Chapter 2
Canton, MO
Leaving the courthouse, Jesse returned to the apartment she shared with her father above the Tap Room.
She didn’t worry when the first hour passed.
Her dad had said that he had paperwork to sign.
And he no doubt had to collect his belongings from the jail, where he’d been held since his arrest almost three months before.
It was no lie when they claimed the wheels of justice ground slowly. Sometimes if felt as if they were stuck in place.
But as the second hour passed, and then the third, Jesse’s patience snapped.
There were a dozen reasons he was late. There could be a snag in the paperwork.
Or he might have run into a crowd of friends who insisted on congratulating him on his release.
God knew he was outrageously popular around town.
Everyone knew and liked Mac Hudson. Or he might have stopped by the cemetery to visit the grave of Jesse’s mom.
He claimed he always felt better after sharing his problems with the true love of his life.
Even if she couldn’t give him the answers he needed.
By the fourth hour, Jesse couldn’t pretend that everything was fine.
Her father could be absent-minded, but he wasn’t cruel. He knew that she was anxiously waiting for him to come home. He would call if he was going to be this late.
Leaving the bar, she returned to the courthouse, circling each block in case her father was taking a different route. Not that the sleepy college town with tree-lined, cobblestoned streets was large enough for him to stray too far away.
Most of the businesses, including the Tap Room, were built to overlook the mighty Mississippi River.
The dozen or so stores and restaurants along Main Street catered mainly to the local citizens, although a few students occasionally ventured down from the college that was sprawled on the high bluff above town.
Ice inched down Jesse’s spine as she stopped her hunt to glance toward the dome that gleamed in the late afternoon sunlight. It was the only thing visible of the college, looming over the town with a lofty arrogance.
The rigid separation between town and gown was alive and well in Canton, Missouri.
A lesson that her stepmother had learned too late.
With a shake of her head, Jesse turned toward the center of town, where a pale stone building with a red-tiled roof consumed the bulk of the public square. The courthouse had faded over the past hundred years, but it had the solid bulk of a structure that was going to be around another century.
Climbing the worn cement stairs, Jesse entered the building through the front door. The lobby was eerily empty. Not surprising, she told herself. It was past five o’clock and most of the offices were closed. But that didn’t keep her heart from sinking.
A part of her was convinced her father would be sitting in one of the leather chairs, patiently waiting for the judge to finish the paperwork, or surrounded by friends. To accept he wasn’t there felt like a physical blow.
“Are you here to gloat?”
Jesse cursed at the sound of the harsh voice. Of course she’d run into the one person she’d hoped to avoid when she came back to the courthouse. Slowly turning, she faced Deputy Adam Tillman.
“Excuse me?”
The pudgy face was hard with anger. “It’s your fault a murderer is out there wandering around town instead of behind bars where he belongs.”
She took a deliberate backward step. The deputy’s habit of invading her personal space went beyond annoying to downright creepy.
“If you’re referring to my father, he’s free to wander around town because he’s innocent.
” She forced a smile to her stiff lips. “And because your star witness admitted he was too far away and it was too dark for him to see any details of the crash. You know, the one that magically appeared after remaining silent for months, and only decided to testify that he’d seen my dad’s truck after you’d charged him with a DUI? ”
Adam’s face flushed. “Who else would run her off the road? You were the one who testified that your father had argued with his wife. And that you watched your stepmother pack a bag and take off with her daughter in the middle of the night.”
“Exactly. She packed up and left. Why would he kill her?”
“Because he didn’t want her to go. Some men are like that.” His squinty gaze took a slow survey of her slender body. “They think a woman is their property and she should stay in her place.”
Jesse resisted the urge to shudder. She wasn’t going to give the bastard the satisfaction of knowing he got under her skin.
“Not my dad.”
“So you say.”
“Yes, so I say. Along with the judge.”
Adam sucked air between the gap in his front teeth, the whistling sound grating on Jesse’s raw nerves.
