Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

" W hat package?" Bruce Wayne asked in surprise.

"The kid who showed up at the job site saw someone murdered over a package," I said, realizing Austin had told us about the package in the truck—out of Bruce Wayne's earshot. "If they found out Austin came to someone at RBW Landscaping, maybe they think we have it."

"Shit," Bruce Wayne said.

"Agreed," Neely Kate said, looking pale.

"Do you know what this package is that they're lookin' for?" Bruce Wayne asked.

"I'm not entirely sure what it is," I said, which was true, but I suspected the envelope in my purse was part of it.

"What about that box you dug up?" Bruce Wayne asked.

"No," I said. "I don't see how it could be that." I told him what we'd found.

"You're right," he said. "That doesn't make sense."

My mind was racing. "I need to call Joe."

"The sheriff's department is here," Bruce Wayne said. "But I haven't seen Joe."

"We should go down there," Neely Kate said.

"We can't take the kids," I said. "And I don't feel right leaving them with Witt." I took a breath. "Neely Kate, why don't you go down and take a look, and I'll stay here with the kids."

"Are you sure?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah. You can check to see if anything's missing, and I'll call Joe. I'll have him meet you there."

Uncertainty filled her eyes, but I put a hand on her arm for reassurance. "I have no interest in seeing our office torn apart right now. With everything else goin' on, it would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. You know?" I asked as tears stung my eyes. "You go, and let me know what you find."

She grabbed her purse, then found Daisy in the living room and told her she'd be staying with me and Witt while Momma went to check on something in her office. Daisy was too busy building Legos with her cousins to be upset.

Neely Kate gave me one last look, then headed out the door.

Witt moved close to me and said under his breath. "What's goin' on?"

"Someone broke into our office."

He looked startled. "What?"

"Bruce Wayne got notice that the alarm went off, so he went to check it out. He said the place was trashed, but it didn't look like they stole anything. She went to see if she could figure out if anything was missing."

His brow lifted. "What do you think they were lookin' for?"

"I'm not sure," I said, not willing to get into it. "I'm gonna go out to the front porch and call Joe."

He nodded. "Go. I've got the kids."

I headed out the door and sat on the porch swing as I pulled up Joe's name on my phone and placed the call. It rang several times before he answered.

"It's not a good time, Rose. Can I call you back?"

"Sure, but I wanted to let you know that someone broke into the landscaping office. Bruce Wayne is there with a few sheriff's deputies, and Neely Kate went to see if anything's missing. Bruce Wayne says the computers are still there. The place just looks trashed."

" What? I had no idea. Are you okay? Are you home alone with the kids?" He sounded alarmed.

"Witt's still here, and so is Daisy."

"Just sit tight. I'll send Randy out to stay with you."

"Do you think that's necessary? No one's threatened me," I said, but in truth, I was nervous we were in danger.

"You've been asking questions. Do you think someone could be lookin' for something you found?"

I hesitated, then said, "They might be lookin' for the note."

"What note?"

"Did Randy talk to Darlene?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Rose," he snapped. "Your life might be in danger. I don't want to play guessing games. What note?"

"Her brother left an envelope with a note inside. It had a man's name on it—Thomas Benton—with Dallas, Texas, written underneath and a long number. It looks like it might be a bank account."

"And you didn't tell me? There was a time we were on the same side," he said, sounding defeated.

"Yeah, when you quit the sheriff's department," I snapped back, then immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"But it's true," he said softly. "Are you planning to get back into the criminal world?"

"I didn't ask for any of this, Joe," I protested vehemently. "It came to me ."

"That's not what I asked, now is it?"

"I'm sorry." It was all I could say because I didn't have an answer.

He was quiet for a moment. "I'll send Randy to the house. In the meantime, I'll head over to your office and check it out. I take it you're in possession of the note?"

"Yes," I said, fighting tears. "I didn't ask for it. She insisted I take it, and for the record, I've only had it a few hours."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd take a photo and send it to me. Randy can collect it as evidence once he gets there."

"I love you, Joe."

"I love you too. Stay safe, and hug and kiss our babies for me." Then he hung up.

