Search for the Truth (Small Town Last Stand #1)

Prologue

The locals of Seven Roads, Georgia, were all saying the same thing.

Missy Clearwater went and jumped off the old, haunted bridge near Becker Farm because she was mighty unhappy with her father, her ex and the fact that her best friend had taken all but two seconds to hook up with that same ex a week before.

It was a sad piece of news that traveled across the small, action-deprived town with breakneck speed. Starting with Abe Becker and his son, who had found her. Both of whom were still upset about it all, only for different reasons.

“Sheriff, I feel for the girl, I really do, but who’s goin’ to fix the damage she left behind?” Abe asked, thumbs hooked around his overall loops. He was nearing seventy, but the way he kept doing chores on his land would have made you double-check that math.

Liam Weaver, said sheriff, envied the man a little.

He was in his thirties and was already fighting with a hip that locked up and ached if he skipped out on his physical therapy.

Something he’d been lax about the last few weeks.

The weather wasn’t helping. It had been a surprisingly dreary and cold month.

He tried to actively not favor his side and instead readjusted his belt, skimming his badge in the process.

The metal was cold against his hand. Abe was a contrast with his reddening face.

“Are you talking about the wooden board that broke?” Liam had to ask to be sure. “The one that most likely gave way before she fell?”

Abe was a nodding mess.

“That bridge may be old, but it’s still on my property,” he said. “Not fixing it isn’t an option for me.”

Liam shared a quick look with Abe’s son, Junior. He was closer to Liam’s age and looked mighty ashamed.

“Dad, it was only one board,” he tried. “We can fix it later.”

Abe shooed the thought off with two in-sync and annoyed hand gestures.

“That’s what I’m getting at.” He motioned behind him where the great majority of his acreage sat.

“Every penny counts in this place. Every single one has a purpose and a job. We take that money from somewhere it’s needed and put it somewhere that it ain’t, and we’ll have problems. Problems I’m not paying for. ”

The last part was directed at Liam.

He tried to maintain an air of professionalism.

It was hard. His response was blunt.

“Well, Miss Clearwater can’t pay for it, Abe, and I’ll be honest. I’m not about to ask her parents for it while they’re planning a funeral.”

Junior’s shame doubled in on itself, lining his face with a frown that sunk farther than a stone in water.

His daddy, at least, seemed to feel some of the ripples.

Abe let out a breath that was all frustration. He shook his head.

“I suppose I shouldn’t go doing that right now,” he relented. “Maybe it’s something we can talk about down the line.”

Junior saw his opportunity. He took his dad’s shoulders and turned him away from the woods they were standing near.

“Until then we should leave the sheriff and deputies to do what it is they need to do.” Junior nodded deep to Liam. “Y’all have our permission to come and go as you see fit until all of this gets settled. If you need anything, you know where to find us.”

Abe looked like he wanted to gripe about that, but his son was faster. Liam only got one nod in before the two were back in their work truck and driving back the way they had come.

It left Liam with an ache in his hip but some contentedness in his chest.

He liked the silence that being alone brought.

That silence didn’t last long.

Deputy Perry “Price” Collins got out of his cruiser rolling his eyes.

“Sorry to leave you hanging there, Sheriff,” he said.

“But I’ve spent almost all my life avoiding Old Man Becker ever since he caught me and my girlfriend hooking up in his barn in high school.

That man not only tore into my hide for trespassing, he also saw my bare hide while he was doing it.

” Price shook his head. “That whole incident is why I learned to put my britches on faster than a lightning strike after that.”

Liam liked the quiet, but of the constant noises in his work life, Price was one he disliked the least. For the past two years he had been more of a right-hand man than anyone else in the small-as-a-thimble McCoy County Sheriff’s Department.

He had also been the one who most respected privacy when it came to after-work hours.

While they saw each other almost every day, they seldom spoke outside of the office.

“I’ve heard that story three times now, and I still don’t know why you’d pick a barn to do that in. Especially on the Becker land. There had to be a better place.”

Price snorted. “Believe me, that’s the best we had at the time.

My cousin Dwayne tried the whole parking-in-the-middle-of-nowhere thing and somehow had the entire law banging on his Ford’s windows before the clock even struck nine.

