Page 81 of Dark Side of the River

He just hoped it didn’t boil over and require the law to step in.

DOWNATTHEOFFICE, Cooper was directed to the head nurse who found Tilly’s clothing and jacket. All had been covered with blood and bagged. He dug in her jacket pocket and found a scrap of paper with a list of passwords on it. He scanned them as he walked to Oakley’s room. The wordbuttercupjumped out at him, but there was nothing after it that explained what the password was for.

He hoped she would be able to solve at least one mystery that had been driving him batty since she’d ridden her horse onto the road that day. He tapped on her door before peeking in. He didn’t want to have a run-in with her mother. He’d barely escaped the last one.

Fortunately, Oakley was alone. “I have something for you,” he said as he stepped in.

“I hope it’s not flowers. I’m not dying.”

He laughed. “I can see that you’re recovering.” She was so much like Tilly. He never appreciated her sense of humor until now. “It’s your passwords.” He handed her the handwritten list.

She looked at him suspiciously. “Did you memorize them?”

“I can’t remember my own passwords, so I’m certainly not going to try to memorize yours.” She laughed and glanced at the sheet. “But I do have a question. Remember when I found you?” She didn’t remember. “I told you when I found you that all you said was ‘Buttercup,’ and I thought it was the name of your horse and that you were worried about your mare.”

“Oh, right, and I can’t remember why I said that.”

“Apparently it is one of your passwords.”

She looked at the sheet again and laughed. “It is. It’s actually not my password. It’s CJ’s. I stole it so I could look at his phone occasionally to see what he’s been up to. He leads a very boring life.”

“So that day you were shot, were you trying to tell me who shot you?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Truthfully, I can’t imagine why I said that to you.”

“You were pretty adamant that I remember the wordbuttercup. Did you know it was your brother who shot you?”

“I must have. But why didn’t I just say his name?” She frowned. “I don’t remember any of it.”

He wondered if even then she was covering for her brother. “You know the county is going to press charges even if you don’t.”

“That’s what the sheriff just told me.”

“You don’t hold a grudge?”

“Of course I do. Don’t you think I’m going to make him pay the rest of his life? But I can’t press charges against my brother. I already told the sheriff. I think we all just want to forget it.”

Good luck with that, he thought.

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better and that you’re getting out of here pretty soon. I know your sister will be glad too.” He turned toward the door, when she stopped him.

“You and Tilly?” She grinned, not waiting for him to confirm it. His expression must have given him away. “I’m not surprised. I always thought you two had some kind of chemistry between you. You aren’t worried about the families?”

“I’m always worried about the families,” he said with a chuckle. “But you can’t stop true love, right?”

She didn’t look so sure about that. “I hope that’s true,” she said, and he suspected that she wasn’t talking about him and Tilly anymore.

As he left the hospital, he heard a helicopter land in the field behind it.

CHARLOTTEFOLLOWEDTHEgurney with CJ strapped to it to the helicopter, even though she was told it wasn’t necessary.

“I will be the judge of that,” she’d snapped. She’d already been told that she would have to drive to Billings instead of accompanying CJ on the chopper. For what she was paying, she should have been able to fly the damned helicopter, she thought.

She had seen the expressions of the nurses and Doc Hammond. She’d overheard one of the nurses tell Doc that Charlotte Stafford seemed to think she owned the hospital.

Doc had laughed. “In a way, she does. She pays the taxes that keep this hospital running. She and Holden McKenna and the other large landowners around here. I’ve always thought she’d make a good general if we ever went to war again.”

She’d taken it as a compliment. Now she reached into the helicopter to take her son’s hand. Motioned back by the pilot, she let go, ducked under the rotating blades and stumbled back toward the hospital. She stopped, shielding her eyes as the chopper took off, hiding her tears.

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