Page 17 of Engaging the Deputy

“That’s just it. I wouldn’t go anywhere. I’d buy me a place on the lake. I wouldn’t have to work, but I probably would. I’d stay right there.” He laughed. “I guess I don’t need any gold. I’m…content. Some people think that’s just laziness talking, but I like my life. I wouldn’t change it.”

She studied him for a moment. “I understand completely.” She told him about her dream job. “All those years of college and then the job…” She shook her head. “I realized it wasn’t what I wanted.” At the heart of it, she’d missed Montana, the familiar, the place she’d grown up in. Wasn’t that why she’d come back? At least, that was what she’d told herself, not that she could deny Jaden had also been part of it. The problem was…even before Halloween night and what had happened, she’d held out little hope that Jaden would ever be able to forgive her for hurting him.

* * *

Jaden found Angie Marshloading suitcases into the back of her SUV as he drove up. The petite, slightly built brunette didn’t look happy to see him as he got out of his patrol vehicle and walked toward her. “Going somewhere?” he asked, eyeing the suitcases. He saw that she had loaded numerous boxes in the back. None of it looked like anything of her missing husband’s.

It had crossed his mind that she might be going to meet Dean somewhere, the two of them on the run together after Dean had killed Rob and almost succeeded in taking out Cody as well. What struck him was how much Jenny resembled Angie. Clearly, Dean had a type.

“I don’t have time for this, Deputy,” she said, pushing past him with a load in her arms. She wore jeans and a T-shirt with a band’s name he’d never heard of. Her long dark hair was pulled up in a ponytail. But what really caught his eye was that she wasn’t wearing her wedding ring.

On her way back to the house, he stopped her. “I just need a few minutes to talk to you about Dean.” She hesitated, looking as if she’d prefer not to. “We can talk here or down at the sheriff’s office.”

With a sigh, she dusted off her jeans and motioned toward the house. “Let’s make it quick. I don’t want to be here when he comes back.”

Did she really think he was coming back? She’d be in the minority, from what Jaden had heard around town. Pretty much everyone assumed he was on the run, either a murderer or just a philanderer. Some thought that Jenny Lee’s husband, Tom, had probably found him that night and killed him. Why Dean’s body hadn’t turned up was anyone’s guess.

The deputy followed Angie into the house, not surprised to see there were more items by the front door that she was apparently planning to load into her vehicle. She was clearing out, leaving not just her missing cheating husband, but town.

“You said you wanted to leave before Dean returned,” Jaden said once she led him into the kitchen and pointed to a chair at the table after he declined coffee.

“Does that mean you’ve heard from your husband?”

She poured herself some orange juice, then turned her back to add something to it. When she sat down across the table from him, he could smell the vodka. “I haven’t heard from Dean,” she said. “I don’t expect to.”

“Why is that?”

Angie lifted a brow. “Wouldn’t you be too ashamed to show your face in this town?”

“Because of what happened out in Starling on Halloween?” he asked, confused.

“We all know what happened. Dean was with that tramp, Jenny Lee.”

“I thought maybe you were referring to Rob Perkins being killed and Cody Ryan being assaulted and in the hospital, still unconscious. You’re that sure Dean didn’t do it and that’s why he’s disappeared?” Jaden asked.

For a moment, she looked as confused as he was. Then she let out a bark of a laugh before picking up her drink. “Dean? A murderer?” She laughed some more before taking a large gulp of her juice. “Dean’s a cheater, a liar and a ne’er-do-well who burns his bridges. Smell that?” she asked with a sniff. “That’s a bridge burning. Clearly, you’ve never met my husband.” She took another drink of her orange juice. “Dean’s a lot of things, but a killer? No, he wouldn’t have the stomach for it. He’s gotten caught cheating and now he’s afraid to come home and face the consequences.”

Jaden told himself that maybe Angie was just a woman spurned who’d had enough and was cutting her losses. Yet he couldn’t help feeling like there was more going on. “You’re that sure he didn’t have any conflicts with his two friends?”

“He was jealous of them, especially Rob, since he was leaving here to start a better life. But Emery?” She shook her head.

“I know you’re angry with him, but there’s a chance his body might still be found out in Starling,” he warned. “The area is still being searched.”

With a shake of her heard, she said, “Oh, he’ll turn up, alive and well and lying through his teeth.”

He felt himself studying her ring finger. There was only a ghost of a white line where it had been on her finger. He wondered if she hadn’t taken it off sometime before all this.

“If you hear from him, please call me,” he said as he rose to leave.

“Oh, I will. I’ll want you to keep him away from me because I want him gone. I wish he was capable of murder. Then you could drive him to Deer Lodge to the state prison and we’d all be shed of him.”

“One more thing,” he said as if the thought had just come to him. “Where were you on Halloween night?”

She glared at him, then shook her head as if amused. “If I wanted to kill my husband, I wouldn’t have driven all the way out to Starling in the middle of the night, Deputy. I would have just cut his throat while he slept next to me. Halloween wasn’t the first time he was with Jenny Lee, by the way.”

After leaving Angie, Jaden drove over to Whitney Clark’s house and questioned her about Rob and Emery’s whereabouts just before the tornado. He then stopped by her friend Tammy Bell’s and got pretty much the same information from her.

Both had been scared and foggy on what had happened.