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Knox shook his head slowly. “Y’all are a real piece of work, aren’t you?”
We hung our heads in shame.
“And you, Mark?” Knox continued. “I wouldn’t have thought you would have any part of something like this.”
Before Mark could speak, I smarted off. “Like he could stop me! Look, Knox, are we in trouble or not?”
He paused for a long moment. “Not—yet. Technically you haven’t crossed the crime scene tape. I suppose that I could buy into the story of the lost button.” He inclined his head toward Candice. “If I know for a fact that you aren’t going to go and do anything else stupid.”
“I told you it was stupid,” Candice muttered for me to hear.
“You have my word,” Mark said, yanking me back against his hard frame.
For some reason that rankled. Maybe it was the hormones from the pregnancy or just plain stubbornness.
“Why can’t we see where Maggie was being held?” I blurted out.
Knox slid his hands into his pockets. “Not that I need to explain myself, but I have a forensics team that is looking for prints.”
Well damn.
I hated it when people made sense.
“Sutton, I know you want to protect your cousin,” he said kindly. “I am not trying to make things difficult for you. But I need you to not make things difficult for me either.”
I huffed, “Fine.” Then, looking around, I realized something. “Where is Earl?”
Knox swore and took off toward the church with us in quick pursuit. What we found was something that I will never forget even if I live to be a hundred years old.
The back end of an eighty year old man hanging out of the bathroom window. The ladder that he had used was laying on its side on the ground and he obviously didn’t have the upper body strength to wriggle himself the rest of the way in.
“Are you okay, Earl?” I hadn’t meant for the question to sound like I was holding back laughter, but indeed it was rather hilarious the way his skinny legs were flailing in the air.
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Earl cursed, and in the process, he managed to dislodge one of his shoes. It sailed down and landed in the bushes below.
Mark and Knox grabbed the ladder and set it to rights. Then Mark climbed up while Knox held it steady to extract Earl from his perch. However, Earl seemed to have missed the memo to stop squirming because his leg flew out and caught Mark right between the legs.
“FUUUUCK!” Mark nearly lost his balance on the ladder. I gasped and could only watch in horror as he held on with one hand and clutched his injured balls with the other. “Fucking hell, Earl! Stop moving.”
There was a muffled sorry from the older man and it was several minutes more before Mark was able to rescue Earl. They both finally made their way back down the ladder to the ground. At which point Mark looked murderously at the old man.
“You are welcome,” he bit off and then walked toward me with a rather stilted pace.
I threw my arms around Mark. “I thought you were going to fall!”
He grunted. “I thought my balls were going to fall off.”
Knox laughed and I growled at him. “It’s not funny.”
A giggle escaped Candice. “But his face! I’ve never seen you look like that before, Mr. Williams.”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Yes, glad to be of service. Sheriff, I assume our business is concluded for the evening?”
Knox’s eyes were still alight with humor. “I think that, in a strange sort of way, justice has been served. Sutton, I promise you that as soon as the place is swept for prints, I will call you and you can have a look.”
I turned to my old friend. Sometimes it was hard to remember that he was the law around here. I mean, to me he was Knoxy, the boy who lived in the trailer court and was often one of my only friends. He was extending the olive branch here and he didn’t have to. I knew that he extended me a lot of courtesies that most folks wouldn’t get.
I moved away from Mark, and to Knox’s surprise, gave him a big hug.