Despite the difference in their age, they’d gone to school together. He was the sort of kid who tattled on his classmates, cheated on tests, and tried to peek into the girls’ locker room. As far as she knew, no one liked him. Not even the teachers.
“Just as you say that you could swear on a Bible your father never left the bar,” he mocked.
Jesse shrugged. “Exactly.”
“As if you wouldn’t lie your ass off to protect him.”
She would. And she had. Not only about what had happened that night, but the reason for it. Just as she would continue to lie until her last dying breath.
“Unlike you, I had no need to manipulate evidence.” She reminded the jerk of his attempt to coerce a witness. “My father’s innocent, and the case against him was dismissed.”
“That doesn’t mean this is over. I’m gonna get him. One way or another.”
Pasting a fake smile on her lips, Jesse strolled past the deputy, her skin crawling as she felt Adam’s glare boring into the center of her back. The deputy was an idiot, but he currently held a position of power. One that came with a weapon and the license to use it.
Only a fool would push him too far.
Heading toward the back of the building where she assumed the judge had his office, Jesse was silently rehashing the unpleasant conversation when her musings were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.
“Excuse me.”
Jesse halted, turning around to discover an older woman in a polyester suit and pearls heading toward her with a click of her low heels.
Her silver hair was perfectly curled and sprayed into place like a helmet and her thin face was lined with wrinkles.
Jesse had a vague memory of seeing the woman around Canton; what was her name?
Rosemary. Yes, Rosemary Something-or-other.
“We’re about to lock the building for the evening,” Rosemary informed her.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to come back tomorrow if you need something. ”
Something that felt like panic flared through Jesse at the thought of the courthouse being locked up for the night. What if her dad was still inside? Maybe he’d passed out. Or had a heart attack from the stress. Or …
Jesse grimly shut down her spiraling fear. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why her father was missing.
There had to be.
“I’m looking for Mac Hudson.” The words came out steady. Good for her. “He had a pretrial hearing in the courtroom earlier today and—”
“I know Mac,” the woman interrupted Jesse’s babbling. “He left a couple of hours ago.”
“Are you sure?”
“I saw him myself.” She pointed toward a nearby hallway. “He went out the side door to the parking lot.”
Jesse glanced in the direction the woman indicated as if she expected her father to suddenly appear. It made sense for him to choose to leave by a different exit. There might have been reporters lurking around the front of the building. But what had he been doing for the past couple of hours?
“Was he alone?” she at last demanded.
The pencil-thin brows arched, as if confused by Jesse’s questions. “His lawyer walked him to the door, but he went outside alone. Is there a problem?”
“No. No problem.”
Jesse clenched her hands and scurried in the direction her father had left.
Where the hell was he?
Returning to the bar, Jesse paced through the public room.
It was a long, rectangular space with a hand-carved bar on one side and a dozen round tables in the center of the floor.
The ceiling was low and covered with copper tiles that had been salvaged from the original mercantile store, along with the wooden floorboards and red brick walls.
At the back of the bar there was just enough space for a dartboard and two pool tables.
Usually by this hour, the place was buzzing with neon lights and country music and the background noise of clinking glasses as her father efficiently served the customers who poured through the doors as soon as their workday ended.
The Tap Room was the goto establishment in Canton for eighty years, and despite the ugly rumors swirling through town, the business had continued to thrive.
Jesse wanted to believe that the locals trusted Mac Hudson.
Even after his wife and stepdaughter disappeared in the early hours one morning only to have her fancy sports car end up crashed into a tree with splatters of blood on the driver’s side seat and no sign of Victoria or Tegan.
But it could be they were fascinated by the potential for a lurid scandal.
Whatever the case, they’d never been busier.
That was why Jesse had decided to keep the place closed for the week.
As much as the town would want to celebrate Mac’s release, she’d known that he needed a few days to recover.
Plus, she’d wanted to spend some time alone with her dad.
He’d been in jail for months. That was the longest they’d ever been separated. She’d genuinely missed his company.
Her pacing had taken her past the pool table when there was a soft tap on the back door.
A heavy weight abruptly lifted from her, allowing her to suck in the first deep breath she’d taken since leaving the courthouse.
