Deadly Hunter

by Rachel Lee

  “Hazing,” Ben said knowingly.

  Digby glanced at him and nodded. “Just so long as everyone’s okay. But I suppose my samples are in there.”

  “Yes, they are,” Allison answered. “You’d suggested that. Are you in a hurry?”

  He flashed a surprisingly charming smile. “Only to get out of this cold.”

  “It’ll only be a few more minutes,” Jake told him. “We’re almost done. Why don’t you keep warm in your vehicle?”

  “Because this is more interesting,” Digby answered frankly. He pulled down the earflaps on his hat, then snapped the strap under his chin.

  “Allison?” Sarah said. “Walk around your car and make sure nothing else appears damaged.”

  She did as asked, but didn’t see one ding or scratch that she didn’t recognize.

  Jake shook his head. “Protocol says we should dust the entire car in case someone tried to enter it, especially the driver’s side. But who’d be out here without gloves?”

  “Skip it,” Allison said. “Only a lunatic would pull his gloves off to try a car door latch. Not today. Can we get Dan’s samples now?”

  “Before we all freeze to death?” Sarah said with a humorous smile. “I think we’re done. No prints. Of course, the cold isn’t helping with that, either.”

  “I guess I’m going to find out if duct tape sticks at this temperature,” Allison remarked as she opened the tailgate. Five minutes later, Dan Digby drove away with the samples, leaving her fresh core tubes to use, as well as additional sets of gloves and booties. The parking lot emptied out and she turned toward Jerrod, who was now bouncing from foot to foot to stay warm.

  “I’m rescuing you,” she said. “Climb in. At least you’ll be out of the wind.”

  It was picking up again, as if the air wanted to snatch the last heat it could from them.

  In the driver’s seat, turning the engine over, she realized that she could hear the wind whistling inside the cab of her car now. Apparently some of those cracks had gone all the way through even though it was safety glass. Hell, she hoped the damn thing didn’t fall out.

  Given that the last temperature she had seen said it was about eighteen degrees out, she let the engine warm up again. “Guess I’m going to have to plug in tonight,” she remarked.

  “Plug in?” Jerrod asked.

  “Engine block heater. I can tell you’ve never had a vehicle in a climate as cold as this.”

  “Not usually. Once I was inserted, I hoofed it.”

  That told her a lot, she supposed, or maybe nothing at all. “Back in the old days, when it got really cold, people would drain the oil from their cars and bring it inside, then put it back in the car in the morning. The block heater is a lot more convenient, but you can use an electric blanket under the hood, too.”

  “Things I never thought about.”

  The engine was starting to put out some heat, so she figured it was warm enough to drive. “It’s kind of you to want to take me to lunch.”

  “Well, given a choice of eating alone or eating with you...” Then he laughed. She looked at him, wondering how to take that and then saw the heat in his gaze. Instantly, she blushed. He wanted her. Wow. Too bad he didn’t have any idea what he might be getting into. She dragged her gaze from him, telling her body to shut up. She knew this could lead nowhere good. Maybe she should have refused the lunch, but the rudeness... She sighed and gave in. No way could she insult him by refusing his invitation. She was going to have to find another kind of armor. Trying to sound businesslike, she asked, “Where did you want to have lunch? It’s not like we have an abundance of choices.”

  “The diner downtown is pretty good.”

  “Sure, if you can take Maude.”

  He chuckled quietly. “She doesn’t bug me.”

  “She’d be disappointed to hear that.”

  The whistling from her back window worsened as she drove. She hoped it wasn’t an omen. She hoped she was right, that no one would have a reason to come after her just for taking soil samples. That no one was stupid enough to think she could find out who had done this thing.

  She hoped the uneasiness that Jerrod had inadvertently wedged into her life with his comment about grudges was unnecessary.

  She hoped life wasn’t about to change for the worse in a big way.

  Chapter 4

  At the end of the week, things started to blow up. At first it didn’t seem so bad. Things had been quiet, her new window glass was on the way and the reports on the toxin levels in both the cows were reassuring. It appeared they had gotten a very small dose, and had died from effects to the nervous system.

  A small dose was good. They could have gotten it from the meltwater or grass. The bait animal, if that’s what it really was, was more severely poisoned, but consistent with what they expected to see if it directly ingested the poison in a larger quantity. The only problem was that the dead animal wasn’t the kind of predator that would prey on a collared animal. It was a raccoon, and had probably fed on some other dead animal.

  So while the news about the cows was reassuring, the news about the raccoon, which came later, was not.

  Allison sat at her desk in her home office, rapping a pencil absently with the email opened in front of her. Raccoons were the world’s great opportunists. Presented with carrion, they would probably eat, especially at this time of year.

  Her doorbell rang just then. She looked up in surprise. Since their lunch on Monday, Jerrod had pretty much vanished, leaving her to wonder if she’d done something at lunch to turn him off. One thing was for sure, if he was going to run hot and cold like this, she definitely didn’t need him. She’d already been rejected in a way that had left her permanently shredded, and if Jerrod was going to switch on and off, it would be best to avoid him. Dealing with her disappointment that she hadn’t seen him again had been hard enough.

