Heartstealer (Women of Character3 (17 page)

She felt a sick welling in her
stomach. "I know I asked for it, but I don’t have to like the
truth."

He came back to her and grabbed her
by the arms. "Do you know why anyone would want to harm you?" Anger
and concern laced his voice. The line of his brow was pulled into a frown.
"Because I think that's what's happening here. We think...and we don't
know for sure, that your horse was given a shot of something. That's why he
flipped out. Then there's the gas leak in the cabin."

"You keep coming back to
that."

"Dammit, it can’t be
ignored! Maybe someone wanted to hurt you. I've notified the sheriff's office.
They're coming today to talk to you."

She pulled back. "Wait a
second. If someone is trying to hurt me I sure as heck don't know why. How do
we know the gas wasn’t an accident after all?"

"That place had been
thoroughly checked out."

"James told me a fitting or
something had worked its way loose on the stove."

"It had. I didn't voice my
suspicions right away because I might have been reading something into this
that wasn't there. I didn't want to frighten you."

"Well, you're doing a pretty
good job of it right now."

He tugged her by the hand into the
tack room and closed the door. He lowered his voice. "Listen, Jacie, I
don't want to believe this either, but with this last incident, it's past that
point. We've got to find out what's going on." With a gesture of
frustration he pulled his hat off and pushed the hair off his forehead.
"This isn't coincidence, not three separate incidents."

"Three!" she said in
outrage.

"That day at the
waterfall...your first week here. Donny and I combed the upper stream. There
was no reason for that rock to come over the falls. We found a spot where it
looked like a rock could have been pried loose from the muddy bottom. It takes
a pretty good current to move something that size. Do you remember seeing
anyone around that day?"

"Other than the regular
guests, no, but then I wasn't looking for anybody lurking in the woods.
You’re convinced that was deliberate, too?" She couldn’t
prevent the fear that raced through her.

"Of course I'm not sure, but I
want to cover all possibilities. I can’t let these questions go unasked.
When we got back yesterday from the campout one of the housekeeping girls told
me she had gone to clean the unoccupied cabin. Someone had been staying there.
She found empty food wrappers."

"There could be a reasonable
explanation."

"I'll concede that maybe the
piece of ledge that fell was coincidental. We had had a lot of rain the week
before; it's possible it worked its way loose. Maybe even the gas leak could be
explained...but not Dandy's behavior. I've had that horse six years and I've
never seen him act like that. I sure as hell wouldn’t let anyone ride him
if I had the least suspicion he’d blow up."

"There's no motive."

"There has to be."

"What would be the gain? Why
is this happening?"

"I’m hoping you could
clue me in."

"I haven't got
anything..." she let her voice trail off.

Sloan narrowed his eyes.
"What?"

She shook her head vehemently.
"No! You're making me paranoid." She turned away. "If something
happened to me, anything I have would go to my family." Impatiently, she
pulled open the tack room door and exited the room, emotion bursting inside
her.

"I'm not accusing anyone in
your family," he called after her.

"You’d better not. It's
ridiculous and insulting." She swung around to face him.

He let out an exasperated growl and
put his fists on his hips. "Hell, I can't dismiss what happened. I have to
get to the bottom of this. I tried calling Con."

Fury raced through her. "You
called my brother?" For a moment, a feeling of helplessness washed over
her. Her family thought she would mess up again and this would further
reinforce that notion.

"Of course I did, but I
couldn’t reach him. Apparently he’s still out of the country."

With an aggravated mutter, she
turned and walked out of the barn. She felt the burning at the back of her
throat. Tears wanted to let go, but she blinked hard and kept them at bay. When
would everyone learn she could take care of her own life?

A hard hand on her elbow pulled her
around. She looked at Sloan, blinking furiously. "Do you have any idea how
this makes me feel?" she demanded. "I don't need my brother checking
up on me, and I don't need you helping him."

