Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

Josie

“Hello?” I answered on the first ring.

“Hi, honey. It’s Opal. Any chance you know where the boss is?”

My shoulders slumped. “No. I was actually hoping you were him. I don’t think he came home last night.”

“Where’d he go?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. He didn’t say. I’ve texted him a few times, but he hasn’t answered. I think his phone might have broken.”

“He was supposed to meet the fire chief this morning for a final inspection at the school. It’s not like him to blow off something like that.”

I’d grown more and more worried every hour since the first text I’d sent Fox had gone unanswered. But now I was really freaking out. “I’m nervous something might’ve happened to him.”

“When did you last see him?”

“About seven. He was kind of grumpy when he left, but he knew I’d made dinner.”

“Did you two have a fight?”

“Not really. He was kind of annoyed with me. I wanted to go look for a duck that we found injured on the lake a few weeks back, and he didn’t. But I wouldn’t say we had a fight.” I shrugged. “At least I didn’t think we did. But you know how Fox is; he doesn’t say too much. Maybe he was more pissed than I thought.”

“The man does have a temper. He probably just needed to blow off some steam.”

“Maybe…” Though I didn’t feel like that was it.

“I’ll make some calls. I’m sure he’ll turn up soon. Don’t you worry, honey.”

“Will you call me back if you find out anything?”

“Sure thing.”

I’d barely slept all night, waiting for him to come home. Around two, I’d gone upstairs to bed, but I’d left the window open so I could hear if his truck came back. I’d doze for a few minutes, then worry I’d missed the sound of him pulling in and have to get up and look out the window.

There was no way I could sit around here waiting any longer. I needed to do something. So I grabbed my purse and decided to drive around. Laurel Lake wasn’t that large, and his big truck was easy enough to spot.

I started in town, slowly driving by the Beanery, the bank, and all of the little stores on the three-block-long Main Street. There was a municipal lot a block off Main, so I checked there, too. Then I hit the home-improvement store, the tile showroom, and a few restaurants on the outskirts of town before driving to the ice rink. But I came up empty everywhere. I knew he’d picked up some supplies recently about a half hour away at a place called Wolfson’s, so I googled where that was and got on the highway. I drove around for at least two hours before my cell rang.

“Hey, honey. It’s Opal. We found him.”

I let out a shaky breath. “Oh thank God. Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Probably gonna have one hell of a headache and need to sleep most of today, but he’ll be fine.”

“What happened?”

“He tied one on pretty good and got into a fight. Well, if you can call it that. When a tree trunk of a man like Fox Cassidy hits you, there is no fight. You go down for the count. But that’s what happened. Someone called an ambulance, and the police came. The other guy was fine, but they arrested Fox for assault. Sheriff said he tossed him in the drunk tank to sleep it off. Porter just went to bail his ass out, since I got the fire chief to come back and meet me for the inspection that still needs to be done.”

“I can’t believe that. Fox barely drinks.”

“Probably what made it so easy to tie one on.”

I sighed. “Is there anything I can do?”

“No, it’s all good. Depending on whether Fox is sober enough to drive, Porter will either drop him at his car or give him a lift home when he’s out.”

“Alright. Thank you for calling, Opal.”

“No problem. You have a good rest of your day.”

I wasn’t sure that was going to happen. Obviously Fox was more pissed at me than I’d thought. But I didn’t understand why. I drove back to the house, trying to figure out what would’ve made him so upset that he would blow me off and go out drinking without a word. It didn’t seem like something Fox would do.

Did the kayak have sentimental value to him, and he was pissed that it sank to the bottom of the lake?

Did he really think he’d needed to save me and was upset that I hadn’t taken the whole thing more seriously?

Could he have been pissed that I’d forced him to go with me and then he’d wound up soaked and swimming back to shore?

I supposed any of those could’ve been the reason, yet none of them felt right. To me, the strangest part of the entire thing was Fox disappearing. He was the type of man who dealt with things head-on, rather than taking off and avoiding an argument. While I was relieved he was okay—I’d been thinking the worst there for a while—an uneasy feeling sat in the pit of my stomach for the next several hours.

Around noon, I went to use the bathroom. When I came back, Porter’s truck was next door in the driveway. He walked out of Fox’s house just as I made it to the front door.

Porter pulled the door shut behind him and headed my way. “Had to pull over twice on the drive home from the courthouse so he could puke his guts up. He’s going to feel like shit today. Maybe tomorrow, too. But he’ll be fine.”

“What the heck happened?”

“Sheriff said he got called to the Crow’s Nest at two AM. Bartender had cut Fox off at twelve thirty. Fox got pissed and tried to reach over the bar and take a swing at him, but he lost his balance and fell off the stool. A couple of locals helped him up and over to a booth. Fox conked out for a little while. They woke him up when it was almost closing time, figuring they would put him in a cab home. But when he got up, he started a fight with Ray Langone.”

“My uncle?”

“Bartender said Ray didn’t say a word to him. Fox just stumbled over from the booth, and when he saw Ray, he clocked him.”

“Is Ray okay?”

Porter nodded. “Sheriff said he’ll have a good shiner, but drunks never seem to get hurt too bad.”

I shook my head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t even know what set him off.”

“You two have a fight or something?”

“Not really. At least I didn’t think we did. We had a really great weekend. About seven last night, I wanted to go look for a duck that got injured a while back. I thought she might be on the little island in the middle of the lake. Anyway, Fox definitely didn’t want to go with me, but he did. We went out on his kayak, and about thirty feet out, it started to take on water. The kayak sank, and we swam back. I thought it was funny, but Fox seemed upset by the whole thing. We were never at risk for drowning or anything, so I don’t know why he would be so shaken.”

“Oh shit.” Porter nodded. “Well, it makes sense now.”

“What makes sense?”

“Fox hasn’t gone in that lake for years.”

“I noticed that, but why not?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“How his fiancée died?”

“I thought she died in an accident?”

“She did.” He pointed toward the yard. “On that lake.”