Target on the Mountain

by Elizabeth Goddard

  She eased back down in bed, surprised her mind had finally let her sleep. She tried to recall the nightmare, but nothing clear came to mind and she was grateful she couldn’t remember. Still, the dream had left her unsettled. Her shoulder ached, and even itched a little. That was good. That meant it was healing.

  The aroma of bacon and eggs pulled her all the way out of bed. She might as well get up to face the day. She slipped into comfy sweats and a T-shirt and meandered down the hallway with a yawn, then made her way to the kitchen, where she found Dad cooking breakfast.

  He glanced up from frying bacon. “Hey, sleepyhead.” No matter that she was in her thirties and was an FBI agent, he still talked to her like she was his little girl. Tori wasn’t sure she would have it any other way.

  “Morning.” She wouldn’t add the word “good.” Nothing about it was good. She grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured the rich dark coffee blend they all preferred. Tori breathed it in as she shoved onto a tall seat at the counter.

  Dad smiled as he moved bacon from the pan to a plate, but despite the smile, a persistent, aching sadness poured from his gaze, and that, she understood completely. Her heart ached with the pain of loss they all shared.

  She took a drink of coffee, hoping her thoughts would come together. “Dad, you don’t have to cook me breakfast. Or even sound cheery for my sake. We’re all still shaken over what happened. It’s going to take us a long time to get over...” She couldn’t even say her sister’s name.

  He plated the eggs to go with the bacon and set the dish on the counter in front of her. “You’re still alive and with us, Tori. I intend to make the best of every moment with you. You need your energy, so eat up.”

  Tori obliged and crunched on a bacon strip. “Where’s Mom?”

  “She went to the store to grab orange juice.”

  Tori’s favorite. Mom had done that for her. Oh, man. She sighed. This was going to be a long day. While on the one hand she appreciated what her parents were doing, she knew they would smother her if she let them. Hadn’t the whole reason she’d come back to stay for a while been to comfort them? Still, maybe they could all comfort each other. Tori knew she often wasn’t willing to admit when she needed emotional support. But maybe this time she should give in to it. Their encouragement could very well sustain her through trying to find Sarah’s killer.

  Tori heard the sound of the front door opening, then closing, and in rushed her mother with a few plastic sacks of groceries. She set them on the counter and smiled at Tori—that same pain was raw and unfiltered behind her gaze.

  “That looks like more than orange juice,” Tori said.

  “Well, you know how it is. You go in for one thing and leave having spent a hundred dollars more than you intended.” Mom poured juice into a glass and sat it in front of Tori. “Drink up.”

  Tori finished the eggs and bacon and drank the juice while her father ate his breakfast quietly and Mom cleaned up the mess he’d made. Tori carried both their plates over to the sink, rinsed them and then stuck them in the dishwasher. She turned to find her mother wiping down the counter.

  Still no words. No one knew what to say.

  “Thanks, Mom. Thank you both, but you don’t have to do this.”

  Mom’s eyes teared up as she shrugged. “What? What are we doing? We almost lost you, too.”

  Dad gave Tori a warning look, as if she’d said something wrong. Truth was, anything she said would be the wrong thing.

  Tori rushed around the counter and hugged her mom. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Dad hugged them both. As warm and comforting as the embrace was, it was also steeped in sadness. She could drown in all this grief, and she had to somehow stay afloat.

  Finally she backed away and wiped at her own eyes. “I can’t... I can’t find out what happened to Sarah like this. I need to focus.”

  Tori headed for her bedroom. A female deputy had brought a few of her belongings over to the house from Sarah’s bungalow last night. Tori should shower and get dressed for the day.

  “Wait, Tori, please.” Mom rushed after her.

  Tori hadn’t meant to upset her mom. She turned to face her. “I’m here, Mom, for as long as you need.”

  “Please, come back to the living room and sit down. Your father and I want to talk to you.”

