by Cindi Myers
“Paige, come in!” Reed rose and greeted her heartily. “The sheriff and I were just finishing up.”
“What are you doing here?” Rob asked, not caring if he sounded rude.
She scowled at him, but before she could answer, Reed said, “Paige and I have a lunch date.”
Now her frown was for Reed. “We agreed to talk more about your plans for your research facility,” she said.
“Over lunch.” He came out from behind the desk. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me...”
“I was going to stop by and see you this afternoon,” Travis said to Paige, standing also. “But if you have a minute, we can take care of my question now.”
“Of course,” she said.
Travis pulled out the mug shots of Welch and Petri. “Have you seen either of these men before?” he asked.
She studied the pictures for a long moment, then shook her head. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Could they have been the men who shot at you on the hiking trail the other day? Or who fired on you at your house that afternoon?” Travis asked.
She looked at the photos again. “I can’t say these men weren’t the ones who shot at me. But I can’t say they are, either. I just didn’t get a good enough look at them. I’m sorry.”
Rob wasn’t surprised at her answer. Despite her earlier assertion that she would recognize the men again, she had glimpsed them for only a few seconds, under tense circumstance. And looking at a two-dimensional mug shot was very different from seeing someone alive and standing nearby.
“That’s all right.” Travis put the photographs away.
“Are those the two men you found dead last night?” she asked Rob.
He looked to Travis. This wasn’t his case, and he didn’t know how much the sheriff wanted to reveal. Travis nodded. “We think so, yes.”
“What about the gun you found last night?” Reed asked. “Can you connect it with the attacks on Paige?”
“We’re waiting on ballistics tests,” he said. “Interesting thing about that gun, though.”
“Oh?” Paige and Reed spoke in chorus.
“There weren’t any fingerprints on it,” Travis said. “Whoever put it behind those rocks had wiped it clean.”
* * *
PAIGE COULD FEEL Rob’s eyes on her as she exited the office with Bryce Reed. Travis hadn’t elaborated any more on the gun with no fingerprints, and Reed had hurried her out. But she couldn’t get Travis’s words out of her head. “What do you think it means, the gun being wiped off like that?” she asked as they walked toward their cars.
“My guess is the shooters wiped it every time they used it, in case someone found it.” She had started toward her car, but Reed put a hand at her back and steered her toward his. “Come in my car,” he said. “We’ll have more time to talk.”
She could have made an excuse about having to be somewhere else right after lunch, but it seemed both silly and paranoid. Reed had given her no reason not to trust him, and it was broad daylight, after all. Not to mention Rob and the sheriff were right behind them, she thought, glancing in the mirror as she slid into the passenger seat of the big SUV Reed drove.
“Would someone really do that?” she asked, as he started the vehicle. “Wipe down a gun every time he used it? And hide it in the rocks that way?”
“A guilty person might.” Reed flashed her a smile. “But hey, I’ve never been a criminal, so I have no idea. What do you think about the Cake Walk for lunch?” he asked. “I know Eagle Mountain doesn’t have that many choices, but I had breakfast there the other day and it was great. I figure the lunch will be good, too.”
“The Cake Walk is fine,” she said. “Did the fire last night do much damage to the property?”
“The truth is, there’s not a lot up there to burn,” he said. “Chances are we would have torn down that storage shed anyway.” He glanced at her. “Not that I would be thanking those two for burning it down. We take trespassing very seriously and will prosecute anyone we catch up there who doesn’t have proper authorization.”
She shifted in her seat, thinking of Parker. She had half a mind to call Professor Gibson and read him the riot act for asking her brother to snoop around on CNG property. She would definitely warn Parker not to go near the place again.
Reed found a parking space in front of the café and they settled into a booth along one side of the cozy restaurant. Paige recognized most of the people in the room, and nodded to a few. No doubt the gossips would be busy speculating on why she was having lunch with the local face of CNG Development—especially since news about the fire and the discovery of two bodies up there would be all over town by now. It might be interesting to hear some of the local theories about that.
“You’ll be happy to know I’m having the gate across the hiking trail removed today,” Reed said, after they had placed their orders.
“I’m pleased to hear that,” she said. Though the primary purpose of the EME meeting this morning had been to discuss their booth for an upcoming fall festival, several people had suggested making another try at cutting the lock off the gate blocking the trail. In the end, they had decided to wait until things had settled down on the resort site. No one wanted a repeat of what had happened to Paige.
“None of the people who use the trail are interested in trespassing on private property,” Paige said. “We only want to hike a trail that’s a favorite of many people around here. If you want to put a fence alongside the trail to protect your property, we have no problem with that, though most people who have public right-of-way across their land settle for posting No Trespassing signs that remind people to stay on the trail.”
“We’ll try the signs,” Reed said. “The sheriff suggested hiring a security guard and installing cameras.”
