by Paty Jager
Strong arms circled her. “You don’t have anyone left to get you out of promising me you’ll stop running head long into trouble.” Ryan’s voice was warm against her ear.
“I can’t promise you that. If someone I care about is in trouble, I have to help.” She remained wrapped in his arms, enjoying the feeling of security he evoked.
“Then if you must help, call me for back up.”
She spun in his arms. “I think that is a very good idea, Detective.” Half circles darkened the skin beneath his eyes. “I say you need a good night’s sleep. That guest room is yours whenever you need it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll take that offer tonight.” He dipped his face down and kissed her.
When her toes were curling from the heat of the kiss, he released her lips and her body.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” Ryan walked to the door of the guest room and disappeared.
Shandra smiled. Today they’d discovered the true killer of Johnny Clark, and Lil now knew she was loved. She glanced at the guest room door. I have a feeling I’ve found my Johnny Clark. But time will tell.
Book Three in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery Series
Deadly Aim
Chapter One
Shandra Higheagle watched her bear-sized dog lope off through the huckleberry bushes this mountain was named for. Sheba loved lumbering over the mountain while Shandra rode her horse. This was Shandra’s favorite time of the year to ride. The changing colors and brisk air autumn air energized.
Lil, Shandra’s Jill-of-all-trades had suggested the ride. After a two-week sojourn to teaching and displaying her pottery at an art show in New Mexico, Shandra needed a leisurely horseback ride to get back in tune with nature. Every time she spent more than a few days off the mountain she had to get reacquainted with her roots in order to re-submerge herself in her art.
But it wasn’t just her time away that had her mind wandering. Only one more week and she’d be attending Ryan’s brother’s wedding to Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. She and the handsome Weippe detective hadn’t made any kind of commitment to one another, but she did find his company pleasurable. And she had to admit she was curious about his family and the woman who he’d set his sights on marrying in seventh grade.
“Woof! Woof!”
Sheba’s excited bark caught Shandra’s attention. It didn’t sound like her pursuing or scared bark. It had a mournful lilt to it.
“Where are you, girl?” Shandra stood in the stirrups and scanned the area she’d last seen her dog. Her gelding, Apple, started dancing nervously and he blew air in short snorts. Something had both animals on alert.
“Woof! Woof!”
She zeroed in on the sound and reined Apple that direction. Sheba’s head was down and the way her body shook, she was digging.
“What is it girl?” Shandra dodged a tree limb as Apple snorted and started to back up.
“Whoa. What has you spooked?” She ran a hand down the horse’s neck to soothe him and stared at the ground where Sheba pawed.
Her stomach lurched and her mouth went dry. Sheba dug at the ground next to a bloody, disemboweled body.
She pivoted Apple and sat with her back to the sight. “Sheba, come!” she ordered without glancing back. When Sheba appeared beside the horse, Shandra leaned down and patted the dog on the head. “Good girl. Stay.”
She straightened in the saddle and the image flashed in her mind. “Why do I find all the bodies on this mountain?”
The small bar on her phone faded in and out. “I have to give it a try. I don’t want to leave this poor person to any more animals.” She found Ryan’s name and pushed the dial button.
“Shandra, I…thinking…you.”
His voice cutting in and out wasn’t a good sign.
“I found a body. Go to my ranch and have Lil bring you out to me.” She hoped he heard enough to know what to do.
“Body? Are… How…” The connection broke.
She took a deep breath trying to decide how to keep the body from being eaten by any more animals. She couldn’t leave Sheba. The dog’s size would be daunting for most animals but if an animal so much as growled, she’d be back at the ranch faster than a jet.
Her phone beeped.
Glancing at the front she spotted a text message.
Where R you? Ryan asked.
She typed back. Found body along east property line. Lil can bring you.
K, he text in reply.
Now to spend two hours waiting for them without looking at the body. Who could this be and why were they on my property? She tied Apple to a tree, sat down on a log, and hugged Sheba. I’ve never felt scared on the mountain before.
