Chapter Four
The sunset was nice. Liam watched it from his apartment’s balcony with a beer in one hand and his phone in the other.
A call he was waiting for hadn’t come. He figured it wouldn’t.
Still, he had waited.
It wasn’t until the sun had completely gone that he put the phone down on the balcony’s table.
A few minutes later, a rock hit the chair arm next to it. Liam set down his beer as another small rock came over the balcony railing at him.
“You know, throwing rocks at the sheriff isn’t the smartest move,” he called out.
Laughter came back.
“Is your door unlocked?” the voice from the ground asked.
“No.”
A groan sounded.
Liam stood.
“You have thirty seconds,” he called out again.
The sound of footsteps running to the outdoor stairwell echoed behind him as Liam made his way back into the apartment. He didn’t slow his steps even a little. Yet when he unlocked the front door, a second later it was opening. Theo Chasten was out of breath but grinning.
“I’m—I’m getting faster,” he panted. “I even skipped like six steps coming—coming up here.”
Liam backtracked to the kitchen. He pointed to the refrigerator as he set his aim to the balcony again.
“There’s leftovers in the fridge, superstar.”
He didn’t have to say any more than that. Which was a relief. Liam had come to Seven Roads after a divorce had left him tapped out on being any kind of social. He’d wanted quiet; he’d wanted peace.
Then he’d run into a teenaged boy sitting in the stairwell of their apartment complex while a storm raged on a few feet outside.
Theo had been quiet then, but a strong quiet.
It wasn’t fear or worry that kept his mouth shut tight.
It was his choice. His armor. Getting him to admit he was locked out of his apartment and unable to get a hold of his mother had been a chore.
If it hadn’t been for the tornado sirens going off, Liam doubted he could have convinced the teen to seek shelter in his apartment until his mom came home.
But those sirens went off and Theo had begrudgingly taken Liam up on the offer.
It was the first time Theo had been given help without asking for it but not the last. Now, almost two years later, Liam had become a mentor of sorts to the boy.
He helped him with school, made sure he ate well, and answered any life questions that came his way.
Liam had even taught the boy how to drive.
Though, no one had been happy during that ordeal.
Liam had been deployed in combat zones before. Teaching an anxious teen to drive had tested his nerves almost as much.
In the end, it all led to Theo finally not fighting the offer of food anymore. It saved them both more time and Liam more sanity.
“Also grab you a water, fast guy,” he added. “Because I can almost bet you haven’t had a drop all day. Just that energy drink crap or sodas.”
Theo laughed from the kitchen.
“You sure do know me really well, Sheriff.” He cleared his throat. When he spoke again, his accent had more syrup in it. “Much obliged.”
The night air was cool but not cold enough that the balcony door could stay open without messing with the air conditioner.
Without saying it, though, Theo slid the glass door closed when he came out.
It was little things like that that made Liam realize how much his relationship with the sixteen-year-old had changed since they had met.
First there had been yelling.
Then there had been annoyance.
Now Theo threw rocks, Liam left him food, and the former thought about the AC.
“Didn’t you have a study group tonight? Don’t tell me you bailed to come hang out with me. You’ll never get that girl’s attention if you aren’t actually there to get it.”
Theo dropped down into his usual spot on the chair next to Liam. He was already in the process of eating the leftovers.
“Her name is Sammy, thank you very much,” he said around some food in his mouth. “And she’s the reason I bailed. She had to babysit her little sister so her parents could go somewhere.”
“Is the rest of the study group still meeting up?”
Liam saw the boy’s head nod forward in the near darkness.
“Yeah but I’m not about to go sit in some coffee shop with a bunch of people I don’t even talk to only to pretend that I’m not good at calculus.”
Liam held in a chuckle at that.
Theo Chasten was a smart aleck, but there was a heavy emphasis on the smart part.
Liam had been quick to pick up on the fact that Theo’s mom wasn’t exactly one to dote on her son.
She worked hard, it was true, but she often overlooked him and his needs.
He’d already been dropped into foster care once as a younger kid.
He didn’t talk about that time much though.
Once his mom worked her plan to get him back, she’d done enough to keep him out.
Still, that had weighed heavy on his little shoulders, and he had acted out more than not when he was younger.
It had earned him a less-than-favorable reputation in town.
Most of Seven Roads had written him off already, thinking he didn’t know a thing. Liam, his teachers, and thankfully Theo himself knew otherwise. Though that didn’t mean he wanted others to know it. He hid his capabilities behind a facade of teenage angst and annoyance, especially from his peers.
“Plus,” Theo continued, “I heard you chased some woman through the woods today, so I thought I’d rather waste my time here talking to you.”
The image of Blake Bennet perfectly popped up in Liam’s mind.
Standing there in a ripped yellow dress wearing his shirt, which swallowed her, her eyebrows scrunched, the Band-Aid she had applied moving as she was thoughtful.
Sending her off with Deputy Price had bothered him more than it should have.
“I didn’t chase a woman through the woods. I chased after a man she was chasing,” he corrected. Liam took a pull from his beer. “But that whole thing hasn’t been resolved, so I’m not talking about it here.”
The shadow of Theo’s head bobbed again.
“I figured you weren’t out there terrorizing civilians today,” he said.
“Especially not when I heard it was that sheriff lady. What do you call a former sheriff, by the way? Is it like the president, where you still call them Sheriff even though they’ve left the office?
Or is it more like Star Trek and once you’ve left the captain’s chair you’re just whatever position you’re in? ”
Liam quickly sidestepped the additional ramble and instead got to the part that surprised him.
“You know Blake Bennet?”
His question came out a little strong. Luckily, Theo didn’t pick up on it.
