Present Danger

by Elizabeth Goddard

  He blew out a breath. “I’ll see what I can find out and get back to you. Give me a week.”

  Joey pushed himself away from the table. He was done talking. He walked away, knocked on the door, and exited when a guard opened it.

  Terra hung her head.

  Jack took Terra’s hand and squeezed. “You did your best. We knew it was a long shot.”

  “He said he was trying to expand his operation. I get the feeling he already has a name, and it’s more that he’s going to think about whether or not to hand that name over to me.”

  THIRTY

  Jack made his way down the emergency room hallway until he found Aunt Nadine’s room. He pushed through a curtain, realizing too late that he could very well have the wrong room.

  Aunt Nadine’s sweet face looked up at him, and her eyes brightened. Swift relief whooshed through him.

  “Oh, Jack. I’m so sorry,” she said, her expression shifting to one of sorrow and regret. “You didn’t have to come up here to see me. Francine is here. She’s out there somewhere searching for coffee.”

  No, she wasn’t. Francine Carmichael had left Jack a voice mail that his aunt was in the hospital, and he rushed over once they landed at the airport in Big Rapids. Jack sent Francine on her way when he got to the hospital, but he wouldn’t tell Aunt Nadine that news yet. He took in her broken wrist, stifling anything that would convey his frustration. He was glad she had nothing more than a fractured wrist.

  He took Aunt Nadine’s uninjured hand in his and squeezed. “She was right to think that I would want to know you had been hurt. I came as soon as I could.” He released her hand and lifted his brows. “So, what really happened?”

  Nadine’s face scrunched up in a way that told him she didn’t want to tell him. He suspected that she was taking her time responding so she could conjure up a more positive slant to the tale.

  “Well, let’s see. I took Freckles out for a walk and decided to take Tux and Dusty too. You know, they don’t get to leave the backyard much, and they must think I’ve been playing favorites. I haven’t meant to. It’s just that Freckles is still missing his boy. So I took all the dogs. There’s that wonderful neighborhood park a few blocks over.”

  “You took all three dogs? I hope they were on leashes.”

  She frowned at him. “Of course they were. At first.” That scrunch again.

  “Go on.” He was starting to get an image in his head—and it might have been comical, except her condition took the humor out of it.

  “I unleashed them at the park, and we played fetch. All four of us.”

  “Let me guess. One of them took off.”

  “Not one of them. All three of them. Freckles was the first to go squirrel hunting—or, rather, chasing. Then I found myself chasing three dogs on the loose. I’m sorry, Jack, I got a ticket. I didn’t even know that was a law. Is it a new law? Anyway, a woman complained. She was playing with her three-year-old, and Freckles knocked the child over.”

  Jack tensed. This could be worse than he thought. “The kid is okay, though, right?”

  “Yes. I’m the one who was injured. I was chasing Freckles and tripped at the edge of the playground area. It was the most ridiculous thing. I fell forward and stopped the fall with my hands. Like anyone would do. My wrist started throbbing.”

  “Can I ask what happened to the dogs?”

  “I was in so much pain. Several people in the park helped me up. I panicked. I couldn’t see the dogs, and I didn’t have my phone with me.”

  Aunt Nadine covered her eyes with her good hand as though she might cry.

  Jack wrapped his arms around her and patted her back. “It’s okay. It’s going to be fine. Just relax.”

  When he sensed she was okay, he released her.

  She looked up at him. “A young man releashed all three dogs. Someone called Francine for me, and she came right away. The young man was kind enough to walk the dogs home and put them in the yard for me.”

  Interesting. “Did you get his name so I can thank him?” And make sure he wasn’t just taking advantage of Aunt Nadine and perhaps helping himself to goodies in the house.

  “Andy Reamer, I think. Francine wrote it down for me somewhere.”

  “I’ll check with her then. Aunt Nadine”—he grabbed her good hand again—“I’m so sorry this happened. I’m glad Mrs. Carmichael called me. She’s a great friend.”