Shaking off her sense of doom, Jesse hurried through the short hallway.
She passed by the stairs that led down to the cellar before entering a cramped foyer.
There was another set of stairs. These went up to the private apartment that was spread between the top two floors of the building.
Directly in front of her was a wooden door that opened into the alleyway.
It was for family use only.
“Dad?”
Fully expecting to see her father standing there with a sheepish grin, her heart plummeted at the sight of the short, squat woman with shoulder-length reddish hair that was pulled back with a headband.
She had a round face that was streaked with flour that matched the dusting that covered her loose sundress.
Her eyes were a warm brown that twinkled with kindness.
Beatrice “Bea” Hartman had owned the diner next to the Tap Room since Jesse was just a baby.
Over the years, they’d developed a relationship that was closer to family than friendship.
Honestly, she didn’t know how she or her father would have survived over the years without Bea’s steady presence.
“Oh.” She forced a smile to her lips. “Hi, Bea.”
“Now I don’t mean to interrupt your homecoming, but I baked Mac’s favorite pie and I wanted to bring it by when it was fresh out of the oven.
” The older woman pressed her way past Jesse with the casualness of a regular visitor, holding a wicker basket in one hand.
“I know he likes to put a dollop of ice cream on top while it’s still warm. ”
Jesse closed the door, the scent of apple pie topped with cinnamon crumb flooding the foyer. Her stomach rumbled. When was the last time she’d eaten? The fact she couldn’t remember meant it’d been too long ago.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. I wanted to.” Bea leaned to the side, peering down the hallway. “Is he already trying to catch up on his chores, or did he have the sense to go upstairs and rest?”
“He’s …” The words stuck in Jesse’s throat. She cleared away the lump. “He’s not here.”
“He’s already taken off ?” Bea glanced back in surprise. “Oh. That’s a shame. Not that I blame him. Last time I visited him at that awful place, he was complaining that the walls were closing in on him. I knew he’d be anxious to get out breathing the fresh air. But I’d hoped to catch him first.”
“Actually, I’m not sure what he’s doing. I haven’t seen him since the judge dismissed the charges at the courthouse.”
Bea furrowed her brow. “Wait. I saw the two of you talking after the case was dismissed. Didn’t he come home with you?”
Jesse shook her head. She hadn’t realized that Bea was at the hearing. Of course she hadn’t been paying attention to anything except the judge as he’d listened to the lawyers squabbling over her father’s fate.
“He told me he had some paperwork to take care of, and that he wanted to wait for the crowd to thin before he walked home. That was hours ago.”
“Did you call him?”
“Of course I did. A hundred times. And left a hundred messages.”
The furrow deepened. “That’s strange.”
“It’s more than strange.” Jesse wrapped her arms around her waist, shivering as a dark fear snaked down her spine. “I’m afraid something’s happened to him. Something bad.”
Bea clicked her tongue, her mother mode kicking into gear. “Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Jesse. Did he seem nervous? Or worried when you spoke to him?”
“No. He was relieved it was over.” Jesse abruptly recalled the shadow that’d passed over Mac’s face when he’d suggested it was time for a change. “Maybe a little sad.”
“Sad?”
“It was more …” Jesse struggled for the right word. “Bittersweet. I think he realizes that his life is never going to be the same. But that’s expected after what he’s been through, right?”
“Of course it is.” Bea patted Jesse’s arm, her smile reassuring in the shadows of the foyer.
“Mac has had more put on his plate than any man should have to endure. The sort of things that would upset anyone. Maybe he just needs some time to decompress and process the fact that the nightmare is over.”
It was the same thing Jesse had told herself over and over. So why did the words ring so hollow?
“That’s fine, but why wouldn’t he call or at least text me?” she protested. “He knows I’m waiting for him.”
“I doubt he’s thinking clearly. Just give him some space to adjust. In the meantime, have some pie.” Bea shoved the basket into Jesse’s hand. “Don’t forget, it’s been tough for you too. You both need time to heal.”