He released her arm as if
she’d burned him. "Now hold on, Jacie. I'm doing no such thing. I
don't know about your brother's motives, though I suspect they have something
to do with love, but I'll be damned if I'll sit around and watch you get hurt
and not do anything about it!" His voice was hard, biting at her.

She shook her head and waved her
arms. "I have to leave, I can't talk rationally about this now." She
needed time to think. She was an adult. Eventually, her family would realize
her decisions, right or wrong, were her own. She had to make her own mistakes
and face the consequences.

"Did my brother tell you to
call if I screwed up?"

He looked at her hard-eyed, his
mouth in a straight line. "No."

She turned on her heel. A dark
silhouette stepped into the barn almost in front of her. She came to a skidding
halt with an exasperated groan, stopping just short of running into a uniformed
officer.

"Sorry, miss," the
officer said, putting out a hand to steady her. "At the office they told
me Sloan was down here."

She looked at the badge pinned to
the officer’s chest. In that fraction of time Sloan moved forward and
shook hands with the officer.

"Hi Arnie, thanks for coming
by. Don't go, Jacie," he said. "This is Arnie Bryant from the
sheriff's office."

"Hello Jacie," the
officer said pleasantly, his green eyes almost on a level with her own beneath
his wide-brimmed hat. Black hair brushed his collar and his dark brown eyes
appeared sharply inquiring. "I’m Deputy Bryant. I need to ask you
some questions relating to incidents that have occurred recently at Timber
Falls."

She nodded with resignation.

Deputy Bryant looked over at Sloan.
"Is there someplace where we can sit or we can go out to my patrol
car?"

"Let’s go into the tack
room." He led the way.

She followed and the deputy brought
up the rear. She just wanted to get this over with.

Once she was seated in the lone
chair, the deputy removed his hat and took out a small notepad and pen. Sloan
leaned against the massive desk beside her.

"Now Jacie, let’s start
with closest living relatives."

"My parents are Jacie and John
Turner. I have four brothers."

"On your second day here you
had an accident while swimming?"

"Yes. A rock hit me from the
stream above."

"Did you see anyone?"

"No." She thought a moment
and took that back. "I thought I heard something. My horse looked back
toward the hill where Michelle and the other riders had gone but I didn’t
see anyone."

"That’s when the rock
hit you, just after you heard a noise that sounded out of place?"

"Yes."

"You came to Timber Falls to
give the guests skydiving lessons?"

"Yes."

"Any incidents involving those
lessons?"

"Nothing unusual. We did our
first jump without problems and there was another one scheduled but the pilot
got sick."

"The pilot was sick? Is he
okay now?" The deputy’s question seemed idle enough, but she again
took note of the sharp inquisitiveness of his eyes.

"They thought he’d eaten
something that didn’t agree with him. He’s going to resume our
flight schedule tomorrow." She glanced at Sloan.

"The next incident involved a
problem with the gas stove where you’re staying?" The deputy looked
at Sloan for confirmation.

"I opened her cabin door one
night and the gas odor hit me in the face."

"Jacie, you didn’t
notice it?" the officer asked.

"No, I have allergies and at
times it affects taste and smell."

"How long have you had
allergies?"

"I don’t know, probably
eight, nine years."

"Who knows about your
allergies?"

She looked at him helplessly and
shrugged her shoulders. "Everyone in my family, some of my friends."

"Now the last incident was
yesterday? The horse you usually ride started acting strangely?"

"Yes. Maybe he was just having
a bad day, but his behavior was pretty unusual."

"The horse was virtually
uncontrollable," Sloan put in grimly. "He was wild-eyed, then
trembling and disoriented. He’s never acted that way before."

"I saw Tim Wells as I was
driving in. Is the horse being treated?"

"Yes, Tim drew blood and
he’s sending it to be analyzed. We also found a syringe and needle when
we went on that campout where the horse acted up. Tim has that too."

"I understand you were
involved in an accident last year?"

