Deception Road

by Peggy Staggs

  I decided Don had someone inside Jack’s office was in collusion with Don. The only person who’d been disloyal was Jane’s nephew, Kenny. He’d ended up dead after the scandal last fall. Who could it be? Everyone else appeared loyal.

  “I got it through other channels,” was all he said.

  The emergency lights were on inside the Sheriff’s Office. Lois got to her feet as soon as the bells hit the glass front door.

  Phyllis didn’t wake up. I knelt beside her and touched her back. “Phyllis, go home. I’ll take Lois to my house.”

  “Doctor Markus, did you find Jack?” She rubbed her eyes.

  “Ensley, please. No, we haven’t found him.”

  “What happened? Why are the emergency lights on?” She stretched and yawned.

  “The storm must have taken down a power line,” I said. “We’re heading out to the Jessen place. Is Oliver around?”

  “He went out to recheck Jack’s house. Want me to call him?”

  “The cell service is out. Whose truck is out front?” Don asked.

  “Oliver switched trucks. The old one was having engine trouble.”

  “Can you radio him?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “No,” Don said. “We’ll contact him if we need him.” I followed Don into Jack’s office. He took a rifle and ammunition from the rack in Jack’s office. I wanted to stop the someone who was making my life miserable. Jack’s .40 cal. would do that nicely. In the outer office, I knelt by Lois and Phyllis. “I’ll bring Jack home.” I hoped to God I could make good on my promise.

  I crawled up in the truck as Don started it. “I’m not great with a rifle,” I said.

  “You’ve got your .38 and whatever you took from Trace’s desk. You’ll be fine.”

  Don was nothing if not consistent. Looking at him through the lens of time, made me shutter.

  After Soph and I went for our makeovers—the one she didn’t need—I felt like I was living someone else’s life. Men who’d never noticed me were now asking me out, keeping me busy every Friday and Saturday night. I decided to enjoy it all while it lasted. Then a year ago my brother Cole took me to one of those mandatory parties. The kind no one has fun at, but everyone goes to because they’re mandatory. Cindy, his wife, was sick with the flu and Cole said he wanted someone to talk to who didn’t have an agenda. Tag, I was it.

  That night I met Don. I couldn’t miss him, he was the one people stepped aside for as he walked toward me. He was impressive, tall, dark, handsome, and dressed in a tux. He looked every bit the Prince Charming he wasn’t.

  I fastened my seatbelt and leaned back. Outside, the snow fell as if it were determined to fill the valley. I let out a sigh. It was still dark, and I was still scared.

  “You know we may not find him alive.”

  I stared at Don. “If you think he’s dead, why are you risking our lives?”

  He was silent for a long minute. “I’ve got to make the exchange. I can’t do it without the money.”

  The stoplight hung dark in the center of the intersection ahead.

  “Is the mission more important than all our lives?”

  “It isn’t only the mission. It’s all the people this information will save. You, of all people, should know, I’m not as unfeeling as everyone thinks. This is what I do, I make hard decisions. Decisions I have to live with.” He cast a glance over at me. “You understand.”

  I was trying to.

  Chapter Seven

  In the dark and snow, we almost missed the road to the Jessen ranch. Our headlights showed a set of tire tracks turning toward the house.

  “Keep going.”

  “I’m not a rookie,” he snapped.

  The valley is rolling pasture land with only an occasional tree to disrupt the bleak winter landscape. As soon as the sun came up, we’d be seen. I stared at the clock on the dash. “This isn’t good. We have less than an hour before sunrise.”

  Don turned the truck around and shut off the lights. “We walk.”

  “In this weather? It’ll take too long.” The wind outside blew so hard the big truck rocked back and forth.

  “Giving up?”

  He had no idea. He may know a lot of facts about my life, but he didn’t know the person living it. “I don’t give up.” I took the .40 cal. and the extra clip I’d taken from Jack’s office and secured it to my waistband. I got out and opened the back door and began searching through Jack’s aid bag. I smiled. He’d replaced the red space blanket from last fall. The red one had been a problem when we were stranded in the mountains. I took everything I thought I’d need and stuffed it in my pockets.

  “You are taking all that?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sure?” Don pulled the collar of his coat up around his ears.

  I zipped my jacket shut. “After the damage, we found at his house, you don’t think we’ll find him injured?”

  “You should know.” Disdain saturated his words.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ve gotten very cozy with a man you don’t know much about.”

  He was one snarky comment away from my knee revisiting his crotch. I held my temper. “Not now.”

  “Then, when? Should I tell you everything now? He’s an accomplished liar.” He faced me. “I know how attractive he is to women. I’ve used his appeal on several missions. He uses his good looks to his advantage as often as he can. You should know his past isn’t—”

  I’d call him on this once and for all. “What kind of monster is he? I’d really like to know before I make another mistake.” He could tell me all about Jack as we made our way to the Jessen ranch. Of course, I wouldn’t hear him over the sound of the wind. That was all right with me.