I sat on the swing for a few moments, guilt threatening to consume me, but I couldn't change what I'd done. And if I were honest with myself, I wasn't sure that I would. The Austins and Darlenes in this county needed to know they could talk to someone who had their best interests in mind. From what I knew of the underworld, Dermot was fair, but I suspected some people might be reluctant to approach him because he was so powerful. But now I worried I'd destroyed that by telling Joe about the note. Deep down, I knew he needed to know, but would Darlene trust me after this? Would anyone else?

I went back inside and finished cleaning up the kitchen, then started to get the kids ready for bed. Witt offered to get Mikey ready while I bathed Hope, Daisy, and Liam in my bathtub.

I'd just gotten them out and dressed in pajamas when Mikey yelled, "Aunt Rose! The police are here with flashing lights!"

I hurried to Ashley's bedroom, which overlooked the front of the house, with a diapered Liam on my hip. Joe's car pulled to a halt in the driveway, his lights flashing. He jumped out of his car and ran for the front door. I rushed to the top of the stairs as the door opened.

"Rose!" Joe cried in panic.

"Up here," I said, staring down at him. "What's wrong?"

"I've been calling you for the past half hour. Why didn't you answer?"

"I've been getting the kids ready for bed," I said. "With Witt's help. I must have left my phone somewhere." Which seemed pretty stupid considering everything going on. I descended a couple of steps. "I didn't mean to scare you. Why are you so freaked out?"

"Witt?" Joe called out as he came up the stairs.

Witt appeared in Mikey's doorway. "Here."

"Can you take Liam?" Joe asked as he reached me and wrapped an arm around my back. "I need to talk to Rose for a moment."

"Of course," Witt said, holding his arms out for the baby and taking him from me.

"Joe," I said under my breath, "you're scaring me." A sudden thought hit me. "Is Neely Kate okay?"

"She's fine. She's with Jed." He ushered me down the hall. "Let's talk in our room."

"Daddy!" Hope called out from her bedroom doorway. "Youwa home! I missed you!" She ran to him and hugged his legs.

He leaned down and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I need to talk to Momma for a minute, then I'll give you lots of hugs when we're done, okay?"

She looked up at him, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout. "But I have to go to bed."

"I won't be very long. You can wait up for me."

"Me too, Uncle Joe?" Mikey called from his bedroom doorway.

"Everyone gets to wait up, even Liam," Joe said, then took my hand. "We'll be out in a few minutes."

He tugged me down the hall to the bedroom, then shut the door behind us before leading me over to the bed. He sat on the edge, and I sat beside him.

"Joe, you're scarin' the crap out of me."

He took my hand and looked me in the eye. "We IDed the body we found by Shute Creek." He paused. "He was one of your employees."

My brain was scrambling as I tried to process what he'd just said. " What? Who?"

"Jeremiah Stone."

It took a second for the name to register. "He's one of Bruce Wayne's new hires."

"That's what Bruce Wayne said. He said he'd only been working for you for about three weeks." He paused again. "He had a record."

I nodded. I didn't know the specifics of what Jeremiah had done, but Bruce Wayne liked to give men on probation a chance. He said the second chance I'd given him had changed his life, and he wanted to pay it forward by helping other people find their way out of trouble. "Bruce Wayne won't take anyone with a history of any sort of violence." That was one of his hard and fast rules.

"Jeremiah Stone had some petty theft and drug convictions. He'd been in rehab a couple of times."

"Do you think he's tied to Harvey Smith's and Noah Parker's murders?"

"It seems the most logical explanation, but the break-in at your office worries me. Neely Kate says nothing appears to be missing. Whoever broke in was obviously lookin' for something, though, and I'm not sure it was the note Harvey left at his sister's house."

I ran through Austin's account of the murder he'd witnessed.

"Jeremiah's murderers were lookin' for some kind of package."

Joe's brow lifted, but he remained silent.

I closed my eyes and ran through my options. I wanted to keep Austin's secrets, but I could be at risk. My kids could be at risk. They had to come first. Always.

I opened my eyes, tears making his face fuzzy. "I think I know a witness to Jeremiah's murder."

Was it a freak coincidence that Austin had sought out the Lady in Black the day after Jeremiah's murder? Or that he'd asked to speak to Bruce Wayne, who'd been Jeremiah's direct supervisor?

"Like I told you, a kid showed up at one of our job sites, searching for Bruce Wayne because he thought Bruce Wayne had a connection to the Lady in Black. Bruce Wayne called me, and the kid said he had witnessed a murder. He was scared and wanted protection."

