Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,57

never saw anyone around. She felt perfectly safe just peeking in the windows to make sure that inside the cabins were in the same condition they’d been when she’d last seen them.

“No thanks, I’ll be fine. But if I’m not back in fifteen or twenty minutes, call the Sheriff,” she said jokingly.

As she stepped out into the frigid air she could smell the snow and thought she felt a couple of flakes on her face. The forecasters all indicated an early, harsh winter, which was bad for business. When the snow fell and travel was difficult, people stayed home to eat rather than venturing out.

She’d weathered many tough winters before and, God willing, she’d live to survive another. Hopefully Cameron and his team would keep everyone in town safe through the long, hard season. At least they’d had a busy breakfast and lunch so far that day because if the weathermen got it right, and the snow moved in for real, their dinner crowd wouldn’t amount to anything.

The cabins weren’t far from the back of the café and she had no creepy-crawling feeling that she was being watched or shadowed.

The cabins were set up like studio apartments, with a small kitchenette and a bathroom and one medium-sized room that served as both living room and bedroom.

Although each had its own key, Mary had never kept the empty cabins locked. There was nothing in there to steal, and while she didn’t mind somebody in need squatting there for a night or two, she needed to know if that was the case.

As she approached the first one the only thing she felt was sadness, for the first cabin was where Candy had been killed.

She peered through the window and saw the remnants of the crime-scene investigation that had taken place. Fingerprint dust still lingered on the few pieces of furniture that had been moved out of place as the deputies had sought clues. The bed was missing the top mattress and the whole cabin interior spoke of loss.

Candy’s family had come and picked up her personal items, so nothing of the young girl remained, only the scene of the crime.

Mary tried to tell herself that she wasn’t responsible for Candy’s death, that even if it was Jason behind the murders they could have happened to anybody in any town where Jason might have found her. But that didn’t stop Mary’s heart from filling with sadness.

In order to keep Jason from torturing her by hurting those she loved, she would have had to stay on the road, moving from place to place for the rest of her life, and that wouldn’t have been possible with Matt in tow.

Matt had needed a town, a place to call home. He’d needed stability and normalcy and he’d had that for the past eight years. She hoped he continued to have that and she prayed that nobody else would have to die, that Cameron and his deputies would find the guilty party and put him away for the rest of his life.

As she walked the short distance to the second cabin, the sky gave up more of its moisture and snowflakes began to fall in earnest, fat flakes from the steel sky.

She figured she’d take a quick peek into the windows of the other two empty cabins and then get back into the warmth and comfort of the café. With the snow band already moving in, the dinner rush would definitely be small.

When she got back inside she’d call Lynette and Ginger and tell them they could have the night off. There was no point running at full staff capacity if the crowd was going to be unusually small and by the look of the sky overhead things were only going to quickly deteriorate.

According to the weathermen they were expecting three to six inches of the white stuff between this afternoon and morning. If the forecast came true then tomorrow would be a slow day, as well. Hopefully with it being such an early snowfall it wouldn’t stick around too long and there would still be some nice days left in the month.

She reached the second cabin and frowned as she realized black curtains were drawn tightly closed across the windows. The cabins didn’t come with curtains...so who would have hung them here and drawn them completely shut?

Leaning close to the front door she placed her ear against the wood, but heard no movement inside, nothing to indicate that anyone was there. She remained that way for