’ve already said I would see to that. She’s one of mine. As long as she’s in this town, she will be safe. No need for you to concern yourself over her.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Jake leaned back on his heels and lowered his voice. “Mary is my only concern.”
“Ah… I get it. Have you told her that? Does she know?”
“I’m not sure what she knows. She was pretty hot when she left. Said she never wants to hear from me again.”
“Give her some time. There’s too many new concepts for her to absorb them all at once.” Wes folded his arms and shifted his stance. “You have a hometown somewhere with people anxious for you to come home?”
“No place…no people at all.”
“How about money? Will you need to move fast to find a job to
pay the bills?”
Jake shook his head. “Undercover work pays fairly well and I haven’t had much in the way of a real life for years. Don’t own anything and don’t owe anyone. I’ll have enough saved up along with enough back pay to get by for quite a while.”
“Hmm. Well, I may have an idea or two for you when you’re ready to hear about them.”
“I’m not looking for a deputy sheriff’s job, pal. Law enforcement has lost all its appeal. Along with everything else.”
Wes’s smile crinkled the corners of his eyes as he tilted his chin in thought. “Didn’t I hear you claim a second ago that there was at least one thing you still cared about?”
“Mary’s safety.”
“Right.” Wes gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. “Then let’s go find us a cup of coffee and toss around a few ideas.”
Someone was following her. Mary’s heart pounded out a staccato rhythm. Oh, lordy, not again.
Racing her car down the back roads, she headed toward the farm. Why now? She hadn’t even had a chance to go home since the shooting. Who would still want to cause her harm?
Suddenly it occurred to her that she couldn’t lead whoever it was straight to her family. Slowing, she decided to face the danger head-on. But when she stopped the car and turned around to look, no one was there.
Exhaling, she waited for her pulse to calm. She wondered if the person following her might have been one of the sheriff’s men. When Wes had come to check on her at the Bozeman hospital several days ago, he’d told her that he planned on having someone keep an eye on her when she got back to Honey Creek.
She’d almost forgotten because she hadn’t come right home after being released from the hospital. The FBI had wanted her to come in to their field office in Bozeman for an interview and that had taken a couple of days. But staying off the farm, away from her family and Honey Creek, hadn’t been any imposition.
Mary had needed those hours and days to think—to cry—and to let her body heal. The bruises were almost gone, but the clear thinking and the crying seemed only to be beginning. She’d been caught up in a kind of dreamland ever since the first instant she’d seen Jake. And coming down to earth was a big jolt of reality.
A reality that seemed to come with an ocean of tears.
The affair, for lack of a better word, with Jake had changed her. Changed her in many different ways. Her life would never be quite the same again.
Finally navigating up the driveway to the farm, Mary swore her new life would begin as soon as possible. Stopping the car in front of the farmhouse, she turned off her engine but didn’t make a move to get out. She sat motionless, gazing out the windshield at the familiar surroundings.
She had grown up in this house. But it did not hold happy memories for her.
She had begun her journey to a new life in this house. But her journey would not be finished here.
This place was no longer hers. She’d changed and didn’t feel at home here. She didn’t feel at home anywhere.
She was lost. Completely rudderless with no one to talk to. Her friends and her family cared, but all had their own lives. None of them knew what she’d been through.
Oh, man, how Mary wished she and Jake could’ve remained on friendly terms. She could use a real friend about now.
Chapter 15
With her emotions raging, Mary eased out from the car and headed inside to find her mother. She needed to tell Jolene of her many life-changing decisions.
“There you are.” Jolene came toward her daughter as soon as she walked through the front door. “I wish you would’ve let me pick you up and drive you home. I’ve been worried about you since you called.”
“I’m fine, Mother.” Four solid days of crying had left her red-eyed and weak, but Mary straightened her shoulders and faced her mother.
“Good. Where have you been anyway? It’s so unlike you to just disappear with only a phone call. Were you with Jake? There’s been a few rumors around town about strange things going on out at his house.”
At the mention of his name, Mary’s heart began to pound. Her palms began to sweat and the tears backed up in her eyes and throat yet again. But the FBI had made it clear she could not tell anyone what had taken place at Jake’s. Or who Jake was under his guise as a real estate agent. Or what had happened to her. To them.
She couldn’t even tell her family. Especially not her family.
And she did not dare allow herself to dwell on how much her heart still hurt without him—or her mother might see the truth too easily.
