Page 17 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

As Jaden drove toward the hospital, the sun rose high over the snowcapped mountain peaks, casting a glow over the Montana landscape. He hardly noticed. His mind had been on little else but this case since it had begun. The case and Olivia.

He couldn’t quit thinking about the story Emery had told Olivia. He kept asking himself why Emery hadn’t come to him with it. Why tell Olivia? Something felt off and had since the beginning.

He’d been as ready as Emery to blame Rusk for what had happened out there Halloween night. But after seeing the man again, he knew that whoever Emery might have seen, it hadn’t been Elden Rusk.

Jaden had attempted to tell the man about what had been unearthed. Along with the clothing found with the bones, he let him know that there was no doubt that they belonged to Evangeline.

“He can’t understand you,” the nurse had said when she’d found Jaden in Rusk’s room. “Advanced dementia.”

“I thought that, when he first saw me, he might have recognized me.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. Are you a relative?”

“No, we haven’t seen each other for years. I had some news for him.” But when he’d tried to tell Rusk about Evangeline, the man had looked blankly at him. When Jaden had tried again, Rusk had become agitated, tried to say something, spittle on his lips as he’d begun to moan loudly.

The nurse suggested Jaden take a walk around the facility and try again. “You might have better luck later.”

He questioned whether or not Rusk had understood about his daughter’s remains being found.

But one thing was clear. Elden Rusk hadn’t been out at Starling on Halloween night.

If Emery was telling the truth, though, someone had wanted him to believe Rusk was alive and out for blood.

It would have been easy enough to dress in all black, head covered with a big, floppy black hat, and try to frighten the group partying in the abandoned community.

Given the storm and the confusion, it would have made revenge easier.

Someone had taken advantage. Someone was lying.

Maybe they were all lying.

* * *

Olivia was surprised to get a text from Cody later that afternoon. Her mother was watching one of her favorite old black-and-white movies in the other room.

I need to talk to you. It’s important. Meet me?

She glanced into the living room. Her mother was laughing and motioning for Olivia to join her. “You really should watch this.”

“I’ve seen it. Not as many times as you have, but enough,” she said as she walked into the room. “I might run into town and get some things from the grocery store.”

“We have ice cream. What else do we need?”

She smiled at her mother. She loved seeing her this content. Was it from giving up on men, on love? Olivia suspected it just might be. She hesitated, not sure that meeting Cody was a good idea. Worse, not telling her mother the truth about where she was going might also be a mistake.

But she wasn’t up to an argument, especially when her mother was in such a good mood. “I won’t be long,” she said and headed for the door.

“We could always use more ice cream,” her mother called. “Chocolate!”

The door closed behind her. As she walked to her car, Olivia still hesitated to text him back. She felt as if she and Cody had said everything they’d needed to.

When he texted back to meet him at the park down by the river after he got off work, she was glad she’d hesitated.

Apparently, he was back at the hardware store.

She couldn’t imagine why he wanted to see her after what they’d said to each other Halloween night—let alone at the hardware store before.

Then she recalled that he had little to no memory of Halloween.

She figured she could kill some time in town before she met him.

* * *

Jaden had taken the nurse’s advice. He’d walked around, circling back to Elden Rusk’s room after he’d had his lunch.

Elden looked up the moment the deputy walked into the room. This time, Jaden was sure the old man recognized him. He pulled up a chair in front of the wheelchair.

“I’m Deputy Jaden Montgomery,” he said. “We believe your daughter Evangeline’s remains have been found in a root cellar in Starling.” He was unsure of what kind of response he would get—if any.

“Too pretty,” the man rasped. “Tried to warn her mother. Evangeline—” His voice broke. “My sweet Evangeline.” Eyes narrowing, he said, his voice gruff, “Tried to protect her. They came like bees to honey.” His eyes filled with tears.

Jaden had to ask. “Did you kill her?”

Rusk seemed to freeze, his gaze foggy with tears and memories. “Too pretty. Tried to warn her mother.” He coughed and fell silent. Jaden thought that was all the man was going to say.

He rose to leave when Rusk said, “Criminal— Did what had to be done… Destroyed everything.” He began to cry in chest-heaving gulps, the noise bringing a different nurse into the room.

