Page 39

CHAPTER 39

W e got through the rest of dinner with only Barry trying to talk to us—“I’m on a date ,” I said, holding back on my desire to put some hurt on him for spreading treasure rumors, and he wandered back to the bar and Louise because he was not a smart man—and then Rose and I had tea, like civilized people as the place started to clear out. Poppy and Marley excused themselves and left, not tempted by tea, and I was left with Rose, who I was tempted by. Always.

“So how was your day, honey?” Rose batted her eyes at me.

“Getting better every minute,” I said and then because she had to know, I added, “I talked to Herc.”

Rose lost her smile. “Great. So what’s the bad news?”

“First things first,” I said. “Dottie sent the microfilm and the download and translation I asked Lionel to do to Herc.”

“You know, I have about had it with her—” Rose began, but I held up a hand. I had, of course, waited until Dottie and Lionel had vacated the Wok Inn before telling her this so she wouldn’t drag Dottie out into the street and do something violent.

Rose had gotten a lot more violent since I’d left for the Trail. Possibly because of me, or maybe just because she had so much sublimated rage. She’d never have hit an assassin with a chair before she met me.

Of course, she wouldn’t have had to hit an assassin with a chair before me.

“It’s probably for the best,” I said.

“How?”

I smiled and pulled the thumb drive out of my pocket. “Lionel slipped me the download anyway.”

“Oh.” She blinked at it. “That makes me almost like him.”

I frowned. “He also said, ‘Help us.’”

“He said, ‘Help us ,’ not ‘me’?” Rose asked. “Him and Dottie? They’re an ‘us’ again?”

I nodded. “After I left the post office. He followed me, slipped me the drive with the mail, and then asked me to help them. He didn’t want Herc to hear that.”

Rose looked thoughtful.

“Herc also pretty much said I was Oz’s replacement.”

She sat back in her chair and regarded me. “You needed Herc to tell you that?”

That was not the response I had expected. “Well. No. But at least he wasn’t telling me to get the hell out of town like he’s been doing.”

“Why the change?” she asked.

“He was pissed about my ordering Lionel to cut the feed. We argued. We compromised.”

“From what you’ve said of Herc,” Rose said, “he doesn’t compromise. He rules.”

I’d thought she’d be happy that I was going to fulfill Pike’s hopes and dreams and become the town marshal. I bit back an irritated reply as she went on.

“So what’s his game this time?” She leaned forward. “There’s more here than we’re seeing. First, Geoffrey taking out Ozzie, Serena kidnapping Poppy to get this microfilm that Herc now has. Melissa, Sid, and Harvey all dying; the attempts on Coral and me. I think they’re all linked. There has to be somebody working in the background. And I don’t see that being Junior. Serena was pulling his strings before, but I bet somebody else was doing it this time. Which pretty much leaves Herc. So what does he want?”

She seemed to have skipped over the attempt on me, but I didn’t see the need to remind her. I was never big on conspiracy theories because I believed in Benjamin Franklin’s adage that three can keep a secret if two are dead. But this many people at once? I wasn’t big on coincidences, either.

Herc could definitely be one of three with the other two dead, and if those two were Junior and Serena, mission accomplished. That could have even been his game: to get rid of both of them via the very lethal citizens of Rocky Start.

“Herc wouldn’t have sent a has-been alcoholic dog to take out Coral,” I said. “That has Junior written all over it: cheap labor. The snake was stupid, which also indicates Junior. And we know Junior planted the bomb that didn’t go off. Junior shot Betty while he was aiming for Poppy, thinking she was you. Incompetent doesn’t even begin to describe Junior, and it never described Herc’s style. And before that? Geoffrey was an outlier. Serena is dead.”

Rose was still frowning. “So why does Herc suddenly want you to be sheriff?”

“He needs stability in Rocky Start,” I said. “He did want me to keep an eye on Dmitri and let him know if he found any treasure.”

“So there is treasure,” Rose said.

“There’s the possibility of treasure.” I didn’t want to add the next bit, but full disclosure required it. “He also wants me to terminate Dmitri after he finds the treasure. If there is treasure.”

Rose blinked. “Kill him?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“Herc is insane,” Rose said.

“Possibly. But wicked smart crazy. The most dangerous kind.”

“Did it ever occur to you that he’s the entity you imagine controls your life?” Rose said, picking up a fortune cookie. “Except he’s been doing it for real?”

“Well, yeah, he’s been . . .” but I trailed off because something in my brain flipped.

Rose kept talking. “What I don’t get is how anybody, especially Herc, would benefit from all the violence we’ve had here.”

“I don’t know either,” I replied, but my mind was elsewhere. “But Junior is dead. Geoffrey is dead. Serena is dead.”

“Maybe someone wanted them dead?” Rose said, which mirrored the possibility that had occurred to me.

“Maybe. But they went about it the hard way.”

“Bea was acting guilty tonight,” Rose said.

“She was drunk. Give yourself a break, Rose. We’re alive tonight, be happy.” But I was trying to avoid the truth bomb Rose had just laid on me. Herc was the entity I’d been imagining for years. It was so obvious that it hurt. I’d suspected it, but been unwilling to face it head on. And the larger implications tore at the very foundation of the life I had lived before Rocky Start.

But that life was over, the future was Rocky Start. The entity could take a hike.

I noticed Luke laughing with Jackie and Quill over at their table. Luke looked relaxed and happy, and I was glad for him. Poppy had said that Darius was heading out of town, probably for good, and that released Luke from the deathbed promise he’d made to his ex to focus only on Darius until he was of age. Now he could start his own life. The rest of his life.

And so could I.

Across the table from me, the rest of my life said, “Let’s forget about Herc for now. He ruins everything, even dinner. But we still have a snitch in town. Bea. Louise. Dottie. One of them. Junior may be dead, but this is not over.”

“Maybe,” I said, looking at Rose, at her bright eyes and always-tumbled curls and her smile, her real smile, aimed at me. “But being with you makes it all better.”

She beamed at me, and I relaxed again. At least I was home again with Rose. And now I knew that the entity controlling my life wasn’t a joke I told myself.

That joke was over.