“That’s what a man would do,” Bowie said.
Jesse straightened his shoulders and dried his hands. “I am a man,” he said, and left the kitchen.
“Lord,” Bowie said.
“Glad you were here to help,” Aidan said.
“I need to check on Talia,” Bowie said. “She should have been here by now.”
“I’ll run out and get the brake fluid,” Aidan said. “Meet you out front.”
Bowie called Talia again and got her voice mail again, and now he was worried. She’d said she was coming. If something had changed that plan, she would have let him know. He went through the house to find his mother. She was sitting on the bed with Jesse, letting him apologize because it was important for him to acknowledge he was wrong. Bowie hated to interrupt, but he didn’t want to leave without telling her goodbye.
“We’re leaving now, Mama. I’ve got to go get the truck, but I’ll be back. And I’m worried about Talia. She should have been here by now.”
Jesse stood abruptly.
“I’m a good tracker. If she’s lost, I can find her,” he said.
Bowie smiled. “I know you are, Jesse. I don’t think she’s lost, but she might have had some kind of trouble.”
“Uh... Bowie...” Leigh hesitated, as if debating with herself about what she was about to say, and then she blurted it out anyway. “Like the trouble you had coming here?”
The idea startled him. “What made you say that?”
“There wasn’t anything wrong with Stanton’s pickup before. If it had been leaking fluid for a while, we would have seen it on the ground where he parked. There’s nothing there, and there’s nothing where you’ve been parking. I went to look after you called.”
“Why would you do that?” Bowie asked.
“Because Justin threatened to get even with us. Once you make an enemy of that family, you always have to watch your back.”
“Well, hell,” Bowie muttered. “But when could he possibly have done that?”
“Where did you park when you went into Eden?”
“At Talia’s house. In her driveway.”
And then he panicked. She was late. She wasn’t answering her phone.
“You don’t think—”
Leigh stood up.
“I don’t know what to think. I keep going over and over in my mind that decision Stanton and I made to help his sister and his brother to keep their homes. If we hadn’t, Stanton would still be alive.”
“You can’t second-guess yourself on that,” Bowie said. “That was nothing but pure love, helping them keep their homes, and everything that happened after that is all on the Wayne family. I love you, Mama, but I have to go. I need to find Talia.”
Jesse stood up.
“I will go with Bowie. I have sharp eyes.”
Leigh was getting ready to say no, and Bowie could plainly see her eyes were red from crying. Between the murder, her grief, and the stress of how the investigation was playing out, he guessed she was nearing her breaking point.
“It’s okay, Mama. Let him come with me. I’ll get the truck and refill the brake fluid. It’ll be enough to get us back into Eden, and if the brakes were tampered with I’ll get them fixed. And on the way we’ll look for Talia. We’ll be coming back this way later, so it’s no big deal.”
Leigh frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m sure. Jesse does have sharp eyes. He shot five squirrels right through their heads.”
Leigh relented.
“Okay, Jesse, you can go. But you have to promise to do everything Bowie tells you to. He’s the oldest brother, remember?”
“Yes, ma’am. He’s in charge,” Jesse said. “Like my lieutenant in our unit. He gives the orders, and I say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’ and I do my job right.”
Aidan honked.
“There’s our ride, Jesse. We need to go now, Mama. We shouldn’t be long, but if we get held up I’ll give you a call.”
Leigh nodded, then followed them to the door, but there was a knot in her belly as she watched them leave.
*
Jesse was sitting in the backseat of Aidan’s car, and true to his word he rolled down the window and set up watch as if he was on patrol. He scanned the trees as they drove down the drive, and when they reached the blacktop, they had to caution him to not hang his head out the window.
He quickly obliged, but he sat as close to the door as he could get to watch the cliff side of the road as they started down the mountain.
Bowie glanced back and smiled at how seriously Jesse was taking his job.
“What are you looking for, Jesse?”
“Looking for your girl,” he said.
“Do you remember what she looks like?”
Jesse shrugged. “Kind of, but I’m not really looking for her. I’m looking for what’s not right.”
Bowie frowned. “What do you mean, little brother?”
Jesse just shrugged and leaned his head a little farther out the window to look at the road as they passed a big curve.
“The truck is just a little bit farther,” Bowie said.