Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right [The Chisholms of Texas 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Lea Kinkade

  “That’s something, at least,” Rio responded as he headed for the table where he read the note without touching it.

  “What do you mean? This bastard left something for her at our home, Rio.” Dillon was nearly yelling with frustration.

  “I didn’t mean it that way, Dillon. Christ. All I’m saying is that at least we know he couldn’t get in the house. If he could have gotten inside, he’d have left the note inside instead of leaving it where he did. At least we know our security measures held up.”

  “Did you call the sheriff?” Abby asked haltingly as she came out of her stupor. He couldn’t get in. They were safe. He couldn’t get in the house.

  “Yeah, he should be here in a few minutes. I’m going to walk around the perimeter and see if I can see any place this sick bastard might have tried to get into the house.” As he walked out the front door, he was pulling his gun from his shoulder holster. “Wait here for the sheriff.”

  “I’m going to make some coffee.”

  Dillon was glad she’d found something to occupy her mind and keep her hands busy. He knew her mind must be going a million miles a minute and her hands were shaking like leaves on a tree right now. He watched her closely as she went to the cupboard where they kept the coffee and measured coffee into the coffeepot, added water, and turned it on. By the time she was getting cups down for everyone, Sheriff Decker had shown up and Dillon filled him in on what had happened and what Rio was doing. Decker went outside to check the perimeter just as Rio was returning.

  “Ground is too hard to get much, but there were vague footprints under most of the windows. He could have been checking for a security system and saw the infrared sensors at the windows. Doesn’t look like he attempted to break in anywhere.”

  “Come have some coffee,” Abby told Rio. “It’s cold out there today.”

  The sheriff had returned as Abby handed a cup of coffee to Rio. “I’ll take a cup of that, too, if you don’t mind. Well, Rio. I’m sure we both saw the same thing out there, so while I have to say it looks like he’s growing bolder—coming up to the house and all—it doesn’t look like he wants to let anyone know he’s here by setting off the alarms. The wording on the note is interesting. He seems to think Dillon is forcing Abby into a sexual relationship by dangling her job over her head.”

  “I have a headache. I’m going to lie down for a little while. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  “I’ll be in to check on you in a little while, baby.” He was glad she was going to be out of earshot for a while. He had something to say. When he heard the door to the bedroom shut, he turned to Rio.

  “I want to know if Jaime Hernandez passed through security today.” Dillon knew his statement came out of the blue, but he felt down deep in his gut that Jaime Hernandez was the stalker. He knew it. Now he just had to prove it. He heard Rio on the phone to the front gate telling them he wanted a list of all persons let onto the Ranch today.

  “If Hernandez came on the Ranch today, would that and the note be enough to get a search warrant for his place in town?” Dillon directed his question to the sheriff.

  “Probably not, Dillon,” said Decker apologetically.

  “What about if we had a writing sample of his and compared it to the note and they were a match? What then?” Dillon was thinking out loud, wanting something—anything—to stick.

  “Well, if we could place him on the Ranch when the note was left, and the expert thought the two writing samples were from the same person, I believe I could get Judge Masterson to write a search warrant for Hernandez’s home and vehicle.”

  Dillon took out his phone and punched in Xander’s phone number. It was Christmas and a Friday. There wouldn’t be anyone at the CRE offices until Monday morning. He couldn’t wait that long. He knew his brother would agree once he learned what had happened. When Xander picked up, Dillon quickly went through what had happened since they had gotten home. Xander promised to go to the office right away and find Hernandez’s employment application and bring it to Dillon’s house.

  Twenty-five minutes later, Xander arrived and handed over the application to the sheriff, who took it in to the kitchen table so he could sit down and compare the writing. Xander stayed to support Dillon and find out if one of his employees was a stalker.

  “My opinion won’t be enough to get the warrant. I’m not an expert, even though I’ve gotten some pointers from one. But I should be able to rule him out based on my comparison at the very least.” Decker grabbed the note that was now in an evidence baggie and placed it next to the employment application on the table before him. He pointed to several letters on the note and then found the same letter on the application, comparing them in his head. He studied the two documents for at least five minutes before he pushed them both away from him on the table.

