Page 96 of High Density

I burst out laughing at the sheriff’s warning.

“Let him try.”

I tuck my arm tighter around Janey who, so far, has put up with my need to keep her as close as I can at all times these past few days. Although, she did draw the line when I tried to follow her into the bathroom the other day.

The doctor had given Janey a hard time for showing up at the hospital once again, and wasn’t enamored with her when she refused to stay the night. She just wanted some normalcy after what she described as being stuck in a spin cycle for a week. It made sense to me, I wasn’t going to argue with her, but Iwasgoing to make sure she was well looked after when the doctor ordered her to take it easy until her follow-up appointment next week.

I immediately shot off a text to Jonas to let him know I’d be taking some time. His response had been;I’d assumed as much.

The hardest part so far for Janey has been to close her clinic for a week. Luckily, Sam Feltner, the other vet in town, offered to take on any emergencies, and Frankie has been shuffling around all the standing appointments.

Still, Janey is going to have her hands full when she’s given the all clear by her doctor next week. Her workload hasn’t changed, but now she’s facing it without the help of an intern.

That’s something I still want to talk to her about. Call me selfish, but things have been crazy since she and I got together, and I want to make sure we carve out some time for us. I’m pretty sure she’ll be hesitant to take someone else into her trust—given how badly Logan pulled the wool over all our eyes—but she is going to need the help.

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Janey asks Junior Ewing, who dropped by to give us an update.

“It won’t get far,” he assures her. “Osborne Senior is just trying to flex his muscles, now that he’s lost all credibility in town. He first tried to get me to file assault charges against you, but I reminded him I was right there on the scene and didn’t see any assault take place. Then he tried to claim my incompetence with the mayor, but that didn’t go very far either. Now he’s threatening with this civil suit. What you’re seeing are the last muscle spasms of the man’s reputation. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was asked to resign. Special Agent Kramer is having a long hard look at his close relationship with Jericho.”

Apparently, Jericho had thrown Logan—and by association his father—under the bus, in hopes of securing a deal once he realized there was no escaping the evidence piled up against him.

“Did Jericho end up getting his deal?”

Ewing chuckles and shakes his head.

“Not a chance. Kramer is like a bulldog, she’s pulling apart his life thread by thread, determined to dig up every little bitof dirt he’s been hiding. Already he’s facing something in the range of thirty-five or so federal charges. He’s going down, and, if Stephanie has something to say about it, his entire network is going down with him.”

I guess Councilman Osborne has good reason to be concerned. He’s all but lost all credibility here in town, especially now the full scope of his son’s crimes is starting to come to light. His list of victims is growing, with the unsolved rape and murder of two college students in Bozeman now attributed to Logan as well.

The media has gotten a hold of the story and it’s been all over the headlines the past couple of days.Son of Prominent Libby Family a Sick and Depraved Killer. Fodder for the masses, but no less true.

Logan Osborne is one sick puppy.

He apparently has a type, if you can call it that. All his victims had longer, dark-blond or brown hair, and when you saw their pictures side by side, all looked very similar.

I glance down at Janey, whose brown hair is currently hanging loose down her shoulders, a bit of a departure from her usual braids, a little softer. She fit the profile as well.

But, more intriguingly, all of them look very similar to Megan Osborne, Logan’s own mother.

There’s been some speculation around that; some reports suggesting his deep-rooted hatred for his mother triggered his deadly spree. But those are just wild guesses, the family certainly isn’t supporting those claims.

The kid is a psychopath, I don’t know that he needs much of a justification for his actions. Either way, we may never know the real reason.

What I do know is, he’s currently in the custody of the FBI. In my mind, I picture him sitting in a cell next to Jericho’s. Wouldn’t that be something?

“Is she back in Kalispell? Stephanie?” Janey asks, shifting out of my hold as she gets to her feet and goes to grab the coffeepot.

“She’ll be back and forth, I would imagine,” Ewing informs her. “At least until she’s got both these cases wrapped up.” He holds up his hand to stop Janey from topping up his coffee. “I’ve had enough, thanks. I’ve had nothing but coffee sloshing around in my stomach for the past week. I’m pretty sure I’m growing an ulcer too.”

“You need to take better care of yourself,” Janey mutters as she tops up my cup and her own.

“Ha,” Ewing barks as he gets up from the table. “Pot meet kettle. I see you haven’t exactly been taking it easy.”

He indicates the kitchen, which is a bit of a mess right now, since I’ve started pulling off the cabinet doors and hauling them out back to sand. It’s not like me to start a new project when I already have one on the go in Janey’s bathroom, but the weather is supposed to be nice for a while and Janey wants to repaint those cabinets to save some money.

“That’s all JD’s doing,” she indicates. “All I’ve done so far is sit and watch him sweat,” she adds with a grin.

Junior shakes his head, grinning before he puts his hat back on.

---