Chapter Twenty-Four
A taxi took Shane and Amy Sue to the wedding chapel. It wasn’t as corny as some she’d seen on the drive from the airport, but she couldn’t help feeling that Shane had skimped on this part. Or maybe it was the only one available at such short notice.
It smelled inside like an antiques store. She realized that it was probably the heavy old velvet drapes that lined the walls. “Wagner wedding?” an elderly woman asked, appearing from off to the right.
“That’s us,” Shane said. He seemed even more anxious than he had earlier at the license bureau. “You have witnesses?” he asked, looking around.
“They’re already in the chapel.” She motioned him to follow her, telling Amy Sue that she could wait there. They disappeared through the drapes. She could hear the woman trying to upsell Shane, offering other services that cost more money. Shane kept saying no and finally lost his temper.
“We just want to get married,” he snapped. “Quick and simple. Husband and wife. Can you do that?”
The woman made a rude sound, then told him how much it would cost—more than what she’d apparently told him over the phone when he’d made the reservation. “That’s criminal, you know that?”
Amy Sue would have found that funny, if she wasn’t so nervous. She heard Shane slam down the money. When he came through the curtain, his face was twisted into a look she had never seen on him before. She must have showed surprise, because he quickly changed his expression.
“Time to go on back to the chapel.” He took her arm and kind of pushed her forward as if he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.
Amy Sue couldn’t blame him. The smell of the place was making her nauseous and the voice in her heard telling her to run was no longer Josie’s. It was her own.
The chapel appeared before them. As they moved forward, a white-haired man with a limp motioned them to come closer. Out of the corner of her eye, Amy Sue saw the witnesses. They looked like two people who’d been kidnapped from a rest home.
Swallowing around the lump in her throat, she turned to Shane and whispered, “I need just a minute.”
“What?” he snapped, clearly irritated.
“Just a moment,” she told the man who was to officiate their marriage as she walked back the way they’d come, Shane going with her.
“Amy Sue, come on, this is—”
“I need to ask you something. It’s important and I need you to tell me the truth. Did you know Roger Grimes?”
Shane frowned. “What?”
“You heard me. Tell me the truth.”
He looked her in the eye. She saw him visibly trying to rein in his temper. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard that name in my life.”
She nodded. That was exactly what she had needed to hear. He didn’t ask who Roger Grimes was or why she needed to know because he knew the answers to both. He had lied through his teeth.
“We need to get on with the ceremony,” the older man called. “We have another one coming up next. I also have some paperwork for you to sign.”
“Go sign, I’ll be right there. I just need to catch my breath.”
Shane studied her for a moment, clearly afraid to leave her.
“I’m sorry. I always thought Josie would officiate my wedding. This is a little overwhelming, but I’m going to be fine.” She smiled and touched his arm. “Please, just give me a moment.”
He relented and the instant he turned his back, she ran to the exit, disappeared through the velvet drapes and out the door.
She didn’t know how far she’d run, winding her way through the streets until she saw a bar and ducked into it, then into the ladies’ room, where there was less noise.
Once inside a stall and the door closed, she pulled out her phone and called for an Uber. Two minutes. Driver’s name was Kevin.
Her grandmother would have said she was shaking like an aspen leaf in a Montana gale.
All she knew was that her heart was threatening to burst from her chest. Back in the bar, she waited by the door.
The moment Kevin drove up, she ran out, jumped in and asked him to take her to the airport.
She would take any flight she could get out of Vegas as quickly as possible.
As it was, there was one leaving in forty-five minutes for Bozeman, Montana.
She booked the flight, paying with her credit card.
Once the charge went through, she took a seat and contacted her credit card company to let them know that after the flight, she needed to cancel it.
Then she contacted her bank to freeze her account.
She hadn’t realized that she’d been crying until she sat down in her seat on the plane and the lady next to her handed her a tissue. “Thank you, but I don’t want to talk about it,” she said to the woman.
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to. I know. We’ve all been there. You’re much better without whoever he or she was.”
