Small-Town Face-Off

“Well, hello there,” she whispered.

Alexa looked up at her mom. Just shy of fifteen months, the toddler might not have known much about the world, but that had never stopped her beautiful green eyes from being curious.

Just like her father’s.

* * *

IT TOOK FIFTEEN minutes to get to the ditch that held Bernie Lutz’s body. Billy could have taken three hours—hell, three days—and still not have been able to completely process what had just happened. A herd of elephants could have stampeded alongside his Tahoe as he navigated the muddy back road and it wouldn’t have distracted him. Mara’s sudden reappearance alone would have stunned him. But this? Alexa? Mara Copeland on his doorstep with a baby?

His baby.

“Get a hold of yourself, Billy,” he said out loud. “You’ve got a job to do first.”

Had Mara been wearing a wedding ring? Billy shook his head. He needed to focus on one thing at a time. He needed to put everything that wasn’t Bernie Lutz out of his mind. At least for the moment.

He sighed.

Yet, there Mara had been. Staring up at him through her long dark lashes, asking for help.

And he’d just left.

His phone went off, dancing on the dash before he answered. This time it was Matt Walker, currently Riker County’s only detective, thanks to the retirement of his former partner. Like Suzy, Matt was direct when he spoke about work.

“Henry got a tarp up, Billy,” he yelled over the weather. “But the road runoff is washing everything away. I went ahead and called in the county coroner.”

Billy swore.

“It hasn’t rained in weeks, and the one time we need it dry is the one time all hell breaks loose.”

“It could be worse,” Matt said. “We could be the body in the ditch.”

Billy nodded.

“You’re right,” he said, sobering. “I’m a few minutes out. If the coroner gets there before me, go ahead and load him up. Maybe if we act fast enough we can salvage some evidence.”

“Ten-four.” Billy started to hang up but Matt cut back in. “And Billy? Just from looking at him, I’m going to say that his girlfriend might have been telling some kind of truth. He’s beaten pretty badly. His death wasn’t fast, by any means. See you when you get here.”

He ended the call.

Thoughts of the past half hour were replaced by the need to solve a murder.

* * *

IT WAS JUST before midnight when Billy unlocked his front door. The storm raged on. Every part of him was soaking wet, and his boots and jeans were more mud than anything. He didn’t even try to keep the floor clean. Instead, he sloshed inside and stripped in the entryway.

It wasn’t until he was starting to pull off his shirt that he spotted the bright yellow poncho sticking out of a Walmart bag. He froze as his brain detached from work life and zipped right back to his personal one.

Mara.

With more attention to the noise he was making, he left his shirt on and, instead, got out of his boots. Only one light was on. He followed it into the living room. For one moment he thought it was empty—that Mara had left again, this time with his daughter in tow—but then he spotted a mass of dark hair cascading over the arm of the couch. Coming around to face it, he was met with a sight that used to be familiar.

Mara was asleep, body pulled up so that her knees were close to her stomach, making her look impossibly small. It wasn’t the first time he’d come home after work to find her in that exact spot, lights still on, waiting for him. Even when he’d tell her not to wait up, Billy would come in after a long day to find her there. She’d never once complained. Seeing her lying there, face soft and unguarded, Billy took a small moment for himself to remember what it felt like to come home to her. But it didn’t last.

There had been too many nights between then and now. Ones where he’d come home to an empty house, wondering why she’d gone.

I’m sorry, but it’s over.

Billy shook his head at the one sentence that had changed everything between them and looked at the one idea he’d never entertained after Mara had gone.

Alexa was tucked within her mother’s arms, simultaneously fitting and not fitting in the space between. Her hair was dark, but still lighter than his, and it fell just past her shoulders and, from the looks of it, was as thick as her mother’s. Before he could police his thoughts, a smile pulled up the corners of his lips.

He might not have known her the day before, but that didn’t stop the affection for the little girl.

And, just like before, the feeling of warmth, however brief, was gone.

Why had she been kept a secret?

Billy took a step back. While he had questions, he didn’t want to wake either one, but the creak in the floor that had been there since his father was a child sounded under his weight. Mara’s eyes fluttered opened and immediately found him.

“I tried to be quiet,” he whispered.

Mara shook her head and slowly sat up while trying to disengage herself from the toddler.

“No, I’m sorry,” she whispered back once she managed to get free. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

She followed him through the entryway and into the dining room, far enough away that they could talk in normal tones.

And, boy, did they have a lot to talk about.

“What time is it?” she asked, taking a seat at the table. She stifled a yawn.

“Close to midnight. I was gone a lot longer than I thought I would be,” he admitted. Billy took a seat opposite her. “This storm couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

Mara nodded, but the movement was sluggish. He was tired, too. It was time to stop delaying and finally ask the current question on his mind.

“Mara, why are you here?”

Chapter Three (#ue00c3d5a-749d-5567-b688-d8d0c6731699)

“A man came to my house this morning and asked about my father,” Mara said, knowing full well that once the words were out there Billy wouldn’t forget them. Finding a way to take down her father—to catch him in the act—had been an emotional and physical drain on them both. The collective hope that Billy would save Riker County had pressed down heavily on him, while betraying the only family she’d had had never left Mara’s mind.

As if an invisible hand had found the strings to his puppet, Billy’s entire body snapped to attention.

“They wanted Bryan?”

But he’s in prison, Mara silently finished.

“The man didn’t want him,” she said out loud instead. “The guy wanted something important of my father’s and I needed to tell him where it was. I had no idea what he was talking about.”