Chapter 19 #3
Nick surprised her by lowering himself to the area rug instead of taking the chair, folding his long frame down among the scattered pages, his shoulder settling a foot from hers.
She caught the same woodsmoke off him that had hung over the yard, and something warmer under it, and she fixed her gaze on the papers in front of her.
The chair would have put six feet between them.
She could have done with the six feet.
“Roland Mercer sat down with Sarah Cox in the weeks before she passed away.”
“Sarah?”
“Yeah. Martin’s Sarah.” Nick’s voice had gone grim. “And Reed had several of her journals with him the night he died. Coincidence? Maybe. Anyway, Roland’s note says she told him a story, something handed down from her great-grandmother. It involved a sacrifice.”
“A sacrifice.”
Hadley was annoyed with herself for parroting his words back to him. To give herself something to do, she began sifting the stack of papers off to her left. She hadn’t come across a single note with Sarah Cox’s name on it so far.
“That’s the thing.” Nick worked his phone out of his back pocket and pulled up an image. “Look. Roland wrote himself a note, basically indicating that all the details were saved on a USB drive.”
“Seriously? That leans into our theory that someone did jimmy his desk drawer looking for the drive,” Hadley surmised as she took the phone before spreading two fingers across the screen, zooming in on the cramped handwriting. “What are the odds they found it?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’ve got two people going back out to Mercer’s residence and his office on campus first thing in the morning.
” Nick held out his hand, and she passed the phone back, mindful not to brush his fingers.
“If he had the drive on him when he fell, there’s a chance it came loose.
Skittered off somewhere in that lobby, and nobody was looking for a thumb drive with a body on the floor. I’ll have them sweep every inch.”
“I found other accounts of the east fields, but Roland never expanded on any of them.” Hadley patted her thighs, coming to a decision.
“If Sarah told Roland that story, she told Martin. Forty years married, and the woman wrote everything down, Nick. She wouldn’t have kept a thing like that from her own husband.
I’ll drive out to the Cox property first thing.
Before I ask Earl Vinton about walking through his fields. ”
“Can you wait until the afternoon?” Nick pushed himself off the floor.
She followed suit, careful the rabbit ears on her slippers didn’t topple the nearest stack.
“I’ve got the ATF first thing. That shooting last weekend’s been tied to a local gang that made some bigger connections, thanks to Julian.
There’s evidence they’re moving weapons, and the ATF is counting on the gang’s leader being the weak link in the network. They want the county in the room.”
“I can handle Martin and Earl on my own.” Hadley wasn’t willing to lose the morning.
She caught his look and ignored it, leading him through the living room toward the stairs off the kitchen.
“Honestly, Martin won’t talk half as freely about Sarah with you standing there.
If I turn up anything worth having, I’ll leave you a message. ”
She didn’t give him room to argue. She walked him down and turned at the bottom landing to lead him through the kitchen on the main floor to the front door, where she pulled the deadbolt.
“Hadley. What were you really doing out back when I pulled up?”
She could have told him the truth. Maybe she should have.
That she believed someone had been on her property.
That the same someone had stood off in the dark and waited for her to run her little perimeter check, then intentionally left a corn husk on her step.
To make her doubt her own eyes? To have her believe the Threshing Man was calling her out into the corn?
Or something uglier, someone who thought she might have gotten her hands on that USB drive.
“I’ve had my head buried in dead people’s ghost stories since five o’clock.
” Hadley managed something close to a smile.
“Read enough of that, and every shadow starts looking like the boogeyman. My imagination got away from me, is all. And for what it’s worth, I appreciate you driving out to check on me. ”
“Anytime.” Nick paused before returning her smile, and she breathed a little easier. “Get some sleep, Hadley.”
She waited until he’d climbed into his truck before she lifted a hand.
After he pulled from the curb, she took a moment to study Main Street, the one traffic light blinking amber to nobody, and found nothing out of place.
She then retraced her steps, locked the deadbolt and the knob, and stood with her forehead resting against the cool wood.
She reminded herself that work and pleasure didn’t mix.
Not ever.
And if Mason took her advice and left this town with the state’s money in his pocket, she wouldn’t be more than a step behind him.
She had no business getting attached to anything or anyone here.
Least of all a man in a soft flannel who’d offered, straight-faced, to help her bury a body in her own backyard.