She slipped out of the bar into the evening air. Temperatures were already dropping, especially at night. Folding her arms across her chest, she walked briskly up the street just a little way from the bar’s entrance to try to stay warm. She didn’t plan to go far.
This was a town where most of the locals hunted and fished. They owned guns. Now that one of their own had been most likely murdered and word had gone out from the sheriff’s department to be on the lookout for someone in scuba gear, it hadn’t stopped anyone from fishing. Instead, they were fishing in pairs, and all were packing guns and looking for the killer.
She hadn’t gone halfway down the block when Jason Briggs, Bale’s friend, came up behind her. “You shouldn’t be out here alone, Stella. It isn’t safe.”
She whirled around at the sound of his voice. Of all of Bale’s friends, she knew Jason the least. He rarely said much, particularly when he was with his friends. He stayed in the background. He’d gone to college with the others, was an engineer and liked the Sierras enough to want to stay. He was a strong climber, one of the main reasons he relocated to the area.
“It can get stuffy in the bar. Tonight the rescue crew is talking about finding James Marley. It makes me feel so sad for him and his family.”
Ominous gray clouds towered toward the moon, stacking up in formations blocking out the stars. The weather was definitely changing. Winter was coming with a vengeance.
“I didn’t know him. Bale and Edward did. They said he was a pretty cool guy most of the time. Edward and he had a few words a couple of months ago, but that was over his daughter’s mouth. Apparently, she didn’t like something Edward and Sean were talking about in the parking lot of the hardware store. She overheard them and told them to be quiet. Something to that effect. They told her to go fuck herself, that she had no right telling them what they could or couldn’t say in a public place. The exchange got heated and they left. They thought it was over, but she ran to her daddy and he was really pissed.”
Stella couldn’t tell if he was relaying the incident the way it really happened, or the way he heard it happened. She didn’t like Sean or Bale, so in her mind, they were always at fault. Just because she didn’t like them didn’t mean they were always the ones in the wrong. If they were having a private conversation outside and James Marley’s daughter overheard it, she really didn’t have the right to ask them to stop talking.
“That’s too bad that they would have a bad experience with him when James was such a good man as a rule. He was fiercely protective over his family, and they were the same about him. I just can’t understand any of this.” That much was true. She couldn’t.
“People don’t always make sense,” Jason said. “I hope it really was an accident and no one murdered him.”
Music suddenly blared louder as someone opened the door of the Grill and allowed the sound to escape. Sam moved toward them in that easy way he had that made him look like a menacing jungle cat.
Jason glanced toward the bar and then leaned into her, but kept his eyes on Sam and his voice a whisper. “Tell Shabina to stop going out into the forest by herself looking for birds. Not a good idea right now.” He walked briskly away, continuing on down the block as if he’d been walking all along and had never stopped.
Stella stared after him, her heart pounding, her mouth suddenly dry. Shabina was an avid bird watcher and she did go into the forest, hiking the trails, looking for various rare birds and their nests. It wasn’t like she advertised she was a bird enthusiast. She was very quiet about it. Someone was watching Shabina’s movements closely. Sean? Most likely. Jason would know. Sean seemed obsessed and not in a good way, if there was such a thing. Things were getting more and more complicated. What had happened to her peaceful town?
“You forgot your jacket, Stella,” Sam said as he held out her coat, expecting her to slip her arms into it.
Sam never seemed like the gentlemanly type, so the unexpected gestures always moved her. She let him bundle her up, not realizing how cold she was until she was zipped in her jacket. He handed her the gloves that had been in the pockets of her coat. Again, he waited for her to speak, letting her decide what she wanted to tell him, but his gaze followed Jason as he went down the street.
Sam wasn’t the only one watching Jason. She noticed that Denver had come out of the bar as well, presumably to check up on her. He stood leaning on the corner of the building, head turned in the direction Jason had gone. She moved closer to Sam, turning her face up toward his to tell him what Jason had said, when a sudden chill crept down her spine.