Cooper was already snatching up his coat, his pulse speeding up. “Yeah. I’m on my way.”
“Okay, I’ll call them off.”
Cooper wondered if Emma was at work, and then learned as soon as he got there that yes, she was, and it was she who’d become the most upset by the homeless man. Theo was attempting to calm Emma down as Cooper entered the store. Emma was seated behind the counter, staring off trancelike.
“She’s been this way since he left,” Theo said. She gave Cooper the eye and inclined her head toward the door. Cooper understood that she wanted to talk to him alone.
“Where did he go?” Cooper asked.
“He should go to hell, where he came from,” Emma suddenly blurted out, causing Theo to jump. “That’s what Mom says.”
“Are you okay?” Theo asked her.
She nodded slowly. “I’m okay.”
Theo turned back to Cooper. “He turned right. He might be heading for the bus stop.” She had a hand resting lightly on Emma’s shoulder. “He’s been here before . . . um . . . he’s okay.”
“He’s not okay!” Emma argued back.
“What kind of weapon was he carrying?” Cooper asked.
“A knife.” Emma suddenly covered her eyes with her hands.
“A table knife,” Theo added. She looked at Cooper beseechingly. Clearly, there was more going on here that Theo wanted him to know, but not in front of Emma.
“I should go and see if I can find him,” he said slowly, his eyes on Theo.
She nodded. “He’s probably okay now,” she said.
“He smells bad,” Emma stated flatly.
“How often does he show up here?” asked Cooper.
“Too often!” declared Emma.
“It was kind of whenever Deke was in the area, but more so recently,” Theo said. Her gaze was on Emma.
“Since Mom died,” Emma stated flatly.
Theo’s brows lifted. “I guess that’s true.”
“His name’s Deke?” Cooper asked.
“I don’t know his last name. He thinks of himself as Emma’s . . . friend.”
“He’s not a friend!” Emma dropped her hands and glared at the room at large.
“I just said that’s what he thinks, hon,” said Theo.
“I’ll take care of it,” said Cooper. He pulled out a business card and handed it to her.
He left them a few moments later, and he was barely thirty feet away when Theo came rushing out of the Thrift Shop’s front door and called to him. Cooper reversed his steps until he was near enough that she could speak softly.
“Deke isn’t really threatening, usually. He’s just very interested in Emma, but it’s more like protection, if you know what I mean? He wants to be near her, but he stands too close. Emma can’t see it for what it is. She gets nervous and sometimes calls 9-1-1 before I can intervene.”
“Got it.”
“But this time was a little different. She yelled at him, which she never does. She usually ignores him. But this time she said, ‘My sister’s here and I have a dog.’ I think she was calling him off, maybe? Telling him to leave her alone.”
“Okay.”
“He went that way.” She pointed. “Thank you,” she added, and then, “And well, yes, he does have body odor.”
Cooper drove his Explorer past the bus stop and saw a man in rumpled, stained clothing seated on the bench. No one else would get near him. The others stood in a group about ten feet away. Cooper parked in the Park and Ride lot and sauntered over just as the bus appeared. Cooper saw it was on a route that went into River Glen proper and beyond. Everyone boarded but the guy on the bench. As Cooper grew closer, he could smell the ripe scent coming off the man. He stopped a few feet away. The man looked over at him. He had piercing blue eyes in a dirty face. Even from where he stood, Cooper could also smell the alcohol fumes. The man was dead drunk.
“What choo want?” he asked Cooper.
“Is your name Deke?”
“Sure is.” He smirked. “Deke’s my name. Drinkin’s my game.”
“Deke, you were just at Theo’s Thrift Shop and you scared a woman there.”
“Who? Emma? No. No, no, no. Emma knows me.”
“You had a knife with you?”
He reached in his pocket and Cooper tensed, but sure enough, he pulled out a table knife. “It’s mine,” he said, sounding like he was warning Cooper should he attempt to take it away.
“Deke, it scared Emma.”
“Nope.” He wouldn’t accept that. “I just have to protect her. That’s my job. That’s my duty.”
“Well, maybe you should leave the knife at home next time.”
“Gotta protect myself, too.”
“Where do you live, Deke?”
“Here and there.”
“River Glen?”
He squinted up at Cooper.
“I saw the bus was heading that way,” Cooper explained.
“Used to live there. Used to work there. Now I don’t do neither.”
“How do you know Emma? From the Thrift Shop?”
He shook his head.
Cooper gauged Deke’s age to be somewhere in his fifties. “How’d you meet her?”
He waggled a finger at Cooper. “If I told ya, I’d have to kill ya.” He cackled again, then broke into a coughing fit that doubled him over.
“You okay?” Cooper asked.
Deke nodded, and once he’d got himself under control, pointed his finger at Cooper. “Real sorry about what happened to her. I look out fer her now. Someone has to. She knows that.”
“I’m not sure she does. Like I said, you scared her.” When Deke just shook his head, he asked, “So, you know about what happened to her? Twenty years ago?”
“She got hurt.”
“Yes, someone hurt her. Back a long time ago.”
“He never got over her,” he said.
“Who never got over her?” Cooper asked quickly.
Deke looked up at him blearily. “You got any spare change?”
Cooper shook his head. It was a likely scenario that Deke would be drinking any money that came his way. “Who never got over her?” he repeated.
“I dunno, mister.” Deke looked around a bit nervously.
“Who did you mean?” Cooper pressed. “Someone from her past? You know, we’ve always