  Uh-oh. Tori followed Mom down the hallway to the comfortable living area and the sectional sofa. “I’d prefer to stand.”

  Dad made his way to the living room and joined them. Mom was the only one to sit.

  Dad crossed his arms. “You mentioned that you were considering an indefinite leave or quitting your job so you could stay here. Now that we know your reason for staying would be to look for the killer, we want you to go home. Go back to your job. Please, Tori. We can’t lose you, too, and if you stay here, you’re in danger.”

  “What?” She hadn’t realized she’d made her decision yet until this moment. “I can’t go back, Dad. I can’t go back to work on investigating other crimes when my mind will always be on finding Sarah’s killer. Don’t you want justice for her?”

  “Ryan can give us that, Tori,” Mom said. “You should trust him.”

  “I do trust him.” She rubbed her arms. But apparently not as much as her parents did. What was the matter with her anyway?

  Dad approached and hugged her again. He released her and gripped her shoulders to level his gaze at her. “Mom and I will come to stay out there in South Carolina with you. We’ll do anything we need to do.”

  They were overreacting, but could she really blame them? They were terrified for her, and she hated doing this to them.

  Mom tugged tissues from a box on a side table. “We considered moving even before yesterday. There are just too many memories here. I don’t know if I can stand it. We could move to be close to you.”

  A lump grew in Tori’s throat. “But you don’t have to move to be close to me. I’m here. And you don’t want the person who took Sarah from us to scare us away. Sarah wouldn’t want you to leave one of the most beautiful and amazing places in the world because you don’t want to be reminded of her.” The words sounded more cruel than she’d intended.

  But I moved away from the most beautiful place... And people who loved me. A man who loved me.

  Mom’s eyes teared up again. “Please, just consider it.”

  She nodded. “Okay. I promise I will.” That was the least she could do.

  Tori turned and hurried back to the bedroom. She fell onto the bed.

  “God, what am I going to do?” They’re going to drive me up the wall.

  When all was quiet in the house, she snuck out of her room to snag another cup of coffee. Dad had made another pot and left her mug out for her, knowing her too well. She hurried back to the bedroom and set her laptop up on the desk. Working to figure this out was the only way to move past the grief.

  She waited for her laptop to boot up. If she’d needed more confirmation that Sarah had been the main target, she’d just gotten it with the break-in at Sarah’s home. After the attempt on her life on the river, she hadn’t needed the confirmation, but she was glad Ryan now seemed convinced.

  She realized now the burglar hadn’t entered the home and waited for her return in order to kill her, the way the shooter on the river had. No. She’d stumbled upon a simple break-in. That left her confused about what was going on. But she feared that whoever had been searching the house might have gotten what they’d been looking for. If so, she wouldn’t have that clue to know what had gotten Sarah killed.

  Her laptop booted up, Tori pulled up the emails she’d received from Sarah. She never deleted an email, for which she was now grateful. She started reading as far back as she could retrieve the emails. Distance hadn’t diminished Sarah’s relationship with Tori, but Tori’s job had prevented her from being as engaged as she should have been with h
er family.

  Tears burned down her cheeks and she accepted they wouldn’t be the last, as she continued to read, searching for that one email that could possibly give her a clue.

  Her cell rang. Ryan. Her heart warmed with the thought of him—which aggravated her. She needed to stay focused on the case, not get distracted by an old flame. Still battling annoyance with herself, she answered, “What have you found?”

  He snorted. “Can we back up to hello or hi or how are you?”

  “Why waste time?” She leaned her forehead against her hand. “I’m sorry. Hi, Ryan. How are you?”

  “That’s more like it. Rough morning?”

  “You could say that.” She kept what had happened with her parents and their suggestion of moving to South Carolina to herself. “So, was this just a friendly call to check on me?”

  She hoped not, though at the same time, she liked the idea.

