Page 68 of Dark Side of the River

ASHISFATHERand Holly Jo had ridden off, Cooper started back to the house. He felt as if he’d been beating his head against a brick wall since he’d been home. What had started as simply trying to find out why Oakley had wanted him to know the name Buttercup had turned into so much more. It had taken him to Tilly, and one thing had led to another, as if it had been inevitable.

Only that path had so many pitfalls in it that he’d been dragging his feet. He feared that if he and Tilly went any further, it would only lead to heartbreak. As much as he wanted her—more than his next breath—he wasn’t sure it was possible.

Pushing that painful thought away, he tried to focus on what they’d uncovered. So much. Yet none of it seemed to fit together. They still didn’t know who’d shot Oakley or what Buttercup meant or why it had been so important that she tell him the day she was shot.

Finding the pilot of the plane that had flown over that day led them to Howie Gunderson and Tick Whitaker and the CH4 gas company. CH4 kept coming up. First with his brother’s name indented on the note that Howie had given him. The same notepaper Leann had used to write her goodbye notes to him, then later on, the notepad Stu had in his desk. It was on the latter one that he’d seen the nameLeannindented on the paper.

Everything they’d found kept leading them back to CH4 and coalbed methane drilling, including the Dirty Business group Oakley had been involved in—until they’d found the meth lab on the other side of the ravine Oakley had come riding out of the day she was shot.

While Cooper didn’t trust any of them, he and Tilly hadn’t found a link to Oakley’s shooting. He felt at loose ends. His father and Holly Jo weren’t back from their ride, but Deacon said he’d go look for them if necessary.

Unable to sit still, he drove into town thinking he might go to the bar, have some nachos and beer, and try to make sense out of everything that had happened since he’d returned home.

But a block away from the bar, he saw a uniformed figure come stumbling out, then weave his way across the street. Cooper sighed, all his instincts telling him to leave the sheriff be as he drove on by pretending not to see him. But as drunk as Stu was, he realized he couldn’t let him drive home and he was headed for his patrol SUV.

He swore and made a U-turn in the middle of the street, tires screaming, to go back. He pulled in behind the sheriff’s rig and got out.

“I should arrest you for that,” Stu said, having apparently stopped to watch him make the turn.

“A U-turn to come back and keep you from driving drunk?” He held out his wrists. “You got your cuffs on you?”

Stu staggered back, bumping into his patrol SUV, then pinging off it to stumble into the pines and sit down hard on the ground.

“You called the Feds,” he accused drunkenly.

“You didn’t act like you were going to do anything.”

“I told you. I didn’t get the messages.”

Did he believe that? Not really. “Had it been from anyone but me, you would have been out there at first light.”

The sheriff merely looked up at him from under hooded eyes. “I wasn’t in town. I’d just gotten back, barely making it into the office on time.”

Cooper ground his teeth and said nothing.

“Why don’t you sit down? You’re giving me a pain in my neck,” Stu said.

He hesitated, then sat down on the ground, both of them facing the street and the bar across from it.

“We found one of the four-wheelers smashed in the rocks,” Stuart said. “There was blood, but no body. We’re running DNA on the blood. If we get a match... Thought you’d want to know that I’m actually doing my thankless job. The Feds are taking it from here. I’m sure they’ll be a lot more thorough than me.”

Cooper chewed on that for a few moments. “You thought any more about asking the prosecutor to reopen the case?”

“Haveyou? You have the most to lose. All those notes she’d started and discarded. Almost as if afraid to tell you her plans.”

“Did she tell you her plans when she left you?” he asked.

Stu shook his head, a faraway look in his eyes. “Nope, just left.”

No note, Cooper thought. That had to hurt. So Stu also had no idea that Leann came to him just wanting a place to stay for a little while. He and Stuart had never had a chance to talk about it because it wasn’t long after that Leann had allegedly killed herself and Cooper had been arrested for murder. Now he saw that Stuart could have jumped the gun on arresting him because he was too emotionally involved.

“I never asked you what happened between you and Leann.”

“Kind of late to ask that now, don’t you think?” Stu said.

“No, I think it’s finally really relevant.”

“Why don’t you run across the street and get us a couple of beers?” the sheriff said, and pulled a face. “I’ll be here when you get back. Since I’m not driving, another beer won’t hurt me.”

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