Chapter Six
“I lied to the sheriff for you.”
Blake was sitting on the edge of the back office’s desk and trying to find a candy from the candy dish that she wanted to eat. Cassandra West was watching the attempt from her office chair, no doubt frowning.
“That’s a bad habit to start,” Cassandra replied. “I’d think someone like you, who held the same title in the past, would avoid such mistakes.”
Blake grinned. She found a golden-wrapped toffee and went to work peeling back the paper.
“I lied saying I was going to the bathroom for your benefit, not mine,” she said. “So save your judgment for the end of his program, thank you very much.”
Cassandra let out a breath that wobbled. She was stressed. That didn’t stop her from trying to cover up that fact.
“I didn’t ask you for anything. Especially lying.”
Blake waved the comment off with her hand and popped the candy in her mouth. It tasted like visiting her grandmother’s. She rolled her neck around and met Cassandra’s eye.
“No, but I figured I’d buy you some time to tell me why you’re avoiding the sheriff out there,” she said. “I heard he’s been trying to talk to you, and you’ve been doing anything but.”
Cassandra was the same age as Blake, which made her twin, Corrie, the same age as well.
Yet Cassandra had always seemed older. Maternal, a worrier.
She was also practical and leaned more conservative, especially in comparison to her sister.
If Blake had to guess, she was the one who kept the coffee shop running, the workers paid, and she dealt with the day-to-day stresses of owning a business.
Cassandra was a straight shooter.
Which was why Blake didn’t understand her hesitance with Liam.
“I’m not avoiding the sheriff,” Cassandra defended. “I’m just not seeking him, or any sheriffs, out. It’s not like I’m under investigation. I don’t have to chat with him.”
Blake sucked on her hard candy for a few beats. Cassandra’s gaze didn’t waver.
She apparently had grown up into a straight, stubborn shooter.
“Listen, I’m only here because the sheriff helped me out,” Blake started.
“And he seems to be really in need of talking to you. You don’t have to say anything to him, but at least tell me what’s going on, and let’s see if I can’t get him off your back.
” Cassandra didn’t look too sure. Blake flashed her a smile.
“You know me, Cassie. The good, the bad, the ugly. Whatever your personal feelings are for me, you have to know I’m not here to cause trouble.
I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime. Now tell me why Sheriff Weaver thinks you’re the answer to whatever question he has. ”
Blake’s smile dissolved.
Cassandra looked like she had aged ten years within the last minute. She shook her head but spoke all the same. Blake put her hand back in the candy dish and twirled the candies around while the other woman explained.
“Missy Clearwater,” she said, defeat in each syllable. “The reason for her death is what he’s after. Did you manage to hear about it? Or has your seclusion only let in food delivery and Walmart runs?”
Blake sidestepped the barb and recalled that the news had indeed reached her through Lola’s social circle.
The news had been sad, but she’d been dealing with a lot at the time.
She hadn’t thought too much about it past a wave of sympathy.
She might have known most of the Seven Roads locals, but she’d never met the young Missy.
“I heard about her passing. Her daddy is Jonathan Clearwater, the owner of the tractor supply before he retired and sold, right?”
“Yeah, that’s him.” A grimace passed over Cassandra’s face.
“He was a big part of her problems. After he shut the tractor supply down and laid everyone off, a lot of people were angry. It’s not like we have a big job pool here, you know?
Especially the older folks who’d been there for a minute.
But it’s not exactly like they could have told him off or said anything but nice words in his direction.
So they turned to the safer option of pushing that frustration onto the easier target.
People were passive-aggressive and sometimes outright rude to Missy.
Nothing too bad in the beginning, but after a while, it became a thing that had people whispering whenever she was around.
She must’ve gone to her dad about it, but it backfired.
They had a big fight near the diner. Yelling so loud that Mrs. Thomas almost made them leave. ”
Cassandra cast her a look. If she had been Corrie, she would have no doubt commented on the similarities of the last part with Blake’s own past, but thankfully, she stayed on topic. She leaned back slightly, shaking her head a little more.
“Then her boyfriend went and left her—Corrie thinks because he couldn’t take the unflattering spotlight—and then to make matters worse, he had the gall to start dating her best friend. Like it was out of a sitcom or something. They’re still together, by the way. I sold them coffee last week.”
