“I realize Mitch was your cousin,” I said. I hoped he didn’t expect an apology or remorse because he wouldn’t get that from me. Not about Mitch Rigsby.
“It’s not that. He and his brothers are all assholes. Always have been. I half-expected one of them to get killed in a bar fight one of these days. On a mountainside is at least more creative. But this is a whole new layer of complications I didn’t want to deal with. Fuck,” he muttered again.
Then he resumed the drive.
“Doesn’t seem like you get along well with the rest of your family,” I said.
“I told you that the other day when you came to my office.”
“More or less. But you didn’t explain why.”
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “I told you Sawyer Junior and Dale are my uncles, along with Gary, who died. And that my mom was their sister.”
“I remember.”
“The extended Rigsby family didn’t approve of my dad. He was the second son of a rancher. No money whatsoever. My mom got pregnant with me, and they married. Her brothers helped some, Sawyer and Gary especially. But they didn’t go out of their way. Didn’t disown her or anything like that, but everybody knew that my dad was second class around here. So I’ve always been on the outside compared to the favored Rigsby boys. Which is fine with me, by the way. I wouldn’t change anything.”
We’d been driving on smaller roads for a while now. Stretches of Hartley I’d never seen. We’d long since left the town proper behind.
“Are your parents still around Hartley?” I’d noted his use of the past tense, but I didn’t want to presume.
“My mom died of cervical cancer. Probably would’ve been okay if they’d caught it earlier, but they didn’t. Then my dad passed a year later. He had a stroke. People around Hartley say he died of a broken heart.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Owen nodded. “I was in college at the time, and I took it really hard. I know how it sounds, but my mom and dad had been my best friends. They’d been so in love. The kind that embarrassed me as a teenager because of how they were always kissing and touching each other. The kind of love that’s unattainable for regular folks.” He blinked at the windshield. “After they died, I decided to join the Marines.”
A new life far away. I could understand.
“Army,” I said, gesturing at myself.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
I cracked a smile, and then he did too.
We talked for a few minutes about our military service. Sounded like Owen’s had been more illustrious than mine. Even if he’d been a jarhead.
“Finally, I was ready to come home,” he said. “The previous sheriff of Hartley was a friend of my parents, and he hired me as a deputy. Chose me as his successor, even though I was young. And here I am. Doing my best to manage a county that’s got far more acres than it does people, and with only four deputies out on patrol.”
“A fact I’m sure Dale is counting on.”
“Dale? Do you think he’s involved with this?”
I recounted the full conversation I’d overheard between Dale and Chester a couple of nights ago.
“I don’t like this,” Owen said. “Not at all. But it doesn’t surprise me that Chester and Mitch would go around making noise and getting into trouble at the worst possible time. My uncle Dale is smart. Like a rat who waits until you’re asleep to sneak out and forage. But his sons have never had that much sense. Back in high school, they were the ones drag racing down Main Street or egging the teachers’ houses.”
“But what about Jeremy? He didn’t grow up here, did he?”
“He didn’t, no. He was out in the Springs. But even so, he was still Hartley royalty whenever he came to visit. Because of his dad in the Air Force. Gary was my favorite uncle. He made my parents and me feel welcome. But Jeremy was young when his father died. Even though he stayed out in the Springs with his mom, the rest of the Rigsbys influenced him too much. And now he’s back in town. I have to believe that he’s got a role in this mess, too. Whatever it really is.”
I propped my elbow against the passenger door. “Honestly, I don’t care what they’re up to. I care if it’s going to hurt Jessi.”
“Why? You barely know her.”
I bristled at that comment more than I should’ve. He had a point. “Because Jessi has nothing to do with it. It’s Jeremy and Chester and his brothers who’ve brought her into it.”
Owen gave me a side-eye glare. “Well, I care what they’re doing, regardless of how it impacts Jessi Novo. This is my town.Mycounty. It’s all well and good that you want to stick up for Jessi while you’re here. But my job is bigger than that.”