Joe's thumb slowly rubbed the back of my hand.

"The kid was belligerent at first, not that I was surprised. He was scared. He said the murderers saw him and tried to catch him, but he hid from them and walked back into town to find me."

"How'd he know where to go?"

"He said a friend told him to go to Lady for help, and he knew Lady had a connection to the landscaping company. The kid looked us up on Facebook and saw that our client that day had tagged the business."

Joe nodded but didn't look pleased.

"I already told you that I tried multiple times to get him to talk to you, but he refused, threatening to leave because he was scared of the treatment he'd get from the sheriff's department."

Joe's lips pursed. "Convenient story."

"Is it?" I countered, but without any heat. "Detective Wiseman lied to you about interviewing Darlene." I tilted my head. "Did Randy talk to her?"

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair. "The information she gave us would have been helpful a couple of days ago."

"See? He's not the only one who feels that way. So it's not so far-fetched that this boy was telling the truth."

"Maybe," Joe said, worry filling his eyes. "What happened to the kid?"

"Dermot took him to one of his safe houses. But we questioned him together at the jobsite, and with the information he gave us, Dermot confirmed that some kind of crime had taken place, even though there wasn't a body."

"Where'd this take place?"

"Adkins."

Joe released my hand and sat up straighter. "You think it was Jeremiah, and they moved the body."

"The kid said he saw them shoot the man in the head."

"And Jeremiah had a gunshot to the head."

I took a breath to settle my nerves. "The kid said they kept asking Jeremiah where the package was. He kept telling them he didn't know. Neely Kate and I don't think the paper Harvey left with his sister is what they were looking for. It's hard to call a paper a package."

"Maybe, maybe not," Joe said, getting a faraway look in his eyes. "It could be one piece of a larger whole."

"Do you think Jeremiah knew Harvey and Noah?" I asked.

Joe shook his head. "I have no idea. I had no idea there was a connection between Harvey and Noah until a few hours ago, after you steered me to Darlene. We just found out Jeremiah's name. I don't know anything about his personal life, and neither did Bruce Wayne." He took a deep breath and turned to face me, picking up my hand again. "I'm worried you and the kids are in danger. What if the guys who are looking for the kid think you have what they are looking for? They searched the office and didn't find it, so what if they come here next?'

I swallowed hard. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but the break-in coming on the heels of Jeremiah's murder was too big of a coincidence. Still…Austin had only come to me after the murder.

"Do you think there's any chance this has something to do with the box Neely Kate and I found?"

He considered my question. "I don't see how. Harvey was murdered before you found the box." He made a face. "Maybe we should open it and see what's inside."

"We already did. There was a love letter from a guy to a girl, a goodbye letter, an empty locket, and about a quarter-carat solitaire engagement ring."

"Anything incriminating in the love letters?"

"Only that they were star-crossed lovers. Her dad and his mom didn't approve of their relationship, so he moved to Montana and told her to come find him."

"Any names we can track down?"

"There are only initials in the notes, but a woman called me this afternoon and told me she was friends with two teenage girls who lived in the house next door. The woman thinks one of the girls might have buried the box. Her name was Sarah, and her boyfriend was named Jason. She said Jason's dad was a sheriff's deputy. Sarah's father had several arrests. So it could fit."

"No last names?"

"She struggled to remember Jason's first name, let alone last ones."

"I'd sure love to track them down and have a chat."

"The woman said her parents moved them away because Sarah and her sister Luna were bad influences. But she says she heard years later that Sarah had died, and her sister had moved to California."

"Did she know how Sarah died?"

"No."

"So it could have been an accident or natural causes." He took a deep breath and pushed it out. "Again, it seems unlikely this has anything to do with the box, but I should probably take a look at it. But regardless of what these people are after, I'm worried you and the kids might be in danger."

"So what do we do? Do you want to put a deputy on guard duty?"

He squeezed my hand tighter. "No. I want to send y'all away for a while." He gave me a sad smile. "I want you to go stay with your Aunt Bessie and Uncle Albert in Lafayette County until this blows over."

"But Ashley and Mikey have school tomorrow."

"They're smart kids. They can miss a couple of days, and besides, with the issues Ash has been having lately, a few days away might do her some good."

"What about Neely Kate and Daisy? Neely Kate is as much a part of this as I am."

