Page 18 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

The next morning, Deputy Montgomery drove over to Emery’s bike shop. He hadn’t slept well, no surprise. He’d lain awake worrying about Olivia, worrying he wasn’t going to get this case solved before someone else lost his—or her—life.

He’d finally roused this morning feeling as if he was racing against a ticking time bomb.

But as he swung by the shop, he found that Emery hadn’t opened yet.

As he drove away, he saw Krystal pull up to the shop, apparently also expecting Emery to be at work.

She pulled in, saw that the shop was closed and took off again as if in a hurry.

Curious as to why she was looking for Emery and why in such a rush, he turned around and followed her. When she made her way into Emery’s apartment house parking lot, he stopped up the block and waited.

She seemed in an awful rush to speak to Emery. Had something happened? What could be so important that she had to see him this morning?

He warned himself, as he got out of his patrol SUV, that it might not have anything to do with his case. All his instincts, though, told him that there was a lot more going on with Olivia’s old gang than it appeared. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they all might have been in on it.

Jaden heard Krystal’s raised voice even before he reached Emery’s apartment at the back of the complex. He stood outside the apartment door for a moment, catching only snatches of the argument since she seemed to be the only one speaking and apparently moving around in an agitated state.

He knocked lightly, not surprised the occupants hadn’t heard.

Then he tried the knob. It turned in his hand and the door swung open.

The apartment was small, cluttered, and smelled of stale pizza and beer.

He stopped just inside the door where he could hear what was being said deeper in the apartment.

“You have to protect me,” Krystal was saying. “I didn’t want any part of this, and you know it.” He couldn’t hear Emery’s reply. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” She sounded close to tears. “Are you listening to me?”

Something hit the floor and shattered. Emery swore, and chair legs scraped across the flooring before there was another crash and his voice rose in anger. “Knock it off! Or so help me…”

From the kitchen doorway, Jaden saw a knocked-over chair and what appeared to be spilled coffee next to a shattered cup on the floor.

Emery had Krystal backed up against the kitchen counter, his hands on her shoulders.

He was saying, “Keep it together. Stop panicking. No one is going to find out unless you keep opening your big mouth.” He shook her so hard, she banged her head against the kitchen cabinet.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” the deputy said, stepping into the kitchen.

Emery immediately let go of Krystal and moved back, his boots crunching on the broken glass glittering on the floor. Krystal moved deeper into the kitchen, her back to them as she hugged herself.

“Which one of you is going to tell me what’s going on?” the deputy asked. “No one is going to find out what? How about you, Krystal? Why don’t you tell me why you’re panicking?”

She turned slowly, her face flushed, eyes bright with unshed tears, but from the set of her jaw, she wasn’t talking now.

“We can do this here or I can take you both down to the sheriff’s office.”

“On what charge?” Emery demanded.

“Assault, for starters.”

Neither spoke for a moment. Emery began to clean up the mess on the floor. Jaden looked at Krystal, who had recovered and now looked defiant.

Jaden pulled up a chair and sat down. “I overheard enough to know that you’re both involved in what happened out at Starling on Halloween. What I want to know is what the two of you are hiding. What was the plan that night? It was your idea to go out to Starling, Emery. Planning a murder?”

Krystal’s expression changed to one of alarm. “Emery?” He had finished wiping up the floor and dumped the broken cup into the trash, clearly stalling for time.

“You’ve got it all wrong,” he said and exchanged a look with Krystal before he righted the chair and sat down. “We were just going to play a prank. That’s all it was supposed to be. Just scare some people.”

So, Krystal had been in on it. Jaden turned to her. “How did you get to Starling without anyone noticing?”

When she didn’t answer, Emery did for her. “She hid in the back of my van. With all the junk back there, no one was the wiser.”

“Weren’t Dean and Jenny still down where you parked?” Jaden asked.

There was pride in her voice when Krystal finally joined in. “They were busy arguing, so they didn’t notice when I opened the back and climbed out.”

“What was the plan?” the deputy asked.

“She was dressed in all black, her hood up, and wearing a big, floppy dark hat,” Emery said. “Anyone who saw her would think they were seeing—”

“Elden Rusk,” Jaden said with a nod. “You said you wanted to scare some people? Cody and Olivia?” He looked at Krystal, then shifted his gaze to Emery when neither spoke.