  “Yes and no. Now that I’ve checked on you, I have some news. First, your dad called me and asked me to keep the bungalow under crime-scene lockdown.”

  Dad! She sucked in a breath. “What?”

  “He doesn’t want you moving back there. I can’t blame him. I advised you against it.”

  “So when do you think I can move back in?”

  He exhaled loudly. “It’s ready now. The crime scene techs worked late into the night and finished up this morning.”

  “I’m so glad. Did they find anything?”

  “Time will tell, Tori. Please be patient. You know these things take a while.”

  “Right. Okay. Thanks for letting me know. And thanks for releasing the crime scene. I’m going to move back to the bungalow. I need to be in town for Mom and Dad, be accessible to them, but living with them is...hard.”

  “I understand.”

  Ryan had three siblings and they, along with his parents, lived in the Mount Shasta region. Close enough to be together for important events, eat Sunday dinner or hang out, but not too close.

  “It’s worse now because they’re smothering me.” Tori squeezed her eyes shut. She hadn’t meant to reveal so much of what was going on.

  “Honestly, Tori, I don’t blame them.” The tone in his voice made her think he would like to do the same. But she must be hearing things.

  “Thanks for calling to let me know.”

  “Wait, don’t hang up yet,” he said.

  “Is there something else you want to tell me?”

  “Yes. I’m standing at the front door.”

  * * *

  After ending the call, Ryan stood at the front door waiting. He didn’t want to knock or ring the bell and disturb her mother and father, especially after what Tori had just told him. Plus, they would ask questions for which he had no answers. Tori might do the same. She was taking her time answering the door. Maybe she had decided she wasn’t going to open it, after all.

  Just as he lifted the phone to text her, the door swung open.

  Tori rushed out. “Okay, let’s go.”

  She walked right past him without a glance. Her purse slung over her shoulder and her briefcase and small duffel at her side, she hurried down the sidewalk to stand next to his vehicle, which he’d parked at the curb.

  “Wait.” He held back a laugh as he caught up with her and opened the door for her. She tossed in her things. “Where are we going?”

  “You’re taking me to Sarah’s.”

  That was what he had in mind. Sort of. He’d wanted her to look at the house to see if anything was missing. More than that, he’d wanted to see her.

  He climbed into his vehicle on the driver’s side and started it. “Aren’t you even going to say goodbye?”

  “To my parents? I already told them you were taking me back to Sarah’s. That’s all right, isn’t it? It was providential that you showed up when you did. Really, I appreciate the ride, Ryan.”

  “You’re welcome.” Tori’s car, or rather Sarah’s car that Tori had been driving while staying here, remained parked at the bungalow. “As a matter of fact, I had hoped to take you there to have you walk through and see if anything obvious was missing.”

  He pulled away from the curb. Sarah’s bungalow was only a couple of neighborhoods over—barely a mile away. Her home was in the same neighborhood as Ryan’s and was actually only a few houses down.

  “Why the big rush to get out of there?” He glanced over as he drove. She must have recently showered. He could still smell the shampoo. She was beautiful as always, but she looked like she hadn’t slept well last night. That was understandable. He stifled the desire to reach over and grab her hand to reassure her.

  “I didn’t mean to come across like I was in a hurry to leave.” Tori stared out the passenger window.

  He took a right at the intersection. “You could have fooled me.”

  She blew out a breath. “Okay, well, maybe just a little. I love Mom and Dad, but they’re pressuring me to leave town. They’ve even offered to come with me.”

  “You mean visit you?”

  “They talked about moving to South Carolina.”

  Wow. He drove slowly down the street, passing his house on the way to Sarah’s. “And you’re not encouraging them with their plans.”

  She jerked her head to him. “Of course not. They aren’t thinking clearly, Ryan. Once they have gotten past the initial grieving process, they’ll realize that they don’t truly want to leave their home or their friends. They’ll realize that they cherish the memories of Sarah here. A permanent move would be a rash decision based on emotions.”

