He took off his hat and threw it on the pole in the corner, running his fingers through his hair to try to get some shape back into it. The coatrack was as utilitarian and functional as the rest of the room; the message memos were by far the most colorful thing in it. But even though he’d never admit it, Liam loved this office, with its clunky old wooden desk covered with towering piles of neatly organized files, and the big dusty window that overlooked the town he’d pledged to keep safe. The thought of losing it sent a shockwave of pain through his chest. He wasn’t sure he could bear one more loss. But he couldn’t think of any way to prevent it, short of a miracle.
“You look like you could use this, Sheriff,” Nina said, walking through the door with a grease-dotted takeout container in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. She plopped them both on the desk blotter, carefully moving an active file out of the way with one well-placed elbow. The aroma of grilled meat and hot coffee filled the room and made Liam’s chest loosen so he could breathe again.
“Is that from Bertie’s?” he asked. As if Nina would take her lunch break anywhere else.
“You bet your bippy,” the older woman said, a smart-assed grin creasing her narrow face. Her chin was pointed and her eyebrows sparse, and even when she was younger she’d been no one’s idea of a beauty, but Liam valued her more than any ten runway models for her loyalty and her brains. “Bertie’s special bacon cheeseburger with the bacon extra crispy, just the way you like it. I had a feeling you probably didn’t remember to stop and eat.”
Molly nodded in satisfaction. Nina and Molly had been mothering him since Melissa left. Since before that, really. Sometimes it got on his nerves, but he knew they meant well. Besides, if it got him a bacon cheeseburger from Bertie’s, it was worth it. They both stood there and waited until he’d taken three huge bites, savoring the moist ground beef, the sharp bite of the cheddar cheese, and the smoky richness of the bacon, almost moaning as the juices dripped onto the napkin spread out in front of him.
“Thanks, Nina,” he finally said, swallowing the last delicious mouthful. “You may have saved my life.”
She sniffed. “Hey, I was there anyway. It’s no big deal.” It was their unspoken agreement: she pretended not to care, and he pretended to believe her. Nina liked to believe that no one saw through her tough exterior to the warm heart underneath, and everyone at the station played along, just to keep her happy.
Molly put the memos for Liam to deal with down on the desk, their corners neatly aligned. “I’m glad you’re back, Nina,” she said, a tiny wrinkle appearing between her brows. “Dispatch has been hopping since you went out; I thought Deputy Lewis was going to give himself a muscle spasm trying to keep up.”
“Crazy,” Liam repeated, shaking his head. He pushed the second half of his lunch away, his appetite suddenly gone. “What the hell is going on around here?”
Nina pursed her thin lips. “You should hear the talk at Bertie’s. People are saying their feed supplies rotted overnight, or are infested with rats. Frank Shasta said he had a plague of snakes—just harmless garter snakes, but apparently they were everywhere. His wife Mildred got so freaked out, she went to stay with her mother until he could get rid of them.”
“Seriously?” Molly looked amazed. “That must have been a hell of a lot of snakes; Mildred’s mother is a crabby old harpy.”
Nina nodded in satisfaction. There was nothing she liked better than a good gossip, and lately, it seemed like there was a never-ending supply of weird news, bad news, and just plain oddness.
“Carter Hastings told me that he had a giant sinkhole open up in the middle of one of his fields. Nothing there one day, and the next, a hole big enough to lose a whole herd of cattle in. He said it hardly mattered, though, because all his best dairy cows had gone dry. The vet’s got no idea why. Poor Carter’s going to have to sell off a quarter of the herd at rock-bottom prices.”
“Huh,” Molly said. “I’ve heard of a couple of other farmers who had the same problem. The cows going dry, not the sinkhole. It’s like someone cursed the whole county.” She gave Liam a halfhearted smile and handed him three matching red message sheets. “And speaking of curses, here’s your special one: the mayor wants to see you in his office at two.”
A sigh escaped Liam like air from a balloon at the end of a party. “Did he say what he wanted?” Not that it mattered. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be good.
She shrugged. “No. But he’s called three times to see if you were back yet, so I’m guessing it’s important.” She shoved the remains of Liam’s cooling burger back toward him. “You’d better eat that. Something tells me you’re going to need your strength.”
As she and Nina left the room, he muttered to himself, “I think I’d rather be chasing wolves.”
*