  Aunt Nadine sat up. “I called Francine so you wouldn’t be called away from your work. I wouldn’t want to do anything to mess up your job.”

  “You’re more important, Aunt Nadine. You’re a priority.” But I was in Colorado this afternoon and wouldn’t have been able to rush home. Again, he had that nagging sense that he was going about this all wrong. That Aunt Nadine was only getting worse, and he would fail her again in ways he couldn’t yet imagine.

  Doubt flitted across her expression. He knew where that came from, and regret squeezed his chest. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around lately and I wasn’t there to help you put up all those posters for Freckles.”

  “Because you’re busy with your job. You don’t need to apologize for that.”

  He pinched his nose. How did he explain? “Yes, I do have a job, and I’m in the middle of a murder investigation.” Two murders now. “Putting up posters for a lost dog is one thing. But your health and your life are another.”

  His aunt seemed to stare right through him. Oh no. Was her mind going somewhere else? These episodes were getting worse. She suddenly focused in on him. “I understand. You don’t need to talk to me like I’m a child. Remember that old adage, ‘No one ever wished they had worked harder on their death bed.’”

  He smiled. What else could he do? “I’m duly chastised.”

  Jack kissed her on the cheek. “When they set you free, I’ll take you home.”

  He noticed the time on the wall clock. As much as he needed to stay focused on the investigation, he would take a couple of hours off to be with his aunt this evening and get her settled. He’d already spoken to Francine, who would come by and sit with her later.

  Still, maybe he should call it a day to be with his aunt.

  “Aunt Nadine. When do you go back to your primary doctor?”

  “Not for a couple of months. Why?”

  Jack wanted her doctor to run more tests. She seemed much too young to be suffering with dementia. He’d done some Internet research, but that could be both terrifying and dangerous and lead a person down an entirely wrong track.

  He eased into the chair near the bed and hoped they would release her soon.

  “Jack, why did you ask about my doctor?”

  “Just wondering so I can make sure to be there with you for the appointment.”

  Maybe he should tell her the truth before it was too late for her to understand. He’d sent Francine on her way to run her own errands before she came by to hang out with his aunt. He crouched so he was eye level with her. “Listen, Aunt Nadine, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Her eyes teared up. “No, no. I’m the one. I . . . I have a confession to make. It’s about your father—”

  The doctor entered the room and cut her off. Jack introduced himself and learned the details about her fracture and when she would need to see her own doctor. Then he assisted her in getting up, and together they walked slowly down the hall to the exit, where he helped her into his vehicle.

  Jack went around the car and got into the driver’s seat, drawing in a few slow breaths. Curiosity gnawed at him. “Before the doctor came in, you said you had a confession to make. Something about my father.”

  “You’re thinking of someone else, Jack. I didn’t say anything about your father.”

  THIRTY-ONE

  Standing at the trailhead, Terra breathed in the scent of pine and juniper and hoped peace would settle her tumultuous thoughts.

  Terra had gone into the office this morning to make an appearance and fill out paperwork. She’d bumped fists with the likes o
f Case Haymaker and her other forest service coworkers for the area, and then with her duty there accomplished, she’d headed out to the national forest.

  Yesterday might have been a colossal waste of time. The jury was still out.

  Come on, Joey. Give me something.

  But today she would make up for that. She determined to find something to connect Jim Raymond with Neva Bolz and the cache. The archaeologist should be reviewing the items soon, and she would know more about their origins and to where they should be returned.

  Crouching, Terra pressed her hand against the hardened trail as though she could take the pulse of the earth. Here, the ground felt cool and damp from recent rains.

  The thought of rain made her think of Jack the evening he stopped by the ranch and got drenched, when he’d proclaimed earlier that he never got caught in the rain. The image of him soaking wet just so he could talk to her warmed her insides.

  She shook off the feelings flooding her.

  Jack was supposed to meet her here.

  But he was late, so she decided to hike up the trail a bit. Head to Jim’s cabin. After a few minutes walking the path up Maverick Trail, Terra stood in the thickly wooded area and absorbed the nature around her.