  She forced herself to think about the job at hand and nothing else. The time lapse in the sampling was deliberate, to provide a comparison. With any luck, where she’d found traces of poison last time, they’d all be gone this time. It was important to know if the stuff was breaking down fast or slow.

  Making her way to the door, realizing that she actually felt tired and not in much of a mood for company, especially after being ignored all week, she prepared an excuse even before she opened the door.

  It was Jerrod, and something about the way he was standing smothered the ready excuse. “Come in,” she said swiftly. The weather hadn’t shown a bit of mercy all week.

  He stepped in. “Thanks.”

  “Is something wrong?” she asked. “Come on, I was just about to make coffee.” A lie, but an innocent one.

  He followed her to the kitchen, not answering immediately. She heard the chair scrape, heard him sit. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said finally.

  “That’s good,” she said and turned, but the instant she saw his face, she read a tension there that concerned her. “Jerrod? What is it?”

  He started to shake his head then stopped. “Oh, hell,” he muttered. “It’s no state secret. I got a call from the father of one of my men. He died two weeks ago.”

  At once her heart went out to him. “I’m so sorry.” Which sounded weak even to her own ears. He didn’t say any more, just sat there studying the table. The silence seemed endless, and awfully empty, but what could you say to something like that?

  Presently she said, “I made regular coffee but I can whip up some espresso if you’d like something stronger.”

  “Regular’s fine. Thanks.”

  So she filled a couple of mugs and joined him at the table. Maybe he just didn’t want to be alone right now. Finally she asked, “Did you just find out?”

  “Yeah.” He drummed his fingers, then seemed to give himself a shake. “It wasn’t a surpr
ise. He was badly wounded on my next-to-last mission. Nobody thought he’d make it this long.”

  “Well, it still hurts.”

  “For him it’s probably a relief.”

  She waited, then asked, “Are you going to the funeral?”

  “It’s over. Apparently they didn’t want me there, since I didn’t hear about it beforehand.”

  That startled her. “You want to explain that?”

  “Not really. I was responsible. They might hold me responsible.”

  “You mean they blame you.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Not exactly.” She had the worst urge to reach out and touch one of those nicked-up hands of his, to offer the comfort of physical touch, but restrained herself. She didn’t know this guy well enough, didn’t know what she might be wading into, or how he would react. Nor did she have any equivalent in her own life from which to speak. The closest she could come was the loss of her parents. Nothing to compare to what this man had been through. Nothing to give her even a small window on his world. She felt so inadequate.

  “It’s like this,” he said at last. “I was in command. That made me responsible. It was my job to ensure the mission was completed, but it was also my job to bring my men home safely.”

  That took her aback. “How could you guarantee any such thing in a war situation? At least I’m assuming it approximated one. People get hurt and killed even when you do your best.”

  “That may be true, but that’s not the way it feels. Or the way it’s viewed. Those men had to put complete trust in me, and I blew it. It wasn’t the first time, given the situations we went into, but thank God it’ll be the last.”

  “God,” she whispered. Then, “What do you do? Brand all that in your head and heart forever? Take responsibility for things that probably weren’t under your control?”

  “Sometimes there’s no good answer, but it doesn’t make me any less responsible, okay?”

  “I don’t know how you can stand it.”

  His black eyes seemed to burn. “We all take that responsibility for each other. But being in command ultimately placed it on my shoulders. It’s how we work, how we think and how we survive.”

  She couldn’t imagine it. She reached for the only comparison she could think of. “I understand survivor guilt, but this seems much worse.”

  She had his attention again. “Survivor guilt? What happened?”

  “Three years ago. My mom and dad decided to take a vacation. Dad had this little Cessna twin-engine four-seater plane. Anyway, they spent months planning a trip around the country and I was supposed to join them for part of it over my spring break. I was going to fly to Minneapolis to meet them and come back a week later.”

  “But?”

  She sighed and turned her coffee cup around in her hands. She’d never talked to anyone about this. The last time she had tried had been a disaster. Her boyfriend hadn’t wanted to hear it, then had turned on her only a few weeks later. At the time she had been sure she deserved all the scorn he heaped on her. “I had to postpone it. I told them I’d meet up with them in Sioux Falls. Somewhere between Minneapolis and Sioux Falls they crashed.”

  “You feel guilty about that?”

  “Hell, yeah. They think my dad had a stroke or something. My mom didn’t know a thing about flying. But I did. If I’d been there...” She didn’t bother to finish the sentence. “I haven’t flown since.” She rose and went to refresh her coffee, bringing the pot over to the table and doing the same for him.

  “You might not have had time to do anything,” he said.

  “I could give you the same argument if I knew more about what you were doing. Tell me something.”

  “If I can.”

  “How many times did you and your men go out knowing some of you, any of you, might not come back?”

  “Every time. We made the likelihood as remote as possible.”

  She spread her hands. “What more can anyone do? You said you’d lost men before. Is this time different?”

