BIG SKY SECRETS 01: Final Exposure

by Roxanne Rustand

  Barry was another story.

  She thought about the missing keys, and Max’s terrified reaction when he’d been on the porch with Charlie. If Barry was still after Grandpa Pete’s property, could he be trying to frighten her into selling out? He certainly lived close enough to keep watch on the place, so he could plan his next move.

  “You trust Barry, then?”

  “Well…I guess so.” Isabelle considered her words for a moment. “One day I bought some daylilies there and mistakenly gave him a twenty, instead of a ten. He followed me clear out into the parking lot to give me my proper change.”

  Presenting an honest facade could be a cover for other dealings, though. “Would you say this area is safe these days?”

  “It’s funny you should ask. Miriam Walker was just telling me that she heard about a breakin on her police scanner last week.” Isabelle’s eyebrows drew together. “I think that was the first bit of trouble we’ve had all year around here.”

  “Nothing more than that?”

  “This is a safe town, my dear.” Isabelle leaned forward and patted her hand. “Don’t let old tragedies make you so jumpy. Worrying about everything and fretting about the people around you will just send you to an early grave.”

  Isabelle’s calm, almost patronizing words continued to play through Erin’s thoughts long after the old woman left. Lost Falls was a safe town?

  Erin had felt the opposite was true for the past fifteen years and had resisted the idea of moving back for that very reason.

  God—help me just let the past go and trust that I’ll be safe. She believed in God’s power and mercy, truly she did. The Bible verse she’d memorized after Laura’s death had been close to her heart ever since. How often had she silently recited it, clinging to its powerful message?

  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Jesus Christ.

  The beautiful words had given her comfort. They’d made her stronger, and they’d given her peace. Now, she firmly shelved the old memories whenever they surfaced, determined to live a full and abundant life just as God wished for all of His children.

  Yet, the subtle threats she’d sensed since coming here felt real, not like something born of her imagination, even though the deputies had clearly thought she was crying wolf. She’d seen it in their eyes. And Isabelle was certainly nonchalant.

  With a sigh Erin went to work in the kitchen, cleaning and sanitizing the work surfaces, then scrubbing the floor until it shone. She glanced at the clock now and then, wondering how Max’s cowboy adventure was going.

  By five she started to worry. Had the little guy fallen off? Gotten hurt? Maybe Jack and Max were sitting in the E.R. at the tiny community hospital up in Battle Creek, waiting for X rays or an orthopedic consultation. Maybe—

  At the sound of a car door slamming, she hurried to the front window of the store to peer out.

  Jack’s SUV was parked in front of the house. Jack and Max climbed out and lingered for a moment, then headed for Millie’s. Max, she saw with amusement, still clutched the stuffed dog as if it might escape.

  The two of them came into the store, bringing with them the definite scent of horses and hay. She’d never seen the little boy smile with such complete abandon, and it transformed him into the child he’d probably been before his world fell apart.

  “So, how did it go, cowboy?” Bracing her hands on her thighs, she leaned down to his level and reached out to brush away the dust on his cheek. “Did you see the pony?”

  “Her name was Fireball,” he breathed with reverence. “She was white and brown and had a really, really long tail. And she was fast!”

  “She sounds beautiful. Did you get to ride her?”

  Max nodded. “And I didn’t fall off.”

  Erin straightened and saw the amusement in Jack’s eyes. “Really fast, huh?”

  He rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Max not only rode at a walk, but at a trot—while being led in the pony ring. He did a great job. So now we’re here because we figured a tired, dusty cowboy might need to mosey over for some ice cream. We’re thinking sundaes. Mint chocolate chip, with hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry.”

  “Sounds exactly right.” She strode over to the soda fountain, washed her hands and began preparing the confections. “There’s a restroom in back if you want to wash up.”

  By the time she finished, they were back and in their customary table at the front window, Max’s cheeks and hands glowing pink.

  After the first few bites, Max’s eyelids started to droop. Minutes later he folded his arms on the table, rested his cheek on them and fell asleep.

  Jack pushed Max’s dessert toward the center of the table. “I guess being a cowboy is hard work. I wish you could have seen him—it was like having the old Max back again. He was so excited, he was even laughing. I haven’t heard him laugh since before the accident.”

  There were no other customers in the store, so Erin brought a couple of cups of coffee over to the table and pulled up a chair. “Can you take him there again sometime?”

  “Definitely.” A corner of Jack’s mouth lifted. “If I had the right place back in Texas, I’d bring that pony home with us.”

  “That would be any little boy’s dream.”

  “It seemed to make him genuinely happy for the first time in months. He’s been talking more lately, but most of the time he still seems so distant—like he feels totally alone.”

  At the depth of emotion in Jack’s eyes, Erin reached across the table to cover his hand with her own. “But you do so well with him. Anyone can see that.”

  “On the surface, maybe…but I don’t know how to get through to him, not really. Last night he fell over his Lego blocks and scraped his knee. He would’ve run to Janie or Allen for comfort, but he doesn’t ever come to me. He’ll go off behind the sofa to cry until I find him.”

