The Sheriff's Secretary

“I’m moving, not that it’s any business of yours,” Phil replied.

“Where to?”

“To an apartment in town. Dad sold this place.” A flash of anger shone from the young man’s eyes. It was there only a moment, then gone. “Look, Sheriff, you want to tell me what this is about? I’ve got a lot of things to do today and I’m not in the mood for you.”

Lucas tamped down a touch of rising anger. “When was the last time you spoke to Jenny?”

Phil visibly relaxed. “Is that what this is about? Your sister? Whatever she told you, it’s probably a lie. I haven’t seen or talked to her for a couple of weeks.”

“So you don’t know anything about her disappearance?”

“Disappearance? Is she missing?”

“Yeah, since last night.” Lucas studied Phil’s features carefully, but it was impossible for him to discern if the man was lying or not. “So, you haven’t seen or heard from her in the last couple of days?”

“Look, your sister’s a nice girl and all that, but she was way too intense for me. We’d only been dating a couple of months and she starts talking about marriage and having kids and the whole traditional route. There’s no way I’m ready for that, especially right now with everything such a mess.”

“Everything such a mess?”

Phil averted his gaze from Lucas. “Private stuff. It has nothing to do with Jenny. I haven’t had anything to do with Jenny for weeks, so if we’re through here, I’ve got things to do.” His gaze still didn’t meet Lucas’s.

Without a search warrant, there was little else Lucas could do here, and no judge in his right mind would give Lucas a warrant to search these premises on Lucas’s hunch that Phil was hiding something.

“Where exactly is the new apartment?” Lucas asked as Phil walked him back to the front door.

“The Lakeside Apartments for the time being. Apartment 211.” Phil grinned, the boyish, charming smile that had managed to get him into the beds of half the young women of Conja Creek. “I’m anxious to get out of this place. Owning a house is way too much responsibility for me.”

Minutes later, as Lucas drove back to Mariah’s place, he made mental notes to himself. It was obvious that Phil Ribideaux’s life was in flux at the moment. Could that have anything to do with Jenny and Billy’s disappearance?

Phil had seemed genuinely surprised to hear that Jenny was missing, but he was a smooth operator and Lucas knew the kid could lie without blinking an eye. And he’d definitely been hiding something. Something private, he’d said.

Tension twisted Lucas’s gut as he drove. It had been almost twenty-four hours since anyone had spoken to Jenny and Billy, and there wasn’t a lead in sight…except for a haunting voice on his cell phone that had promised a game of hide-and-seek.

“Jenny, if you’ve done something stupid, then please have the courage to undo it now,” he murmured aloud. He hated suspecting that his sister had somehow orchestrated all this, but the alternative was far more terrifying.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Wally, his right-hand man. “Wally, I want you to do a little investigation into Phil Ribideaux. Find out from his friends what’s going on in his life, and I want a tail put on him. Get Louis to do it. I want to know everyplace he goes and everyone he talks to.”

“Got it,” Wally replied. “Anything else?”

“Nothing for now.” Lucas clicked off. He had no idea if Ribideaux had anything to do with this, but he definitely knew something was out of whack in the man’s life.

As he turned the corner that led to Mariah’s house he sucked in a breath. The place looked like a circus. Cars were parked up and down the street, and the local news crew truck was parked in her yard. Mariah definitely hadn’t been sleeping while he’d been gone.

Mayor Richard Welch stood in front of a camera with a reporter, his chest puffed up with self-importance. The man never missed a chance to get his mug in front of the voters.

Unwilling to be part of the mayor’s photo op, Lucas skirted the house to the back door. Ed Maylor met him as he walked inside. “I told her you wouldn’t like this, but she wouldn’t listen to me,” he said.

Lucas clapped the young deputy on the back. “It’s all right. Why don’t you go home, get some sleep. I’ll take care of things here.”

Maylor nodded and left by the back door. As he walked out, Sawyer Bennett entered the kitchen from the living room. Lucas tensed at the sight of his old friend.

“Sawyer.” He nodded in greeting. “You heard?”

“The whole town has heard. You have any leads?”

Lucas shook his head, aware of the tension between himself and the man he’d considered a brother. Regret played deep inside him as he thought of the events that had put a strain on their relationship. Sawyer was one of Lucas’s college buddies as well as a lifelong friend, but their relationship had been tested when Sawyer’s wife had been murdered and Lucas had had to investigate Sawyer for the crime. Thankfully Sawyer had been innocent, but the strain still lingered. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to help. I can put up posters, talk to people, do whatever you need me to do,” Sawyer said. Mariah entered the room, interrupting the conversation.

The hopeful look she sent Lucas broke his heart, because he had nothing to tell her that would make her feel any better. The momentary shine in her eyes dimmed. “Nothing?”

“Not yet. It looks like you’ve been busy while I’ve been gone.”

“I’ve contacted everyone I can think of to get the word out that my son is missing. Somewhere in this town, somebody has to know what happened or at least have a piece of information that can help us find them.” She raised her chin as if expecting a fight from him.

“It was a good idea,” he said, and watched the breath ease out of her. She reached out and took Sawyer’s hand. “Your friend here has been helping me print off posters from the computer. He’s promised to see that they go up all over town.” She released Sawyer’s hand and instead clutched herself around the waist, as if she were physically holding herself together.

“I’m going to head out now.” Sawyer turned his attention back to Lucas. “Anything else I can do?”

“Not that I can think of,” Lucas replied.

“I’ll just get those posters,” Sawyer said to Mariah.

Lucas watched his friend head for the door. “Sawyer?” Sawyer turned back to face him. “Thanks.”

Sawyer flashed him a smile that spoke of old bonds and years of friendship, and Lucas felt himself relax somewhat.

“I thought maybe you’d get some sleep while I was out,” Lucas said to Mariah when Sawyer had left.

“I’ll sleep when Billy is home safe and sound,” she replied.

Although she hadn’t slept, it was obvious she’d showered and changed her clothes. Her shiny hair was neatly pulled back and held with a ponytail holder at the nape of her neck.

In all the time he’d known her, he’d never seen her in anything casual, but she now wore a pair of jeans that hugged her long slender legs and a sleeveless cotton blouse that was the same shade of blue as her eyes.

The casual clothing suited her, made her look less stern and more approachable and stirred a protective urge inside him that he hadn’t felt for a woman in a very long time.

“Most of my neighbors have shown up to put out posters and search,” she said as she moved to the coffeemaker on the countertop. “I did an interview with the local news, and they’re going to show it this evening on the six-o’clock broadcast.”

Their conversation was interrupted as Candy Tanner came into the kitchen. “I thought I heard your voice in here,” she said to Lucas. “I need to talk to you about something.” She shifted from foot to foot and looked as if she’d rather be anywhere else.

“About what?” Lucas looked at the young woman who was one of Jenny’s closest friends. Her gaze shifted away from him, and a new tension rose up inside him. “You know something about what’s going on, Candy?”

“No, not really, but I thought I should tell you that I know Jenny has been seeing Remy Troulous,” she said.

Blood roared in Lucas’s ears as he stared at Candy. “Seeing Remy Troulous? What do you mean? As in dating him?”

“No, I’m sure she wasn’t dating him,” Candy replied as she took a step back from Lucas. “But I know she had a meeting with him about something last week.”