  Looking up at the other men, he told them, “I can’t rule him out. The way the individual letters are written on both the note and the employment application is too similar. If I was the expert, I’d say the same person wrote both. I’ll take both and fax them to my expert today. He may want to come down on Monday and take a look at them in person. He lives in Corpus Christi, so we should know something by end of day Monday. That’s assuming he isn’t away for the holidays somewhere.”

  Dillon had grown more and more calm as the sheriff told them his opinion of the origin of the note. He’d known it was that little prick. He was going to hunt the asshole down and beat the shit out of him.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, Dillon. I’d hate to have to arrest you just when Abby is going to need you. You can’t do anything with this knowledge right now. Remember. I’m not a handwriting expert. Keep your shit together and let me handle this. You’re not going to do Abby any good hanging out in a jail cell next to Hernandez. Let’s wait to hear from my guy, then we do this the right way. By the book. We don’t want this guy to skate by on a technicality like you beating a confession out of him. Based on what he’s done so far, he won’t get much jail time even if he’s convicted. He hasn’t hurt Abby physically. We’ve got property damage and vague threats. That’s it. Let’s make sure he gets the maximum penalty for the stuff he has done and not screw with it so you can feel all caveman-like.”

  Dillon started to argue with his friend the sheriff.

  “No. I know what you’re feeling. Believe me, I’ve been there. You want to wrap her up in cotton wool and beat the living shit out of this guy. Take it from me that it won’t work and the guy will get off scot-free, leaving you more pissed off than ever and totally unable to do anything about it. It’s not worth the momentary satisfaction you would get. Trust me.”

  Decker was talking as a friend now and not the sheriff. He had obviously been through something similar in his past. Decker had lived in Deseo for more than ten years. Although they were friends, Dillon never really questioned the man about his distant past and Decker had never shared. There was a story there, but now wasn’t the time to get his friend to divulge his secrets.

  Dillon made a concerted effort to keep it together. In his mind, he knew his friend was right, but his heart was another matter. He wanted justice for all Abby had been through and for the lasting emotional damage that had been inflicted on her. Her mother had been murdered right in front of her when she was a little girl for Christ’s sake. She didn’t need any more violence, and she certainly didn’t need to see the violence, or its aftermath, that he felt capable of at this moment. He reined in his temper and tamped it down with cold determination.

  “I want to kill this motherfucker, Decker, but I’ll do my best to stay away from him until we hear from your expert. I just hope you get to him first once that handwriting expert confirms that Hernandez wrote the note, because I don’t know what I’ll do then.” Decker nodded in understanding.

  “I brought the duty rosters for the next five days with me so we could see where Hernandez is supposed to be working on the Ranch. I’d fire him today if I thought that would do any good, but it seems like it
would be better to know where he’s at rather than have him running around loose.” Xander had been hanging back and listening to everyone talking. He had several sheets of paper in his hand that Dillon hadn’t noticed before.

  “You’re probably right, Xander. We want him visible until we find out one way or another. Where’s he supposed to be through Monday?”

  “He’s fairly new, so he got duty for Christmas and the next two days. He’s scheduled to be in the horse barns. I’ll make sure Levi doesn’t float him out to another area of the Ranch. We’ll be able to keep an eye on him. Monday and Tuesday are his scheduled days off.” Xander looked at Dillon apologetically at that last bit of information.

  “I’ll have one of my men keep an eye on him while he’s here at the Ranch. Hernandez won’t even know he’s being watched. I’ll have another man pick him back up as soon as he drives into town each night. I’ll have a man on him on Monday and Tuesday as well. We’ll know where he is at all times until we get this figured out.” Rio spoke softly but with complete confidence in his ability to keep Jaime Hernandez under surveillance until this was over.