“That might not be a bad idea,” Paige said.
The waitress delivered her salad and his sandwich. “I’d really like you to come up there with me,” Reed said. “I want to take you around and show you where everything is going to be. I think you’ll really like what we have in mind.”
“I’d love to see it,” she said. She was dying to know his plans—and she had to admit she wanted to see the scene after last night.
“I can take you up there after lunch, if you have time,” he said.
She hesitated. She didn’t have any guests arriving this afternoon. “As long as we’re back by five,” she said. “And I need to call my brother and let him know not to expect me.” Parker had proved he was capable of handling any reservations that came in.
“Great.” Reed grinned, then took a big bite out of his sandwich.
When they were done eating, he took care of the bill while Paige went outside to make her call. “The Bear’s Den Bed and Breakfast,” Parker answered, sounding very professional.
“Parker, it’s Paige. I called to let you know I’ll be away the rest of the afternoon. Would you mind the phone while I’m gone? I’ll be back before you have to leave for work.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Up to Eagle Mountain Resort. Bryce Reed is going to show me around.”
“You can’t go up there with him,” Parker said. “You don’t even know the guy.”
“He’s a perfectly respectable businessman.” She glanced over her shoulder, relieved to see that Reed hadn’t yet emerged from the café. “It’s broad daylight. And I’m not an idiot. It’ll be fine.”
“What about those guys who shot at you?”
“The sheriff thinks they were the men who were found dead up there last night.”
“I don’t like it,” Parker said.
“I don’t like everything you do, either,” she said. “But we’re both adults. I don’t get to tell you what to do and you don’t get to tell me what to do. Agreed?”
“I still don’t have to like it,” he said. “Ju
st—be careful.”
“I always am.” She ended the call and turned to find Reed waiting behind her.
“Any trouble?” he asked.
“My brother is a little overprotective sometimes,” she said. “It’s sweet, really.”
“I guess someone with his background knows a little too much about what the wrong kind of people will do,” Reed said. He took her arm.
She stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. “What about Parker’s background?”
“I didn’t mean to offend,” he said. “Someone told me he’d been in prison.”
“Who told you?” she demanded.
“I don’t remember—just something I heard around town. I apologize. I really didn’t mean to offend you.”
He looked genuinely contrite. She relaxed a little. “Parker made some foolish mistakes when he was younger, but he’s working hard to get past that,” she said. “I hate that some people will never let him forget his mistakes.”
“Again, I’m sorry I brought it up.” Reed held the door while she slid into the passenger seat, then closed it and walked around to the driver’s side. “But as long as we’re on the subject of the men in your life, what’s your relationship to Agent Allerton?”
“He’s a guest at my B and B,” she said.
“I guess I read the signals wrong,” Reed said. “He seemed a little overprotective of you, too.”
“You must have misunderstood,” she said. She was already wishing she hadn’t agreed to ride with him. She hadn’t expected him to question her personal life this way.
“Sorry for the nosy questions,” he said. “I’ve devoted the last few years to my career, so I’m a little rusty when it comes to interacting with attractive women.”
And what was that supposed to mean? “Are you married?” she asked. If he was going to ask personal questions, she might as well, too.
“Divorced. No kids. I’m a boring workaholic, though I’d like to change that. A man gets to be my age, he starts to think about the mistakes he’s made.”
“You’re not that old,” she said.
He laughed. “Maybe not. But it feels that way sometimes.” He sped up when they reached the road that started the climb toward Dakota Ridge. “This is beautiful country out here,” he said. “A lot wilder and more rugged than where I’m from, back east, but definitely captivating.”
“Most people who live here think it’s pretty much paradise,” she said.
He stopped at the gates to the resort property—she couldn’t help but think of it that way, even though it would never be a resort. Maybe one day everyone would call it the research campus or something similar, but until then, it would be the resort. “The fire department destroyed the lock getting to the fire last night,” he said. “We’ll have to fix that.” He pressed a remote device clipped to the visor and the gates swung open, smoothly and soundlessly. He drove the car over the cracking pavement and parked in front of the faded sign advertising the resort. “We’re going to get people in here to take all of this out,” he said, indicating the sign, the broken pavement and the foundations that had never been built on. “Come on. Let’s take a walk and I’ll show you around.”
The air held the tang of smoke, and a short distance away Paige spotted the burned-out shed, yellow crime scene tape festooning the blackened ruins. Reed saw where she was looking and took her arm. “You don’t need to concern yourself with that,” he said.
She pulled away from him. “Of course I’m concerned,” she said. “Two people died there—men who may have tried to kill me.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” He jingled his keys in his pockets. “But there’s nothing we can do about that now. Will you let me show you where we hope to put the new labs?”
She followed him away from the ruins, past a Quonset hut and more crumbling foundations to a cleared expanse near the top of the ridge that overlooked a valley filled with tall spruce and pine. “The building would have a low profile and really blend in with the environment,” Reed said. “You shouldn’t be able to see it from the road at all.”