~*~
Ryan was a half hour from Huckleberry and then another forty-five minutes from Shandra’s ranch. He was beginning to think the woman was a body detector. First the gallery owner, then the thirty-year-old skeleton, and who knew what she’d stumbled across this time. The only thing he did know—he’d always be there for the eccentric artist. The past few months he’d spent more and more time with the woman. The more he learned about her, he knew she was the one that when he was ready to settle down, he’d ask her to marry him.
With lights flashing and sirens blaring he swerved off Hwy 90, turned right and barreled down the main street of Huckleberry. The ritzy resort had been off-limits to a sheep ranchers son growing up forty miles away, but now it was part of his territory as a Weippe County Detective.
No sooner had he entered and exited town than he was flying at eighty miles an hour up the county road toward Shandra’s ranch. The woman liked living on her mountain. The more he visited her there, the more he understood how the area revitalized and fed her artistic talents. Part of his speed was to find the body, but the other part was the fact Shandra had been gone for two weeks. He’d told himself he’d give her a couple days to recuperate then invite himself to dinner. He’d never planned on seeing her again because of a dead body.
He whipped his SUV up a side road nearly hidden by overgrown pines. This bumpy miserable excuse for a road was Shandra’s way of keeping people out. It looked like a forest service road and not vehicle friendly. He had to slow the Tahoe to a crawl to navigate the bumps and not toss all his equipment in the back into a heap. The house, studio, and barn came into view and he understood Shandra’s penchant for not wanting to leave her place.
His siren was still blaring. Lil, Shandra’s employee, walked out of the barn with the old orange cat wrapped around her neck like a live fur stole. The woman wore her signature purple clothing. Today it was an over-sized sweatshirt and stocking cap. Her gray hair stuck out like spikes on a flail.
He braked in front of the barn, shut off the lights and siren, and hopped out of the vehicle. “Shandra called. She’s found another body.”
Lil shook her head. “What is with that woman?”
“My thoughts exactly.” Ryan strode toward the barn with Lil beside him. “She said it was along the east property line and you’d know how to get me there.”
Lil nodded and pointed to the gelding Ryan rode when he and Shandra trail rode together.
He walked to the stall. “Hey, Duke. We’re after another body, you game?” He led the horse out and had him saddled by the time Lil swung up into the saddle of her horse.
“Is the east property line very far?” He wondered about logistics to get the coroner and other deputies to the site.
“About an hour. If she said I knew where she was, then she’s on her usual route for a trail ride.” Lil nudged her horse, and they trotted into the trees.
I might as well gather information. “Who owns the land bordering Shandra on the east?”
“J.W. Randal.”
He wished he could pull out his notebook and jot that down but the trail so far was fairly smooth and Lil kept the gait at a trot.
“Big land owner or a seasonal resident?”
“Land owner.”
Lil was always one for few words but he’d lik
e some elaboration. “What does he use the land for?”
Lil slowed her horse and stared at him. “Cattle and big game hunting.”
She said the last with contempt.
“He has the required license to do big game hunts?” Randal. The name was familiar. Where had he heard it? He’d tried to learn all the licensed big game hunting reserves.
“All I know is people pay lots of money to shoot animals on his place. He was in the paper a few weeks ago for using illegal tags.”
About the Author
Award winning author Paty Jager ranches with her husband of thirty-six years. They’ve raised hay, hogs, cattle, kids, and grandkids. Her first book was published in 2006 and since then she has published twenty-one books, five novellas, and three anthologies. She enjoys riding horses, playing with her grandkids, judging 4-H contests and fairs, and outdoor activities. To learn more about her books and her life, join her newsletter, or to click on links to take you to the ebook sales sites, you can visit her website.
http://www.patyjager.net
More Shandra Higheagle Mysteries
Double Duplicity
Tarnished Remains
Deadly Aim - Coming March 2015
Thank you for purchasing this Windtree Press publication. For other books of the heart, please visit our website at www.windtreepress.com.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Title Page
copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Deadly Aim
About the Author