  Don stepped back. “When this is all over. Right now, if we have any chance, we’ve got to get to the ranch before sunrise.”

  This was like a game to him. First, he was eager to tell me everything. Whatever everything was. Then, he’d state something designed to hurt not help. I figured that was his goal. Was that the point? To hurt me more?

  We walked in the truck’s tire tracks back to the turnoff. The ranch looked as if it was straight out of an old western. Instead of sand and dirt blowing over the low-slung buildings, it was snow. It had drifted so high on one side, the structures appeared to lean under the weight.

  “The first outbuilding isn’t far,” Don called over the sound of the wind as he checked his rifle. “Get your weapon out and stay down.”

  I remembered the buildings from October when Jack and I’d come out to talk to the cowboy, Cid. I only knew what was in one of them. “The large one is a horse barn,” I said.

  “Thanks. Stay close.”

  It wasn’t bad walking down the tire tracks. When we left the packed surface, it proved slow going for me, at least. The snow was above my knees. “It’s already starting to get light. They’re going to know exactly where we are in a few minutes,” I pointed out.

  The first shed was empty. At least, the small building sheltered us from the raw wind. Around us, the corrugated tin of the walls and roof rattled with each gust. I wasn’t sure how much longer the building could withstand the onslaught.

  The big barn was warm inside. We checked each stall. Only a few had horses in them. The others held hay, feed, or tack. Nothing more. The Arabian, the one Max had bought for the daughter now in jail, whinnied at us from the first stall. As I reached out to stroke his nose to calm him, he threw his head in the air and shied away.

  Don peered out the door at the paddock.

  With visibility near zero, the house beyond was nothing more than a faint impression. “Let’s go to the house next,” I said. “It’s about forty feet from here.”

  “Why? No one’s here.”

  “I said so. That’s why.” I wasn’t going to let Don intimidate me one minute more. “If they’ve been here, we’ll see the signs.”

  “Maybe.” He scrutinized the area between the horse
barn and the house.

  I went to one of the horse stalls. “Don.”

  “What?”

  “The water in the buckets is fresh, and the horses have been fed.”

  He joined me at a stall. “The tire tracks were probably from one of the hands doing chores. Let’s go.”

  I wasn’t leaving without searching the house. “We’re checking the house.”

  “No.” He started towards the far end of the barn.

  “They may have left something.”

  “Ensley, they were never here.”

  “Someone was here and not long ago. The tire tracks would be covered otherwise.” I pulled open the door nearest the house. “Look,” I pointed. “There’re footprints in the snow.”

  He pointed to the lights. “The generator is working. If anyone was in the house, we’d see the lights.”

  “Maybe the windows are covered. We need to check inside, then follow the footprints.” I wasn’t going to take his word for it, I had to see for myself.

  “If it will get you to leave.” Don went through the door first.

  We trudged across the open area toward the large stone home. No one shot at us. That was a good news, bad news situation. As much as I hate being shot at, it would mean the bad guys were here. I struggled to put a few drops back in my optimism glass. At least, we’d know one place they weren’t.

  Don tried the side door. It was unlocked. He flattened me back against the house. “I hate unlocked doors.” He pushed it open.

  Nothing blew up, and no shots were fired. He crouched down and disappeared into the darkness beyond the door. A few seconds later, he flipped on the lights.

  “Don’t.” I reached for the switch. “They’ll see us.”

  “They aren’t here. I’ll prove it,” he said. We searched every room in the house. Each one had the same tired, worn appearance. The whole house smelled old, dirty and sour. All the walls were in desperate need of paint. I remembered Jack telling me Max Jessen was one of the wealthiest ranchers in the area. Maybe ranchers had the same outlook on their houses they had on clothes. They only bought new when the old was past useful. This whole place was far past livable inside.

  Don was right, we found nothing. They weren’t here. No one had been for a long while.

  “Now we see where the footprints go,” I said.

  “This is a waste of time. We need to get back and reexamine what we have.”

  That seemed—I don’t know, redundant. “First we see where the footprints go.”

  “Fine, if it will make you happy,” Don closed the door to the house.

  At the bottom of the steps, we followed the prints and tire marks to another outbuilding. The old barn looked as if it was one of the original buildings.

  Don cracked open one of the large double doors. There was no electricity in here. I pulled out my pin light. It was empty like the first building we’d entered. The only sign of a working ranch were the few horses we’d seen in the barn. “They must have sold nearly everything to pay the lawyers,” I said.

  I played my light around the area and found I’d been right. Everything in here had been taken away. All that was left was some broken equipment and trash. Clumps of snow had fallen off the hired hand’s truck leaving the outline of his vehicle. The dirt floor was saturated with motor oil. A case must have fallen when they cleared the place out. Since it had broken open, they’d shoved it to one side.