“Where would the people who work here live?” she asked. It was a beautiful setting. Peaceful, even, if you could ignore the scent of smoke that lingered in the air.
“Some would live in town,” Reed said. “Although we would have a few houses here on the property—apartments, really, again with a low profile and very green.”
“That’s good.” She was only half listening to him, her senses attuned to the woods around them. Not even a bird sang. It ought to have been the most peaceful setting in the world, yet she couldn’t shake a sense of foreboding.
“Let me show you where we plan to build the apartments.” He moved forward and a stick broke under his foot with a loud pop. Paige gasped.
“It’s just a stick,” Reed said. “Why are you so jumpy?”
“I guess what happened last time I was here affected me more than I realized,” she said.
He moved to her side and put his arm around her. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. Here, look.” He pulled back his jacket to reveal a gun tucked into an inside pocket.
She backed away. Knowing he was armed didn’t make her feel safer, but there was no point saying so. Instead, she pushed down her fear and changed the subject. “Where is the underground chamber?” she asked.
He frowned. “You mean the one where the deputy and his girlfriend were held? It’s over here.” He led her back to the Quonset hut, through two empty rooms to one with a dirt floor and a metal grate in the roof open to the outside air. “We may use this for storage,” he said. “It could be useful having a chamber like this that’s fairly well insulated.”
She suppressed a shudder and forced herself to look around.
“Did you know this is where they found Henry Hake’s body?” Reed asked. “They said he died of tularemia. The sheriff suggested getting the health department up here to test, but it turns out tularemia is naturally occurring and even quite common in areas of the West, so testing wouldn’t prove anything.”
“I didn’t know that.” She followed him out of the building, relieved to be in the open air again. “What do you think happened to Henry?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Though he was obviously hanging out with a criminal element. Didn’t his former bodyguard murder some lawyer in town? And attack the sheriff’s fiancée?”
“Yes.” At the time, most people had thought Ian Barnes’s murder of Andy Stenson had been an isolated incident, but now she wondered if that crime was somehow related to Henry Hake’s death. She looked around them, getting her bearings. “Isn’t there another underground chamber?” she asked.
“Another one? I don’t think so.”
“The day those men shot at me, I was looking through the fence. I watched them carry a crate to a trapdoor in the earth. They went down into the ground. But it wasn’t here. It was farther that way.” She pointed up the ridge.
Reed took her arm. “You must be turned around. This is the only underground space—and as you saw, it was empty. You know, the terrain here can be deceptive. Instead of going into the ground, maybe they just went downhill, behind some rocks or something.”
She knew what she had seen, but there was no point arguing with him. “Maybe you’re right.” She pulled away from him again. “I’m ready to go now.”
They walked silently back to where he had parked, Paige forcing herself not to hurry. As they neared the SUV, a pickup truck sped into the drive and stopped beside them. Rob got out. “Hello, Paige,” he said. “Mr. Reed.”
“What are you doing here?” Reed asked.
“Parker called and asked me to check on you,” Rob told Paige. “He was concerned.”
Paige wanted to be upset with him for thinking he needed to look after her—but all she felt was relief. “Thanks,” she sa
id. “But he had no cause to be worried.”
“That’s right.” Reed put his arm around her again. She could feel the gun in his jacket digging into her side. “Paige and I had a pleasant lunch, and now we’re having a pleasant afternoon together.”
Rob looked as if he wanted to take Reed’s arm off at the elbow. “This doesn’t strike me as the safest place to be, considering all that’s happened up here lately,” he said.
“You weren’t invited here, Agent Allerton,” Reed said. “You should leave now.”
Paige had no desire for Rob to leave her alone with Reed again. For one thing, his insistence on continuing to touch her and hug her was giving her the creeps. She shrugged out of his grasp once more. “I need to get back to my business,” she said. “Rob, could you give me a ride?” Before Reed could object, she turned her most dazzling smile on him. “Thank you so much for lunch, and for taking the time to show me your plans. I’m really pleased with what you’re going to be doing with the property.”
“I can take you back to town,” Reed said. “I’m going there anyway.”
“I don’t want to keep you any longer,” she said. “And Rob is going right to the B and B. Thank you again.” Not waiting for a reply, she opened the passenger door of Rob’s truck and climbed in.
He didn’t hesitate, either, and left Reed standing alone while he climbed in the truck and backed out of the drive. He didn’t say anything until they were on the road leading away from the resort property. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes.” She hugged her arms across her chest. “A little shaken up, maybe. I don’t know what was getting to me more—remembering being shot at the other day, or the sight of all that crime scene tape around the ruins...or Bryce Reed’s overly chummy manner. Did you know he was carrying a gun?”
“So am I,” Rob said. “Does that freak you out?”
