"I have, but I don't think it's one of them. I haven't talked to them yet, but I'm going to tomorrow morning before we start our work. They all know the house was broken into and I'm sure they've all heard about Lilly and Daphne's horses. Word's probably spread by now about the car as well. I'm going to ask them all to pay closer attention to the house or any vehicles they see around. Is there anything I should or shouldn't tell them?"
"Not really. I think it's a good idea. Tell them to report anything at all to you or they can call our office direct. We'll decide if it's anything important or not. The more eyes we have watching the house, the better. I'd like to talk to each of them briefly; see if any of them know anything they'll admit to me, but I'll wait until after you talk to them tomorrow." Dalton nodded in agreement.
Things settled down for a few days with no new incidents. Dalton called Brian and made arrangements to take the girls out for dinner Saturday night. They were both upset, wanting to go horseback riding or shopping, and they hoped a night out together would help.
As soon as they got to the restaurant, the two ladies started talking and laughing, catching up. They'd gotten into a habit of seeing each other three or four times a week, going riding, shopping, or just getting together to talk. Since this started, they hadn't seen each other, and while talking on the phone helped, it just wasn't the same. It was good to see them having such a good time.
They were enjoying dessert when the fun all came to an end, however. Dalton got a phone call from the company that put his security system in, telling him an alarm had been tripped. They had already called Sheriff Sloan. He got a call from the sheriff just seconds later. "Dalton, Deputy Sherman and I are on our way to your house. You should probably join us if you can. Your security alarm is going off."
"So I hear. We're on our way, Sheriff."
Dalton quickly relayed the message. He threw enough money on the table to cover the bill and they went to the ranch. The sheriff and deputy were already there and had gone inside, even though the alarm was still going off. Dalton shut the alarm off and they all went inside to talk.
About that time, Ted, the bunkhouse cook, came to the house. "I was asleep already when I heard the alarm going off. I jumped back up and pulled my pants on. I grabbed my rifle and came running up, just in time to see a man come running out of the front door and out behind the house. I tried to follow him, but I'm not as young as I used to be. I couldn't keep up with him. He disappeared into the cornfield out behind the house. I wasn't going in there after dark looking for someone I don't know nothing about, so I went back and got my phone and called 911. They said you was already on your way here, Sheriff."
"Thank you for your help, Ted," Dalton told the older man. "I appreciate it."
"You said there was just one man," the sheriff asked.
"That's all that run out of the house and into the field."
"Could you tell if he had anything in his hands?"
"Not that I could see. He was running pretty good."
The sheriff was obviously considering something. "How long do you suppose it took you to get up here to the house after you heard the alarm?"
"Oh, I don't know. At least a couple minutes. I'm a pretty heavy sleeper. When I woke up, the alarm was going off. I may have slept through it for a minute or two. Then I had to get up and pull my pants and boots on. Then I grabbed my gun. That's in the other room. Then I had to come back out past the bunks again and out the door. It's a little ways to the house from the bunkhouse."
"So that was several minutes at least," the sheriff muttered, almost to himself. "So whoever broke in tonight stayed several minutes or more after the alarm went off. It doesn't sound like he was too concerned about the alarm, like he knew he'd have several minutes at least before anyone would show up."
Dalton nodded, following his line of thought. "So he must have known that Lilly and I were gone, and Stella was at her sister's again, and the men all generally go into town on Saturday nights." He turned toward Ted. "Ted, don't you normally go somewhere, too?"
"I sure do. I usually go into town and do any shopping I need to do, and stop in at my brother's house. Sometimes we just sit and talk, sometimes there's a few of our friends there and we have a poker game."
"But you didn't go tonight?"
"No. He went to see a friend of his who has been sick. He was gonna help him do something."
The sheriff nodded. "He probably thought everyone was gone and he'd have more time in the house. When he saw you coming around the barn, he made a beeline for the cornfield."
"I guess I spoiled his plans," Ted said with a smile.
"Maybe we could spoil them again," the sheriff said, obviously deep in thought.
"What do you mean?" Dalton was concocting a plan, as well. Maybe he and the sheriff were thinking alike.
"Well," the sheriff said, "the next couple Saturday nights, one of the deputies and I will hide out in the house while everyone else leaves as planned. Maybe he's thinking he'll have ten minutes or so before anyone can get to the house once the alarm goes off. We'll surprise him when he comes in."
Dalton was nodding his head. "Sounds like a plan. But why do you think he broke in again? Is he looking for something?"
"I think he is," the sheriff said. "When he ransacked your house, there were a lot of things he could have taken, but didn't. Everything was torn up, all the drawers were emptied. That tells me he was looking for something. He didn't find it, so he looked in your vehicles."
Lilly's eyes were wide. "What would he be looking for? I don't have anything of value. Do you?"
Dalton shook his head. "Nothing of extraordinary value, no. Do you have any ideas, Sheriff?"
"No, I don't. We've talked about it, but we haven't come up with anything, either. Let's walk through the house and see if we see anything missing or vandalized."
