by Woods, Karen
“Is that all you can remember?” Bob asked in disbelief at the amount of detail she had just told him.
Dani tried again to envision the man. After a moment, she said, “His left ear was lumpy. Like he was wearing a bluetooth headset ... If that was the case, there may be more people involved than just the two of them.”
“This is an unusual amount of detail for a witness to recall,” Bob Hunter stated.
“I’m trained to see things, Chief Hunter. I’m an artist. It would be unusual for me not to see details other people don’t.”
The policeman nodded. “So I understand. So, tell me, what alerted you to the incident?”
She recalled the evening in detail for the officer.
“Okay. You left the first man on the floor, disabled with a broken knee?”
“I couldn’t fight two of them at the same time. So I had to put one of them out of commission, to have any chance of keeping Jaime safe,” Dani answered.
“Even at the risk of your own life?” Steve asked.
Dani sighed. “I was his only hope of not being kid-napped, maybe murdered. What else was I supposed to do? Anyone who doesn’t care for the innocents in her charge is worthless.”
“You were sure the first man was alive?” Bob Hunter asked.
“Dead men don’t scream,” she replied. “He screamed when he went down and he was viciously cursing me all the time I fought the second man,” Dani explained. Then she asked, “Why?”
“When we got there, he was dead,” Bob said.
Dani shivered. She felt very cold. He could have just as easily killed me. Why hadn’t he? “Oh, my sweet Jesus!” she prayed on little more than a whisper. She took a couple of slow breaths to calm herself.
Then she looked at Bob, “I swear I left him alive and in lots of pain. None of the injuries I gave him would have taken his life.”
Bob nodded affirmatively. “You didn’t kill him with the ball bat. His throat was slit. Since the murder weapon was not in the room, we assumed you weren’t responsible for his death,” the lawman replied. “Now, if he had died of a gunshot wound, I would have asked you for your sidearm, for testing.”
Steve asked, “If you have a gun, why didn’t you use it to defend Jaime?”
“It was in my bedroom, a floor below Jaime’s room. If I’d taken the time to go get it, I probably still would have had to fight at least one of them and they may have hurt or even killed Jaime.”
“What kind of gun do you own?” Steve asked.
“A Smith & Wesson Model 327, Night Guard, in .357 Magnum.”
Steve whistled. “That’s an expensive weapon.”
“A good tool is worth the expense,” she dismissed.
“Why would you have spent that kind of money on a pistol?” Steve asked.
Dani didn’t want to see any of their faces when she admitted this. “Because either Edward or his clients may have been responsible for my mother’s death. Edward threatened that he would kill me. So, I needed to have a way to defend myself.”
“You had this weapon in the house. Why didn’t you use it?” Bob asked.
“There was no time to get to it. I had to defend Jaime.”
Her father asked, “Sweetheart?”
“I’m fine, Dad...Don’t worry,” she said. “You don’t need the stress.”
“Don’t tell me not to worry, child!” Harry told her. “You were attacked under my roof.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she told him.
“Before you went up, you turned on the security system?” Bob asked.
“Yes. I did,” Dani answered. “Do you know how they got in?”
“The night man at the gate house was found beaten, drugged, and tied up. The land phone lines to the house were disabled,” Bob Hunter told her. “The alarm system appears to have been disabled from the gate house. The locks weren’t forced, and the house keys were missing from the gatehouse.”
“Terrific,” Dani answered, her voice more weary than sarcastic.
Bob Hunter said, “Well, I think that’s all I need right now.”
“You know I’m more than willing to co-operate in this investigation,” Dani replied. “I’m just hurting right now.”
“Okay, Sweetheart,” Harry said firmly. “We’ve tired you out enough. Get some rest, now. The only thing you have to be concerned with is getting better.”
“Like you, I’m too mean to die, Dad,” she teased.
Harry nodded. “Sure, Sweetheart.”
Bob cleared his throat. “You should know we’ve posted a guard outside your room, just in case. I know you have a concealed carry permit. But I don’t want you in possession of your weapon until your vision clears. It’s just not safe.”
“I know,” Dani acknowledged.
“Did you recognize either man?” Bob demanded.
“I told you, they both wore ski masks. I wouldn’t recognize either of them. But they don’t know that,” Dani replied.
Jase said, his voice so tender and so at odd with his words, it made her want to cry, “Both Harry and I have carry permits, have had for a while. So, you don’t have to worry about it right now. You’re getting a fulltime armed bodyguard.”
Dani sighed. “I don’t want a keeper.”
“Tough,” her father informed her. “You’ve got one.”
“I’m scared, Dad,” she admitted.
“Yeah, sweetheart, I’m scared, too,” Harry admitted. “And I’m angry. You were attacked in my house. There will be changes in my home security. No matter what else I’ll do, I’ll make sure my family stays safe! You have my word on that.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The panicked female voice said lowly into the phone, “We’ve got to do something about that brat of Nancy’s. This is the last straw. Nothing with that girl goes as we plan it.”
“I believe we’ve had this conversation before, my dear,” Gil told her.
