Stalking Season

by Sandra Robbins

  Without waiting to see if they did as he ordered, he rushed toward the exit door and down the stairway that led outside. He prayed he wouldn’t be too late to save Cheyenne.

  SEVEN

  Cheyenne struggled to keep her footing as Jesse herded her down the stairs. They’d just rounded the landing that led to the final flight when her shoe scraped the edge of the step, and her foot slipped out from under her. She lurched forward and knew she was going to fall. Jesse tried to tighten his hold on her, but it was too late.

  A sharp sting from the knife slicing across the side of her neck made her cry out as she slipped from his grasp and tumbled headfirst down the stairs. Free of his hold, she put her hands out in front of her and tried to brace for the fall that was about to come.

  She landed on the concrete floor at the bottom of the steps with a thud and gasped for breath. Jesse’s footsteps echoed in the corridor, and she knew he was coming down the stairs toward her. She needed to get up and run, but she couldn’t move. The fall had jarred every bone in her body, and they cried out in protest. The cut on her neck only added to the agony.

  “Get up!” Jesse screamed as he arrived at her side. Before she could respond, he had grabbed her arm and tugged. “Get up!” he yelled again.

  She pushed up on her hands and knees just as she heard the door at the top of the stairs open. Heavy footsteps pounded on the steps. She looked over her shoulder just as Luke reached the landing above. He held a gun, and he had it pointed at Jesse.

  “Get away from her!” Luke shouted.

  In answer to Luke’s demand, Jesse jerked her to her feet and whirled her in front of him. An evil laugh escaped his throat, and he began to back toward the door with her as a shield. “Don’t come closer, Conrad!” he shouted. “I’ll kill her if you do.”

  Luke shook his head. “There’s no escape for you. Officers are on their way, so it’ll go better for you if you give yourself up.”

  “You’re lying,” Jesse snarled as he continued to back toward the door.

  With the gun still aimed at her captor, Luke eased the rest of the way down the stairs. “They’ll be here any minute.”

  Jesse came to a stop and released his hold on her to reach behind him and open the door. When it swung open, she heard the sound of sirens in the distance coming closer.

  “Hear that,” Luke said. “It’s all over. Let Cheyenne go.”

  She could feel Jesse’s body grow stiff, and his chest began to rise and fall with heavy breaths. Luke stepped closer, and she felt the knife press against her throat again. Then suddenly Jesse’s hold on her was gone, and before she could move, he had shoved her into Luke. He wasn’t expecting the blow her weight delivered, and he stumbled backward. His arms wrapped around her as he struggled to regain his balance.

  Behind them she heard the door close. She looked over her shoulder, and Jesse was gone. “Are you all right, Cheyenne?” Luke’s worried voice brought her back to the fact that she was safe, and she turned her head to face him.

  All she could do was nod.

  He placed his hands on her arms and guided her to sit on the bottom step. “I’m going after him. Stay here and wait for me.”

  Again she nodded. And then he was gone.

  She wrapped her arms around her waist and leaned forward with her head touching her knees and began to cry. She didn’t know how long she sat there before she heard the door open again, and she jerked her head in alarm. Luke, not Jesse, walked over to where she sat.

  He knelt on the floor and stared into her eyes. “It’s okay now.”

  “D-did you catch him?” she stammered.

  He shook his head. “No, he disappeared in the shadows. I heard a truck start over on the next street, but by the time I got there, he was gone. We have a BOLO out on a dark colored pickup, but that could be any one of a hundred trucks in this town. I’m afraid he’s gotten away.”

  She bowed her head and bit down on her lip as her body shook. After a moment she looked up into his eyes. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead now.” She was still sitting on the bottom step with her hands clasped in her lap, and he covered them with his. The warmth from his fingers had a calming effect on her. “Thank you for what you did.”

  He swallowed hard. “I’m just glad I came back.”

  With a start she sat up straighter, her eyes wide. “The security guard. Jesse stabbed him.”

  Too late she realized what she’d said, and then Luke asked the question she’d known he would. “Jesse? He has a name? You didn’t tell me that.”

  “I—I don’t know if that’s his real name or not.”

  Luke exhaled a deep breath and pushed to his feet. Her heart quaked at the stern look he directed down at her.

  “Cheyenne, is there something you haven’t told me about your stalker?”

  She laced her fingers together and twisted them. “I haven’t told anyone,” she whispered.

  The serious expression on his face dissolved and was replaced by a kind one, and his eyes softened. “I can’t help you if I don’t know the whole story,” he said.

  Her breath hitched in her throat, and she shook her head. “I—I can’t. I’m too embarrassed.”

  He clasped her hands in his and pulled her to her feet. His gaze traveled over her face, and she felt her pulse quicken. He gave her hands a squeeze and leaned closer. “Cheyenne, I will listen to whatever you have to say. Then I will help you to make things right. You deserve to find some peace. Please give me the chance to make that happen. You can trust me.”

  She looked into his eyes and suddenly she knew. For the first time since this whole nightmare started, she had finally found someone she truly believed could help her—that she could trust. It was time to tell the truth to someone, and Luke Conrad was that person.