  “Okay, we’ve got a plan. Rio’s men will keep surveillance on Hernandez starting tomorrow while he’s at work. I’ll have my men drive by regularly tonight to make sure his truck stays at his new place. He rented a little house just east of town. No roommates as far as we can tell and no garage, so his truck will be in the driveway. Dillon, you and Abby need to go about business as usual as much as possible. How much are you going to tell her?” Sheriff Decker stood as everyone made to get ready to leave.

  “Not any more than I have to. When her mom was killed, they pulled her in for two separate lineups to identify the guys. Abby couldn’t do it. She thought one of the guys that killed her mother was in one of the lineups but she wasn’t sure. They had to let him go. She had nightmares for months thinking the guy was going to come after her all because she couldn’t swear he was one of the killers. I don’t want her to know that this asshole is out there and we can’t do anything yet. I’ll just make sure she’s extra careful.” The men all nodded at Dillon’s reasoning. They would want to protect their women from the knowledge if they could, too.

  Dillon shut the door after everyone left and set the security system. He wanted to check on his gun in the table beside the bed. He and Abby would go to target practice tomorrow. She was getting to be a pretty good shot, and he wanted her fresh from practice in case something went down in the next couple of days and she needed to protect herself.

  As he stepped into the bedroom, he noted that the lamps were all off and the bedroom was in darkness. Abby was under the covers on her side of the bed, sleeping on her side with her back to him. He shucked off his jeans and T-shirt and crawled under the covers with her, pulling her soft body tightly against his chest as he spooned her from behind.

  “Anything I need to know about?” she murmured drowsily.

  “No, baby. Nothing for you to worry about. We’re sort of at a wait-and-see point in the investigation. We should know more next week.” Dillon was telling her as much of the truth as he planned on. The rest would just worry her unnecessarily. Although he knew deep in his gut that Jaime Hernandez was the stalker, there was still a slight chance it was someone else. He didn’t want to tell her they had the guy and then have to tell her they’d been wrong. She’d dealt with that when her mom was killed, and he didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily.

  “Okay,” she murmured as she went back to sleep.

  Dillon shifted a little, making himself more comfortable. Decker told them to do what they normally do on the weekends, so he planned on doing just that. Barring any veterinary emergencies, he and Abby would take the Knucklehead out for a drive tomorrow and go to the firing range to get in some practice. Sunday, they would go for a horseback ride and spend the day being lazy. It was a tough assignment, but he planned to enjoy every minute of it. He settled into the bed and let himself drift off to sleep, holding the woman he loved.

  * * * *

  Abby woke on Monday morning in a great mood. The weekend had been fantastic. She and Dillon spent both days together and hadn’t talked about the stalker at all. They picnicked near Lake Rojas on Saturday while they were out riding on Dillon’s Harley. On Sunday, they skipped the family dinner and took their horses out a couple of miles and had another picnic on the bank of Deseo Creek. While the horses grazed nearby, they made love on the old blanket they’d used for their picnic. They’d forgotten a condom again. They had forgotten to use condoms a few times over the past several weeks, and Abby hadn’t started her period. They agreed Abby would not start taking her birth control again and they would use condoms until they could find out whether or not she was pregnant. She planned to call the clinic this morning to find out how early she could take a pregnancy test.

  She and Dillon talked about what would happen if she was pregnant. Dillon said he took complete responsibility, as he was the one who had initiated sex each time they had forgotten to use a condom. It usually happened when he joined her in the shower. One thing led to another, and they would end up making love without protection. Abby was a little worried about how Dillon would react if she was, indeed, pregnant, but he told her he’d be overjoyed. He told her the only thing that would change would be that they would move the wedding date up, which was tentatively set for June. Secretly, Abby hoped she was pregnant. She was thirty years old and wanted to have several children. She didn’t want to be forty and still have kids in diapers.

  Early Monday morning, Dillon had already headed to the vet office to start his day. Abby was supposed to be in the office today catching up on paperwork. Actually, it was computer data entry as everything on the Ranch was computerized, but she had several days’ worth of information to enter into the computer so that the work she’d done the few days before Christmas was documented. The Christmas holiday put her behind, so it was important she get it done as soon as possible.

