by Terri Reed
And where was the victim’s notebook?
But, more important, why had Maya been attacked?
He radioed Chase, telling him to keep an eye out for a cell phone and leather-bound journal.
Returning to the station, Alex sought out the sheriff again. “Sir, you need to talk to Mr. Delaney again,” Alex said to his boss. “We need to know if this treasure is for real. And if it is, he needs to reveal the location so we can end this chaos. A person is dead and one of our citizens has been attacked.”
“You’re in charge of this investigation, Alex.” The sheriff smiled that patient, teaching smile that Alex had come to dread. “If you feel it’s necessary to take a run at Patrick, I’m in full support.”
Alex rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Are you sure? You have a relationship with him. I’ve never met the man or his sons.” The Delaneys were reclusive, though Alex had read in the tabloids about the two adult sons and their exploits around the globe. Apparently, the small-town life of Bristle Township wasn’t their speed.
“That is true. But it would be good for you to do this. When I retire, somebody has to be willing to stand up to Patrick Delaney.”
Alex frowned. “You’re not retiring anytime soon, right?”
The sheriff shrugged. “Lucille’s been getting on me about wanting to travel. We’re approaching our fortieth wedding anniversary this winter.”
“That long? Wow. That’s incredible.” Alex’s longest relationship had lasted eight months. He’d realized quickly that Evie hadn’t been one to let commitment get in the way of her fun with other men. He hadn’t felt the need to seek out a new romantic relationship since moving to Bristle Township. Romance was complicated and took too much energy. Plus, he really had no desire to end up like his parents.
Sheriff Ryder grinned. “Yep. I know it’s crazy, I don’t look old enough, but we married young.”
“You are a blessed man.” Alex felt a familiar spurt of envy gush through his chest. There was a time when he would have given anything to be a part of a couple, to belong to someone. But somewhere along the way he’d lost hope of ever finding “the right one.” Instead, he had found a place to belong to here in Bristle Township.
“I am. Lucille’s a wonderful woman. And I’m not an easy man to live with, but she loves me. It hasn’t all been sunshine and unicorns. We’ve had tough times and our share of sorrow,” the older man said with a touch of sadness in his eyes. Though the sheriff had never mentioned it, Alex had heard that the Ryders had lost their only son to a drug overdose when he was a teen.
Giving his head a shake as if to loosen the past’s hold on him, the sheriff said, “Now, about Patrick. He’s our wealthiest citizen. And he and his sons financially back most everything this town does. I’ll call and let him know you’re coming. You will need to proceed with caution. This will take some finesse.” He paused. “Take Maya Gallo with you. She’ll charm old Patrick for sure.”
“Take a civilian with me?” Alex wasn’t sure Maya would agree to go.
“He can see firsthand what his treasure hunt has done,” Sheriff Ryder stated in a grim tone.
Alex needed all the leverage he could get. “I’ll ask her if she’d be willing.”
He left the station. Daniel was standing out front, talking to a couple who looked like tourists in for the festival. Instead of approaching the store directly, Alex walked up the street, keeping an eye out for anything out of place. He loved this town and the people. As he passed the bookstore, the owner, Milly Reeves, paused in arranging a display to wave. Alex returned the friendly greeting before stepping to the corner to cross at the light with several teenagers. The group lowered their voices and jostled each other, clearly self-conscious as teens sometimes were around authority figures.
“Stay safe, kids,” he said to the teens after they crossed Main Street and the kids headed in the opposite direction from him.
“Yes, sir,” a couple of the teens called out.
Smiling, Alex veered around to the back alley behind the hardware store, intending to circle the building before joining Daniel in front.
The back entrance door was cracked open.
He frowned with unease. Had Maya or Ethan gone out the back door to dump some trash in the nearby bin and forgotten to close the door behind them? He doubted either one would be so careless.
Caution tripped down Alex’s spine as he skirted around Maya’s Jeep to approach the open door. With his hand on his weapon, he slipped inside the back door and looked down the hall. He could hear Maya and Ethan talking near the front counter. Closing the door silently behind him, he took a step then hesitated as his gut tightened with anxiety. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t put his finger on what had him spooked, but he knew to listen to his instincts.
Slowly, he made his way down the hall and paused outside the open door of what appeared to be Maya’s office. There were two desks set up, one obviously Maya’s with a desktop computer and a stack of ledgers sitting on top, while the other desk had to be Brady’s. A laptop covered in stickers was surrounded by action figures. The room appeared empty.
Yet the fine hairs on Alex’s arm rose in apprehension. He wasn’t alone.
Was there someone behind the door?
Using his shoulder, he slammed into the door. He heard a muttered curse and then the door was flung back at him. He used his booted foot to stop the door before it hit him in the face. A man wearing black coveralls, a black hoodie and a plain silver mask with no mouth covering his face darted out from behind the door swinging what looked like a tire iron.
Alex ducked, and the weapon rammed into the doorjamb, taking out a chunk of the wood. Alex made a grab for the intruder, but the assailant jumped onto the desk, evading Alex’s grasp.
