Page 11 of Shadows Reel

Marybeth tapped out 911 on her phone but hesitated to hit the call button. The county library was a public building, after all. The man hadn’t been trespassing or attempting to break in, as far as she could discern. Patrons were encouraged to return books at all hours via a slot in the building. Maybe he had overdue books and he didn’t want to return them in person and pay a fine? There were plenty of other scenarios she could think of.

She wasn’t a jumpy woman and she didn’t want to be characterized as one. Her husband was in law enforcement, and the dispatcher at the county building was notorious for gossiping about the calls she received. That the director of the county library had called the cops to check out a man returning a librarybook after hours would certainly make the rounds and portray her as foolish.

So instead, she called Joe.

“What’s up, babe?”

“Probably nothing.”

She could envision him on the other end getting ready to go to work. He was likely pulling on his red uniform shirt with the pronghorn patch on its sleeve or packing his lunch. Daisy would be trembling with anticipation near the front door.

Although he was still limping from his injuries in the mountains the month before and he’d yet to have all of his stitches removed, Joe was nothing if not conscientious. Annoyingly so. It drove him crazy when he was not doing his job in the field, especially during the last weeks of the big-game hunting seasons. It drove her crazy that he wouldn’t stay home to recuperate and rest, like their doctor had ordered.

It was especially maddening now, she thought, since their fortunes had changed almost overnight. A lot had happened within the past month. Joe had been injured and had nearly lost his life up in the mountains. The trauma of the experience still affected her. The community itself was still in shock from the violent incidents that had taken place and the familiar people involved, and so was Marybeth. She couldn’t get Joe to talk about it yet.

Also unsaid between them was the strangest thing of all—the possibility that, for the first time in their married lives, they were... wealthy?

Maybe.

—

She told Joeabout the man she’d seen and what he appeared to have been doing.

“Was he sleeping there, do you think?”

“I don’t think so.”

“But you can’t see where he went?”

“No.”

“You’re sure you didn’t recognize him?”

“I’m sure.”

“Make sure you check your mirrors so he doesn’t sneak up behind you in the dark.”

That sent another chill through her and she quickly confirmed that there was nobody behind her van.

“Stay put,” Joe said. “I’ll be there in twelve minutes and check things out.”

Joe knew exactly how long it took to drive from their state-owned game warden home on the bank of the Twelve Sleep River to the library.

“Really, you don’t need to do that,” she said. “I’m still on edge, I think. Now I feel kind of silly for calling you.”

“What are you doing there so early, anyway?” he asked. She could tell from the background noises that he’d shut the front door of their house and was making his way across the yard toward his pickup.

“I left you a note on the refrigerator,” she said. “I wanted to get an early start. I was hoping to knock off after lunch today soI could get home and start cooking, since April will be back tonight and Lucy’s coming tomorrow.”

“Oh, I missed the note,” he said.

Of course he had. She referred to it as his “man-scan,” the glance that often missed obvious things right in front of him. Two nights before, he’d searched the house for twenty minutes for the reading glasses that dangled from the front of his shirt. Earlier that week, he’d remarked on how he liked the “new” lamp in their living room that she’d placed there four months before.

It was especially irksome because she knew that when he was out in the field investigating a crime, he could see everything quite clearly.

—

It was onthe cusp of Thanksgiving break and their three daughters were coming home for the holiday. The youngest, Lucy, was a sophomore at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. She was bringing with her an international student from Hong Kong whom she’d befriended. When Lucy had learned her friend had nowhere to go over the break, she’d invited her along. That was Lucy.

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