4 Malice in Christmas River (20 page)

“But what was he doing at the Rodeo, Daniel? Why else would he have been there?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t even know that he was. Maybe I was dreaming.”

I let out a sigh.

“But
I
saw him, Daniel,” I said. “And I’ve got intuition of my own. And it’s telling me that someone’s out to hurt you.”

I stroked the top of his hand with my thumb.  

“Do you think I’m wrong?” I said.

He was quiet again.

Then he sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I… I can’t remember anything from that night. I can’t even remember why I went over to the horse trailers in the first place. It’s all just a blur, Cin.”

I squeezed his hand again and let out a ragged sigh.

“I’m afraid, Daniel,” I said. “I’m afraid that Tex is still here. And that he wants to finish the job. I mean, look at us. We’re exposed out here. You can only hobble. Warren’s old. And I’m… well, I’m just—”

“I’d never let anything happen to you, Cin,” he said, fierceness flashing across his eyes “You have to know that.
Never
.”

“I’m not worried about me,” I said. “I’m worried about
you
.”

I felt my mouth go dry, the danger of the situation suddenly feeling very real to me.   

“I don’t… I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” I said. “And even if I’m making all of this up in my head, I’d rather be wrong than stupid. I don’t know if you’re not taking this seriously because you don’t believe me, or if it’s because you feel like you deserved this in some way. As penance for standing by and watching Tex be put away in prison. For not helping him.”

I bit my lip.  

“I need you, Daniel,” I said. “I almost… I mean, we almost…”

I trailed off, my shaky voice getting the better of me.  

“Come here,” he said.

He pulled me over to him. I found myself sinking into his arms a moment later. He stroked my hair, whispering quietly in my ear.  

“Okay,” he finally said. “Okay, Cin. I’ll take care of it.”

Chapter 54

Daniel called Trumbow and put Tex Stevens on Pohly County’s
Offenders to Watch For
list.

I noticed that Trumbow didn’t put up nearly as much of a fight with Daniel as he had with me. There weren’t any “sweetheart” or “young lady” terms of endearment when he spoke to Daniel.

Daniel also called deputies Owen McHale and Billy Jasper, and got them to sit outside the house in shifts. He even got George Hardin, the Rodeo fairgrounds crowd control monitor and school resource officer, to pitch in on the watch so that the deputies could do their real job.

It took a weight off of my mind knowing that the house was being watched. A huge weight. Daniel could heal up in peace, and I could help him recover without my heart running away every time the doorbell rang. It was actually good for Warren, too. He liked walking on over to the cop car and chewing the fat with whoever was on duty, regaling them with stories about the beer in Scotland.

One morning, a couple of days after Daniel had stepped up security around the house, I got a call from Erik. Daniel was still sleeping. He’d had a restless time the night before and was catching up on some Z’s.

Maybe Erik finally had some news.

But my hopes were dashed shortly after answering the phone.  

“I don’t have anything new on Tex,” he said, bluntly. “I don’t have anything promising, period. But I did find something in the Sheriff’s log that piqued my interest.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, earlier that week, before the accident, Daniel visited the Pugmire house twice on a possible animal abuse call. Then he stopped at the McSween house the day after for questioning, it said in the logs, related to the Pugmire animal abuse call. Now I find that kind of interesting, don’t you?”

I furrowed my brow.

It didn’t necessarily surprise me, Daniel going out to those houses. Even though he was Sheriff, the Pohly County Sheriff’s Office was a small operation. Daniel often had to do the duties of a deputy, especially when they were shorthanded.

It did surprise me slightly that Laurel hadn’t mentioned anything about it.

“I don’t see what that has to do with the accident,” I said. “Daniel was just doing his job.”

“Maybe,” Erik said. “But then again, maybe it’s worth keeping an open mind about what really happened that night. We’ve got nothing on Tex Stevens. Don’t you think anything that happened in the week leading up to the accident might be worth following up on?”   

