Mountain Secrets

by Elizabeth Goddard

  There were no guarantees in life, but Jewel knew she could count on lightning striking again in the form of her attacker. The question was—would he succeed in killing her the next time?

  A car door slammed outside, and she glanced out the window to see Buck driving away.

  There was no time to lose. Jewel went down into the kitchen. She had things to do. Questions to ask.

  As soon as they spotted her, Tracy, Katy and Meral suddenly stopped talking, and each tried to hide a guilt-ridden expression, as though they’d been talking about Jewel.

  Tracy stepped forward, concern in her gaze. “Jewel, how are you doing?”

  Jewel waved away her concerns. “I’m sick of sitting around. Resting is overrated.”

  She smiled, trying to persuade them she was much improved. Given that her purple bruises had turned to a sickly green, she wasn’t surprised that her appearance didn’t convince them.

  “Where’s Buck?” she asked as casually as she could, grabbing an apple, but out of nowhere it sounded strange. She’d seen him leave and wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be back for some time.

  Meral’s eyes widened. “I don’t know. He went exploring, looking for a creek to fish in, I think.”

  If Buck wasn’t here, then now was a good time to ask the questions burning inside. “Meral, I can’t tell you how happy it’s made me that you’ve come here to see me, to find me. I hate all the years that have been wasted.”

  Meral slid into the chair at the kitchen table. “We don’t have to think about that. We have each other now.”

  With so much riding on the answers to her questions, Jewel could only offer a tenuous smile. “Meral... I... I need to know.”

  Her sister reached over and grabbed Jewel’s hand. “What do you need, Jewel? Anything. I’ll tell you anything.”

  Jewel’s throat grew tight, her mouth suddenly dry. Her sister loved her, and the suspicions running through Jewel filled her with shame.

  “Why, after all these years, did you decide to find me? To come and see me? Why now?”

  Her sister’s mouth dropped open. Then, “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

  Jewel could see that she had approached her need to find answers in the wrong way. She was messing this up. Her fear was seeping through, affecting how she came across. She sat in a chair across from Meral, trying to dial down the tension.

  “What’s this all about?” Katy squeezed Meral’s shoulder and gave Jewel a gentle but questioning look.

  Honestly, Jewel wished she could have some privacy with her sister, but she never found herself alone with Meral after the attacks. And if the other women were gone, Buck was around and wouldn’t let Meral out of his sight. Jewel had no choice but to forge ahead.

  “Did you ever think about coming to see me over the years? Ever think about finding me? A phone call? An email or a letter?” Jewel regretted the accusing tone.

  Meral pursed her lips, wounded surprise in her gaze. “I could ask you the same.”

  “Of course I did. But I was hurt, so hurt. I don’t think I even realized it until you showed up at my door, and you weren’t even to blame. I got caught up in living life in Alaska and loving my husband and—” Jewel hung her head, regret clinging to her heart “—and trying to forget I even had a family.”

  Jewel lifted her gaze to meet her sister’s beautiful eyes. “I’m so sorry now, for everything.”

  “I thought we decided to put the past away, Jewel, and move forward. You need to quit beating yourself up. I forgive you, and I hope you forgive me for not trying harder to stay in touch. But when I was young, I idolized you. Looked up to you. Then you decided to leave us all behind for Silas. I thought you didn’t love me or care about me. It’s taken me years to get over that, but like you, I got busy with college and then fell in love and got married the first time. I tried not to think about the sister I’d loved and lost. The sister who had hurt me.”

  “Was it your idea, Meral?” Jewel finally asked. “Was it your idea to come and see me now?”

  Meral put her elbows on the table and pressed her face into her hands. “I don’t understand why it matters whose idea it was. Buck knew that I missed you. He knew our family’s history. He found you for me. But I wanted to come. Like you, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed you or I couldn’t admit it, until Buck surprised me with this trip as a wedding present. I can’t think of a better gift. Or a better husband. I hope you’re not hurt that I didn’t initiate the trip. I hope all that matters is that we’ve found each other. Let’s never let anything come between us again.” Meral reached for Jewel’s hand.

  Or anyone, Jewel wanted to say, but she knew that was impossible.

  “I’m not hurt.” Jewel hung her head, knowing she’d caused her sister pain. Fearing she might lose her when she’d only just found her if she pressed further. She couldn’t bring herself to risk their tentative truce by asking Meral if she’d known what Jewel had taken all those years ago, and if she’d told Buck. Not now, and definitely not with Tracy and Katy looking on.

  “I’m going to take a long hot bath.” Jewel stood, feeling as though the stiffness and aches had returned with a vengeance. “Just letting you know in case you knock on my door and I don’t answer.”

  Jewel left her friends and her sister and climbed the stairs to her room. Coming here had been Buck’s idea. Not the answer she’d wanted to hear. But an answer that could bring her closer to the truth about who had attacked her.

  SIX

  She ran the bath water, poured in bubble bath and let it rise. Shut off the water and left the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. She would take that bath.

  Later.