They walked through the house, checking both Lilly's bedroom and Dalton's bedroom carefully, but nothing looked out of place. They did a quick walk through of the rest of the house, but didn't see anything out of order.
Until they opened the door to Dalton's office. Lilly gasped when she saw it. It was a mess. The desk drawers were all emptied again, but pictures were also taken off the wall. One was destroyed. One wall was a floor to ceiling bookcase, and everything had been knocked off, to a certain point.
The sheriff looked at the mess. "Wow. They did a lot in a short amount of time. They must have been working on the bookshelves when they saw Ted coming. You can see where they stopped."
Dalton went to stand at the bookshelves a moment. "That makes sense. If you stand here, you can see right through that window. Ted would have come between those buildings you're looking at, on up to the house. And he would have had a flashlight, so someone standing here, glancing out that window, would have seen the flashlight and known someone was coming this way. It would have given him time to get out of the house and head for the field."
"You're right, Dalton. The way this room looks, I'm more convinced that he was looking for something."
Lilly picked up the picture that had been destroyed. "But why tear the pictures off the walls?"
"Probably looking for a safe behind one of them. People often have a wall safe hidden behind a large picture," the sheriff explained. "Do you have a safe, Dalton?"
"Yes, but not in the house. Dad said too many houses are broken into if people think there's a safe in there, so he prided himself on not putting it in the house. He put it in the barn."
The sheriff smiled. Your dad was a smart man. "Who knows about the safe in the barn?"
"As far as I know, just myself and Daphne and Brian, and Clay." He smiled and added, "And now everyone here."
"Good. Keep it that way." He looked again at the mess on the floor. "I doubt that anything's missing, but if you find anything gone, let me know, Dalton."
"Sure."
"We'll see what happens this week, but I'm thinking maybe next Saturday night we'll try and make him think eve
ryone's away again, and the deputy and I will try to catch him. I'll work on the details of that. Let me know if anything else happens or you think of anything."
"Will do, Sheriff. Thanks again."
The sheriff left and the four of them looked down at the mess. "Well," Daphne said, "shall we start on this now or in the morning?"
"It's late. Let's do it tomorrow. You two don't have to help, though, Daphne. We can get it," Dalton said. "At least it's just the one room this time."
"We're helping, Dalton, and that's final," Daphne said emphatically. Both men turned to look at her. "And don't either one of you give me that stern look, either. You've kept Lilly and I apart way too long, and then this guy interrupted our evening out. You better at least let us spend tomorrow together working on this. You'll both be here, too, so what harm could we be in?"
She had tears in her eyes that both men noticed. Dalton glanced at Lilly and saw a similar situation. He went to Lilly while Brian already had Daphne in his arms. "She's right, Dalton. Us attempting to keep them safe has also kept them apart. I think we should at least let them spend tomorrow together. And while we're here, we may as well all help you with this. You'll probably want to put things back in your desk, but we can help with all the books and other things. And they can visit while we work."
Dalton nodded. "Daphne, I would love to have your help tomorrow. And anytime Brian has time to bring you over here, you're welcome. I don't mean to keep you two apart. I just want to keep you both safe."
They made plans for the next day before Daphne and Brian left for their house.
Dalton could feel Lilly trembling again, and took her into the living room. He sat down on the couch, pulling her down on his lap. They talked about the evening. He stressed the fact that whoever this was, he apparently was looking for something in particular. They just had to figure out what it was. It made him feel a little better thinking he was looking for something, and not out to hurt someone. He still felt they had to be careful, though, because if he didn't find whatever it was he was looking for, you never knew what he may do as his frustration grew.
She reluctantly agreed with him, and agreed to not go outside the house without him.
He got a big smile from her with his next statement. "I heard from the insurance company this afternoon, honey. They said we can go get our replacement car and pickup anytime we want. They're covered. I have the figures written down out in the office in the barn, but I thought maybe we could go start looking Monday. What do you say?"
Her squeal and the big hug she gave him was all the answer he needed.
Chapter Sixteen
Daphne and Brian showed up the next day, as promised. Lilly met Daphne at the door with a hug. The two girls went to the kitchen to make lunch, while the men started working in the office.
The topic of discussion while they ate lunch was the vandalism again, until Lilly changed the subject. "Dalton's taking me shopping tomorrow for vehicles."
Daphne giggled. "Vehicles? How many are you planning on buying; a dozen or so?"
Dalton chuckled before answering her question. "The insurance company is replacing my truck and her car. Apparently the vandalism was enough that they totaled both vehicles."
After a discussion of what they would be looking for in vehicles, they went to the office and got busy setting it to rights. By the time the girls went to fix supper, the office was looking pretty good. The four relaxed and simply visited the rest of the evening. It felt good to all of them, more like normal.
The next morning, Lilly was ready to go shopping when Dalton came in for breakfast. They ate, and Dalton let her accompany him out to the garage where he stored his car. It had rained during the night and Dalton helped her dodge rain puddles on the way.
They made it to the garage and Dalton was about to help her into the car, when he paused. "Wait a minute, Lilly."
She stepped back and looked up at him. His expression was one of worry. "What's wrong?"
