CHAPTER 85 SHERIFF ELLIE

85

Sheriff Ellie

BUCK SLAPPED ELLIE'S GUN to the side and didn't so much as flinch as the bullet tore through the wood decking at his feet and vanished in the earth below with a thunderclap. His eyes never left hers. She might have fired again if he hadn't twisted the gun from her hand and taken it from her, even as her index finger twitched.

She was in some kind of shock.

On some level, Ellie understood that, but understanding it and using it to override her body's natural instinct to withdraw into itself were two very different things. She managed to twist her head to the side and face the spot the girl had been standing only moments earlier, but what she found clarified nothing, only created more questions.

There was no sign of the girl.

No body.

No blood.

No nothing.

Even the birds had vanished from sight, but Ellie got the impression they hadn't gone far, because Buck was staring past her into the trees, the lines of his face deepening.

He slipped Ellie's gun into the waistband of his jeans at the small of his back and took her by the wrist. "You need to get in here."

His touch was rough. He had the hands of a working man, gritty, made of sandpaper, but Ellie didn't pull away. She let him lead her over the threshold into his cabin and close the door behind her. There was a fire burning in the hearth, crackling softly.

Ellie had never seen where Roy "Buck" Buxton lived, and in all the years she'd known him her mind had constructed an image of what such a place might look like based on her encounters with him, none of which were particularly good. She realized she thought of him simply as the town drunk and completely forgot there was a person behind there. As tragic as it may have been, Buck had a lifetime behind him she knew little about. The air inside was warm and dry. Welcoming, not what she expected. While the furniture was outdated, it was well kept. A few of the pieces looked handmade, possibly by Buck.

Sitting atop the fireplace mantel was a single framed photograph—a teenage version of Buck with his arm wrapped around Emily Pridham, standing near the bleachers of the high school, a big grin across his face and a radiant smile on hers. As Ellie took several steps closer, all doubt fell from her mind—as impossible as it seemed, this was the same girl Ellie had brought here, the same girl Buck had just shot, the same …

Ellie's voice cracked as she brushed the wood frame. "Tell me that wasn't her."

Buck's lungs rattled as he drew in a breath and came up behind her, stepped by, and leaned the shotgun against the side of the fireplace. He answered her in a grave whisper. "That ain't the first time she come back. I seen her four times today. First when I went to clean up them birds down in the commons. Again about an hour later at the town dump. Once right here in my fucking house standing right there where you are now, and one other time just standing out there in the woods, watching me. I don't know what that is … was … but it ain't my Emily, that's for damn sure."

"How …"

"How is that possible? Damned if I know. How is any of what is going on today possible?"

Ellie caught movement from the corner of her eye, and when she turned she found a young girl watching her from the open doorway of a room at the rear of the cabin. It took her a second to make the connection, because the girl had no business being here.

"Riley?"

Mason Ridler appeared behind her and froze at the sight of Ellie and told someone, "Oh boy, po-po in the house."

That someone turned out to be two someones—Evelyn and Robby Harper.

"I don't understand." Ellie eyed Riley. "You told your mother you were at the rec center out in Barton. You said you were all out there. You and a bunch of other people from town."

Confusion washed over the little girl's face. "No, I didn't."

"Yes, you …" Ellie tried to force her brain to work. No easy task, considering what had just happened on Buck's doorstep, what he just told her. She held her hand out. "Let me see your phone."

Riley Sanchez took the iPhone from her pocket and handed it over. She didn't have a lock code installed. It took Ellie a moment to find the messaging app and locate the thread with her mother, Gabby. There were many messages today, but like Gabby's phone, most had failed and gone unsent. The message Gabby had received from Riley back at her house, the one that said these kids were in Barton, was not there. It hadn't come from Riley's phone. Stranger still, there were messages from Gabby, messages Ellie was fairly certain Gabby hadn't sent. All of them told Riley to stay at Buck's cabin until she could find a way to come and get her.

Only one thing made sense—whoever was intercepting and blocking their communication today was also using the tech to send false messages.

The little boy, Robby Harper, looked up at Buck with big, worried eyes. "Did you have to kill her again?"

"I did."

"Do you think she's done coming back?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that."

Evelyn Harper placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and gave him a reassuring squeeze, then told Buck, "You need to show Sheriff Pritchet what you showed us."

"Buck's got a theory, and it's crazy as fuck." Mason Ridler snickered.

Evelyn elbowed the boy in the gut. "I told you not to talk like that around my brother, Asshat."

Riley ignored them both. "Is my mama okay? Is she with you?"

Ellie went down on one knee and stroked the girl's hair. "She's fine, and she's safe. I left her back at my house with Matt."

"Can you take me to her?"

Ellie was about to tell the girl yes when she caught a glimpse of the room behind her. She gave Buck an unsettling glance. "In a minute, honey. I think Evelyn might be right. I think Mr. Buxton needs to show me whatever he showed you."