  The image of the child, still struggling so desperately with his grief, made Erin’s eyes burn. “He’ll come around in time, won’t he?”

  “The counselor back home said this trip would help us bond, but maybe she was wrong. Maybe it won’t ever happen, no matter what.” He stared out the window toward the empty highway and the mountains beyond. “If we head for Texas sooner than planned, I’ll still pay the full three months’ rent.”

  Texas. Erin felt her heart squeeze. “Why would you go back early?”

  “I’m trying my best to make him happy, but I’m starting to wonder if he misses being with other kids, since he was in preschool last year.” He gave a deprecating laugh. “And despite the disaster with Ted, I’m still trying to run a business…or what’s left of it.”

  “Is anyone in your office while you’re gone?”

  “My secretary is more efficient than anyone I know, and she’s keeping everything afloat. But the dial-up Internet connection here is slow, and without everything in my own office at hand, I’m not nearly as productive.” He lifted a shoulder. “Every day she asks me when I’m coming back.”

  “And you tell her…”

  “Still December….so far.” He leaned back in his chair and studied her. “I just really wish I had some better options for Max. He must get bored, with only me to play with—and I have to work on my computer way too much.”

  “So if you had some good alternatives for Max…”

  “I wouldn’t think twice about staying if I knew it was the right thing for Max. I never knew Montana was so beautiful.”

  “Good.” She grinned. “Then do I ever have a great alternative for you!”

  SEVEN

  “Isabelle?” Jack’s heart lifted with sudden hope.

  “She’s good with children?”

  “The best. She was a teacher for over forty years, and they practically had to drag her out of
the building when it was time for her to retire. The kids loved her. Now she does day care, and her waiting list is about a mile long. She’s babysitting the kids and grandkids of some of her old students, even.”

  Just that fast, Jack felt his hopes plummet. “Then there’s no way she’d have a place for Max—especially since he’d just be there occasionally.”

  “That’s the key, though. I called her this morning, thinking you might need some extra help now and then. One of her part-time kids has moved away, and she’ll let you take that spot if you want it. When you leave, she’ll fill it with a more permanent arrangement.”

  “That’s unbelievable. Max will have a chance to play with other kids, and he won’t have to be so bored while I’m working. Thanks!”

  “No problem. I think it helps everyone, really. She’s got a boy just about his age who would love to have a playmate.”

  Jack wanted to do more than say thanks. He wanted to give her a hug, and then kiss her for good measure. But this was a business relationship, nothing more.

  Landlord.

  Boarder.

  And if he let that line blur, he knew he’d regret it when it came time to leave town. Her life was here, and his was almost fifteen hundred miles away. And how did you move on and leave someone like her behind?

  When some customers walked into the store, Erin went over to the cash register. Jack glanced at his watch and winced.

  “Hey, buddy, time to go home,” he murmured. He lifted the sleepy child into his arms, dropped a ten on the table and took him to the house next door.

  With luck the boy would go back to sleep and give Jack some much needed time on the computer.

  But as soon as they stepped in the door, Max came fully awake. “Can we go see the pony again?” he asked, wriggling out of Jack’s arms to the floor.

  Jack laughed. “Another time, sport. I think she’s pretty tired. Anyway, it’ll be suppertime before long.”

  “What about Charlie? Can I go play with him?”

  “I think he’s taking a nap. And Erin looks pretty busy right now.”

  “What about Go Fish?”

  It was a game the child loved, but it could go on and on and on. “Maybe a little later if you find all the cards and put them on the table.”

  There would now be an occasional reprieve, but the weight of parenting still settled heavily on Jack’s shoulders. He’d teased Janie, asking how one small child could so fully occupy her days. And now he knew.

  Max was a full-time job if a guy did it right. If he made sure the child was clean and fed and entertained and read to and bathed, and properly put to bed at night. No wonder Janie hadn’t gone back into real estate full-time after Max was born. So how did single mothers manage year after year?

  The thought exhausted him.

  And it made him wish for one last day with his sister, so he could tell her how proud he was of her…and how he’d do his best to raise her son.

  After four rounds of Go Fish, a long bath and the usual nightly snack of an apple and string cheese, Max finally went to sleep. The next three or four hours stretching out before Jack were filled with possibilities—all of which had to involve staying at home. With a sigh he walked into the spare bedroom and fired up his laptop, then got to work. But instead of focusing on the stock market and client portfolios, he found his thoughts kept turning back to Erin.

  And the kiss he hadn’t taken.

  The following week brought cold and rain, dark, threatening skies that turned the brilliant, emerging fall colors into a monochrome panorama in shades of gray.

  The weather did give Erin lots of time to clean and organize and polish the little general store until it sparkled.

  The downside was that there’d been so much time to do just that—because business was so slow.

  She’d even seen less of Jack and Max, because Isabelle had agreed to watch Max several days this week while Jack caught up on his office work.