“Maybe, but I can’t imagine what that incident could possibly do with—”

Suddenly, I remembered what Tiana had said earlier that week. About how Jo Pugmire had stopped by, not too long after the accident, looking for me.

I didn’t think too much of it at the time. But now, given this new information… maybe it was worth following up with.

“You see, I tried talking to Jo and Harry Pugmire, but neither of them wanted to hear from me because of the article I wrote,” Erik said. “But, uh, I’m sure Jo wouldn’t turn
you
away, Cinnamon.”

I thought about it for a minute. I went over to the window and looked at the cop car sitting in our driveway. Billy was sitting there, reading a book. I was glad it was him and not George.

I bit my lip.

Then I started writing Daniel and Warren a note. 

“Where does Jo live?” I asked.

Chapter 55

I pulled up into the driveway of the Pugmire house, my palms sweaty as they gripped the wheel.

I could have just called her and asked. But some things are better to do in person.

My mind was running through the nasty things she’d said to me after the article had come out.

Come next sheriff’s election, your husband might find he has fewer friends in city government than he used to
.

I let out an apprehensive breath.

I hadn’t the slightest clue what Jo had wanted to talk to me about. For all I knew, she had just stopped by to offer her support. Or, more likely, to yell at me some more about setting her up.

This was probably just a dead end.

But Erik was right. Even if it led nowhere, it was important to look into every possible lead. Plus, it gave me something to do to bide the time while Daniel recovered. Something other than think about Tex. 

I got out of the car and walked up the driveway, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, though I didn’t know why.

The Pugmire house wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. For some reason, after seeing Laurel’s house, I expected all of the city councilors to live in such opulence. But the Pugmire house was just about the opposite in every way from the McSween Ranch. Almost as opposite as Jo and Laurel were. It was a small, old country house on a few acres of grassland that bordered the woods. There was a barn, but it looked to be run-down and in bad need of a paint job. The house itself also looked like it hadn’t seen a paint roller in years, and long strips of color had peeled off, revealing a faded white base coat.

A thick layer of pine needles covered the roof, and the wooden beams of the porch seemed as though they were splitting and had termite damage.

It was the kind of house that the kids in the neighborhood probably whispered about, especially around this time of year. I could easily picture a couple of ghosts rattling around in a place like this.    

I walked up to the door, digging my hands deep into my pockets. I rang the bell, but heard nothing on the inside. I tried it again, but the doorbell seemed to be busted. I started knocking.

A few minutes later, I heard heavy footsteps coming from inside the house.

The door opened.

Jo stood on the other side. She scrunched her face up in surprise.

I was fairly certain I’d never seen Jo Pugmire surprised before.

“Oh,” she said. “What are you doin’ here?”

Jo was dressed in another one of her trademark animal print shirts that was borderline-Mumu. It seemed to be some sort of peacock print, with faded glitter markings here and there that dimly reflected the light. The large print had a way of highlighting Jo’s plump curves that somehow made her seem twice as large as she actually was.

You could always count on Jo for an animal print, some big hair, and bright red nails.

I cleared my throat.  

“I heard you came by the shop looking for me the other day,” I said. “I just wondered what it was about.”

She looked past my shoulder for a moment, and then back at me.

“That was… well, it’s nothing that can’t wait until your husband gets better. I heard what happened.”

She shifted her weight nervously from one foot to another. A dribble of sweat ran down the side of her face. She tried to catch it before I noticed, but it was too late.

It was hot, no doubt. The talons of summer were still holding strong.

But I could tell that me being here was making her very uncomfortable.

Was she just feeling guilty over the curt way she’d treated me? Or was there more to it?

I hadn’t ever seen this woman act anything short of self-confident.

I took a deep breath and decided to tell Jo just what I had on my mind in blunt terms.

“I’m not here to chit chat, Jo. I don’t much care for your conversation. But I came all the way here because I’ve got a feeling that…”

That surprised expression crossed her face again. I guess she hadn’t expected little old Cinnamon Peters to be so forceful and honest.