Blocking the only way out, the intruder was trapped in the office, Alex drew his weapon. “Come down and put your hands up.”
Slowly, the intruder raised his hands.
Alex moved closer. “Step off the desk.”
The perp rocked back on his heels, then sprang up, somersaulting over Alex’s head, easily landing on the floor and racing out of the office.
“What in the world?” Alex chased after the assailant, but by the time Alex burst through the back exit, the intruder was nowhere to be seen.
Alex ran around to the front of the building, thinking maybe he could catch a glimpse of the intruder, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Daniel jogged to his side. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Did you see a guy dressed in black run this way?”
“No. No one has run by.”
“Alex, are you okay?” Maya’s concerned voice halted him in his tracks. He turned around to find Maya and Ethan had come out the front door.
“Someone was in your office.”
Maya sucked in a breath. “What? When?”
“Just now.” Alex replied. “But the guy managed to evade me.”
“We didn’t hear a thing,” Ethan told him in a gruff, concerned tone. “We only saw you running past the window.”
“Man, I’m sorry.” Self-recrimination echoed in Daniel’s voice.
Alex held up a hand. “He went through the back door. There’s no way you could have seen him.”
“Still...” Daniel ran a hand through his hair.
Alex understood the pain of feeling like he’d failed at his job. One of his first assignments out of the police academy had been patrolling downtown Denver. One night, he’d walked right past a convenience store being robbed. When the call came, he’d doubled back but was too late to be of help. “Seriously, don’t beat yourself up. Everyone is safe. I’ll take it from here.”
Alex ushered Maya and Ethan back inside.
Worry pinched her dark eyebrows together. “Why would someone break into my office? Other than the desktop computer and Brady’s laptop,
I don’t keep anything of value in there. All the money is here.” She gestured to the small safe bolted beneath the counter. She frowned. “Do you think this was the same person who broke into my house?”
“Broke into your house?” Ethan exclaimed. “What is going on?”
Alex explained to Ethan about the attacks on Maya. “I believe the person is searching for a leather-bound journal,” Alex said. He caught Maya’s frightened gaze. “You sure you didn’t come across a notebook or a cell phone in the woods?”
Frustration crossed her face. “No. I told you I only found Brady’s backpack and then you.”
“Are we safe, Deputy?” Ethan’s agitation was palpable. “What’s happening to our town?”
The last thing they needed was panic. “The sheriff’s department is doing all it can to protect the town and Maya and Brady. There’s no reason to believe you or anyone else in town are in danger.”
“Sure, you say that now,” Ethan said dramatically. “I need to go home. Bess will worry if I’m gone too long.” He turned to Maya. “You and Brady can stay with us. We’re off the beaten path and have an alarm system. Bess thought I was crazy to put one in, but I told her it was better to do it now and not wait until after something happened.”
Maya took the older man’s hand. “You are a wise man. Please give Bess a kiss from me. Brady and I will be fine with Alex.”
Ethan narrowed his gaze on Alex. “You better keep her safe, young man.”
“I will, sir.”
After Ethan left, Alex said to Maya, “You should close the store today. I know you don’t like the idea, but—”
She cut him off. “You’re right. The safety of the customers comes first.” She squared her shoulders, then flipped the sign hanging on the front door and turned the lock.
Admiring her strength, Alex helped her close up the store. Then he got on the phone and arranged for an alarm system to be installed at his house, Maya’s house and the store. The company worked out of Boulder and promised they would have it done by Monday evening. That meant they would have to get through the weekend without the added security measure.
* * *
Alex showed Maya the driver’s license photo of the deceased dentist. “Do you recognize this man?”
Maya shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen him. Is he from around here?”
“Steamboat Springs.”
“Who is he?”
Putting the picture away, Alex said, “A treasure hunter.”
“Is he the man who was found dead?”
Alex nodded, his expression grim.
Maya shivered with unease. “That could have been Brady.” She put the cash from the register into the safe and tried to keep her hands from shaking too much, but her effort was unsuccessful.
Taking her hands in his, Alex said, “But it wasn’t. He’s okay. You’re okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She stared at him for a moment, seeing the earnestness in his eyes. His confidence calmed her nerves. “I know.”
“I need to ask a huge favor from you,” he said.
Naturally wary when anyone said that, she replied, “Okay.”
“I need to run out to the Delaney estate. I hope to talk Patrick Delaney into giving up the location of the treasure so we can end this fiasco.”
That sounded like a good plan to her. “How can I help?”
“Come with me. Maybe if we give a face to someone his game has hurt, he’ll be more inclined to bring the hunt to an end.”
Without hesitation, she said, “Let’s do it.”
When they were outside, she locked the back entrance and headed to her Jeep, but stopped midstride and pointed to an indentation where someone had stomped on the hood. Indignation that someone could be so destructive echoed in her voice. “Why would anybody do that?”
Alex inspected the footprint and then he turned to look up at the top of the building. “Parkour.”
“What?”
“The intruder in the store, I’d say he’s a freerunner.”