  Now she crept up another flight of stairs and then climbed the ladder into the attic. This time she’d brought a flashlight to chase away the shadows that remained after she turned on the light. At least the dormer window offered a little more illumination. She glanced at every dark corner of the place, positioned a board over the entrance so she’d hear anyone who might try to come inside, though she was certain her attacker couldn’t be in the house this time.

  Jewel crept all the way back, stepping around boxes and trunks and memories. Once she was on the other side of this trouble—if she came out of it alive, that was—she needed to spend time organizing the attic. Switch out decor downstairs again. Carefully, Jewel stepped so she didn’t make too much noise and worry Tracy, Katy and Meral all over again.

  She swiped away the dust along the wall looking for that plank. Could it have been so long ago that she couldn’t remember exactly where she’d hidden it away? It should be here, yet the plank wouldn’t budge.

  Propping the flashlight just right, Jewel used both fingers, sliding her fingernails between the boards. She dug her fingertips into the crack as leverage and tried to work the plank loose until she finally felt the slightest shift in the board.

  Pain stung her finger. Jewel snatched her hand back. A sliver had caught under the skin. She spotted a nail on the floor and picked it up. Poking it into the crack, she twisted and angled it, working it back and forth until the board shifted enough so she could grab it.

  There.

  She tugged and twisted the plank that fought back. It didn’t seem to want to give up its resting place after twenty-some years. That, she understood. She had been comfortable, too, letting her secret stay hidden. That was until Meral and Buck had shown up. Now she had to look back in order to move forward.

  Finally, she removed the cranky old board entirely.

  And there inside the hole in the wall rested the box.

  Emotion punched her stomach so hard she gasped. She hadn’t considered the effect this would have on her. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Long pent-up anguish, regret and pain poured out of her. She had never allowed herself to give up the grief, to cry over her mistake, to truly put it behind her. Unti
l now, she had never regretted her decision. She hadn’t allowed herself the luxury.

  Now, twenty years later, she realized her mistake. She’d been young and impressionable and reckless when she’d left her wealthy family behind for love. Left her dreams and career pursuits behind.

  But she’d met Silas Caraway, and it seemed as though all the plans she’d made were nothing compared to loving him. She’d known that Silas wasn’t the kind of man her family expected her to marry. Her parents had had big plans for her in terms of carrying on the Simmons family name and legacy in Simmons Diamonds.

  Jewel had been warned that once she left, she wouldn’t be allowed to come back. She wouldn’t see a dime from the estate and wouldn’t be assisted if needed. Shocked by the pronouncement, she’d been terrified of the risks her future held, yet she hadn’t been able to turn her back on love. So Jewel had stolen a valuable family heirloom when she’d left, keeping it tucked away in hiding as a safety net.

  Just in case.

  What if things hadn’t worked out with Silas in Alaska?

  She’d been willing to give up her lavish lifestyle for love. Believed what she had with her husband was strong. But it never hurt to have a backup plan. Except she’d never told her husband that she’d kept anything belonging to her family. After what they’d put her through, it would have seemed to him as though she hadn’t trusted him enough. He would have seen her need to have a backup plan as proof that she’d expected their marriage to fail.

  How that would have hurt him. She hadn’t wanted him to ever know. Therefore she couldn’t keep the diamond in a safe-deposit box in the bank of a small town, because he would have found out eventually. She’d found an adequate hiding place in the big old house.

  She tugged out the box, her heart pulsing erratically.

  After wrapping her fingers around it, she opened the box and stared at the Krizan Diamond, a glistening yellow stone cut from one of the Golconda diamonds—an ancient mine in India. The diamond had been handed down through the generations in Jewel’s mother’s family.

  How it still shimmered a vivid yellow, the color increasing the value of the 20.25-carat stone.

  Though only one of many such family diamonds, how silly of her to take it. Had someone reported it stolen? Was insurance filed on it? Doubtful she could have ever sold it without everyone knowing the truth of her crime unless she dipped her fingers into the black market somehow and found a collector. Odd the things people did when they were young.

  Today, she never would have done such a thing. But she was older and wiser.

  This had to be why someone wanted to kill her. It was valuable enough to be a powerful temptation to someone greedy and ruthless. But who knew she’d taken it? Who knew she had it? She suspected her mother had known she took the diamond, but Jewel couldn’t see her mother telling anyone, not when it might get Jewel into trouble. Jewel had always imagined that when she’d seen her mother peeking out the window as Jewel had left with Silas, she’d seen the glimmer of approval in her eyes; had chosen to believe that her mother would have wanted her to have this security.

  But maybe she had fooled herself. How could she have been so naive to hope that no one else in the family would realize she’d taken it?

  Did her sister know?

  Doubts filled her about the man Meral loved and had married. Had Meral told Buck about the diamond?

  Her hands trembled.

  But then it hit her afresh. She still possessed the Krizan Diamond—a stone worth millions—and all it represented to her were fear and guilt. The diamond’s value, the danger she likely had brought on herself by possessing it, struck her like a bolt from the sky and singed her skin. She dropped it, letting it fall into the box.

  She placed the rudimentary container back into its hiding place.

