A single step outside the exam room ran me right into Sheriff de Lude’s bulk and ended all self-soothing meditation. His ursine scowl eclipsed the yellow lighting of the hallway. 

“My deputy is on his way to a murder scene, Pierce.” The wooly mustache hid none of his contempt. “This is your doing. Couldn’t wait on the law. Now a man is dead.”

My neck hairs bristled.“A little girl walked several miles lost in the wilderness because you thought her daddy was playing jokes.” The tremble of my voice publicized the rage bubbling within. “And then she walked right into his murder scene.” I spat the words, fists clenched tightly at my sides. “I had nothing to do with that fiasco, Sheriff.” 

Myrtle emerged from behind me, pushing the door firmly shut as she stepped into the fray. 

“You dumb ass, Bernie! That child could easily have died out there while you were stroking your pitiful ego. This man saved her from God knows what.”

De Lude’s shoulders curled inward a notch. His eyes admitted a glint of shame. “Did my best,” he said, his voice piddling.

Anger boiled words out of my mouth. “Isn’t it your job, Sheriff, to protect the little girl from exposure to crime? Of any kind really, but most especially the crime of murder? She spends what appears to be days wandering the woods, alone and unprotected, before stumbling onto the horrific death of her father.” My nostrils flared as the scent of day-old aftershave and panicky sweat drifted off of his frame. “It makes me sick to think of it!”

“Don’t try to make this my fault, Pierce. If the two of you hadn’t stirred up this hornet’s nest, she would have turned up.” He lifted his shoulders into the moment. “Hell, the fight between Aidan and his wife has been around here for years, ain’t nobody so much as suffered a scratch before. It was your sister jumping into it feet first with you plunging in behind her that made the mess and got a man killed.”

Doc Myrtle moved around me to shove a finger into the big man. “You clearly have not laid eyes on the child, Bernie.” Her tone remained measured with self-control. “Time lost in the woods had that poor little girl in the state of a wild animal. Maybe you knew this happened a thousand times before or maybe you didn’t. She still suffered a great deal more than any human should, while you chose to ignore an inconvenient domestic dispute. That’s on you alone.”

De Lude’s caterpillar mustache rolled on his lip. His eyes tried to hold her gaze. They’d land for a moment, flit off to the exam room doorway or the exit, before another weak attempt at facing the blazing light of truth.

She went on. “I get it, Bernie. Mary is suffering. And you’re suffering along with her. It’s an awful thing that I fully understand. No one can blame you for getting lost in it. But you have got to take care of folks in this county. We need you to do your job. Kayla Peale needed you to do your job, Bernie.”

His gaze bounced to the sterile space that held a wounded child inside, and stuck. I imagined the gears of failure grinding his pride to bits.

Myrtle broke the trance with a quick step back and through the door to tend to her charge.

De Lude shifted focus onto me. “Aidan wanted to press charges for harassment against you, Pierce. I let it pass. Now we have this. It’s definitely a police matter now. Best steer clear.”

The anger that had faded with Doc’s abrading flared, forcing tight-jawed accusations out of my mouth. “As opposed to before the man was killed? Probably in front of his little girl? Why wasn’t it a police matter then?”

His stare held mine for a beat before he said, “We’ve got a job to do. And you ain’t gonna like it.”

My mouth was open with a retaliatory quiz when the women arrived in a jumble of chaos. 

Lorna made hysterical chitters interspersed with “My baby. Where’s my baby?”

Sheriff de Lude intercepted her at the exam room door.

“Is she okay? I have to see her. Did she get hurt? Come on, Bernie. I need to see her.”

“She’s okay, Lorna,” de Lude reassured. “Doc is taking care of her, checking her over.” He kept a tight hold on her shoulders while he spoke. “You have to be calm when you go inside, Lorna. You have to calm down and be her mother.”

“Oh my God! She was hurt wasn’t she? What happened to her? Why are you saying these things?” Lorna’s body shook. She clawed at de Lude’s jacket. “Oh my god! Was she—” Her throat choked off the words. She buried her face against the cloth badge sewn onto his coat.

“Stop making yourself crazy.” He tightened his grip, pulling her away so he could look at her face. “There’s been no word of anything like that. All the same, the child has been through a tough time. I told you, Lorna. She needs you to remain steady. I’m not letting you in until you calm down.”

Lorna stopped shaking and took a deep breath. The transformation inspired awe. This Sheriff was the persona who Lincoln County citizens had elected lead peace officer for their cause. This was the guy who should have been looking for Kayla when she was lost in the woods or tucked away in Aidan’s junkyard. Where had he been hiding these skills?

I shook my head. Too little too late to my thinking.

“I’m okay,” Lorna said. “I’m okay.” She wiped her face with shaky hands.

“Good,” de Lude said, releasing his grasp. “Now, you need to know she’s a mess, Lorna. It looks like she walked some distance in the woods.” He glanced at me as if to say keep your mouth shut, Pierce. “Don’t lose it when you see her.” He gave a stern finger wag. “Doc has checked her over and is cleaning her up.”

The sheriff stepped out of her way and she raced into the exam room.

I heard her mewling just before the door finished its closing sweep.

Vicky moved around us to peek through the window, then stepped away like a ferret looking for an exit. Her eyes found me for a second of indecision before darting back to her search for freedom.