* * *
The dinner was the loveliest one Josie had ever had and the most enjoyable. Cordell never mentioned the folded sheet of paper on the table next to her plate the rest of the night. They talked about the hotel, the remodel and his plans for making Dry Gulch a destination resort.
While she might be skeptical about what Dry Gulch had to offer, she had complete faith in Cordell Lander. She loved seeing his dreams come to life. Everyone in town was excited about him restoring the hotel. It had been abandoned for far too long, making it look like Dry Gulch was a dead end.
The truth was that the town had been dying.
Maybe restoring the hotel would give the town a boost, she thought.
At least it had already had a positive effect on the town’s people.
She saw some of the residents fixing up their places, putting on a new coat of paint, hauling away junk or making a pretty wreath for their front door.
Goldie had commented on how she’d heard people saying they hoped Cordell finished the job. “They’re rooting for him,” she’d said. “Though most of them think he’s wasting his time.”
She and Cordell talked about her pro bono work. He’d asked about Big Blue and how she’d gotten it replaced without anyone knowing where it came from.
“My secret,” she said. “Everyone in town is just glad to have the horse back where it belongs. I’m sure there are some people who are suspicious of the coincidence of Big Blue turning up at the same time bad-boy Cordell Lander returned, but once they saw you unloading lumber from the back of that trailer you hauled to town, I think they changed their minds. ”
He grinned. “Thanks. You’ve always gotten me out of trouble.”
“I could say the same about you.” They’d never talked about that day with Roger Grimes. “You saved my life that day.”
“Doesn’t count. I was the one who put you in jeopardy to begin with.”
“We worked pretty well as a team, though, didn’t we?
” she said and he nodded solemnly. Both of them were putting the incident behind them, but it wasn’t easy.
Their brush with death would always be with them, just as the memory of what they’d had to do.
The one thing they didn’t talk about was Shane Wagner, purposely staying clear of that topic.
After dinner, Cordell asked her if she would like to go to a movie or go back to the hotel and swim. “Or we can go to a movie Saturday night. Whatever you would like to do.”
“I’d like to go back to the hotel.” If he’d noticed that she’d picked up the paper she’d written on earlier and put it in her purse, he hadn’t commented.
“You can come over to my room and we can watch a movie if you like,” he suggested when they reached the hotel.
“Sounds great. I brought a bottle of wine. I’ll get it out of my bag, change into something more comfortable and come right over.”
She put on a T-shirt and shorts, grabbed the bottle of wine and tapped at the door. He opened their adjoining door and took the bottle of wine from her.
“I forgot something,” she said and rushed back to her room to get the paper she’d written on earlier.
Cordell was busy getting a couple of glasses ready for the wine. He was about to open the wine when he stopped. “Josie, the seal is broken on this bottle. Did you already open it?”
She shook her head and stepped closer.
“There’s something floating down in the bottom of the wine bottle,” Cordell said. “This was in your bag at the office, right?”
She felt goose bumps ripple over her flesh. “Shane. You think he put something in it.”
“I think we should wrap it up. Max can have the lab run tests on it. Shane’s fingerprints might even still be on the bottle.”
Josie sat down on the edge of the bed. “We’ve avoided mentioning him all night, but he’s been there the whole time. I need to call Amy Sue to make sure she’s all right.” The call went straight to voicemail. She left a message and started to put away her phone when she saw a message from Goldie.
“This wasn’t what either of us hoped for,” Cordell was saying.
“I need to check this.” Goldie wouldn’t have reached out unless it was important. Her heart sank as she read the words. “Shane and Goldie have eloped to Vegas!”
She had to sit down, but as she did, she realized she was still holding the folded sheet of paper. “This is for you.”
He took it but didn’t unfold it. “How about I hang on to this for another time? I’m going to call Max. We might be able to drop off this bottle with the state police lab here in Billings.”
* * *
Amy Sue wouldn’t have been surprised to find the farmhouse burned to the ground when she finally reached home. She burst out crying when she saw that everything looked exactly the same—except that the motorcycle was no longer parked out front.