  This was unadulterated beauty at its finest. She soaked in the sounds and scents and gloried in the greenery, enjoying the peace she so often found while in the woods. Being out here close to God’s creation—the air, the trees, the birds and animals—cleared her mind like nothing else.

  She needed time alone to gather her thoughts, so maybe it was a good thing that Jack was late.

  Terra continued up the trail, feeling more at home than she had in a long time. Because she was actually close to home, after all, unlike her time with the National Park Service when she lived in southwest Colorado, where she nabbed Joey.

  What did Joey know about what was going on here, if anything? Or was she reaching too far—a long shot, as Jack had said about yesterday’s venture to the federal prison.

  This investigation was becoming complex in ways she hadn’t anticipated.

  And at the end of the day, when she couldn’t shut down her mind to sleep, her thoughts always went to her mother. Her mother’s heroism. And Terra never measured up.

  To ever truly do that, she would need to die in the line of duty.

  Sweat beaded on Terra’s back as she hiked the incline, then finally turned off the trail toward the cabin.

  What am I missing here?

  “Think bigger,” Joey had said. Or was he only trying to put her off?

  Through the trees in the distance, Terra spotted Jim’s cabin. The windows had been boarded up. Had Jack’s deputies done that? For what purpose? Everything in the cabin had been removed and taken in as evidence.

  Terra leaned against a tree and let nature calm her mind. Let God rein in her thoughts. The rain had poured down at Gramps’s ranch and at the bottom of this mountain. But up here, it was dry and hadn’t been cleared out—there simply weren’t enough resources to clear the forest, and kindling rested everywhere just waiting to catch fire.

  Jim had been sitting on a metaphorical tinderbox that had exploded and backfired on him.

  Think bigger.

  Bigger.

  Bigger.

  Terra pushed from the tree and approached the cabin. She found the door unlocked and stepped inside. The deputies had boarded the windows but left the door unlocked? Terra took a closer look at the knob but saw no sign of forced entry. Someone else with a key to the cabin had come back and didn’t bother locking it? Jack had mentioned getting cameras up in these woods near the cabin, but she doubted that had been done yet.

  She walked the perimeter on the inside, then stood in the middle and stared up at the ceiling.

  Think bigger.

  Terra moved back outside and walked around the cabin in ever widening circles.

  Okay. Bigger.

  A doe dashed away, startling her. She was entirely too edgy. She hadn’t known the deer was watching.

  “Foraging for berries in the bushes, were you? I didn’t mean to—” A strange-shaped rock near a bush caught her attention. She stooped to look closer.

  Was it stone? Wait, no. Clay. An artifact they’d missed? Terra pulled on gloves to scrape away the earth, except the corner wasn’t buried, after all, but rested on pine needles beneath the bush, as if it had broken off from a larger piece and fallen to the ground. She assumed this was related to the cache they’d found. She took a few photographs of the object and the area surrounding it, then took a wider image showing where the object rested in relation to the cabin.

  Then she carefully lifted it. Roughly the size of her palm, it appeared to be the corner of a clay tablet. Turning it over, she noticed etchings unlike anything she’d ever seen—except in photographs.

  Her heart rate kicked up.

  Terra hadn’t heard anything back from the forest service archaeologist about the artifacts they’d secured from the cabin. This broken corner was something different altogether. Hands shaking, she carefully wrapped the piece in the gloves to protect it and placed it in a zippered pocket of her jacket.

  Terra would give the cabin another look before she left. If this was missed, maybe something else had been missed too. She had the feeling that the investigation had just gotten . . . bigger. But she wouldn’t jump to conclusions until she had an expert examine the object.

  And, unfortunately, she knew just the expert.

  Inside the cabin again, she flipped on the flashlight and shined it around. Though she didn’t believe she and Jack had missed anything, or the county evidence techs either, stranger things had happened. After all, she’d found the unusual fragment near the cabin.