  Calling the doctor’s office, she found out that they could test for pregnancy the first day after a missed period. Abby was already several days past when her period should have started and told the receptionist that she’d like to set up an appointment. Abby thought it fortuitous that there had been a cancellation that day for 1:00 p.m. and accepted the appointment. Sure, she could have gone into town and bought a prepackaged pregnancy test kit, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone in town knew if she did that. She had learned about the Deseo gossip chain very quickly once she moved here and didn’t think it was anybody else’s business.

  She’d tell Dillon about her appointment when he stopped by the vet clinic later today. She worked at her computer for several hours, but Dillon never showed. Something must be going on in one of the barns necessitating a vet’s presence. She was tempted to call his cell and find out where he was but knew that if he needed her, he would have called.

  At 12:30 p.m., she wrote Dillon a quick note telling him where she had gone, got into her car, and headed into town. The clinic was housed downtown, next to Raymond’s, the best Texas barbecue place in Deseo. The smell from the restaurant was heavenly, and she made a note to herself to get some to take back to the Ranch for supper.

  Since her appointment was right after lunch, she was called back just after 1:00 p.m. and she was immediately asked to pee in a cup. A nurse took some blood and she waited in the rather boring exam room for the nurse to come back. She was reading a poster about domestic violence for the fifth time when Dr. Baker, the doctor that had diagnosed her with bronchitis several weeks ago, came into the room with a chart. Abby really liked the woman and was happy to see her again.

  “Congratulations, Abby. You’re definitely pregnant.” The doctor gave her a smile.

  At Abby’s stunned look, the doctor took a seat beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I take it this is a surprise. Pleasant or not so much? I know you were on the birth-control pill when you were here several weeks ago for the bronchitis. I told you to use a barrie
r method if you didn’t want to become pregnant because of the antibiotic.”

  “No, I know you did. And we did. For the most part,” she admitted ruefully. “We forgot a few times, but we talked about it and we both agreed we would be happy if I was pregnant. It just moves things along a little faster than I had intended. But, I’m happy. Just a little surprised. We only forgot a few times.”

  “Well, given the size of the Chisholm family, you already know they’re a fertile bunch,” the doctor teased Abby. “If you only forgot a few times, we can probably be pretty accurate as to the due date. Let’s look at the calendar.” Ten minutes later, Abby left the doctor’s office with a prescription for prenatal vitamins, some brochures on pregnancy, a referral to an ob-gyn, and a due date for the baby. She wouldn’t need to be seen by the obstetrician for at least another two months as she was barely one month along. Doctor Baker had told her that she might start experiencing fatigue and morning sickness within the next few weeks and to call if either got too bad.

  Abby left the building housing the doctor’s office in a happy daze. She was pregnant. She was going to have Dillon’s baby. She knew he’d be excited, and she could barely wait to tell him. She remembered she wanted to get some barbecue to take home with her for supper, so she went into Raymond’s and placed an order to go. While she waited, she noticed that Jaime Hernandez was sitting in the back with several friends eating a late lunch. Feeling his eyes on her, she made no move to acknowledge his presence as she waited on the bench for her to-go order. Dillon’s distrust of the man had left her unsettled and unsure of her own judgment, so she thought it best to steer clear of him for now.

  Once her order was ready, she headed back out to the parking lot to her car. She put the food on the floor of the backseat, got in the car, and put on her seat belt. When she turned the key in the ignition, however, the engine wouldn’t turn over. Shit. Not again. Dillon was definitely going to insist on buying her a new car now. He’d told her if she had any more problems with “the piece of shit” that he would replace it whether she wanted him to or not. Abby hadn’t wanted to admit the car was well past its prime and was becoming more of a hindrance than anything else. She knew Dillon’s idea of a replacement would be something along the lines of a Sherman tank. Well, maybe more like an Escalade like Jessie drove or something similar.