Page 17 of Silverstorm

Looking at her now, he hated that he’d have to leave her alone. “I’ll need to go back to work tonight,” he said into the silence. It would be all hands on deck at the sheriff’s office over the next few days. As much as he wanted to stay with Aria, there would be no way Hank would let him take a day off right now. He’d probably need to pull an all-nighter, as it was.

“Fine. I’ll be fine,” she said, the blank stare not leaving her face. He didn’t want to abandon her, but he didn’t see many options. He’d stay another half an hour, and then he'd go back to work.

“I’ll just call in and update my status.” Aria didn’t seem to hear him from her spot huddled into her bed, so he took out his phone and dialed Susan, wandering out of the bedroom to the far end of the cottage where Aria wouldn’t overhear. Susan should be back from breaking the news to Iliana, and he wanted to find out how it’d gone. Where he stood in the corner of the cottage, there was a high window to let in light, but would keep out the prying gazes of the neighbors. He was just tall enough to see over the windowsill to the view of the house next door’s back garden; and he considered the neat pretty space thoughtfully, deciding it was time he got back into his mother’s garden, he’d been letting it go lately.

Susan answered on the fifth ring. “Jude, I was just about to call you. Hank wants you in the office straight away,” Susan said, and he could hear the strain in her voice.

“I’ll be in soon,” he promised. “I just want to make sure Aria is really okay before I leave her.”

“Hmm, she didn’t take the news well, then?”

“Not really. And I needed to get her away from that…detective.”

“Say no more,” Susan sighed. “He’s at the station right now, poking his nose into places he’s not wanted, and just being a general meathead.” Jude could tell by the slight high pitch in Susan’s voice that if he tried any more of his condescending shit on her again, she might well have to put him in his place. And Susan had tricks; she knew how to hurt a man where it mattered most. “But, Jude, I’ve got some news, and it’s not good. I was expecting to see you here at the office when I debriefed the sheriff about my trip to see Iliana, and then Brady got all up in my face and I haven’t had a chance to talk to you.”

Jude stilled and held the phone a little closer to his mouth. “Why? What happened?”

“Iliana and her husband seem to be missing.”

“What? Where have they gone?”

“We don’t know, the place was deserted when we got there, apart from a hungry cat who wouldn’t leave me alone.” Susan had a soft spot for cats; she had three of her own, and was considering fostering a fourth. “Everything was locked up tight, two cars parked neatly around the back, all the sheds and the barn closed up,” she continued. “But the back door was unlocked, and when I looked inside, I noticed signs of a struggle, so we entered the premises. It seemed like the couple had been eating breakfast, then something had gone awry. Plates and glasses were scattered on the floor, and there were a few drops of blood near the sink.”

“Shit.” It was taking Jude a while to get his head around this new scenario. “Do you mean you think they’ve been abducted?” he finally asked. It was the only scenario that fit.

“I don’t know what it means. But Brady is just about frothing at the mouth with the news. He’s gone out there himself to take a look.” Fuck. Jude wouldn’t mind taking a look himself. Sometimes it helped to put the puzzle pieces together when you saw a scene with your own eyes. “Hank is just about having a conniption, he was looking forward to Stevensville going back to being a sleepy little country town again, but it seems like we might have a whole shit load more trouble brewing.”

Jude didn’t have time to feel sorry for the sheriff. Yes, this town seemed to have more than its fair share of crime over the last few years, but this was their job. This was also the last thing Aria needed to hear. Should he tell her? Even as he listened to Susan give him more details about the missing couple, he was internally debating whether to let her know or not.

Susan told him everything she and the police officer from Missoula, Sergeant Camden McMurdo, had found in the Doncaster house. It was giving him chills just listening to her. The house was neat as a pin, except for the kitchen, which’d been trashed. Iliana was clearly house-proud. Susan was about to go back out and start door knocking the neighbors to see if they’d seen or heard anything unusual. It was difficult to put a timeline on the abduction—he couldn’t see how this could be anything other than an abduction—the leftover food was definitely a day or so old, at least. And the biggest question of all. Was this new crime somehow related to Tango’s death?

“Right, thanks, Susan,” Jude finally said. “I’ll be in as soon as I can.” He ended the call and huffed out a breath. He turned around to see Aria staring at him.

“What’s going on? Were you talking about my sister?” Damn, she’d overheard him. Now what?

“Tell me.” She advanced on him, her movements jerky, and he reached to take her arm, afraid she was about to fall.

“I’m sorry, Aria.” He led her to the couch and forced her to sit. He sat beside her and took her hands in his. They were cold and clammy. “Iliana and Craig are missing.”

A groan escaped her from somewhere deep inside. “I heard you ask if they’d been abducted. Is it true? Has someone taken them?”

She deserved the truth. “The evidence points that way, yes.”

Aria moaned again. “I went out to see her two days ago, straight after the interview at Stargazer.” She lowered her gaze, fixing it on their hands entwined on her knee. “I wanted to try and fix things between us, but the place was empty, so I left. I never even got to see her again. And now she’s missing.” A small part of Jude’s brain that wasn’t focused on Aria and her highly distressed state catalogued the fact that she’d just provided him with a slightly better timeline for the abduction. A sob broke from her throat, and she laid her head on his chest. Aria hadn’t cried at the news of her father’s death, although she had been in shock, but here she was crying for her sister who she hadn’t seen in eight years, and Jude suddenly got a better idea of where Aria’s allegiances lay.

He pulled her closer as she spoke muffled words into his jacket. “My sister and I were never close, but I was hoping to fix that. I was hoping that by coming back to town, and me getting a job, we might be able to reconnect. And she might help me with the—” Her words cut off suddenly, but Jude had no time to wonder what she’d been about to say, as her sobs got louder, almost hysterical.

He held her tight as she cried, trying to work out this complicated woman. She had a tangled history with this town and a tragic past, losing her mother when she was so young and then stuck being raised by a man who had his own demons to fight. It must’ve been lonely and confusing, and it was interesting to hear that she and her sister weren’t close. These types of family tribulations often brought siblings together. But then he remembered Iliana had moved out of home the second she’d finished high school, while Aria remained living with Tango for another three years, until she was also old enough to finish school and leave. He wondered how hard that’d been, living with a half-crazy father and no support from a sister who’d by all accounts abandoned her.

But Aria was about to have a lot more problems than just a shitty childhood. It didn’t look good, Aria admitting to visiting Iliana’s place, perhaps on the very morning she and her husband were abducted. Adding to that fact, she’d also been at her father’s house on the day of his murder. Could it be just a simple coincidence she was connected to two crimes scenes? Brady was going to be all over this. Jude could imagine the barely restrained relish with which Brady would receive this news.

Aria’s sobs lessened slightly, and she pulled back, wiping the sleeve of her denim jacket under her nose.

“Wait here,” he said, and was back a few seconds later was a box of tissues he’d noticed beside her bed.

“Thank you,” she snuffled, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. He remained sitting close, watching her intently. He was sitting so close, he caught the smell of roses from her hair, and he had to remind himself not to lean in so he could draw that smell deep into his lungs.

“I know how this looks,” she said carefully. “I know me being at Iliana’s place makes me suspect number one.” She was one smart cookie. But she didn’t have anything to do with this; he knew it deep down in his guts.

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