  She gave up the hunt, stashed her flashlight, and opened the door. Or tried to.

  It was locked.

  What? Terra pulled and yanked and kicked. She shined her flashlight on the knob. Was it the kind of knob that could be locked and unlocked from the outside only? No. Twisting from the inside should release the locking mechanism.

  Okay. She could unscrew the entire thing. Except she didn’t have a screwdriver. She’d climb out the windows then. Oh, right. They were boarded up.

  Terra moved to one of the windows. Maybe she could remove enough boards to climb out. A pungent odor tickled her nose. Alerted her senses.

  Smoke.

  Panic grabbed her.

  Peering through the crack in the boards to see outside, Terra had the eerie sense she was trapped behind prison bars. A pop resounded. Sparks drifted across her line of sight. She shifted to peer at the woods behind the cabin and saw nothing. Then . . . fire.

  And a hooded figure running away.

  Terra stepped back from the window, her breath catching in her throat. She turned around.

  Flames licked at the far corner of the cabin. Soon it would be engulfed.

  Fear ignited her whole body. She reached for her cell, her slippery fingers hindering her efforts to grab on. Come on! Of course she had no signal here.

  She texted Jack, hoping at least that would go through. But she wouldn’t wait for someone to save her. She had to find a way out of this cabin before toxic fumes overcame her.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Jack had received news that the preliminary comparison of shoe prints from the woods behind Neva’s home didn’t match prints near Terra’s home the night of the break-in. He’d been hoping for that answer.

  Regardless, he was late to meet Terra when he parked his vehicle next to hers on the Maverick Trailhead.

  Of course she had already hiked up the trail without him. He wouldn’t have waited on him either. Before he got out of his vehicle, he thought to text her to let her know he was on his way, though she might not receive it up the mountain.

  He noticed that she’d beat him to it with a text of her own.

  The words jumped out at him and grabbed him by throat.

  Alarm ignited.

  Oh no.

  Jack called 91
1 while he still had a signal and reported the information Terra had relayed—the woods were on fire and she was trapped in the cabin—then ended the call.

  He hopped from his vehicle and instantly smelled the smoke. Heart pounding, he rushed up the trail, hoping he hadn’t just wasted seconds making that emergency call. Seconds that could make the difference in saving her life.

  “Terra!” Jack’s leg muscles screamed as he pushed himself faster up the trail, then he slowed before his heart burst. He picked up the pace again. If he survived this, he would take up trail jogging.

  His lungs burned as he sucked in oxygen and smoke. The acrid stench thickened as he drew closer. He stopped in his tracks to catch his breath.

  He kept going as far as he could go, but it wasn’t nearly far enough. The forest burned, creating a wall of flames and heat so he couldn’t push deeper into the woods.

  Terra.

  The blaze crackled and hissed, its fiery fingers hungrily reaching for more as sparks swirled into a sky already darkening with toxic smoke.

  No . . . Terra . . .

  His heart spasmed.

  He hadn’t realized he’d fallen to his knees. Shock. Grief. He didn’t know. He couldn’t let that cripple him now. He wouldn’t give up. Because if he knew anything about Terra—she was a fighter. She would find her own way out. Please, God, let it be so.

  Jack got to his feet and moved around the edge of the fire, heading northwest from the trail, to find a way to get closer to the cabin if he could. The smoke and heat caused his eyes to water, his lungs to convulse. Still, he searched for a possible way closer, belying the obvious hopelessness building in his heart. Denying what he knew to be true. And finally, through the burning trees, he saw what he feared.

  The cabin was gone.

  If Terra was still inside, she was gone too.

  THIRTY-THREE

  Groaning with the effort, Terra launched up and onto a massive boulder, finding a foothold before she slipped. Then another. Climbing wasn’t her thing—it was Jack’s thing—but she knew enough, and her survival depended on getting to safety. She scaled higher and higher until she made it to the top of the boulder. From there she could find the safest route out of the forest, and the likely route taken by the arsonist.