  “Only that it’s recent. Only that it was an ugly phone call. Only that I wasn’t there.”

  “Sometimes people just need to blame someone,” she said quietly. “It helps, for a little while. But that man knew what he was getting into, and I’m sure his family did, too.” Not that any of this was helping. “Sorry, I’ll shut up. It is what it is, and me running on like some kind of Pollyanna isn’t going to help a damn thing.”

  He surprised her by smiling faintly. “The effort is appreciated.”

  “But useless. That much I know from experience.”

  After a minute, he sighed and leaned back from the table. “Actually, I didn’t come over here because of that. These are things I just have to deal with. I’m surprised I even brought it up.”

  “What good is a friend if you can’t talk about whatever comes up?”

  “Are we friends?”

  The air suddenly felt pregnant, though with what, she couldn’t say. It was as if it was waiting for something. And in that pause she felt again her attraction to him, an almost overwhelming need to rise and round the table and climb into his lap. Or stand behind him and rub his shoulders just so she could feel the contours of the muscle beneath. None of which had anything to do with friendship.

  Dang, and she thought she’d put that away during his absence this week. Apparently not. His gaze had focused in on her again, boring into her in a way that suggested he was no more immune to her than she to him.

  Dangerous. Fighting back instincts proved difficult, but not impossible. She drew a deep breath, remembered his question and said, “I hope we’re becoming friends.”

  He changed the subject so quickly that she wondered if she’d imagined the moments that had just passed. Maybe she was projecting her own feelings on him. How the hell would she know?

  “I wanted to thank you again for suggesting Nate meet me. He’s been introducing me around.”

  “Good. I hoped he would.”

  “Mostly to people who have backgrounds like mine.”

  At that she had to laugh. “That’s Nate. That’s why I thought of him. I was sure the first people he’d have you meet were people who could understand without asking the questions you can’t answer. I couldn’t do that, obviously.”

  “Obviously,” he agreed. “But he did introduce me to one nut job. Fred Loftis. A guy with a giant grudge against Jake Madison.”

  “He’s a nut, all right. I’m not exactly sure why he’s got it in for Jake except his daughter came home a few weeks ago and moved in with him. They’re getting married, which you would expect to settle any problems Fred has, but no. I hear he’s been ranting about people living in sin.”

  “Living in sin is part of the fun of life.” Briefly, those dark eyes seemed to twinkle.

  Allison felt her cheeks heat a bit. “Maybe. Anyway, for Loftis I gather just about anything that doesn’t hurt is sin. You should have seen how he dressed his daughter when she was in school. It should have been a crime. A lot of people picked on her.”

  “But not you?”

  “I was a couple years behind her, so I never got involved with that. I only caught up enough to know what was happening when I got to high school. Before that, I was oblivious and we seldom crossed paths. Well, even in high school we didn’t cross paths, but I heard things.”

  “It’s hard for me to imagine not crossing paths in a town this size.”

  “It’s hard not to once you’ve grown up.” It’s one of the things she loved most about Conard—the rooting of a close-knit community, something she desperately needed after the loss of her parents. “Kids are pretty well age segregated, though, and into different things at different stages.”

  “I guess so.”

  She bit her lip. “So are you thinking Loftis p
lanted that poison? Did you come back to that?”

  “Not really. He may be an ass, but I think he knows better than that. I think Nate introduced him to me so I’d cross him off my mental list.”

  “You told Nate about your suspicion?”

  “Just mentioned it. I got quite the lecture on how dangerous it is in these parts to mess with a man’s livestock.”

  Allison laughed quietly. “It is. Not that we have a whole lot of trouble with that. Most people raised around here get the message early in life.”

  “It sounds like it.”

  “What makes you think Loftis knows better, apart from what we all understand around here?”

  He sipped coffee and leaned forward. “How’s this? The guy’s a bully. I’ve met plenty like him. Lots of bluster, but he only picks on people smaller or weaker than him. A rancher who is also chief of police would definitely be off his list. He’ll rant about it, but he won’t do a damn thing.”

  She nodded. “That’s my read, too. He’s got a cowed congregation, and pretty generally avoids everyone else. It makes me wish we had another pharmacy in town, though. I’d like to be able to patronize someone else.”

  “So he’s it?” Jerrod just shook his head. “And getting to the real reason for my visit...”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you collecting more samples tomorrow? If so, I’d like to help.”

  She’d been seriously thinking about telling him to get lost the way he had all week, but his revelation about his buddy’s death... Well, he’d come to her with something he probably hadn’t shared with anyone else around here. And he’d listened to her talk about her parents. She felt closer to him again, and figured that right now he needed something to do more than ever. “Yeah, I need to take comparison samples. In case they find toxin in the ones I took last week, it would be nice to know how fast it’s breaking down. Plus I want to get up on the side of the mountain a little. We’ve got an additional worry.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The bait animal they found was a raccoon, and it was loaded with poison. It wouldn’t be biting any livestock collars unless it was rabid, and it wasn’t. So it must have eaten some contaminated carrion. That means there’s at least one more dead animal out there, maybe more. I’ve got to look around.”