  Jewel pushed the plank into place and quietly shoved boxes in front of the wall. If someone were searching in here, it would be easy enough to discover where she had disturbed the dust. She’d need to clean the entire attic to cover her tracks. But what was she thinking?

  It was too late. Her attacker had already found her in the attic—already knew that that was where to look to uncover her secrets.

  A noise disturbed her thoughts—the board over the entrance to the attic. Panic sent Jewel’s pulse racing. She grabbed the flashlight and ran to the entrance. Best to take the offensive move while she had the high ground.

  “Don’t move,” she said.

  “Or what?” Chief Winters stared up at her. “You’re going to hit me with a flashlight?”

  “Chief Winters.”

  She dropped the flashlight, her only weapon. She should have brought the Glock. Clearly, she wasn’t ready for any serious self-defense. He was probably disappointed in his student. She started down, but Chief Winters stepped up and Jewel inched back as he climbed the ladder until he was standing in the attic with her.

  “What a surprise that I should find you in the attic again.”

  She hadn’t wanted to answer questions about the first time she’d come, and she’d managed to evade him—but there would be no escaping him now. Of course, he would have to stand much too close.

  Jewel’s pulse hadn’t slowed since she’d heard the noise. What was he doing standing so near? His proximity made her tremble.

  She sucked in a calming breath. She should take a step back, but she couldn’t move. Instead, she hung her head, feeling like a teenager when she was anything but. Something about this man sent her heart racing and tumbling around inside. He lifted her chin with his finger.

  What was he doing?

  She wanted to tell him what a romantic cliché his action was, but then she’d be admitting that the moment felt like something out of a romance novel, because she was attracted to him. And she couldn’t admit that to him or to herself. She would never risk her heart again. Even if she were willing, her family heirloom stood between them.

  She was a thief.

  He was the law.

  A beam of sunlight streaked through the dirty window, illuminating the dust motes dancing around them.

  “What are you doing up here again? And by yourself?” His sharp blue eyes turned dark.

  What should she tell him? She couldn’t share what she’d done with anyone, especially him. Not yet. “Chief Winters.” His name came out in a desperate tone.

  His gaze softened. “Jewel, don’t you think it’s about time you call me Colin? I can see you calling me by my title when we’re around others, out of respect, but we’re alone now. We’ve been friends long enough, haven’t we?” He finally dropped his hand. “There’s no need to be so official with me all the time.”

  Her heart rate jumped higher. Jewel had thought he would press her for answers. His suggestion was the last thing she’d expected.

  His voice was so gentle, so endearing, Jewel could almost forget he was here on official business. That was why he was here, wasn’t it? A knot twisted in her throat. Calling him by his official title, thinking about him only as the police chief, helped her to protect herself, to keep her resolve to never fall again. If she could fall for anyone, it would be this man.

  But would it be so bad to call him by his name? “Colin... I...”

  “There.” He grinned. “Was that so hard?”

  Her heart tilted. She opened her mouth to speak—

  A woman’s scream broke through the attic.

  * * *

  Jed Turner, the officer Colin had stationed at the B and B today, was facedown in the woods near the house. Colin knelt by Jed and checked for a pulse, though he already knew what he would find. The man was dead.

  Still kneeling by the fallen officer, Colin’s gut churned as he searched the woods that grew thicker in the distance. The murderer was long gone.

  Colin’s heart was a chunk of lead in his chest. Jed was in his late fifties, only a f
ew years away from retiring. He had a wife, Clara, plus two grown kids and three grandchildren. Though Jed’s troubles were over, Colin would now have to face his wife and give her the news, a task he didn’t relish. The absolute worst part of his job.

  What had happened to draw his officer into the woods after Colin had instructed him, after Colin’s own arrival, to leave?

  Colin thought about Buck Cambridge. From the moment they’d met, something about Buck had made Colin think of a venomous, wild creature that would bite if pressured.

  Had that feral creature—a human in this instance—been pressured to bite? Killing a police officer would only up the stakes and bring on a full-out manhunt. Obviously, Jed must have seen something incriminating, discovered something to identify Jewel’s attacker.

  Colin glanced behind him at the others who had gathered, waiting at the edge of the woods. Jewel hugged herself, her face twisted in anguish. Next to her Katy and Tracy, Meral and Buck, hovered and comforted each other over this new development.

  Colin stood, wanting to search the woods, but he wouldn’t leave them alone. He hiked back to his vehicle and called for backup and for the retrieval of Jed’s body.

  Jewel approached him. “I’m so sorry, Colin.”

  He couldn’t begin to convey in words the anger, grief and guilt roiling inside. Add to that hearing his name on her lips again, and he realized he must have been nuts to ask her to say it. It made him all kinds of crazy, and he knew better.

  He knew better.

  Katelyn’s death, her murder, had happened because Colin had been emotionally involved. That should be enough warning for him. He pulled his gaze from Jewel’s torn features. If he looked at her any longer, he’d pull her right into his arms. Not to comfort her but to comfort himself, something he didn’t deserve in the face of Jed’s death.

  “For what, Jewel? This wasn’t your fault.”

  “Yes, it is. Someone is trying to kill me. To get to me. And now Jed Turner is dead because he was protecting me.”