Page 9 of Engaging the Deputy

“Please,” Jaden said and saw Olivia shoot him a look.

“You think someone did this to him on purpose?” She seemed shocked at even the idea.

“Did you see anyone else around before you left Cody?” he asked, telling himself whatever his problems were with Olivia, she wasn’t a killer.

“No, it was dark, and all I could think about was getting him help out of that hole.”

“But you’re sure he wasn’t injured when you left him?”

“He was fine,” she repeated more adamantly. “He just couldn’t get out. He insisted I go get help.” She started to cry. “If I’d stayed—”

“You might have been injured as well,” he told her. “Do you know anyone who might have wanted to harm him?”

She shook her head. “No. That is, I don’t know. I’ve been gone all these years.”

Exactly, he thought. “How long have you been back?”

“Only a few days.”

Jaden nodded. “You and Cody together again?” He knew she and Cody had been close from the time they were kids. They’d grown up next door to each other and had years of history.

She seemed surprised by the question. “No.”

“But you were out here with him.” He hated that he sounded like a jealous lover. He needed her to tell him why, after being gone for years, she was here with her old boyfriend at what was now a murder scene. A double murder scene, if Cody didn’t make it. And they still had people missing.

“We’re just friends.” She shook her head. “After tonight, maybe not even that anymore.”

He felt his pulse jump at her words. “Did the two of you have an argument?”

She seemed to realize what he was asking. “I didn’t do anything to him,” she snapped indignantly. “I told you he was fine when I left.”

At the sound of more sirens headed their way, Jaden stepped away to make two calls. One to the coroner, the other to the EMTs to tell them that they were needed high on the hillside to help get an unconscious man out of a root cellar.

Disconnecting, he stepped back over to where Olivia was standing, hugging herself. Her face was streaked with dirt and tears. Still, she looked beautiful.

His cell rang. He stepped away to talk to the state crime team. Photographs of the scene had been taken and they were ready to get the body to the morgue. A helicopter had been arranged to airlift Cody Ryan to the hospital. One of their biggest problems was moving through all the wreckage left by the tornado.

Jaden kept looking back at Olivia, standing alone as a team worked to maneuver Cody out of the hole. There was still some speculation about where the helicopter would be able to land. At least the sky was getting lighter, visibility better.

He caught a glimpse of Cody and his head wound as he was brought up. Clearly, it had bled a lot, as head wounds tended to do. The rock he’d been hit with was large. Too large for the average person to throw down into a hole onto a man. But it could have been rolled. Not that Jaden had noticed any rocks like it nearby, none especially in the hole, except for the one that had injured Cody Ryan.

Jaden couldn’t believe he had one suspicious death on his hands and an assault, along with two missing people: Jenny Lee and Dean Marsh.

As Olivia watched an unconscious Cody Ryan being lifted from the hole in the ground, Jaden observed her. He didn’t want to believe she’d had anything to do with what had happened out here tonight. But he couldn’t stop questioning what she’d been doing there with Cody to begin with.

More rescuers arrived to help dig through the debris for bodies as the sun rose behind the mountains, announcing the new day. The deputy took statements from everyone, let the parents of Tammy and Whitney take their daughters home, and then made calls to both Jenny Lee’s husband and Dean Marsh’s wife.

To his surprise, Jenny was home, her husband said. She’d called him to pick her up. From the emotion he heard in the husband’s voice, he was aware that Jenny had been out in Starling with Dean Marsh.

“Did you happen to see anyone else when you picked up your wife?”

“You mean someone like Dean Marsh?” Tom Lee asked sarcastically. “No. I didn’t see him.”

Jaden asked to speak to Jenny, who sounded contrite. She swore that she and Dean had gotten into an argument and she’d taken off, walking down the road, where she’d called her husband and he’d come to pick her up. They’d just missed being caught in the tornado.

The deputy thanked her and kept the rescue workers searching for Dean Marsh’s body as the new day began. He called his boss, Sheriff Brandt Parker, to let him know that he had one suspicious death, another man unconscious with a suspicious injury, and a missing man who’d been involved with another man’s wife.

“That’s all?” Brandt said.

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