“You mean like people who compete in that reality-TV show that Brady likes to watch? Where they have to go through the crazy obstacle courses?”
“Similar. Freerunning, or parkour as it was originally termed, is more of a martial arts–type thing. I learned about the discipline while on duty with the Denver PD. The practice is very popular with the young-adult crowd. It would explain the guy’s agility.”
She looked up to the roofline of the building. “So you think this freerunner jumped from the hood of my Jeep to the roof?” It had to be at least ten feet high.
“He most likely used the hood as a launching point to jump up to grab the lip of the roof and pull himself up. Which is why I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, looking up and down the street for him, and couldn’t find him. He was up there laughing at me.”
She could hear the frustration in his voice. “Do you think he’s still there?”
Alex shook his head. “No. I’m sure he’s long gone by now. But I don’t like driving around in your Jeep. He probably knows that this is your vehicle.”
A bubble of fear pressed against her heart. “Brady. I have to see that he is all right.”
“I’ll call the ranch.” He took out his cell phone. “I’m also going to call Kaitlyn to pick us up at your house. We’ll leave the Jeep there. She can drive us to Delaney’s, then out to her place so I can get my truck and Truman.”
Sending up a quick prayer, Maya waited as Alex called the ranch’s landline. After a moment, he frowned. “No answer.” He hung up. “I’ll ask Kaitlyn to swing by there since she’s closer. After, she can meet us at your place.”
With no other choice but to wait, Maya kept an eye on the rooftops as they headed toward her family home. But there was no sign of anyone lurking on the roofs. They arrived at the house before Kaitlyn.
Needing to burn off the nervous energy coursing through her veins, she couldn’t relax until she knew Brady was safe, she said, “I’m going to run in and get a few more things. I only packed enough for one night.”
“Let me check out the house first,” Alex said, stopping her before she could go inside. “You stay here.”
Maya waited on the porch with a rising sense of panic. She didn’t like the vulnerable, exposed sensation coiling around her. Or the fear of losing her brother. She studied the residential street, looking for any signs of danger but all she saw were her neighbors’ homes with their neat yards and pretty houses. All appeared quiet and serene. Normal.
But things weren’t normal.
Someone had broken into the store. What had they wanted? She shuddered to think what would have happened if Alex hadn’t returned when he had. She and Ethan could have been hurt. The idea of something happening to the dear older gentleman made her insides twist.
Alex stepped out of the house. “All clear. Kaitlyn called back and should be here any minute. She said all was well at the house.”
Letting out a thankful breath, she said, “I’ll hurry.” She rushed inside and grabbed a few more items for her and Brady, enough to get them through the weekend. Monday, the alarm system would be put in and then she could return home... She hoped.
Kaitlyn arrived in an official sheriff’s vehicle, along with Brady. He awkwardly climbed out of the passenger side, sporting his backpack and carrying his music player. He rushed as best he could with his booted foot to Maya’s side.
“He insisted on coming,” the deputy told them. “Neither Frank nor I could dissuade him.” She shrugged.
“I won’t be any trouble,” Brady told her. “I just want to see what the man who made the treasure hunt looks like and see where he lives. I promise I won’t ask him any questions. I’ll keep my music in my ears so I don’t hear anything about the treasure. I’m not a cheater.”
Relieved to see him, Maya pulled her brother into a hug. “Okay, sweetie. It will be fine.”
Alex put his hand on her shoulder. “We should go.”
Kaitlyn handed the keys to Alex before hopping into the back passenger compartment with Brady, leaving Maya to sit up front with Alex.
Now that she was sure that Brady was safe, anticipation made her antsy. Would Mr. Delaney cooperate? Surely, once he learned that someone had died because of the buried treasure, he’d have to put an end to the hunt.
At least, Maya prayed so.
EIGHT
The country road gave way to a large gate. Alex sent Maya a quick glance as he pulled the sheriff’s cruiser to a stop next to an electronic keypad on a post sticking out of the ground. Her determined nod was all the confirmation he needed that she was ready to meet the man behind her little brother’s obsession and possibly the threats to her life. He pressed the intercom button. A moment later a tinny voice said, “How can we help you today?”
“Deputy Alex Trevino to see Patrick Delaney. I believe Sheriff Ryder called to let you know I was coming.”
There was no answer. But the big wrought iron gate clanked once—probably a lock being released—then slowly rambled open inward.
Kaitlyn snorted from the back seat. “Paranoid much?”
Beside her, Brady was oblivious to the sarcasm. He had earbuds in and his head bobbed to a downloaded tune only he could hear playing on his small music device.
As soon as there was enough clearance, Alex drove through the gap and followed the private road flanked by well-maintained landscaping up to a circular drive in front of the large limestone mansion. Sunlight danced off a myriad of windows. Turrets rose out of the roofline, giving the estate a castle-like feel.
“Wow,” Maya breathed out. “Spectacular.”
“A castle!” Brady exclaimed overly loud.
The place looked more like something out of a movie about modern-day royalty. Though, to some degree, the Delaneys were this part of Colorado’s version of royalty.