“Daniel visited your house twice the week before the accident on an animal abuse report. He also visited Laurel McSween’s house. I want to know what happened. And I want to know why you came by the shop looking for me after the accident.”

She clasped her hands together awkwardly.

“And I want to know why you’re so Goddamn nervous right now.”  

She let out a short, breathy sigh, and then looked behind me again.

Then she met my eyes.

“Come on in,” she said, holding the door open.

Chapter 56

Jo Pugmire poured me a cup of Folgers coffee in a chipped mug while I stared at the photos of her family up on the fridge.

Jo had two sons. One looked to be about middle school age. The other one looked almost full-grown. Ruddy, good-looking, and tan, he wore a cowboy hat and stood next to a horse in what looked like the most recent photo.

I wondered if this was the boy that Laurel had been talking about. The one that broke Ashley’s heart earlier in the summer.

“That’s my son Michael,” Jo said when she saw me looking. “And that’s his horse, Jim Beam. See, Michael’s been aiming to become a rodeo cowboy for some time. Jim Beam’s his prized possession.”

She sighed.

“I mean, he
was
.”  

She handed me the mug and then sat down at the kitchen table. I took a seat across from her. She blew on the steam curling up from the coffee and stared out the window at the overgrown pasture choked with weeds.

“You did me the courtesy of getting to the point,” she said. “And now I’ll do the same for you.”

She pushed aside her mug of coffee and leaned forward.

“Truth is, I came by your pie shop the other day because I was too chicken to come by the hospital,” she said. “‘Course I knew you wouldn’t be at the shop the day after your husband got trampled by a horse.”

She shook her head.

“I try to put on a brave face for folks in this town,” she said. “But I’ll admit – I’m as scared and cowardly as the rest of them.”

“What did you want to tell me?” I asked.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the pasture out the window. Then she shifted them in my direction suddenly.

“Well, Cinnamon,” she said. “You said earlier that you had a feeling. Well, I’ve got a feeling too. About your husband’s accident. A real ugly one.”

The mug I was holding almost slipped out of my hand. My wrist went limp and I lowered it with a thud onto the table. I stared at her.

“But you see, I’m afraid if I’m wrong,” she said. “That I’m just pointing fingers that I have no business pointing.

But you know what scares me more?”

“What’s that?” I whispered.

“
If I’m right
,” she said. “Now that thought… that thought right there is a terrifying prospect, Cinnamon. For
all
of us.”

Chapter 57

I got into the car and just sat there numbly for a few minutes.

It was as if I’d forgotten how to turn the ignition, how to get out of park, how to put it in reverse.

All I could think of was what Jo had just finished telling me.

An outlandish, fantastical story that had all the makings of a Lifetime movie plot.A story of scorn, violence, and madness.

How could any of it be true?

It was crazy. Absolutely crazy.  

Jo had to be off her rocker. Completely off into the nether regions of space to concoct a story this outrageous.

Still, her words haunted me.

You know what scares me more? If I’m
right
.

It scared me too.

I drove back home, Jo’s words echoing in my head the entire way.

Chapter 58

It was evening when I pulled through the immaculate gates of the McSween estate.

I knew I shouldn’t have lied to Daniel, but I did anyway. I knew he wouldn’t like me going out to Laurel’s house.

But I felt an insane need to get to the bottom of this. And nothing was going to stop me.

I told Daniel that Tiana had gotten sick and that I was headed to the shop to do some prep work for the following day. He had tried to convince me to stay. But I was stubborn, and didn’t give in. I charged Warren with keeping him company. When I left, they were playing a round of blackjack. Warren was muttering things under his breath as he lost yet another round.

I made sure that Billy was still outside in the cop car. He nodded to me silently as I walked by. Then I pulled away, the nerves jumping around in my gut like dancing electrical wires.