Page 40 of River Wild

She swallowed. “I need to show you something.” She pushed the door open wider.

Even as he stepped in, he was telling himself that if there was anything to find, the crime team would have found it. Just inside the door, he stopped, his gaze following her outstretched arm to a small table next to the couch.

The tiny item on it was so odd that he didn’t recognize it at first. As he started to step toward it, she said, “Don’t touch it. He made it for her.” That stopped him, his gaze flying to her. “I talked to her brother. He remembered that one of the ranchers Willow knew from the hotel bar had given her little presents.”

He looked from Bailey to the tiny straw figurine. “What’s it supposed to be?”

“A windmill, I think. The man also brought her homemade fudge,” she said. “Peanut butter wrapped in silver Christmas paper.”

Stuart felt his eyes widen a little. He slowly shook his head. “He could have bought it.”

“Or his wife could have made it like she does every Christmas to sell at the toy drive.”

He swore. “Her brother told you that?” She nodded. “Why didn’t he tell me all this?”

“Probably forgot. Or maybe he didn’t think it was important at the time...” She paused. “He really is a creepy, sleazy bastard.”

The sheriff knew she wasn’t talking about Aaron Branson. “Bailey, I appreciate your help, but you need to back off now, okay? We’re getting too close.You’regetting too close. He might panic and...” He couldn’t finish as he met her defiant gaze. It burned in blue flames. “Please.”

“What did my father want?” she asked, turning away, breaking eye contact.

“You came by the house after you left this morning?”

“I wanted to tell you what I’d learned from Aaron,” she said. “When I saw you were busy, I decided to come out here. You haven’t answered my question.”

He wasn’t finished trying to get her to stay out of this, but knew it would be a waste of breath. “He warned me not to fall for you.”

“Too late for that,” she said, meeting his gaze.

Stuart nodded. “He told me you were going to break my heart.”

“That couldn’t have come as a surprise. Is that all?” she asked, looking away.

“He told me to let you go.”

She looked back at him. “What did you tell him?”

“That I can’t. That I love you, have for a long time.”

As if knowing there was more, she seemed to be waiting. “And he gave you his blessing?”

“Something like that.” He took a step toward her, but knew better than to try to touch her. Oftentimes she seemed like a broken vase that had been badly glued back together. One wrong touch and she would shatter, the vase destroyed, completely unrepairable. “He said he felt sorry for me if I thought I could ever put a ring on your finger.”

“My father doesn’t know me,” she said, holding his gaze. “But you do.”

He wondered about that even as he nodded. “You scare me when I find you out here all by yourself in a place we know he might have been,” Stuart said. “He probably watched her from the foothills. He might have grabbed her here that night.” He was relieved to see realization in her eyes, along with fear. Fear was the one thing that might save her, he told himself. She certainly wasn’t going to listen to reason, not from him.

A heavy silence stretched between them for a few moments before he broke it. “I’ll have the crime scene techs pick up the straw figure. I doubt they can get DNA off it, but they might surprise me. For all you know, he accidently wound a piece of his hair into it. You were going to call me after you found it, right?”

“Yes, I was,” she said as she stepped past him toward the door. “You have to trust me, Layton,” she said as she stepped out into the waning rays of the fall morning, daring him to argue otherwise.

“It’s a two-way street, McKenna.”

She laughed. “Maybe I’ll see you later.” With that, she headed for her SUV.

He watched her go, studying the horizon, afraid he’d see a vehicle pull out and fall in behind her as she left. He noticed a few outbuildings in the distance and called the office. “I need a couple of deputies to search some abandoned buildings near the house Willow Branson rented.”

But fortunately, he didn’t see anyone following Bailey before she dropped over a rise in the road and disappeared.

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