“I gave him some sad news,” the deputy said. “About his daughter. It’s part of a murder investigation.”

“Evangeline,” the nurse said as she put an arm around the man to try to soothe him. “I heard on the news that her body had been found. Broke my heart.”

“Did he ever tell you what happened?” Jaden asked.

She hesitated a moment. “She was murdered?” He nodded.

Sighing, she said, “When he was first brought here, he talked about her. He didn’t say it in so many words, but it seems she’d gotten pregnant at sixteen but refused to tell him who the father of her unborn baby was.

Apparently, some man in the community where they lived. ”

The other body in the root-cellar grave, Jaden thought.

“I think what’s haunted him all these years was that he never knew who the man was. When she disappeared… Well, he seemed to think they’d run away together, and he never saw her again.”

“You know he started a community called Starling up in northeastern Montana. When Evangeline disappeared at sixteen, he walked away from it and the community died,” Jaden said.

“He’d started Starling to escape the outside world.

He’d built his utopia, only to have what happened to his daughter and some man in the community destroy his dream. Has he ever mentioned his wife?”

“No. I got the impression she’s been out of his life for a long time. A neighbor was the one who brought him in here.”

The deputy stared at the old man in the wheelchair.

He didn’t look much like a murderer. Nor a boogeyman anymore. He looked like a broken man haunted by his past and what he’d done as he quit sobbing and stared out the window, his blue eyes glazed over.

Jaden stopped in a small café after he left Elden Rusk’s assisted-living facility. Seeing Rusk like that had unsettled him. It was the man’s eyes. No matter what the nurse had said, Jaden couldn’t shake the feeling that Rusk had recognized him.

He was leaving the café when he got the call. Dean Marsh had been found wandering down a road, miles from Starling. He was being treated for his injuries at the Kalispell hospital.

“Keep him there,” he said. “I’m in town. I’ll be right over.”

* * *

When he walked into the hospital room, he found Dean sitting up, wolfing down lunch with a fork clutched in his left hand. His right arm was in a cast. Like the other Starling tornado survivors, he had cuts and bruises. But unlike them, he’d been missing since Halloween night.

Jaden pulled up a chair next to the bed and dragged out his notebook and pen. “Glad to see you’ve turned up,” he said as Dean finished his lunch and pushed the tray away.

“I haven’t eaten in days,” he said, his voice gravelly. He took a sip of water from the glass on the table next to his bed.

“Where have you been since Halloween?”

Dean stared at him for a moment, as if considering the question. “When was Halloween?”

“A few days ago.”

“Really? I don’t know. I remember waking up in a ditch. I didn’t know where I was or how I’d gotten there. My arm was broken, I knew that. I found a piece of wood and ripped off part of my shirt to make a splint. Then I just started walking.”

“What do you remember before waking up in the ditch?”

Dean frowned and reached up to touch the bandage on his head. “Not much.”

Memory loss. There seemed to be a lot of that going around, Jaden considered, questioning Dean’s story. He recalled what Dean’s wife, Angie, had said about her husband reappearing soon with some fantastic story about where he’d been. “You remember Halloween night?”

His frown deepened. “Halloween.”

“You’d gone to Starling with some friends.”

“Starling?” He sounded surprised by that.

“There was a storm.” There appeared to be no recognition in Dean’s expression. “A tornado.”

“No kidding?” He shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t remember a storm. Is everyone else all right?”

Not everyone, he thought as a nurse came in to take Dean down for more tests and Jaden left.

* * *

While the sun had set, it wouldn’t be dark for a couple of hours yet.

Olivia drove to the spot where Cody’s dad used to drop them off on weekends.

The Ryans had the property next door, so Cody’s dad would pick Olivia up on his way to town to work at the hardware store.

She and Cody used to spend hours by the river skipping rocks and wading in the water until he returned—or her mother got worried and would come to take her home.

Too cold for playing in the water now, she mused as she parked next to his SUV and climbed out.

She felt a chill and wasn’t sure if it was the time of year—or finding out what was so important that they had to meet here.

Jaden thought she hadn’t gotten over her high school boyfriend.