” He shook his head again. “Give me Old Man Becker and him raising his voice at me over seeing someone with a badge holding a flashlight outside of my car door any day.”

Liam wasn’t sure which option was worse to him and decided it wasn’t the time to get into it.

Not with what they had to do next. He glanced up at the darkening sky and felt the wind try to bite into his jeans.

It was only a matter of time before the rain came in and made things more difficult.

A sentiment that Price seemed to agree with.

He dropped his humor and secured his flashlight at his side.

“Ready when you are, boss.”

The Becker Farm was the largest piece of acreage owned by a resident in the entirety of Seven Roads. The woods that took up the back end felt just as expansive. Once inside the tree line and it felt like another world.

A world that all the teens of Seven Roads at some point tried to sneak through to get to the bridge.

Stretching across one of the only major drop-offs on the property, the bridge stood over what used to be a deep creek. That creek had long since dried out. Which made the drop from the worn wood above so deadly.

Ten minutes later and Liam stopped just outside of the first plank with a sigh that pulled all of him down.

“Did you know Missy?” he asked when Price stopped next to him.

The younger man was quick to nod.

“I met her at a few birthday parties that my daughter, Winnie, went to when she was younger. Though Missy was there as friends of the older siblings since there was an age difference. I’m more familiar with her father.”

That wasn’t a surprise considering Jonathan Clearwater had run the tractor auction and supply business that had employed close to fifty people in town before he had sold it off, something that had happened way before Liam’s time in town but that he’d heard about still.

Seven Roads had less than one thousand residents.

Things like fifty jobs leaving town was a big deal, even after the fact.

“It gives me a cold stomach thinking about it,” Price added on. “Death is sad enough. Add in the fact that I have a picture with Missy and my little girl enjoying a birthday party at the arcade, and it hits different, you know?”

Liam didn’t dispute that.

He did, however, get down to business.

“Let’s go ahead and take the pictures Doc Ernest is asking for. You want the high ground or low?”

Price was quick.

“High.” Liam’s eyebrow went up at that. Price explained with a small smile.

“Old Man Becker might have caught me full moon in his barn, but there isn’t a kid who grew up in Seven Roads who hasn’t navigated this bridge a hundred times at least. I know all the soft, squeaky parts.

It’ll be safer if I take the pictures up here. Trust me.”

Liam snorted.

“You locals sure know how to party.”

Price shrugged.

“Not all of us could be so cool as to grow up in a city. Us country folk had to make do.”

Price pulled out his phone and was off. Liam took a beat before he took the path to the left.

It led down a slope that hurt his hip but wasn’t all that unmanageable otherwise.

A few careful feet later and he was at the flat rock and dirt-covered ground beneath the bridge.

It was an odd feeling being there again.

He’d been the first one to arrive after the call was made, and while he’d seen horrible things during his deployments, seeing Missy had been different.

A young woman who had been pushed around so much that she’d found herself over the edge.

Cases like this never got easier.

Liam took out his phone and started snapping pictures of the area. Their medical examiner had asked for more pictures of the scene after the area had been cleared. He wasn’t sure why, but he trusted that the good doctor had a reason.

So that’s what Liam did for the next few minutes. He walked the area around and beneath the bridge, mindful of the details.

That’s when he saw it.

Partially buried in the dirt, blending in next to some rocks. A slight shine to it, dirty silver.

On reflex Liam pulled out the pair of gloves he always had on him during work. He put them on and picked up the small object.

It was a USB drive. There were no markings on it, but there were two letters written in marker on one side.

“M.C.,” he read out loud.

Missy Clearwater?

Liam turned the drive over again, then scanned the area once more.

His phone started to vibrate in his hand. Doc Ernest’s name was on the screen.

“Hey, Sheriff, are you still at the scene?” she asked instead of a greeting.

There was a rush to her words. An urgency.

Liam’s gut started grumbling.

“I am. We’re finishing up with the pictures. What’s up?”

There was movement on her side of the phone. When she spoke again, she was nearly whispering.

“I’m going to need you to take a lot more pictures. And do a dang good job of it.”

Liam wanted to say he always gave the job his best, but something in her tone pulled a question out of him instead.

“What’s up?”

There was hesitation.

But then there was certainty.

“Because I think Missy Clearwater might have already been dead before she hit the ground.”