  Her one steady customer proved to be the least likely of all: Ollie, who had developed a fondness for her sweet rolls and who turned up at eight o’clock every morning on his own, his crumpled cowboy hat in his hands and his wide face wreathed in a beatific smile.

  Each day he pulled a double handful of pennies, nickels and dimes from his bulging jacket pockets and dumped them on the counter, then laboriously pushed them into tipsy stacks until he had enough for two rolls and a coffee.

  Watching him touched her more deeply each day. He could’ve asked for a handout, and she would’ve given him one. She’d even offered one day, but he’d proudly shaken his head while continuing to count those piles of coins.

  By Friday his pockets were nearly empty, and on Saturday he looked forlornly through the front window without stepping inside. And that nearly broke her heart.

  Why weren’t people helping him more?

  Yet, she was just as guilty. How many times had she dropped money in a collection plate for some cause without ever taking action herself?

  “So what do you think, Charlie?” Erin mused aloud. “Do we need some help around here? Can we even afford it?”

  Curled up on his bed behind the cash register, Charlie looked up at her, his eyebrows wiggling up and down and his tail thumping against the wall.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.” She went to the front door and opened it to a gust of damp wind. An eddy of dry leaves blew in and skittered across the floor. “Aren’t you coming inside?” she called out. “It’s kind of chilly out here.”

  Ollie’s shoulders drooped and he started to shuffle away.

  “Wait, come back. I need to ask you something.”

  He stopped and turned back with a hunted expression in his eyes. “Got no money.”

  “I need some help, and I thought you might like the job. It’s just some sweeping, but you could earn money to take home.”

  “Enough for rolls?”

  “More than that. Say, ten dollars an hour and just a couple hours a day? But when the snow comes, you could earn more by shoveling.”

  He beamed. “I watch out for you, too.”

  “No, just some sweeping, and maybe some odd jobs here and there.”

  “Take care of you, too.”

  An image of the hulking man-child as her constant bodyguard in this small town made her smile. “Just the sweeping, really.”

  “No.” He lifted his chin to a stubborn angle. “I watch out for you ’cause of the bad man.”

  A chill snaked across her skin. “What bad man? Who?”

  “The one who comes and watches you sleep.”

  EIGHT

  Erin didn’t recognize the deputy who arrived an hour later in an unmarked car, straight from manning a speed trap he’d set up on County Road 33.

  Apparently he’d been successful and wanted more of the action, because he’d been fidgeting and checking his watch since climbing from behind the wheel.

  He glanced down at his clipboard, then tramped around the exterior of the cottage once again. “I don’t see anything obvious. No unusual litter, no places worn down in the grass where someone has been taking a regular position outside your windows. So you say this guy comes at night and watches you through the windows?”

  “That’s what Ollie said. I haven’t seen anything myself.”

  “Ollie. Where is he again?”

  “He took off as soon as he saw your uniform. He’s a little shy.”

  “So you’ve got a window peeper you haven’t seen and a witness who has disappeared.” The deputy cleared his throat. “You do realize that Ollie Mattson probably isn’t a very dependable source of information.”

  “I know he has some mental challenges, but he sure seemed convinced about what he’d seen.”

  “We’ve also got a report from about ten days ago, when you thought there was an intruder in your store.”

  Erin sighed. “And I didn’t see that guy, either. I heard him, but he slipped away. I know this all sounds crazy.”

  “Do you know of anyo
ne who would want to harass you? An angry ex-boyfriend or husband, maybe?”

  “I haven’t had a relationship with anyone who might be volatile. Just some nice guys I dated one at a time. No one who would be jealous or possessive. In fact, all three of them are now happily married and live in Denver.”

  “What about business rivals or difficult customers? Any altercations over the last few months? Testy neighbors or relatives?”

  “Nope.” She bit her lower lip. “There was the Laura Warner murder years back. She was my cousin. But five years ago the guy who killed her turned up dead himself, according to the sheriff.”

  “Ahh.” The deputy eyed her with compassion. “You took over this store for your grandfather, didn’t you? Not long ago?”

  “That’s right.”

  “It’s got to be tough, coming back with all those memories. I’ve heard about the Warner case, but it was before my time.” The radio in his patrol car crackled, and he canted his head to decipher a static-filled message. “I need to go, but I’ll file this report so there’s a record of your call in case anything else happens.”

  She nodded.

  “Be sure to lock your windows and doors, and leave a light on when you leave the place at night. You might want to look into installing more security lights on the property, too. The one in front of the store doesn’t cover the back door, but a new one in back would also cover the cottage pretty well.”

  “I’ll make some calls today. I also intend to get a security system. I just haven’t had a chance to look into it yet.”

  “What about caller ID?”

  “I just bought one and hooked it up. And I took another step—a big guard dog.” She gave the deputy a rueful smile and tipped her head toward Charlie, who had flopped at her side to rest his head on her shoe. The dog hadn’t stopped wagging its tail since the deputy appeared. “But as you can see, he hasn’t grown into his consistent protective mode quite yet. He does let me know about interlopers—as long as they’re chipmunks and squirrels.”