“Damnitall, Gilbert! If you don’t do something about Nancy’s brat, I will! I can put the poison on her fork at dinner, easily. And she’ll be dead. I’ve got the drug in an inhaler, just waiting to use it on Harry. I’m sick of putting up with her.”
“I see no need for taking any immediate action against the girl,” Gil said. “Don’t do anything rash, darling. The situation is well in hand.”
“She spoiled our plans for the boy.”
“And she’s paying for it.”
“Not enough. Our employee could have put an end to the problem while he had the chance, and he didn’t.”
“I know. I’m not happy with that, either.”
“What are we going to do?”
“She didn’t escape unscathed. She’s incapacitated for now. As for the lad, we’ll just have to wait a little while until they relax their guard a little before we act again. Getting rid of the lad was a side benefit. Just like putting his papa out of the picture was. But that’s ancient history now. We can deal with boy and his mother when the time comes. As for Nancy’s brat, well, she’s playing right into our hands.”
“I hope you aren’t making a mistake in being so patient. If you had gotten rid of her to begin with, none of this would be happening now,” the woman stated. “You could have taken care of her before she even came here.”
He sighed. “Look. She can be dealt with. So far, she hasn’t probed into the whole episode with her mother. She’s let sleeping dogs lie. She’s convinced Hastings has had a hand in this whole episode. That’s what we want her to think. So, where’s the problem?”
The female voice sighed over the phone. “Our employee.”
“I’m meeting with him later today. He won’t be a problem much longer, for anyone.”
“Be careful.”
“I’m always careful, my dearest. Always.”
“I hope so. I’d hate for anything to happen to you. So what do we do now?”
“You don’t do anything. I’ve got everything under control.”
“When can I see you?”
&
nbsp; “Soon. Very soon.”
“I miss you.”
“And I miss you.”
“I’d better go now,” she said reluctantly.
“I love you.”
She sighed. “That makes everything worthwhile.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dani reclined on a chaise outside in the shade. She was under strict orders to do nothing, literally nothing, except rest, eat, let people pamper her, and take her medicine, during the next week. Her father was already talking about getting her to a plastic surgeon for her nose. As much as her face hurt, it looked far worse. But as long as she only used one eye, she could manage. Still, keeping one eye closed was fairly easy as she was under orders to keep the icepack covering her left eye most of the time.
“Dani, how are you?” Sarah asked as she sat down near Dani.
“I’m glad for your company, believe me,” Dani said.
“I’m being totally presumptuous in calling on you.”
“Not at all. I’m delighted to have someone to talk to,” Dani said with a smile. “So, what’s on your mind?”
“I’d still like to do a feature about you,” Sarah told her. “More now than ever. There’s a tremendous amount of interest in you since the story about how you saved Jaime hit the front page.”
“No,” Dani said. “I’m not interested in granting anyone an interview.”
“Can I ask why you aren’t interested?” Sarah queried.
“You just did,” Dani replied with a forced smile.
Sarah laughed. “So, why don’t you want to be featured in a human interest piece?”
Dani sighed. “Because although I’m definitely human, I’m not really very interesting.”
Sarah chuckled. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. You’ve become something of a local heroine.”
Dani shifted position and had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.
Sarah looked at her in concern. “Should I get someone for you?”
“I’m fine, Sarah,” Dani dismissed with a sigh.
“Sure you are,” Sarah agreed mendaciously. “You’re in pain, a lot of pain.”
“I’m as fine as I’m going to be at this point,” Dani corrected. “A certain amount of pain is par for the course. I’m just thankful it isn’t worse than it is. I could have easily died.”
“Aren’t they giving you pain meds?” Sarah asked in concern.
“Antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.”
“Please be careful, Dani. Be very careful.”
Dani looked at her for the longest moment. “You think this has something to do with your uncle’s death?”
“I wouldn’t doubt it.”
“That’s a stretch,” Dani dismissed.
“I wish I could be certain of that,” Sarah said. “I feel responsible for this. If I hadn’t started you looking into Uncle Peter’s death, maybe none of this would have happened to you.”
“This was an attack on Jaime. I just got in the way.”
“I’m not at all sure about that. There’s a saying, ‘Once is an accident, twice is co-incidence, but the third time is enemy action,’” Sarah offered. “This is way more than the third instance directed against your family. My uncle’s body being found in the pond here, John Hardin’s murder, the potshots someone took at Jase six months ago, your mother’s murder, and Jaime’s attempted kidnapping. There’s a pattern developing here, and I don’t like it. Be very careful.”
Dani held the icepack on her face as she looked at her friend out of one eye. “Beth’s husband was murdered? Someone shot at Jase? Why didn’t anyone tell me anything about this?”
“I don’t know. Possibly because they haven’t made the connection between the attacks. I hope I’m wrong about all of them being connected, but I don’t think I am.”
“You need to tell me everything,” Dani said, not at all certain she wanted to know, but needing all the knowledge she could get about this. With any luck, Sarah was reading far more into this than existed, was seeing patterns where there were none.