"I've already talked to Jed. He considered taking them somewhere himself, but he doesn't want to leave town. He wants to stick around and see this through, so we think it's best if they go with you."

I nodded, still trying to wrap my head around everything. "I need to call Aunt Bessie and make sure it's okay. We can leave in the morning."

"I already called her, and she's getting things ready for you now. I want you to go tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Jed and Neely Kate went to their house to pick up some things for the girls. Then they're heading over here. We're gonna take two cars, and then I'm gonna ride back with Jed."

"You're gonna take us?" I asked in surprise. "But you've got so much goin' on here."

He cupped my cheek. "Rose, you and the kids are the most important things in my life. You will always be my priority. I can be gone for a few hours."

"But you're exhausted."

"I'll catch some sleep on the ride back with Jed." He leaned closer and gave me a soft, lingering kiss. "I wish I could stay with you there…"

"You need to catch whoever is murderin' people," I said, my voice firm. "We'll be fine at Aunt Bessie's, but I don't want to worry the kids, so I think we should tell them we're taking a little mini vacation with their aunt."

"Ash isn't gonna totally buy it," he said, looking grim.

"She's too smart for her own good, so I'll feel my way with her."

"Okay."

I leaned back. "I have to pack. I haven't done laundry in days. I don't know if the kids have enough clean clothes."

"Good thing your aunt and uncle have a washing machine and dryer," Joe teased as he slid off the bed. He pulled me up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling my body flush to his. "I love you so damned much, Rose."

"You're not mad I kept all that from you?"

He held me tighter. "I wish you had told me sooner, but I understand. Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me now." He gave me another kiss, then dropped his hold on me and walked into the hall. "Okay, everybody!" he said. "I have an announcement!"

The kids quickly appeared in the hallway, their eyes shiny with anticipation. Witt stood in Liam's doorway, holding him on his hip.

"I have something exciting to tell you," Joe said, sounding like he was about to announce that we were headed to Disney World. "You have ten minutes to pack and get ready to go to Aunt Bessie and Uncle Albert's house! Mikey, pull out clothes for three days, and put them on your bed. Ashley, you can pack yourself. I'll pack for Hope, and Momma's gonna pack for herself."

"Can I go too, Uncle Joe?" Daisy asked, in her sweet little voice, standing next to Hope.

"Yep! Your momma's gettin' your clothes, then she's comin' with you."

"Can Muffy come?" Hope asked. Muffy, who sat at her feet, let out a forlorn little whine.

"Of course Muffy's comin'," I said. "We wouldn't dream of leaving her behind."

"But we're in our pajamas!" Mikey protested with a laugh.

"You don't need to change," Joe said. "You can go in your PJs."

"It's a pajama party!" I said, trying to make this impromptu trip fun and not scary.

"Yay!" the little girls called out in unison.

"So get packin'!" Joe said. "Now you have nine minutes."

The kids ran back into their rooms, although Ashley hesitated for a moment in the doorway before turning inside.

Joe turned to Witt. "Can you grab a bunch of stuff for Liam?"

Witt's forehead burrowed with concern, but he nodded. "Of course. Three days?"

"Hopefully that's enough."

Witt turned his back to the hallway and lowered his voice. "I take it that it's bad?"

"The third murder victim was someone on Bruce Wayne's landscape crew," Joe said.

Witt's eyes widened. "Shit. Are you stayin' with 'em at Rose's aunt's house?"

Pain crossed Joe's eyes, but he shook his head. "I wish I could, but I think I could serve them better by trying to catch the people who did this."

Witt nodded. "Then I'm goin'."

Joe studied him for a moment, his gaze flicking to our son, who was snuggled into Witt's side. He nodded. "Thank you."

Witt gave him a grim nod, then turned around and announced to Liam that he was going on vacation, and they needed to pack.

Joe turned to me, guilt filling his eyes.

"Don't look like that," I said, cupping his cheek. "You're doin' the right thing by staying."

"My head says I am, but my heart…"

"Daddy!" Hope called out. "Can I take my tutu?"

Joe released a chuckle. "Duty calls." But he still looked torn, like he could hardly bear looking away from me.

"Go pack clothes for our daughter that won't make my sister roll over in her grave," I said with a small laugh. "Meet you in eight minutes."

He gave me another kiss, then turned and walked away.