  * * *

  Luke couldn’t hear the sirens anymore, and he glanced back at the exit door. “Wait here while I check and see if our guys were able to catch him.”

  He opened the door and stepped out into the dark night just as two sheriff’s cars pulled into the parking lot, their blue lights blinking. They came to a stop, and Luke walked toward them. As he approached the vehicles, Sheriff Ben Whitman stepped out from one of them and headed toward Luke.

  “Ben,” he called out. “I thought you were still out of town.”

  “I got back a few hours ago, just in time to find out that it had been quite a night at the Wild West show.” The sheriff came to a stop beside Luke and pulled on the brim of his cowboy hat so that it settled farther down on his forehead.

  Luke nodded. “Yeah, and now whoever tried to kill Cheyenne has tried it again. Did he get away?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Luke exhaled and shook his head. “This guy’s had a busy night. He sabotaged Cheyenne’s equipment, and then he tried to kill her. The hospital security guard who tried to help her ended up stabbed. I need to get inside and check on him.”

  Ben regarded him with a quizzical expression for a moment before his mouth curled into a grin. “Cheyenne? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call a female victim by her first name. I expected it to be Miss Cassidy. Interesting.”

  “Cut it out, Ben,” Luke growled. “She’s had a rough time today, and we’ve been together a lot.”

  “That’s what I heard,” Ben said, his eyes twinkling in the light coming from the cars.

  “What do you mean you heard? Who’ve you been talking to?”

  Ben tilted his head to one side. “Dean filled me in on the day’s events.”

  “That’s right,” Luke said. “I forgot you and Dean are best friends.”

  Ben nodded. “Yes, and I met Cheyenne right after she came to town when Dean and Gwen invited me to dinner. She told me her story because the media was still keeping up with what was happening in her
life and how she’d coped with her tragedy. Do you think what happened today has anything to do with that case?”

  For the next few minutes, Luke filled in Ben on all the information that Cheyenne had given him earlier today. When he’d finished, he shook his head. “But there’s more I need to find out.”

  “What’s that?”

  “When she was recounting her story today, she never indicated that she knew her stalker’s name, but after this incident tonight, she called him Jesse. There’s something she’s not telling me, and I intend to find out what it is.”

  Ben nodded. “I’m sure if anybody can win her trust, it’s you. You’ve made a great officer, Luke. I know your dad would have been so proud to see how far you’ve come.”

  At the mention of his father, Luke swallowed hard and tried to keep an impassive expression on his face. “Thanks, Ben. I wish he could have seen it.”

  Ben nodded and slapped him on the back. “Let’s go inside and check on the security guard and Cheyenne.”

  Together they walked into the hospital. Cheyenne was still sitting on the steps where he’d left her. When the door opened, she looked up with a scared look on her face and jumped to her feet. “Did they catch him?”

  Luke shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

  She glanced at Ben. “Sheriff Whitman? I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “I just got back into town. I understand you’ve had a rough day. Are you okay now?”

  She looked at Luke, and his heart squeezed at the way her eyes stared into his. “I am thanks to Luke. I don’t know what I would have done today without his help.”

  He took a deep breath as his heartbeat increased at her words. He stepped closer and took her by the arm. “And we need to get you back to your room.”

  “And I need to check on the security guard,” Ben added.

  Luke loosened his grip on Cheyenne’s arm as he guided her back up the steps with Ben following. When they arrived at the vending machine room, one of the housekeeping employees rounded the corner. He was pushing a cart with cleaning supplies. Ben came to a halt and put up a hand to stop the man.

  “We can’t have this room cleaned. It’s a crime scene. I’m going to close it off so no one will come in here. We’ll let you know when you can get in here, but it won’t be tonight.”

  The man frowned. “Okay. I was just trying to do my job.”

  “I understand,” Ben said. “We’ll let you know.”

  As he turned around and headed back the way he had come, Ben glanced at Luke. “Get Cheyenne settled, and I’ll make arrangements for this to be taken care of.”

  Luke gave a chin lift in Ben’s direction before he nudged Cheyenne down the hallway toward her room. As they walked away, he could hear Ben on his lapel mic asking for officers to come to the vending room to put up crime scene tape and for the crime scene investigators to be called in.

  The two nurses Luke had seen earlier stood in the hallway next to their station as they approached. “We’ve been worried about you two. We called the police like you asked. Did they get there in time?”

  Luke shook his head. “They weren’t able to catch the guy who stabbed the guard. How is he doing?”

  The other nurse spoke up. “They rushed him to surgery. We haven’t heard anything yet, but we’ll let you know when we do. I called the head of security, and he’s coming in to guard Miss Cassidy’s door himself.”

  “Good. I’ll stay until he gets here,” Luke said.

  The first nurse stepped closer to Cheyenne. “Let’s get you settled, and I’ll check you out to make sure you’re okay.” She glanced back at Luke. “Give us a few minutes, please.”

  Luke’s gaze went to Cheyenne, and he pointed to the chair where the guard had been sitting. “I’ll be right here.”

  She nodded and went into the room with the nurse as he took a seat. Ten minutes later the nurse emerged. “She’s all settled.”

