Free The Perfect Outsider by Loreth Anne White Page A

and Samuel needed to quell the fire, make an example of Lacy and her twins, fast.
    This was why he’d summoned Rufus to his office.
    Before she’d vanished, Lacy had written some words on a notepad in the coffee shop and then ripped off the page. However, the imprint of her words had remained on the pad. They’d read: “Black rock sentinel, west flank @ 7:00 p.m.”
    Police Chief Bo Fargo’s men had found the notepad, and Fargo had reported the find to Samuel.
    He cut right to the point. “Are you sure your men were waiting at the right location?”
    The smile on Rufus’s face faded.
    “It’s the only big black rock on the west flank that could be called a sentinel. Lacy never arrived. My men found her around 1:00 a.m. She was screaming at a stranger in the woods but fled as my guys approached. The stranger fired on my guys. One of his bullets hit Jason Barnes in the neck. Lumpy Smithers returned fire. He thinks he hit him because he fell down into a ravine.”
    “ Thinks he hit him?”
    Rufus remained silent.
    Samuel smiled benignly. “Did they look for him?”
    “Lumpy made the decision to bring Jason into the hospital right away—he was hurt bad.”
    Samuel inhaled, slowly. “I presume they got a good look at this stranger’s face?”
    “No, they did not—”
    “What do you mean?”
    Rufus moistened his lips.
    “It was dark, raining,” he said. “The situation was fluid. Lumpy returned to the site where the man had gone down the ravine, but there was no one there.”
    “So the Matthews woman escaped, and so did this unidentified stranger?”
    Rufus cleared his throat. “We do have his backpack—he dropped it.”
    “Any ID in it?”
    “No.” Rufus eyed the water on Samuel’s desk. “The pack contained food, maps, survival blanket, tent, sleeping bag—he appears to have been on an extended hike through the wilderness. But no ID.”
    Samuel opened the bottle of water on his desk as he spoke, poured a glass, then sipped without offering any to Rufus. “The priority was to get the woman and her twins, not Jason Barnes,” he said calmly.
    Rufus met his gaze. “Jason’s condition was critical.”
    “Damn!” Samuel slammed his glass down. “Jason’s not likely going to make it out of ICU, anyway. He’s going to die, and the woman got away! Get back out there, find her!”
    “We’re looking. One of the kids’ shoes was found on the east flank of the mountain,” said Rufus. “We have police and SAR crews combing that area.”
    “The rock sentinel is on the west flank, and you said your men saw her on that west flank at 1:00 a.m. How do you explain the kid’s shoe on the east side?”
    “Maybe she fled in that direction.”
    “Get back out onto the west side with a search party of your own. I want that woman, and I want that stranger. Dead or alive. And keep it quiet that you’re looking on that side, understand?”
    “Yes, sir.” Mayor Rufus Kittridge did not look a happy man.
    “And what about Molly Rigg? What happened to our damn mole!”
    Rufus smoothed his hand over his hair. “We’re still waiting for contact.”
    Samuel abruptly turned his back on Rufus and stared out the window. It was the mayor’s cue to leave.
    But as Rufus reached the thick oak door, Samuel said suddenly, “Who found the red shoe on the east flank?”
    “June Farrow and her K9.”
    He did not turn around to face the mayor. “Is she there with the search party now?”
    “I would assume so.”
    Rufus Kittridge exited and closed the door quietly behind him.
    Samuel stared into the street. Smiling people walked the sidewalk, greeting each other with respectability. They were his people, it was his town, and it was a clean one—nothing like it had been five years ago before he’d run the drunks and cowboys out.
    These people had a lot to thank him for, and he was not going to see a group of renegades taking him down. He made a mental note to ask Fargo about June Farrow and the red shoe.
    June attended