  “While I agree with you that they need time to grieve before they make such big decisions, maybe they need some new scenery, at least for a little while. Something that doesn’t remind them so much of Sarah until they’ve grieved enough.” He pulled to the curb in front of Sarah’s bungalow as he said the words. Great timing. Seeing the bungalow gave him a sick feeling in his gut. He could use a change of scenery, too.

  Sarah had painted her home a light grayish blue to brighten it up, though the huge windows and the cozy front porch did a great job of that already. But Sarah wasn’t here anymore to enjoy the work she’d put into her home. He shifted into Park and turned in the seat, facing Tori to talk more about her parents.

  “Thanks.” Tori opened the door. She stepped out but leaned back in to grab her briefcase, duffel and purse, and then said, “You don’t have to come in with me.”

  He quickly got out and rushed around to walk with her. “Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not getting rid of me so easily. After what happened the last time, I’m going to clear the house before you go inside. Then I’ll walk with you to see if anything is missing. I want to be here when you look through it all.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she said and closed the car door. “I can always give you a call later if I notice something.” Tori hiked up the sidewalk lugging her things.

  Ryan caught up with her and tried to relieve her of the duffel. “You’ll hurt your shoulder.”

  Grimacing, she relinquished the bag. “Thanks. You’re probably right.”

  “You’re welcome. Oh, by the way—” he reached inside his jacket and grabbed her gun that he’d tucked in a pocket, then handed it over “—Jerry said no prints. You can have your weapon back. But I’m still going in first. Don’t argue.”

  Ryan unlocked and opened the door. “Wait here in the foyer for me. You might try using the alarm next time. Turn it on when you leave but also while you’re here in the house. If you’d armed it maybe the perp would have been deterred.”

  “I didn’t know the code before, but Dad gave it to me this morning. But you and I both know he could disarm the alarm if he set his mind to it. You can learn how with an online tutorial.”

  Ryan frowned. “Then if you’re going to stay here, we should get you set up with a state-of-the-art system.”

&
nbsp; “We?” she arched a brow.

  Ryan didn’t respond to her jab at his intrusion in the details of her life. Instead, he drew his weapon and moved through the home to make sure no one else had broken in. “Make sure to call for the window replacement today!” he called over his shoulder.

  “Dad already did,” she yelled from the foyer.

  They were so familiar with each other. Maybe he was too close to this investigation, getting too involved with Tori, but he didn’t think so. He was a professional and could compartmentalize his past relationship with her while he investigated Sarah’s murder and the obviously related attacks on Tori.

  After Ryan cleared the house, he found her dutifully waiting in the foyer, which surprised him.

  Arms crossed, again she arched a brow—and a lovely, well-defined brow, at that. “Well? Find anyone suspicious?”

  He tucked his weapon away. She would already know if he had. “Funny.” He lifted her duffel, but she held her briefcase close. “Where do you want me to put this?”

  “On the bed in the master bedroom. Sarah’s room.” Anxiety edged her words.

  He moved down the hallway with Tori on his heels, glad she’d allowed him to help her if only a little. Her shoulder must be still be bothering her.

  In Sarah’s warmly decorated room, a pang struck his heart. He could only imagine what sleeping in her sister’s room would do to Tori. When given the choice, Tori had chosen the guest bedroom to begin with. Interesting that the burglar hadn’t been in Sarah’s room searching but had instead been in the room where Tori was staying. He would keep that tidbit to himself for the time being.

  He set the duffel on Sarah’s bed, grief weighing on him. When he turned to face Tori, he caught her staring at the photographs neatly hung on the wall.

  “Might as well start here,” he said. “See anything missing?”

  “I haven’t been in her room yet. I... I was avoiding this moment, and now I’m in here looking at her stuff under completely different circumstances than I’d imagined. I thought I’d be packing up her things, not looking for anything that might be missing so we can figure out who broke in and if he’s her killer.”