BIG SKY SECRETS 03: End Game by Roxanne Rustand Page A

Nelson.”
    “I’ll never forget how he bungled the investigation of Laura’s murder. If he’d acted faster, maybe she would’ve been found in time—before that monster killed her. I only hope she didn’t suffer too much.”
    Megan had seen the original reports, and Laura hadn’t ever had a chance. But those terrible details were something she would never repeat to her cousin.
    “The sheriff didn’t even start looking for her for three days, insisting she was just a runaway. Yet just the month before, he’d been given information about a known pedophile who’d moved into the area and he didn’t follow up. Apparently—” Megan tried to quell the bitterness rising in her voice. “He misplaced the report. He was probably busy hitting the booze or focusing on one of his wild kids. They were always getting kicked out of school.”
    “I remember. Kenny, Bobby and…” Erin frowned. “Randy…Rick…”
    “Rex. Apparently Nelson wasn’t too effective as a dad, either, because those kids were in constant trouble.”
     
    “Rex nearly died in that big meth lab explosion up at Copper Creek, didn’t he?”
    “Yep. But I’ve researched everything that happened around the time of Laura’s death, and there’s absolutely nothing about it in the files. Nelson apparently destroyed the records and the evidence to protect his son. It would’ve been easier back then because the records weren’t computerized.”
    “It was a good day for the county when Nelson lost the next election for sheriff and they all moved away.” Erin smiled sadly. “And maybe it gave the family a good fresh start somewhere else. I hope so.”
    “I hope so, too. I never heard another word about them after that, so they must have been fine. But Nelson was still my biggest motivation for going into law enforcement. I wanted to make sure that kind of incompetence never happened again. Not on my watch, at least.”
    A brief memory flashed through Megan’s thoughts, of a warm, sunny day when she’d been in town all those years ago. The Nelsons had been driving out of town in a minivan, their faces grim. Rex, his face still ruddy with healing burns, had looked out the window. Though he was an older boy and she’d barely known him, she waved goodbye. He’d just scowled in return and mouthed some words she couldn’t hear.
    Probably just as well.
    “My biggest fear is that you’ll take too many chances and get hurt somehow. There are just too many crazy people out there.” She rested a hand on Megan’s forearm and squeezed tight. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
    Megan grimaced. “I keep hearing that from people these days.”
    From somewhere outside, a young boy started calling Erin’s name in a high, excited voice.
    “I think you’re being paged.”
    Erin rolled her eyes, though the affection in her gaze was obvious. “Three guesses on what Max found.”
    Now Megan could see a young boy zigzagging through the crowd at a run, with Erin’s fiancé in hot pursuit. “Erin! I found my kitty. Come quick! Erin!”
    “You’d better go, future stepmom. I’ll catch up with you later.”
    The sparkle in Erin’s eyes matched the one on her left hand. “Don’t forget—it’ll be a small ceremony out at the lake, end of July. And I definitely want you in the wedding, if you’re free.”
    “Absolutely.” Megan watched her cousin step out into the rain to catch up with the eager child and Jack.
    Erin bent down to give Max a hug, and then they all walked hand in hand toward the barn on the hill, Jack’s arm draped around Erin’s shoulders.
    A family in the making.
    Exactly what Erin had wanted, and Kris, too, back when they were all kids, playing house in the little cottage behind Grandma Millie’s General Store out at the lake. It even looked like Kris was on the way to her own happy ending, too, which made Megan’s heart expand with quiet joy for both of them.
    Please, Lord, watch over them…bring them the happiness that