She had no wish to rehash that incident.
"I was in South America doing a film stunt. I was hurt."

"How did that happen?"

She hesitated. "My parachute
was faulty."

"How long have you been
skydiving? Has that ever happened before?"

"About eleven years and
that’s the first time."

"Any reason to think someone
might want to harm you?" the officer asked quietly.

"None."

"If something happened to you,
who would benefit?"

That question again. Coldness crept
over her. "There’s only my family." She glared at the officer.
"As I told Sloan, there’s no way they’re involved." She
stood up. "I think this has gone on long enough. I’ve answered all
the questions and we’re no further ahead."

Deputy Bryant stood also.
"It’s understandable you’re distressed but I have one more
question."

She let out a long breath. "Go
ahead." At least it was almost over.

"Do you have anything of value
that someone might want if you were out of the picture?"

She clamped her lips together,
looked at Sloan and then back at Deputy Bryant. "No."

The deputy put his pen and notepad away.
"Thank you for your time Ms. Turner, I’m sure this has been very
difficult. We’ll be in touch." He looked at Sloan. "I’d
like to do an informal interview of each of the guests. Can we arrange
something?"

"Of course," Sloan said.

She couldn’t believe this
mess was escalating out of control.

"One more thing, Ms.
Turner," Deputy Bryant said. "I’m going to need the names of
the film crew from South America."

"That’s something
you’d have to get from Brad Carlton. He’s the film producer who
took care of the arrangements down there."

"Will you be able to give me a
number?"

Jacie wondered if they could hear
the heavy pound of her heart. She looked at Sloan and licked her lips, then
looked back at the deputy. "I might be able to get it from my friend
Bonnie."

She stared at Sloan with
bewilderment after the deputy left.

"James and I have decided to
take precautionary measures," he said. "I’m canceling the jumps
for tomorrow and maybe the day after."

"You can’t do that, it
will throw my entire schedule off."

"I am doing it," he said
in a hard voice. "I’m not taking chances with you or my
guests."

She looked at him impotently. Could
this get any worse? He was right. They couldn’t take chances.

"Do I have to start looking
over my shoulder?"

"Why are you holding
out?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Arnie asked you if you had
anything of value―I got the feeling you’re not telling us
everything."

She turned away, but he pulled her
back toward him.

"I’m trying to help you
here, help me." His voice was a demand.

"It’s not
important," she said fiercely.

"Trust me, Jacie."

She trusted him but there were
other factors involved. Reluctantly, she admitted, "When I had the
accident the film company’s insurance carrier settled money on me."

"How much?"

"Half a million," she
said reluctantly. "I think they were afraid I would sue. I didn’t
tell the deputy because I didn’t want to plant a seed of doubt about my
family!"

"The police should be made
aware."

"You can’t tell
them!" she said angrily. "I won’t have my family questioned
over this. I’ll give the money away before I’ll let that
happen."

"Cool down, Jacie.
There’s got to be something we’re missing."

"There is. It’s called a
motive. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take some pictures
before the light is lost."

She left the barns, feeling angry
and unsettled and wishing Sloan would stick to ranching instead of trying to
interfere in the job she had come here to do.

She slowed down her hard pace,
knowing that was unfair. Sloan was trying to keep her safe, that was all. She
had no reason to be angry with him.

Several hours later Jacie walked
toward the apple orchard situated behind the main lodge. The interview with the
police deputy still weighed heavily on her mind, and she had almost forgotten
about the barbecue tonight.

Sloan was convinced someone was out
to hurt her. God knows her brother Con had questioned her enough times about
the circumstances surrounding the accident in Venezuela and now they wanted to
rehash that. There had been major chaos following the accident. The Venezuelan
authorities had had big smuggling problems at the time and details about the
skydiving investigation had been sketchy.

Sloan had asked for Con’s
number, but she felt it wasn’t necessary at this time to call her brother
back to the states, especially now that the authorities were involved.