“Have you found out anything yet?” Cora asked hopefully. “Anything that might point to Alfred?”
Sheriff Williams shook his head somberly. “I wish I had better news. Me and Deputy Lawrence went digging through the rubble this morning, but we found nothing. Alfred is a smart man. He knew how to cover his tracks.”
Roy placed his fork down, leaving half of his plate of food untouched. He held an inward gaze, his lips pressed together, and his eyebrows knitted, and Cora could tell that he was still wrestling with so much hurt.
Cora collapsed into a chair at the table and placed her head in her hands. “I can’t help but think this is my fault. He’s doing this all because I said I won’t marry him.”
Sheriff Williams shook his head and sighed. “No, Cora, if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I’m the one who brought this man into our lives because I was too blinded by the prospects of his wealth to see what a horrible person he is.”
“No,” Roy said sharply. “I won’t let you either of you blame yourselves. The only person that should be to blame here is the Mills family. They are rotten and corrupt, but good at making themselves presentable to the rest of society. Trust me, that’s my childhood school days in a nutshell.” Roy added the last part bitterly, and Cora could tell that behind his eyes, there were stories to tell of the times he and Alfred were in school together. She knew he would tell her one day, but right now it was too soon.
“Roy is right,” Sheriff Williams said. “We have to focus on the positives of this situation. First and foremost, no one was hurt. That’s the biggest blessing. The only thing that was destroyed was a physical building, something material, and that can be replaced. We will make sure we rebuild it in a way that would have made your father proud.”
“We’ll gather the entire community together,” Cora said with all the enthusiasm she could summon. “We’ll make it a huge event. That will show Alfred and his awful mother.”
“Thank you, both of you,” Roy said, his voice slightly quivering. Cora could tell that behind all of his pain, he was genuinely grateful for the support of her and her father.
Sheriff Williams stood up to leave, picking up his hat and squeezing Roy’s shoulder on the way out. “Everything is going to be okay. Let’s just keep our minds focused on the positives.”
After he left, Cora and Roy sat in contemplative silence for a few moments finishing the last of their breakfast.
“I guess I better finish packing up this house.” Roy sighed, standing up from the table and clearing his breakfast plate.
Cora looked around the room, taking in the bittersweet memories of the days she had spent here at the end of Pastor Burns’ life, keeping the home tidy and making sure that he was comfortable. It didn’t feel like it had only been less than a month since she stood at the pastor’s bedside as he breathed his last.
Roy must have noticed the sad look in Cora’s eyes. He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “I know, it’s hard for me, too. This was the home where I grew up, and I’m finding that I actually have more good memories here than bad when I really think about it. But this sale gets us one step closer to our new ranch home.”
Cora’s heart fluttered at the word ‘our.’ She still couldn’t believe that she was blessed to be able to marry Roy. And to think that was the last thing on her mind when she first met Roy in Wheats Ridge. She wasn’t there looking for a husband, only to fulfill a promise to Pastor Burns. She had arrived with her guard up, so many preconceived notions about who Roy was already in place. The last thing she expected to happen was to uncover his true heart and, in doing so, fall in love with him.
God most certainly had a sense of humor.
Cora and Roy got to work packing up the house. They were working on the kitchen items, as Roy had already taken care of most of his father’s things, sorting the sentimental items into a box labeled ‘to-keep.’ Cora smiled when she noticed the blue button-up shirt that belonged to Pastor Burns, the one that Roy had worn on one of his first mornings back in Lakewood, when Cora was already in the kitchen before he awoke. She was happy that he had deemed that item sentimental.
Cora went through the box of items to be sent to the secondhand store and pulled out one of the white shirts that Pastor Burns would wear during Sunday Service. She stashed it carefully in the box of sentimental items, thinking that she would purchase some stuffing and use the fabric to make a pillow or perhaps a stuffed bear for their future children. A memento of their grandfather in Heaven. Cora noticed Roy watching her out of the corner of his eye with a fond smile as she placed the shirt in the box.
“Be careful with that coffee cup, and the saucer,” Roy said as they continued packing kitchen items, gingerly taking it from her hand and wrapping them both in extra cloth. “This one is special, and I want to make sure it doesn’t get damaged in the move.”
Cora cocked her head to the side, both confused and slightly amused. “What’s special about this one? I didn’t know you took interest in Victorian patterns.”
Roy smiled and Cora and leaned across the box, kissing her sweetly and softly on the lips. “This is the cup from the very first time you made me coffee,” he said as he pulled away.
Cora’s eyes grew wide as the memory surfaced. “Roy Burns, I never took you to be such a sentimental fellow!”
“I guess there is a lot you don’t know about me,” Roy said, dusting off his pants and standing up from where he was kneeling on the floor. He offered a hand to Cora, who took it and also stood to her feet. “We have a lifetime to learn more about each other, don’t we?”
Cora’s heart fluttered, and she found she had to distract herself with more packing lest she allow herself to get too carried away in her emotions. Roy and Cora worked side by side for the next several hours until everything was packed in appropriately labeled boxes.
The only thing left was the large furniture items, which would be moved by the wagon when Roy was ready to move into the house at the ranch. Now that it was near suppertime, they decided to head back to her father’s house, who would likely be home from work by now, and find out if he had any new information about the fire. They made their way over to Iggy and the wagon for the ride over when a thought suddenly dawned on Cora.
“What about Iggy? Won’t you have to take him back to Wheats Ridge?” The thought made Cora sad. She had grown to love Iggy like he was more than just a workhorse but a faithful pet, and she sensed that Roy felt the same way.
“I actually have a great news about that,” Roy said, smiling broadly. “I talked to my boss back in Wheats Ridge and told him everything, including the purchase of the ranch. He told me he was proud of me, that I was the most trustworthy and hardworking ranch hand he’d had over the course of those five years, and he wanted to offer a token of his appreciation. He offered a steal of a deal on Iggy and the wagon. After the sale of the house combined with the savings my father left me, I’ll have just enough.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Cora exclaimed, brushing Iggy’s muzzle affectionately. Everything seemed to be falling so perfectly in place.
That weightless feeling that everything was working so beautifully, so according to God’s perfect plan, stayed with her throughout the ride home, so much so that she momentarily forgot that she was coming home to ask her father if he had any updates on Alfred Mills.
The blood on the floor was the first thing she saw when she burst through the front door. She had no real reaction to it at first—it was so out of place, such an unusual sight, that her brain was taking longer than usual to make sense of it. Then her eyes traveled just a few inches to the right of the pool of dark liquid, to her father’s unmoving body with the bullet hole in the upper right quadrant of his chest.