“John’s car was sabotaged. The brake fluid had been replaced by a solvent that functioned as brake fluid until it ate through the brake shoes and left him with no brakes. They lived in the mountains out in Colorado. It was winter. I don’t know what else you’d call it except murder. Normally, they all left the house together. If Jaime hadn’t broken out with Chicken Pox and Beth hadn’t stayed home with him, they all would have been dead. Originally, the ruling had been accidental. But Harry pushed for a further investigation, and the ruling came back as sabotage.”
Dani closed her eyes and sighed. “Tell me about the shooting?”
“Jase was doing a field inspection on a dam project in Columbia. A small plane came overhead and fired three shots, all at Jase. If he hadn’t been wearing body armor he’d be dead, because all three shots hit his back. He ended up with three broken ribs out of it. They said it was the action of a political faction who didn’t want the dam built. But I don’t believe that for a moment. It was attempted murder. I know it.”
“Merciful Heavens!”
Sarah looked at her watch. “Well, Jase told me I shouldn’t overtire you. He told me I could stay only three minutes.”
“You aren’t an egg. You can stay and talk to me as long as you want to. I’m not going to rush you off. Not a word of this is to appear in the paper, Sarah. This was not an interview.”
Sarah smiled. “I know that. Can I stop by to see you again tomorrow, Dani?”
“I’d be glad for the company. And you don’t have to run off, now. Stay and talk to me. I’m so completely bored out of my mind. I can’t read. I can’t work. I can’t even take a run or a swim. The doctor isn’t letting me do anything except lay about and be totally lazy. It gets old after a while.”
“I guess I can stay longer.”
“I appreciate the company. You can’t know how much.” Dani added, reluctant to approach the issue, “I’ve heard rumors about you and Jase. Everyone expected the pair of you to marry.”
Sarah nodded tightly. “I figured you would have heard. There hasn’t been anything but friendship, sometimes with benefits, between Jase and me since college, Dani. That’s been a long time ago. He’s a good man and a good friend. But I’ve known for a long time that we’d never marry.”
Dani nodded slightly. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad he’s found someone like you. All you have to do is to look at him while he’s looking at you, to see he’s in love with you,” Sarah said.
Lord, I wish that were true.
“I’ve got some news of my own, on the marriage front,” Sarah added.
“Oh?”
“Steve Anderson’s asked me to marry him. We’ve set a date for October. Halloween. Appropriate, since this will be the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I wondered if you and Jase would stand up with us. It will be a very small wedding.”
“Let me ask Jase. But I’ll be delighted to be your witness. Tell me about the wedding plans?”
They spoke for over a half hour about the various plans Sarah and Steve had already made. Dani would have shaken her head over this, if her head hadn’t hurt so much. Sarah might call this a small wedding, but it wasn’t at all small by any reasonable standard. Sarah’s gown, and Dani’s dress as her attendant, would both be made by a well known designer. A well known fashion photographer, an old college friend of Sarah’s, would be taking the pictures. The wedding was going to be a true event, even though it was being put together quickly.
“You know, he wants a career in politics,” Dani warned.
“Yeah, it should be fun.”
Dani sighed. “You and I have different ideas about fun, then.”
“Politics fascinates me. But, I don’t want to overtire you, so I’ll be going. Get well.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know that. Very trying,” Sarah teased.
Dani wanted to stay awake and think about everything Sarah had told he
r, yet she found herself dozing off.
When she woke, she found Frank Greer sitting beside her.
“How long have you been here, Father?” she asked him.
“I just now sat down. I came because I thought you might want someone to talk to.”
She sighed. “I keep thinking there must have been other ways to stop the man. All I wanted was to rescue Jaime. I never intended the man to die. And yet, I created the circumstances where his companion killed him.”
“Saint Paul encourages us to live in peace with all men, in as much as that depends on us. But it doesn’t always depend on us. You’ve done nothing morally wrong in your defense of Jaime. You reacted swiftly and decisively to a real threat. There were no workable non-violent means to resolve this. You took the actions you believed were necessary at the time, and those actions were proportional to the good to be achieved by them. You did nothing sinful. The murder is entirely on the conscience of the man who slit that man’s throat.”
Dani said in a shamed voice, “I was so relieved when I heard his knee break. I was almost happy about his pain.”
Frank nodded, “His pain meant he couldn’t hurt you or Jaime. Relief, up to the point of rejoicing, would have been a normal reaction.”
“I’m still angry about this. Angry at them. Angry at myself. Angry at whoever told them about the security system here. I’m so angry, I haven’t even been able to pray for the dead man’s soul. But that’s nothing new, ever since my mother died, I’ve been unable to pray for whoever killed her, either. That anger is eating me alive, Father.”
“Prayer is often the hardest work we’ll ever do. It’s especially hard to pray for those who have harmed people we love. You can’t let the anger keep hold on you. It’s like rust on metal. It will weaken you. When I can’t find it in myself to pray, I fall back on the prayer book. The prayer for our enemies and the prayers for guidance, for protection, and for people in trouble are great places to begin. But often, when I really can’t pray, I fall back on the Orthodox practice known as the ‘Jesus prayer’ in a meditative form, turning every breath into a mental prayer by thinking ‘Jesus’ on every inhale and ‘mercy’ on each exhale. It is a tremendous tool for keeping oneself continually in prayer, for breaking down the prayer block.”