Meeting him down here at the river would only reinforce that misconception, but there was nothing she could do about that.

How could she explain that Cody was part of her every memory of growing up here? He’d always been there for her. Look how he’d been during the tornado. He’d saved her life. How could she not care about him?

She spotted him sitting on top of a picnic table close to the river’s edge, chucking rocks out into the water as she walked up.

“You came,” he said, sounding surprised.

Or maybe it was just relieved. She recalled the argument they’d had that night in Starling.

Even if he couldn’t remember Halloween, she knew he was still upset with her for leaving him and this town.

When they’d seen each other at the hardware store earlier, she’d been angry with him. She hadn’t wanted to leave it like that. “What’s up?”

“You want to sit?” he asked as he moved over to give her room.

“I’m fine standing.”

“You’re still mad at me,” he said, nodding to himself. “Not that I blame you. I should have told you about Krystal.”

“I wouldn’t have gone to Starling with you if you had.”

He chuckled. “Probably why I didn’t tell you. I wanted to spend some time with you.”

She had wanted the same thing. “You weren’t very happy with me Halloween night.”

“Sorry, I don’t remember,” he said, giving her an embarrassed grin. “But I’m sure I said some things I shouldn’t have. I was hurt when you left.”

“I know, but you’ve moved on, and I’m sure Krystal wasn’t the first.”

He gave her a bashful look. “You know me so well.”

“If this is what you wanted to talk to me about—”

“No,” he said, hopping off the table to walk down to the water’s edge. He picked up a rock and skipped it across the dark surface of the cold river before turning to look at her. “I’m hoping you can help me remember what happened.”

“You really still don’t remember any of it?”

He shook his head. “I’ve talked to Emery. I know we all went out to Starling, there was a tornado, you and I were trapped in a root cellar. Somehow, you got out and went for help, and when you came back, I was unconscious and bleeding. That about cover it?”

“Pretty much, except for the part where you saved my life. We would have been killed if you hadn’t talked me into going down into that root cellar to begin with. When the tornado hit, you pulled some heavy shelves over us and sheltered me with your body.”

“Wow, I can’t believe I did all that.”

She smiled. “Yes, you can. It sounds just like you. You like being a hero.”

That made him laugh, but it was as if he were holding back.

“Are you worried that whoever attacked you will try again?” she asked.

“I hadn’t thought of that… Thanks. Something more to worry about.”

“I’m serious. I can tell something’s bothering you.”

He looked at the ground for a few moments before he said, “When you went for help, did you see anyone?”

“No.”

“How about when you came back?” She shook her head. “You came back alone, didn’t you? Ahead of the others?”

“Yes.” She frowned. “How did you know that?”

He shrugged. “I thought I heard you calling my name in this dream I had when I was in the hospital. I figured it must have been when I was unconscious because, in the dream, I couldn’t answer.”

“Maybe your subconscious is trying to remember.”

“Maybe. Are they finished searching out at Starling?” he asked. “I thought maybe Jaden might have mentioned.”

“Why?” She couldn’t help her surprise. “You wouldn’t go back out there, would you?”

“If it would help me remember, of course I would. You have no idea what it’s like not knowing what happened, who attacked me and why.”

“Maybe once Jaden finds out who killed Rob, that will help fill in some of the blanks for all of us.”

“Yeah, it might have been the same person who attacked me.”

“You have no idea why someone would want to hurt either of you?”

He met her gaze. “Not a clue. That’s why I have to remember.”

She thought about Jaden saying “Someone’s lying” and felt as if the temperature had suddenly dropped. How could she have forgotten that whoever had attacked Cody was probably still a threat? How could he not have realized that?

He stepped toward her. “You’re cold. I shouldn’t have dragged you out here. I just didn’t like the way we left things at the store.”

“I didn’t either. I’m sorry I can’t fill in more of the blanks for you,” she said as he walked her to her car.

“Oh, but you have helped,” he insisted. “You told me I was a hero. I feel a lot better,” he joked.

She swatted him on the arm. Just like old times. Smiling, she climbed into her car, started the engine and drove off. When she checked her rearview mirror, he was still standing beside his SUV. She thought he was watching her leave until she realized he was on his cell phone.