Renée laid thin fingers on the sharp edges of Vicky’s shoulders to bring solace. “She’s okay now, Vic. Kayla is okay. She’s alive.”

Vicky flittered like a moth around the light in the hallway.

Sheriff de Lude’s cell phone chirped. He flipped it open. “Ollie?” he said, and walked into a darkened end of the passage. 

His mumbling tones made me uncomfortable. Indistinguishable syllables rolled down the corridor. I couldn’t make out a word. Goosebumps covered my arms.

His phone clapped shut with the force of a punch. All three of us twitched and watched as he spun around and walked straight to Renée. 

“Miss Pierce, I’m sorry but I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of Aidan Peale.”

Renée squirmed with the agility of an otter against the Sheriff’s hold. “I didn’t do anything!”

De Lude ratcheted one handcuff onto her wrist. She twisted to escape him, but he subdued her with ease and cuffed the other wrist behind her back.

Before I knew it, I had closed the gap between us. “What the hell are you doing, Sheriff?” I pulled up short of his outstretched hand, but my mouth kept going. “You haven’t even seen the body. Aidan hides that girl for days and when we find her next to her dead father’s body you arrest one of two complete strangers to the town?”

“I told you you wouldn’t like it, Pierce.” His fluffy mustache did pushups on his lip. “You can talk to her down at the jail.” He steered Renée’s writhing form out the door with a hand on the back of her neck. She cursed and claimed her innocence.

My strength abandoned me. The limping victory of saving a little girl had turned on its head. Renée could go to prison for a crime she was incapable of, and Mother was sure to declare, “You should have minded your own damned business.” 

Vicky punched my arm. “How could you let this happen?”

“Let it happen?” I faced her. “You think she did this?”

Vicky’s eyes went wide. “No! Of course she didn’t.”

“How much control do you think I have in this town, Vicky?” My neck and chin grew hot. “The lot of you are crazy as rabid ‘coons with individual versions of my-way-or-the-highway.”

Lorna came out of the exam room. “Doc says we can take Kayla home.”

“Uncle Bernie arrested Renée!” Vicky blurted.

“What?” Lorna stared at me like it was my fault. 

My hands came up in bewilderment. “Why does everyone assume I’m empowered to make anything happen in this town?” I dropped my empty paws and glared at the two of them. “I found your daughter. That’s what I came to do.”

“Then you’re done,” Lorna stated. “Way things turned out, I don’t believe we are obligated to pay another dime.”

Hot blood swamped my face, flooding into my hairline. “I will remind you two that you haven’t told me the truth from the beginning.” The words inflated my chest, pushed me into a forward lean. “You could have prevented this fiasco if you had told me how unstable Aidan was.”

“Well….” Lorna looked at the floor.

“That’s ridiculous,” Vicky said.

Suspicion about their motive for firing me tingled at the base of  my skull. A thank you for finding the girl and ending our deal with a handshake might have worked. An icy shift to outrageous blame so they could refuse payment I couldn’t handle. I wanted to stick it to them hard. 

“I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous. You and your mother plotting this whole thing to get Aidan out of the picture.” 

Their jaws went slack with disbelief. It was a wildly thrown Hail Mary, a bumbling ruse to extract information that might get Renée released. 

“Keep the girl caged in a secret place until just the right time. Maybe with the Jenkins. Drop her at Aidan’s where she’d be found and he’d lose custody.” 

“You’re talking crazy,” Vicky whispered.

It was crazy, sewed together out of whole cloth. If they saw through the ploy, I’d get nothing. This plan would kill all cooperation. The thing was, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. They were providing no help for my sister, a person they claimed to love. I kept on. 

“But then your plan backfired. Kayla reacted badly, ran away to her father’s. Uncanny the way she can find direction in the mountains. She made it to Aidan’s.” I watched the women like a hawk, looking for a reaction that signaled time to dive in for the grab. 

“What? Are you nuts?” Vicky said. “You think we killed my father?”

“The Sheriff thinks my sister killed him. What’s the big diff?”

“You are crazy,” Lorna said. “We’ve been dealing with Aidan’s nonsense for years. Why all of the sudden stab him in the chest with a pitchfork?”

“Aidan figured it out. You confronted him and he went into one of his delusional states, got violent. You had no choice but to stick him in the chest. Self-defense. I could see that. As threatening as he could be with a total stranger, imagine what he was like with a close relative.”

“If I was a mind,” Lorna said, eyes wet and glaring, “which I was not, I would have just shot him in the head.” 

Doc Myrtle motioned from the door. “Okay, Lorna. She’s ready. I’d suggest you get her home and give her a gentle bath.” The doctor lowered her voice. “I gave a cursory look just to be thorough. There were no signs of sexual trauma.” She paused, waiting for the mother’s reactionary gasp to resolve. “I’m sure she’s okay there. Just keep an eye when you bathe her. And let me know if she says anything. Anything at all.”

“She repeated ‘glass castle dreaming’ several times after I found her,” I said.

Vicky scoffed.

Lorna entered the exam room to get her youngest daughter. Vicky followed.

Maybe Deputy Spiesz’s strange benefactor cared what happened to Aidan. I needed to find him.