So Mary opened her mouth and for the first time in her life told her mother a deliberate lie. “You probably know about the little fire in one of the rooms of Jake’s house. It wasn’t anything major. The main thing is that Jake and I broke up. I needed a few days by myself to think. No big deal.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I liked Jake. Are you okay? You’ve never gone off by yourself like that before.”
Man, she hated lying to her mother, but she couldn’t dwell on it because the time had come to share more important news.
She exhaled and said, “Mom, I’m moving out. I need to find a place of my own.”
Instead of looking unhappy or confused, her mother nodded. “I agree. You need a new start, and I would love to help you find a place if you’d like. I know I haven’t always been there for you like a mother should. I was so busy with the business and with making sure your father had everything he needed that I…” Jolene stopped talking and her eyes widened. “You’re not planning on leaving Honey Creek, are you?”
“No, of course not. Honey Creek is my home.” Not that the town had done such great things for her in the past. “I have family and friends here and I don’t want to leave them behind. Besides, I can’t think of anyplace else that is half as beautiful. I love this part of the country. Where else would I go?”
Jolene gave her a quick hug. “Good. I don’t want to lose you before we can actually find time for a real relationship.”
“It’s okay, Mom. I know you’re in love with Craig and your life is terribly busy. But I’ll be around. We’ll make time for each other from now on. Uh, look, I’m going to be packing up while I try to find a new place.”
Then Mary thought of something else. “I need to run into town and turn in my final resignation before I do anything else. I’ve decided I can’t continue working at the library.”
“No?” Her mother didn’t seem surprised at the news. “But what will you do? Do you want to come to work for Walsh Enterprises? We’d love to have you.”
The idea was preposterous, but her mother was being thoughtful and that made Mary actually smile for the first time in days. “I don’t know what I want to do exactly. But I can’t work for Walsh Enterprises. There’s too many unhappy memories there. I’ve been giving some thought to starting my own business.”
“I’ve always believed you’d be great as a business owner, sweetheart. Like all the rest of us in the family. It’s in the blood. But what kind of business?”
Mary shrugged and tilted her head, thinking. “That’s the problem. I’m not sure. At first I thought maybe a bookstore, but there’s not enough traffic for even a small bookstore in Honey Creek.”
Jolene patted her on the shoulder. “Something will come to you. Don’t worry. You’re a bright young woman. I know you’ll find the right thing.”
Mary gave her mother a soft nod, but inside she wished she had the same confidence. She’d been so sure she had found the right thing with Jake. And look how well that had turned out.
Mary dabbed at her eyes as she walked out of the library’s wide front doors and headed down the steps. She could hardly believe that after all these years she would never again have to come to work at the library. The idea was a little scary but thrilling at the same time.
She just wished Jake was here. She wanted to talk and share her feelings.
Not paying any attention to where she was going, Mary bumped headlong into two women co
ming up the stairs. “Oh, excuse me.”
When she looked up, she realized it wasn’t two women at all, but one woman in her late thirties or early forties and a teenager who was her spitting image.
Both had black hair and pretty blue eyes. Mary was taken by how nice they looked together, like a cozy family unit. She stood there gawking.
“I’d bet you’re Mary Walsh,” the woman said after she smoothed out a wrinkle in her dress. “You look a lot like your mother with all that red hair and those lovely amber eyes. I’m Lily Masterson, the new head librarian. And this is my daughter May.”
Mary nodded and found her smile, the disguise she sometimes used in an effort to keep from being exposed. “You two are the ones that look alike. No one would ever miss guessing you’re related.”
“That’s a wonderful compliment. For both of us. Thank you.” Lily laughed, the sound so pleasant that Mary’s spirit felt a bit lighter.
“I vaguely remember you as a rather…uh…gawky teenager when I left town fifteen years ago.” Lily seemed in no hurry to go inside. “You’ve changed since then. You’re a beautiful woman, Mary. I was sorry to hear we won’t be working together.”
Mary managed another tentative smile. Then she suddenly remembered the many rumors that spread around town about Lily Masterson years ago, and she couldn’t help but steal a quick glance at May. The young teenager was adorable, with her alabaster skin and dimpled smile. But Mary was positive she could not be related to the Walsh family. No possible way. She didn’t look like any of them.
A secret pregnancy had been the rampant rumor of the day about Lily, of course. Supposedly, wild-child Lily had been having an affair with Mark Walsh before he’d disappeared.
Now Mary came to the conclusion that those rumors had to have been bogus. In fact, she was having some trouble with the whole concept of Lily as being wild at all. The librarian looked very much like a professional career woman and single mother. Someone that Mary would like to know.