  “How is she?”

  “Blood pressure was up, but that’s to be expected after what she experienced tonight. Now she just needs to get some rest.”

  “I’ll step in and tell her good-night, then I’ll wait out here for the guard,” he said.

  He opened the door, stepped into the room and stopped beside the bed. She lay with her head slightly raised, and her hair spread out on her pillow. Her brown eyes sparkled in the soft light of the room.

  Jasmine’s eyes had been brown, too, but there’d been too many lies hidden in their depths. Cheyenne Cassidy had a secret, too, and he intended to find out what it was.

  He cleared his throat before he spoke. “How are you?” he asked.

  She smiled up at him. “I’m okay, thanks to you. I thought he was going to be successful this time. Then you appeared, and I just knew everything was going to be all right.”

  “I’m just glad I got there in time.”

  She smiled, and the way her mouth curled made his breath hitch in his throat. He shook the thought from his head, pulled a chair up to her bed and sat down so that he wasn’t towering over her but could stare into her face. “I think there’s something we need to discuss. I don’t like bringing it up, especially after what you’ve gone through tonight, but it’s important if we are to catch this guy.”

  Her eyes darkened and she frowned. “What is it?”

  “When you were giving me your statement today, you led me to believe you didn’t know your stalker. Tonight you called him Jesse, and you said you didn’t tell me because you were embarrassed. I don’t understand.”

  Her hands gripped the sheet, and she began to pleat it between her trembling fingers. “As I said, I haven’t told anybody.” Her voice shook and her eyes filled with tears. “But I should have. Maybe if I had, my parents would still be alive.”

  Luke scooted to the edge of his chair and directed a somber stare at her. “Cheyenne, you need to be honest with me if I’m going to help you. I can’t if you’re keeping me in the dark about something that may be a clue as to these attempts on your life.”

  She looked at her hands. “I was lonely,” she finally whispered.

  When she didn’t say anything else, he leaned closer. “And?”

  “I was home from college, but nothing was the same. All my friends I’d grown up with had moved away or were married with families. My college friends had fanned out all across the country, and I didn’t have anybody. One night I was alone at home, my folks had gone to a horse sale and were going to be gone all night. I got on the computer, and next thing I knew I had searched out and joined an online chat room.”

  She bit down on her lip, and was silent again. After a moment she took a deep breath and continued. “Nobody listed their real names. So I called myself Patches.”

  He smiled. “After your horse.”

  She nodded. “I began to chat, and there was this one person who seemed to have the same interests as me. We both liked horses, and he asked me if I would like to make our messages private so we could talk about what we wanted. I agreed, and so that’s how it began. After that we talked every night, sometimes for hours. He told me he grew up in West Virginia on a farm, and he had ridden horses all his life. He said he was living in Massachusetts now and working as an accountant.”

  “And he told you his real name?”

  “He said it was Jesse Tolliver and that he worked for the accounting firm of Morris, Templeton and Bradford in Boston.”

  “Did you ever check him out to see if there really was a Jesse Tolliver?”

  “I did. I looked up the accounting firm, and they had an accountant by that name.”

  “Did you ever see a picture of him?”

  “Yes, he sent me a picture that he said was of him.”

  “What happened next?” Luke asked.

  Cheyenne pulled one of her hands fr
ee of his grip and rubbed it across her forehead. “We talked every night for several months, and then the tone of his messages began to change. I had thought of Jesse as a friend who was lonely like me, so one night I told him about this new guy I’d met and was going out on a date with. He got angry and told me I couldn’t go, that he was the only man I could have in my life. I tried to reason with him, but it was no use. The things he said scared me, and so I quit connecting with him.”

  “But that wasn’t the end of it?”

  Cheyenne shook her head. “No. I had been stupid enough to give him all my information. He knew where I lived, my telephone number, my email and that I performed in rodeos. That’s when the texts and the letters started coming. The messages usually related what I’d done that day or what I’d worn. When he threatened to kill my boyfriend, I broke up with him. Then came the worst thing of all.”

  She paused, and a sob ripped from her throat. Luke grasped her hand tighter and leaned closer. “What was the worst thing?”

  She bit down on her lip for a moment before she answered. Then she took a deep breath. “He told me he was giving me one more chance. If I wanted to make right what I’d done to him, I would meet him at the next rodeo where I was scheduled to ride. I was so scared that I didn’t go. I stayed home.”

  Understanding began to dawn on Luke, but he figured she had to say the words that she’d held in for so long. “Go on.”

  “My parents went without me, and he killed them.” She shuddered and closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them and stared up at him. A tear rolled down her face, and she gave a little hiccup before she spoke. “I should have told my parents or the police about Jesse, but I was too embarrassed to let them know how stupid I was. At first I thought he’d grow tired and leave me alone. As time went on, it got worse, and he threatened to do horrible things to me if I told anybody his name. So I kept quiet, and my parents died.”

  “Cheyenne, you didn’t—” he began.

  “No,” she interrupted. “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. I’m responsible for my parents’ murder, and I have to live with that knowledge for the rest of my life.”