Blake didn’t have any other words than “Yeesh.”
Cassandra seconded the sentiment.
“If that wasn’t enough of a sad story, Missy died a week after that news broke. She was found beneath the bridge out at Becker Farm.”
Blake stopped twirling her hand through the candy dish. That part she hadn’t heard through Lola’s rumor mill.
“Did she fall or jump?”
Hesitation. It lined every beat of time between Blake’s question and Cassandra’s answer. When it broke, her words had become notably colder.
“She was found at the bottom, in the dirt. That’s all I know.”
Blake averted her eyes to the dish.
“What did the newspaper say?”
There was no hesitation this time.
“That Missy jumped.”
“And what does the sheriff out there think?”
No hesitation again.
“From what I’ve heard, that she didn’t.”
“He thinks she fell?” Blake asked the question, but she suspected that wasn’t the answer.
“You’d have to ask him that.”
Cassandra sighed out long and loud. Her patience with Blake seemed to be running out. So Blake went in for one last go.
“Why is he barking around your tree then?” she asked. “Were you and Missy close?”
Cassie shook her head.
“No. But I supposedly was the last person to see her alive.” She pointed toward the door. Beyond that was the hallway that led to the main coffee shop room. “She came to get a coffee a few hours before she was found beneath the bridge.”
“You two talk?”
“Unlike the rest of the town, I thought it would have been impolite to ignore her. Or heckle her. We talked about the weather, about laptop brands, and then about how expensive whipped cream had gotten. She left when she was done with her coffee. She tipped well, smiled nice, and then was just gone. That’s the long and short of it. ”
“Laptop brands?” That wasn’t exactly normal chatter, especially with Cassandra, who had never been a fan of technology in school.
“She had one with her and seemed capable enough with it. I asked if she liked it well enough since my youngest, Hunter, spilled milk all over mine and I needed to get another. She was nice about that too.”
Talking about laptops, the weather, and whipped cream hours before potentially jumping off a bridge. Drinking coffee too. It didn’t sound like a woman who was planning not to see the end of the day.
Then again, not everyone was so cut and dry with their actions.
Cassandra pushed back in her chair but didn’t stand. It seemed she had finally reached the end of her patience.
“You can tell your sheriff that that’s all I know and that’s all we did.
Past that, I’m not going to talk about Missy again.
He’s the one who signed off on the end of her case in the first place.
He needs to let it go and move on, like the rest of town.
That goes for you too, Blake. Don’t go poking your nose around me or mine. ”
Her words were harsh.
Blake respected them.
She selected another candy from the dish and nodded.
“I can take him with me now, but I’ll never make it out of the shop if Corrie is still waiting for me,” she pointed out.
Cassandra picked up her cell phone and typed a message out for a bit.
Then she pointed back to the door.
“I called her off. You can leave now and she won’t bother you.”
Blake chuckled.
“If only I could have that power over my sister.”
The thought slipped out before Blake even realized she’d had it. All humor vanished. She tried to overcompensate and gave her old friend a smile and pivoted back to an earlier thought.
“So, why didn’t you just talk to the sheriff about all this?” Blake asked. “It doesn’t seem like any information that was worth dodging the law for.”
Cassandra seemed to consider her answer for a moment. Her lips twisted a little before she spoke, like she was regretting it before she said a word.
“Word got around that the sheriff was asking questions about Missy even after everything was finished up. It really upset her dad, but it struck even more sour with those old goons who still worship him from their time at the supply. You know, the ones who started working there in their teens and managed to retire before he sold it off?” She shook her head.
“It might have been nothing that I told you, but if it got around that I said that nothing to the sheriff, I might get some looks I don’t want. ”
“Ah.” So there it was. “So now it’s on me.”
Cassandra didn’t try to deny it.
“If it gets around town that you’re talking about Missy to the sheriff, then that’s on you. Even if they find out I’m the one who told you, it’s still on you.”
Blake snorted. She wasn’t mad at the intention. In fact, she understood it.
“Whoever says that Corrie is the scarier twin hasn’t met the real you.”
But Blake smiled true.
“It was good to see you, Cassie,” she added. “I’m glad you’re doing well. Truly.”
Cassandra didn’t return the smile, but she did nod.
It wasn’t until Blake was one foot out of the door that she called out to her.