He pointed to the muddy footprints on the floor. He looked around the garage, then back to the footprints. There were footprints over top of each other so it was rather difficult to follow, but he followed them as best he could and was concerned at where they seemed to end. He got down on the garage floor and looked under the car. He soon got back up and said, "We've got more problems. Let's get back in the house."
"Why; what now?"
"They cut the brake lines on the car."
He called the sheriff's office and reported what he'd found, then waited in the house for Sheriff Sloan and Deputy Allen this time. Dalton took them out to show them what he'd found. They took lots of pictures, including pictures of a couple footprints that weren't smudged.
When the sheriff gave him the okay, Dalton had his farm mechanic fix the brake line and he and Lilly went to town. On the way there, Lilly had a few questions. "Dalton, as much as has been happening, do you think it makes any sense to get new vehicles now? What if they just ruin the new ones, too?"
"I've thought of that," Dalton admitted. "The security company is supposed to be out either this afternoon or tomorrow morning to install cameras. I'm having enough put in that it should show anyone going into the garage and everywhere we generally park our vehicles. I'm having a few put out by the barns as well, even though nothing out there's been touched."
"I thought about that yesterday. Why do you think they've bothered the house and vehicles, even when we're there, but they haven't bothered anything out by the barns?"
"My guess is there's too many men around there, and the bunkhouse is pretty much in the middle of the barns. Whoever's doing this probably knows all the ranch hands are around all the time, which would make it pretty difficult to do anything without being detected. Even when we're working in the fields there's usually one man here at the barn. I like to keep one around here in case I need something. He's here and can grab it and run it out to me quickly, like a spare part if something breaks down. There's always enough to do around here to keep a man busy, anyway."
"Is your insurance going to cover it if someone vandalizes the new vehicles?"
"They are. I told them I'm having cameras installed, and they have the sheriff's reports. Any other questions?" He couldn't resist smiling over at her.
"Yeah, one. What kind of car do you think I should get? Another Camaro?"
"You can if you want, but you don't have to get the same kind. The insurance will replace the car with one like it or of similar value, and a year newer. Yours was only a year old, so they gave the okay for you to get a new one."
"I'm not sure what kind I want for sure."
"Let's look at the ones you're thinking about today. You can drive them, then you can think about it and we can talk about it a few days. You can keep your rental car for another couple weeks yet, so you have time to decide."
"You'll help me decide?"
"If you want me to, sure."
"Thank you. You always seem to think of things I don't."
They spent the day looking at cars and trucks. Dalton bought a truck, as he pretty much knew what he wanted. They narrowed her car down to three, and he promised they'd talk about it over the next few days. They both went home happy.
The security people showed up later that day. Dalton met with the foreman and explained he wanted a camera that would show pretty much anywhere someone would be going around the house or garage. He also wanted a camera on the area they often parked their vehicles.
By noon the next day, he'd shown Dalton how to use the cameras and they went over what all they showed. Dalton was happy with them, and felt better about Lilly's safety.
He kept in touch with the sheriff, but they hadn't found anything and still didn't have much to go on. It bothered both of them that by cutting the brake line, the man responsible was now willing to hurt them. Dalton liked it much better when he thought they were simply looking for something.
Friday, the sheriff came by and talked with them. They decided to go ahead with their pla
n to try and lure the vandal into their house, where the sheriff and a deputy would be waiting for them. Early Saturday afternoon, Deputy Allen would come out to the house and pull close to the house, as they normally do. Sheriff Sloan and Deputy Sherman would be hiding in the backseat. Clay was to be in the house, along with Brian and Daphne. The three of them, along with Dalton and Lilly, would all come out seemingly to greet the deputy. While they're all standing between the house and the cruiser, the sheriff and deputy would get out of the back seat and stay low while they hurried into the house. Unless someone was watching the house with binoculars, they wouldn't see the two of them enter the house.
They'd stay there, away from windows. All five of them would walk Deputy Allen out to his cruiser after sufficient time had passed, and Clay would go back to his house. Brian, Daphne, Dalton and Lilly would leave together before supper so it would look like they were going out to eat. Stella would leave as normal, shortly after the four of them left. All of the men would go into town, which was pretty normal for a Saturday night. If anyone was watching, they'd probably start watching later in the afternoon as the men got off work and hit the showers. They'd see everyone leave, one or two at a time like normal, and the house would be dark. Hopefully their vandal would break into the house again.
Lilly and Daphne were excited about Saturday. Not only were they hoping they'd finally catch their culprit, which would enable them to get back to a normal life, but the men had agreed to take them out to dinner, and then shopping at a mall. Lilly had replaced enough of her clothes and undergarments now, but she hadn't gotten any new shoes. Daphne insisted she needed new shoes, so Brian and Dalton gave in and agreed to take them shopping after dinner.
They had a nice dinner with relaxed conversation. Lilly brought up the problem at the ranch. "I wonder if anything's happening at home yet."
"The sheriff said he'd call if anything happened, so I'd say nothing yet. Of course, he asked us to stay out late, so there's still plenty of time."
A Beautiful Ranch Page 20
