Page 3 of Engaging the Deputy

So, what was she doing back in town?

When he’d seen her walk into the bar the other day, he’d realized that he’d never given up on his fantasy of the two of them being together. How could he not have thought it was meant to be? She had returned. She’d agreed to come out here tonight with him. But that was where the fantasy ended, he thought. They weren’t kids anymore, let alone high school sweethearts. She just wanted to be friends. He swore under his breath. Maybe it was just as well, he told himself.

Standing inside the house, Cody hadn’t heard her come up behind him—not with the wind whistling through the broken glass of the windows. He jumped when she touched his shoulder. He had stepped into Elden Rusk’s dark house and stopped, realizing belatedly how dangerous this was as he felt the floor give under him. He couldn’t see anything in the pitch blackness. For all he knew, part of the floor had caved in and he might step into the abyss.

“Don’t come any closer,” he warned as he pulled a penlight from his pocket. He wished he’d brought something larger and brighter. The LED beam did little to chase away the shadows from the dark corners.

At one window, a ragged white curtain suddenly billowed, making Olivia grab his hand as she let out a surprised cry. They stood like that, her hand warm in his. They could have been kids again standing there. But they weren’t.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He regretted spoiling this night and the time he had with her. He wasn’t sure what had brought her back to town, but it wasn’t him. He doubted she would be staying long. “Want to get out of here?” Her shoulder was against his, so he felt her nod and turned them back toward the open door they’d come through.

As they stepped outside, she let go of his hand. He wasn’t sure what they could do to kill time until midnight. He’d be glad when they’d finally be able to leave. This idea of a “date” had been a mistake.

“We could search for the buried gold,” she said, clearly only half-serious. Like him, she was probably looking for anything to do until midnight, when they could go their separate ways. He had a pretty good idea of what the other couples were doing as he glanced back toward the vehicles. Dean and Jenny were probably still down there getting into trouble. Cody had been surprised and upset when Dean had told him Jenny was coming along.

“Where’s her husband?” Cody had asked, hating to mention the obvious.

“Out of town. Angie’s at her mother’s. Don’t say it. I know, but I never got over Jenny. If anyone should understand not being able to move on, it should be you.”

Cody had let it go, realizing it was true. He hadn’t moved on. Instead, he’d been stuck, as if he hadn’t wanted to see a future without Olivia. As they’d swung by to pick up the two women before heading out to Starling, he’d realized that he’d been waiting for Olivia to return. He’d never seen himself settling down with anyone else.

Now he knew that it wasn’t just Dean who was doing something foolish tonight. Standing in the creaking old house on the hillside in Starling, he knew he had been deluding himself. His wanting to believe that he had no future without Olivia had really been him not facing that he’d wasted years working at the hardware store with his father, waiting for his life to finally begin. Seeing her again had brought the realization home that it was time to change things. That was what he’d been working toward. Now it was time.

He finished the beer he’d been holding and tossed the empty can into the darkness of the house. A strong gust of wind howled off the eaves, pelting them with dirt. “Why not look for gold inside the houses?” he said. “Anything to get out of this wind.” They dropped off the hill to the closest small dwelling below the founder’s so much larger one.

He noticed Olivia glance at the dark shape of Rusk’s house looming over the town. She looked as if she’d been expecting to see Elden Rusk standing in the doorway, watching them go. Another of the local legends out here at Starling was the alleged sighting of Elden’s ghost searching for his daughter. Wandering around at night calling “Evangeline!” as he stumbled, heartbroken, through the deserted town.

Cody didn’t believe any of it. If there had been any gold, he’d bet Rusk had taken it with him.

* * *

Olivia felt a chillshe couldn’t quite throw off. After they’d walked away from the Rusk house, she’d sensed someone watching them and had turned to look back. Enough light had sifted through the clouds to illuminate a dark figure in what looked like a long black coat, wearing a floppy black hat, standing in the doorway they’d just deserted. In the blink of an eye, the image was gone as if it had never been there.

She shuddered, telling herself she’d imagined seeing the figure of Elden Rusk, and blamed the creepy place, the dark night and being back here, maybe especially with Cody. She hated the tension she felt between them. All that talk about Rusk and the past was making her see things.

She caught up with Cody, and they entered the small house. The door had been standing open. Cody turned on his penlight. Like the Rusk house, most of the windows appeared to be missing.

They’d only just stepped in when a shriek filled the night air from a house farther down by the creek where they’d last seen Rob and Emery and their dates. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, Olivia thought. She wished she hadn’t left her purse with her phone in Dean’s truck. She had no idea what time it was, but feared midnight was still hours away.

She and Cody had barely gotten inside the house when a gust of wind literally shook the walls around them. Cody went to one of the glassless windows to look out. She could hear a distant howl, the sound seeming to grow in strength as the wind picked up even more.

“This is going to be some storm,” he said, sounding nervous as another squall shook the house. “Do you hear that?”

Earlier, all she could hear were the creaks and groans of the walls, the whistles of the wind through the broken panes. But now she could hear what sounded like a roar. She hugged herself, just wanting to get out of the house, out of Starling.

“We should round up the others and head back,” she suggested. Ending this outing early seemed like the best idea, given the way this night was going, especially with a bad storm brewing.

“I don’t think there’s time,” Cody said, turning from the window, the beam of his penlight illuminating a spot on the floor at his feet. She could see his expression. “I think we’d better find a safe place to ride it out.”

Seriously? “Doesn’t it make more sense to go back to the pickup?” she asked, but he didn’t seem to be listening. The house shuddered as the wind grew stronger, the howling sound louder. Dirt peppered the side of the structure as Cody moved toward her, his expression making her more anxious. The house shuddered again. “Cody?”

“When I was a boy at my grandmother’s, we had to go into the root cellar because of a tornado.” He had to yell to be heard. She remembered him telling her the story. “I think this might be a tornado. That’s what it sounds like.”

“That was Oklahoma. We don’t have tornadoes like that in Montana, do we?”

“Come on. No matter what it is, we’re finding a safe place until it’s over.” He grabbed her hand and led her deeper inside. He shone his light on the floor as they moved farther into the house until they reached the old kitchen.

“What are you looking for?” she yelled over the howl outside. The wind rattled the walls, shaking the floor under them.

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