She’d been afraid he would be here waiting for her. When she’d walked out of the chapel, he might have thought he still had a chance. But once she cut off his money, he’d obviously gotten the message. At least she hoped that was true.
Turning her phone back on, she listened to a series of messages pleading with her to tell him what was wrong. Then the messages got angrier and meaner. She didn’t have the heart to hear any more and deleted all of them.
She saw that her sister had called numerous times, but only left one message. I’m worried about you. Please just let me know that you’re all right.
Inside the house, she looked around, surprised how empty and cold it felt.
Upstairs, her room looked exactly as she’d left it.
She’d thought Shane might have returned to leave her something disgusting to remember him by.
But if he’d been here, he hadn’t bothered to leave a note.
Why would he? There really wasn’t anything he could say.
At the sound of a vehicle, she looked out to see the sheriff drive up in his patrol SUV. Her heart dropped as she watched him climb out, looking like a man bringing bad news. Suddenly everything her sister had tried to warn her about came rushing back. What if Shane had killed Josie?
Amy Sue raced down the stairs and had just pushed out the door onto the porch when Max reached the steps. “Is it Josie?”
He looked surprised, then said quickly, “She’s all right. She didn’t drink any of the wine Shane had tampered with. It was poisoned, though. Lab said rat poison. Probably got his hands on it out here on the farm.”
Rat poison? Josie’s wine? She dropped into a porch chair and put her head in her hands as the sheriff told her how Cordell had noticed that the bottle had been tampered with and had called him and Max had instructed him to take it to the crime lab.
She felt all the pieces drop, one after another, as she recalled Shane mentioning something about Cordell taking Josie to Billings for the weekend.
Josie had thought someone had gotten into her office.
Amy Sue remembered seeing her sister’s overnight bag by the door when she’d stopped by.
Shane must have had her keys copied the time he used her car.
“We have a BOLO out on Shane,” Max continued. “I’d advise you not to have any contact with him. If you hear from him, let me know.”
She raised her head, nodded and said, “I don’t think I’ll be hearing from him.”
“I’m sorry, Amy Sue. Will you be all right out here by yourself?”
“I’ll be fine, Sheriff.” But she could tell that he didn’t like leaving her alone.
“I heard around town that Shane was taking you to Vegas to get married.” He looked down at his boots before looking up at her. “Did you—”
“No. There is nothing legally binding between us, if that’s what you’re asking. I didn’t go through with it. I’ve already canceled my credit cards and frozen my bank account.”
He nodded, looking relieved, but also embarrassed for her. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Thanks.” She looked down and realized she was still wearing the ring Shane had given her that she was pretty sure she’d paid for. She slipped it off her finger, tempted to throw it as far as she could. Instead, she slipped it in her pocket. Their grandmother had taught them not to waste money.
She watched Max drive away before she pulled out her phone and called her sister.
After cutting their trip short, Cordell had dropped Josie off at her office. As she was unlocking the door, she’d seen Clancy Roberts, who asked if she knew that Amy Sue had gone to Vegas to get married.
“She’s not back?” Josie asked.
“Not that I know of,” Clancy said, “but someone thought they saw Shane on his bike headed south.”
As her phone rang, Josie excused herself and opened her office door, stepping inside before she checked the call. Seeing it was her sister, she quickly picked up. “Amy Sue, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I’m home. Alone.”
She burst into tears at the sound of her sister’s voice, her relief overwhelming her. She’d been so worried about Amy Sue, especially after realizing that Shane had tampered with the wine. “Are you…married?”
“No. I couldn’t go through with it even before I realized he was lying. If I ever get married, I want my sister to officiate, not some old man in a dingy wedding chapel in Las Vegas without you there.”
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear you say that,” Josie said as she dried her eyes. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“You were right about everything.”
“I wish I wasn’t,” Josie said and realized that darkness she’d felt suffocating her and the town had lifted. Shane was gone. Her sister was safe. She was safe. “Do you want me to come out to the farmhouse?”
She feared her sister would say no after the awful arguments they’d had. “Could you pick up ice cream?”