Page 125 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

“Is there anything else you want to discuss today?”

He shook his head and stood from his chair to look at some of the photos on the wall.

I was just about to tell him a funny story about the picture in which me and some of the kids were wearing togas when a knock sounded at the office door.

Porter Hannagan, one of the sheriff’s deputies, was standing at the door. He was in a uniform of jeans and a dark brown shirt with his badge and gun hooked to his belt.

“Hey, Porter.” I stood and went over to greet him. “How are you?”

The two of us had gone to high school together. He was a year older than me and had left to go to the police academy after graduation. We didn’t see each other much, but I always waved when I saw him in his patrol car along the highway.

“I’m good, Willa. I saw your car here on my way to the station.”

“Is everything okay?” The worry lines on his forehead had my heart pounding. My thoughts immediately went to Jackson and my parents, hoping they were all right.

Before he could answer, Logan stepped up to my side, his hand extended to Porter. “Hello, Deputy Hannagan.”

“Porter, please.” Porter shook his hand. “Good to see you, Mr. Kendrick.”

“It’s Logan,” he corrected. “So what brings you here?”

Porter’s eyes shifted down to me. He had such kind eyes, but even though they were gentle, the look in them sent every worst-case scenario running through my head. Was it a car crash? Had Mom gotten hurt at home? Was there an emergency at the school?

He spoke before I could ask. “I’m breaking protocol by being here, but Jackson asked me to personally come down and tell you. He didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”

My arms began shaking and I wrapped them around my stomach. “What happened?”

He took a deep breath. “Sheriff Magee arrested Jackson about an hour ago.”

“What?” My jaw dropped. “That’s impossible. Jackson is in Kalispell, getting my car cleaned.”

“No, he’s not. Sheriff found him at the bar and brought him into the station. Like I said, he could have called you, but he asked me to come down.”

“Why? Why was he arrested?”

Porter took another long breath. “He’s the primary suspect in a murder.”

My legs turned to jelly and I nearly fell over. I would have if not for Logan grabbing my elbow to steady me.

“This has to be a mistake,” I said. “It’s a mistake.”

“Who is he accused of killing?” Logan asked.

Porter’s eyes reluctantly came to mine. “His mother.”

“It’s three,” Mom said after checking her watch. “Ryder will be getting out of school before long. One of us should be there when he gets home.”

I nodded. “Would you mind going to Jackson’s? I don’t want to leave.”

“Of course.” She gathered up her purse and coat from a chair in the sheriff’s station’s waiting room. I’d called her on the drive down here from the camp because for situations like this, I still needed my mom. “Call me if you hear anything.”

I nodded again and dug Jackson’s truck keys from my puffer coat. His truck was in the parking lot next to Logan’s SUV. My car was parked at the bar because he’d been brought to the sheriff’s station in the back of a cop car like a criminal.

My mouth flooded with saliva and I swallowed it down. The nausea took a second to go away, but it would be back. Every time I thought of Jackson in a jail cell, I fought the urge to puke.

I was desperate for information but we’d been sitting here for hours and no one had told us a thing.

With tears in my eyes, I took Jackson’s house key off the chain and handed it over to Mom. “It’s for the side garage door.”