“Rob and the girls you were with? What about Dean and Jenny?” When neither answered, he said, “Who was it you really wanted to scare?” He watched the two exchange another look. “Rob Perkins,” he guessed. “Why?”

Emery looked away for a moment, as if making up his mind, then said, “He owed me money. He promised to pay before he left town, but I didn’t believe him.

I knew that once he was gone, I’d never see a penny of it.

All his big talk about his condo and his new job out there in Seattle…

” He shook his head. “I didn’t believe a word of it. ”

“Why would he lie?”

“Because it wasn’t just me he owed money to,” Emery said. “He’d gotten involved with the wrong people.”

Jaden groaned inwardly, thinking this would have been nice to know from the get-go. “The wrong people? Drug people?”

Emery shrugged. “I just knew that he needed to get out of town. He said he wasn’t planning to leave until after Saturday.

But I found out that he’d already packed his truck in his garage and was planning to take off Halloween night.

That’s why he’d wanted to go out to Starling in my van.

He hates my driving, so I knew something was up.

I texted Krystal to check his house and garage. ”

“I looked through a crack in the blinds into his bedroom,” she said. “The closets were empty, the bureau drawers dropped out on the bed and almost everything taken. I checked the garage, and just like Emery suspected, Rob was planning a quick getaway.”

“He was going to miss the going-away party I was throwing for him Saturday night,” Emery said bitterly. “Where he promised to pay me what he owed me with interest. Lying piece of—”

“So, the two of you decided to kill him,” Jaden said, making Emery start.

“No! Not that I didn’t want to, but…” He shook his head.

“It’s just money, right? He saved my life once.

Sure, I was pissed, but I couldn’t kill him.

What would be the point? It wouldn’t get my money back.

” He shrugged. “I just wanted him to think that Elden Rusk had come for him that night. My going-away present for the bastard.”

Did Jaden believe Emery was telling the truth, that he’d just wanted to scare Rob by resurrecting Elden Rusk? After all, it had been Emery’s idea to go out to Starling on Halloween night. Rob must have gone along with it because it would have been suspicious if he hadn’t.

The deputy looked to Krystal, who was still standing at the other end of the table, her back to the wall. What was in it for her? “What did he owe you, Krystal?”

She seemed surprised by the question but recovered quickly. “Do I look like I had money to give him?” Her laugh didn’t quite ring true.

“It wasn’t money he wanted from you,” Jaden said. “But he owed you something, didn’t he?”

She chewed on her lower lip, her eyes shiny as she looked away.

“He’d promised to take her with him when he left,” Emery said, getting an evil-eye glare from Krystal.

“But once you saw his loaded pickup, you knew different,” Jaden said. He felt for her but wondered what that kind of humiliation could stir up in her. He recalled her chasing Livie out of town. Would she have run her off the road if she hadn’t gone in the ditch?

“You were hiding in the back of the van when Rob and Emery picked up those underage girls Halloween night,” Jaden said as he tried to work it out.

“That had to make you angry. Angry enough that when you saw your chance, you took it?” But was she strong enough to push a concrete wall over on Rob? Only if Emery had helped her.

“Why would I care about Rob?” Krystal said. “I was with Cody. I never really believed Rob was serious.”

“Only, Cody was with his old girlfriend down in a root cellar,” Jaden said, trying to imagine how yet another betrayal that night could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“You saw Olivia climb out and leave him to go for help. Save him or… You had to be furious by then. No one could blame you for picking up a rock and hurling it down at him. You just wanted him to hurt like he had made you. You didn’t mean to almost kill him. ”

A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I couldn’t hurt Cody. I love him and he loves me,” she said, making Emery look over at her in surprise. “It wasn’t me. When you found him, wasn’t Olivia the one standing over him? Maybe you should ask her what happened.”

“Did you see anyone else?” the deputy asked, tending to believe at least part of her story. She shook her head. He thought she could have wanted to scare Cody, but he doubted she’d intended to put him in the hospital, let alone kill him. That was, if she had been the one to injure him.

Rising from the table, Jaden thought back to the argument he’d overheard before coming into the apartment. “Any idea why Rob had insisted you all stay until midnight?”