The Unmaking of June Farrow(60)

I couldn’t tell if my breath sounded as loud in the truck as it did in my ears. Had he followed us? Had he been watching us in town?

“Talk?” I echoed.

“You have some time to come down to the station?”

Esther laughed nervously. “Now?”

“As good a time as any.” He smirked.

“Can this wait? We’re just headed back to the farm.”

“You’re not the only one who’s been waiting for June to come home, Esther.” He set a heavy hand on the lip of the door, a seemingly innocent gesture, but something about it felt distinctly threatening. “We’ll make it quick. I’ll tell you what, I’ll even have her home before supper.”

Esther’s gaze moved to me. She was scared, her hand still half-hidden in the pocket of the door. She was considering. Weighing her options. But if she pulled out that gun, I had no idea what would happen. Would she really shoot him? Just threaten him? What would he do when he saw it? Turn his own gun on us?

“Sure.” I smiled, hands still clutched around the pie in my lap.

Esther’s eyes bored into me.

Caleb’s smile widened. “Great.”

He waited, and when I didn’t move, he gave a nod toward my door. My hand was unsteady as I reached for the handle and opened it. I left the pie on the seat, locking eyes with Esther one more time as I got out.

I came around the truck, catching a glimpse of the gun at his hip as he fell into step beside me. He opened the door to the police car, and his hand clamped down on the top of the window as he waited. My eyes fell to the badge on his chest.

MERRILL COUNTY was engraved in an arc over the word SHERIFF. Beneath it was a name.

RUTHERFORD

My heartbeat skipped as I looked at his face again. He was still smiling, but he had the look of someone who’d gotten what they wanted, confirming that there was something very, very wrong about what was happening here.

If his name was Rutherford, then he had to be related to Nathaniel. Too young to be a brother, too old to be a grandson. A nephew, maybe.

I pulled up my skirt, sliding onto the bench seat in the back of the car, and the door closed a little too hard behind me. Then he was rounding the car, climbing into the driver’s seat. He turned the ignition, hand reaching for the switch on the two-way radio that was fixed to the dash.

Esther sat completely still in the truck in front of us, but I could feel her eyes in that rearview mirror. The car turned around, and I swallowed hard before I looked back, one hand clutching to the hot leather of the seatback as I watched her through the dusty rear window. A few seconds later, she was erased from view, disappearing behind the hill.





Eighteen


The courthouse loomed over me as the door of the police car opened, and I stared up at it, a lump in my throat.

If the sheriff wanted to cause a scene, he’d been successful. Nearly everyone on the street had stopped to stare as we climbed the steps. The birds nesting in the eaves above the entrance took off, darting over the roof and out of sight as the doors opened.

“This shouldn’t take long.” Caleb gave me another tight smile, gesturing for me to walk ahead of him.

I tucked my hair behind my ear as I stepped inside, avoiding the gazes of the men and women who passed me. The lobby of the courthouse was more refined than the one I knew, with shining marble walls and floors. The lights were brighter in the chandeliers that hung from the ceiling, the murmur of voices making the place feel alive in a way it never had to me before.

The window to the police station was open, a brass placard engraved with the county’s name. Behind the glass, Sam, the police officer who’d pulled over at the river, was seated behind a desk. He got to his feet, opening the door to let us in.

“Mrs. Stone,” he said, the words echoing eerily around us.

I tensed, realizing he was speaking to me. June Stone.

Behind the door, warm wood paneling covered the walls of a narrow room. Papers littered a series of low desks fit with bronze desk lamps, and I could hear the click of a typewriter somewhere up the hall.

“They didn’t believe me when I told ’em I’d seen you the other day.”

The younger officer looked to Caleb with a satisfied smile. He was missing the taut, awkward energy that Caleb carried, but there was still something unspoken in the air that I wasn’t following.

Caleb took off his hat, setting it on one of the desks. “Do we have a room ready, Sam?”

He nodded. “Room four is all set up.”

That meant that he’d planned this. Eamon and Esther had wanted people to lay eyes on me in hopes that it would keep the town from boiling over with curiosity. They hadn’t thought about giving Caleb the opportunity he wanted.

I forced myself to follow the sheriff down the claustrophobic hallway. It felt like it was narrowing by the second. He turned into an open doorway, and I stopped at the threshold, scanning the small room. A wooden table and four chairs sat in its center, where a cardboard box sat unopened. Beside it, a large machine fit with ancient turntables was rigged with shiny black ribbon. It looked like the kind of tape you’d pull from an old cassette. An exact replica was sitting on another small table in the corner.

“June?” Caleb pulled out one of the chairs, waiting.

I stepped inside, swallowing down the sick feeling in my throat as the door closed behind me. I took a seat in the open chair and set my shaking hands into my lap. I didn’t know what I was afraid of, I was just sure that I should be afraid. Of something.