Mary seemed almost to shake herself. “No, of course not. Just upset that they haven’t solved this.”
Left to their own devices in front of stacks of knitted watch caps and ski masks, they each selected one of both. Anything that blocked vision or hearing was off the table, so they skipped the earmuffs even though Cade thought DeeJay eyed them with longing. Then she did something that made absolutely no sense to him.
She bought a touristy bright blue hoodie with the outline of mountains stamped on it and the words Where The Mountains Never End on the back.
He didn’t say a word, though, until they’d paid and were outside.
“A hoodie? What good will that do you?” he asked while he pawed in his bag for the ski mask he’d just bought. Mary had been kind enough to clip the tags off.
“That house gets drafty,” she answered. “Besides, Mary was nice and I wanted to make her feel as if we enjoyed the visit to the store.”
“Didn’t we?”
“Not by half,” she said, pulling her own ski mask on and tugging her jacket hood up. “So people are bad-mouthing Gage Dalton.”
“Don’t they always when the cops haven’t solved the crime yet?”
“Do they? Probably. Maybe they just never said it to my face.”
“A lot of people wouldn’t want to say anything critical to your face,” he remarked with amusement. He was sure he hadn’t been the only one treated to her thorns.
She faced him. “You got something to say to me, Bankston?”
He sighed. His breath came out in a white cloud. “I was joshing.” Partly. But damned if he was going to argue with her on the street. “I thought we had a truce. Remind me that one of the terms of armistice is to tiptoe.”
She looked away from him for a moment, then said, “Sorry. This whole situation is...well, it’s not what I’m used to. I seem to need a whole new set of coping skills.”
“You’re not the only one,” he admitted. “I’ve never dealt with a serial killer before. Wyoming doesn’t seem to be the most popular destination for them.”
“Given this cold? I wonder anyone comes here.”
“You want to look around more or head back? If you’re getting hungry, then we should head back. Baking potatoes takes a while.”
She turned in a slow circle, surveying the storefronts, the sheriff’s office just down the darkened street, the courthouse, the church even farther down. The town appeared dead. “Things like this shouldn’t happen in a place like this. And if you tell anyone I said something that stupid, you’ll pay.”
Truth was, though, he kind of knew what she meant. “Big cities, sprawling suburbs,” he agreed. “Although there was that guy in Appalachia...”
“Don’t remind me,” she said, but sounded down.
“Time for food,” he judged. “This cold sucks the energy right out.”
“It just plain sucks,” she said bluntly.
He laughed for the next half block until they reached their car.