“I know of her, but I’ve only seen her once or twice in person,” he answered. “Some of the workers at the steel mill have talked about her. Apparently, she was on TV a few times. It sounded like she upset a lot of people where she used to live.”
Liam started to fiddle with the label on his bottle.
“People at the factory were talking about her?” This wasn’t the first time that Theo, working part-time in the cafeteria, had gotten him an inside scoop.
“You’ve heard about her too. Or at least her sister.
You know that guy, Hector Martinez, the guy Missy Clearwater was really good friends with before her own life got depressing, who got really badly burned when one of the furnaces started melting down a while back?
That sheriff lady’s sister was the safety person who came out to do a safety report on it.
Later she got into a car accident on the county road.
You know, the gnarly one that had every ambulance in the county there. ”
The label on the bottle started to slide off. Liam paused.
Then it finally clicked.
“Beth Bennet.” He swore under his breath. “I knew the name sounded familiar.”
Liam remembered the accident that had killed Blake’s sister.
He hadn’t been in town for it, but the briefing had been enough when he’d come back.
Doc Ernest had been visibly upset. The only solace she had given was that the woman had been killed instantly in the rollover.
Her funeral had been a private event. Liam had meant to send his condolences but hadn’t been able to find the right time.
Then, he felt ashamed to think, he had forgotten. His mind had gone to cases and work, and now here he was putting together old pieces to a current puzzle.
“Apparently she’s been in town for a while now, but no one’s really seen her,” Theo went on. “The talk from the cafeteria wasn’t exactly nice about her either. They talked about her trying really hard to stay out of sight, but it also sounded like they didn’t try to go see her at all either.”
There was distaste in the teen’s words. For good reason, he’d never been a fan of public opinion.
Liam went back to slowly peeling off the label of his bottle. He tried to keep his tone casual.
“Is there anything else you heard about her? The sheriff, I mean.” Liam regretted how not casual-sounding the question came out.
He had overreached. Judging by the quick head turn, Theo had realized it too.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he exclaimed. “Did I hear that right? Is our dear sheriff finally, finally giving in to the drama that is Seven Roads and its people? Are you really sitting here trying to gossip with me?”
Liam rolled his eyes and made sure the breath he let out was unmistakably annoyed.
“All right,” he said. “I think this conversation has run its course.”
He started to get up, but Theo grabbed at the leg of his jeans. He was laughing.
“Calm down there, Sheriff,” he said. “No need to get all defensive. Everyone in town knows you don’t put up with the rumor mill. I was just thrown a little, is all.”
Liam stayed where he was.
He knew he had successfully moved the boy out of his teasing and right to where he wanted him—answering his original question without additional commentary.
“The only other thing I know about the Bennet family is that they used to be one of the longtime families of Seven Roads, but then everyone started leaving. The lady who passed was the last one who was here before her sister showed up again. Seems like there was family drama before that.” He shut the leftover container with a click.
His next words sounded thoughtful. “If the sheriff has been back for a while, then she really must have tried hard to keep to herself. I mean, it’s hard not to notice someone in this place after all. ”
He wasn’t wrong. Seven Roads was thimble-sized small.
Even if you wanted to stay off the radar, a local would put you right back on it the second you stepped foot into any store or venue.
Maybe that was some of the hesitance he’d seen in Blake before the daycare program.
It was the general public that had her wavering outside of the gym doors.
If that was true, then it also made Liam even more irritated with Ryan Reed.
It sounded like Blake had earned her right to silence, and he’d gone and forced her into the public eye.
Theo quieted after that. Liam too. Eventually the teen pulled out his homework. He went to bed as soon as it was finished.
His mother had never once been against Liam stepping in to help take care of Theo.
The guest bedroom was more his room than the teen’s own bedroom in the apartment on the first floor.
Still, there were moments when Liam wished the boy wouldn’t come by.
That he would, instead, find comfort and happiness in his own home.
But life didn’t always work out as easy as that.
Theo knew that. Liam knew that.
Blake Bennet knew that too.
Liam’s hip ached a little. He kneaded it with his fist and then checked his phone one last time for the night.
There was no reason for her to call or text.
Still, he checked.
There was nothing and he decided that was that.
Today had been an offshoot of his investigation. A side quest that had concluded, and now he had to get back to the main one.
Missy Clearwater.
The young woman whose last two weeks of existence had been sad enough for everyone to believe that her taking her own life made more sense than someone else being responsible.
Though Doc Ernest was sure to give credit to the ones that had, in most people’s opinion, been the motivation behind her action.
“Blunt trauma killed her,” Doc Ernest had announced once she had reconsidered her autopsy conclusions.
“But if you ask me, it’s the ones closest to her that got her falling off that bridge.
She has a big fight with her dad that everyone hears about, then her boyfriend leaves her, only to get with her best friend a week later?
” Doc Ernest had shaken her head, sorrow lining her features.
“That’s a rough go of it, especially on someone so young and sweet as Missy. ”
But Liam couldn’t ignore the suspicion that the flash drive had created. It had spider-webbed through every story he heard, through the autopsy report, through the town chatter, and through the evidence they did have.
That’s why he wasn’t going to stop until he could put those suspicions to rest. Or find out what had really happened.
Which is why he needed to talk to Cassandra about Missy’s last interaction.
It could either help him move on or give him something to go on to find another piece to the puzzle.
Blake Bennet might have been intriguing, but her time with him was obviously done. She had her own life to live while he had Missy’s death to put to rest.
Yet, when the next morning rolled around, Liam found the woman leaning against his truck in the parking lot of the gas station. It was all he could do to hide his surprise.
“I’ve thought about it,” Blake said in greeting with all the confidence in the world, “and I’m pretty sure I can help you. And I think you should let me.”