  There was nothing here. I felt disappointment steal a little more hope. I stood in the center of the area wishing for some glimmer of a clue. Anything to show us where we could find Jack.

  “Now, we start over.” I could hear the I-told-you-so in Don’s voice as he walked to the doors.

  “Where? We’ve examined every piece of evidence. Talked to your people and mine.” Okay, technically Brad was Jack’s person, but since Jack wasn’t here, so I claimed him. I stepped outside. I showed my small flashlight around. The round beam reflected off the falling snow, hiding everything ten feet away.

  “We’ve got to see if the techs have anything. Do you know where the lab is in Mullen?” Don asked.

  “No. If the lights are out there, too, they won’t have anything.”

  We trudged along the road to the truck in the early morning light. I took another peek back toward the house. Where else could they be? “Before we go to Mullen, we’re going back to the B&B for Jane.”

  “Don’t worry about her. She’s safe where she is.”

  I shook the snow from my jacket then climbed up into the passenger seat. “I want to check on her and see what she found in the Shaw’s room. It would be new information.” I unclipped the .4o cal. from my jeans and put the first aid supplies back in Jack’s aid bag.

  “It was probably nothing. It’s a waste of time.” He started the truck.

  “Maybe, but we’ve searched everything else. I want to make sure Jane is okay.”

  Chapter Eight

  I watched the driving snow and listened to the thump of the windshield wipers as they tried to beat back the never-ending barrage of snow. With every beat of the wipers and every flake that fell, I felt a little more hope drain away. I had no idea where to look next. They could be anywhere. The ranch was and wasn’t the most logical place to hold Jack. Mrs. Shaw would have access to it. On the other hand, it was too obvious.

  Now, what? I hated not having any idea what to do next. When this was all over, I was going to get a police procedures manual. No, procedures didn’t sound right. I needed to know how to solve a crime. Maybe Brad would have something I could use. I wasn’t going to be put in this situation again. Next time—and it was beginning to look as if this was my new normal—I’d be prepared. I’d know what to do.

  Mental note:

  Ask Brad about a manual.

  “We’d have worked it out if you’d stayed,” Don was saying. “All we needed was time to put things back together.”

  “What?” Was he nuts? My thoughts were like drops of water on a hot grill. As they hit the metal surface, they skittered off in all directions until they finally careened into oblivion. I turned and looked at Don as he drove. “We have more important things to concentrate on than our failed affair.” Which by the way, would have never worked.

  “I’m sorry for what happened.” Don glanced over at me, then back at the road. “For all of it. I didn’t realize until you were gone how much you meant to me. I’ve never felt like this in my life. I don’t know what to do. Come back and be part of my life again.”

  I know there are a lot of people who dream of living in the limelight. Parties, seeing your picture on the society page on Sunday morning, have celebrities call you by your first name. I’d been one of those people for a while. As fantasy faded to reality, the glow of the spotlight dulled and turned hollow.

  “I know I was wrong.” He drove slowly toward town. “I was desperate, I couldn’t let you go.” He sighed. “Then you were gone.”

  Don had never known me at all. I was beginning to wonder if I’d known myself until I moved here. In the past few weeks, I’d become more than an unemployed doctor who’d come to town to find her father. I was now a part of a community. Not just someone who rented a house and never knew her neighbors. Or someone who went to work every day did her job and returned home anonymously. Even the parties Don had taken me to didn’t make me feel any more included.

  I belonged here now. When this was all over, and Jack was safe—

  “Things will be different, I promise,” Don was saying, “I told Beth I was coming here to convince you to return home with me.” His smile held a hint of amusement. “Let’s just say she didn’t take it well.”

  I pushed aside the indefensible away—the other woman and the near rape—and tried another approach. The parties had become a study in geopolitics and abnormal psychology. Maybe if I explained it to him, he’d understand. “I didn’t want to live with the endless parties, with people I didn’t know and didn’t want to become involved with on any level. Be
sides, I hated seeing my picture on the society page.”

  “You were so good at it. You could charm any man in the room. With you by my side, my career would take off.”

  And... we were back to his career path. “What if your career ended one fall morning? Everything you’d worked on for years dumped into cartons marked ‘shred.’ With no hope of salvaging any of it. Your people looking to you for answers. Answers you didn’t have, and all of them out of jobs. Soph still hasn’t found one.”

  “I had no control over your research. I told you I was wrong. What more do you want from me? I’ve done everything I can to make it right. Your old job is waiting for you at JPL. All you have to do is come back with me.” He pulled to a halt in the middle of the country road and shoved the truck into park. For a second he glared out the windshield. When he glanced over at me and said, “Your research is gone. I’m sorry. I didn’t have anything to do with getting it pulled. It was a powerful lobby.” He leaned closer. “They had JPL running scared. They panicked and fired all of you. It wasn’t personal, it was business.”

  It felt personal. “And Beth?” I wanted to hear his explanation for the betrayal.

  “I did it for you.”

  In what world did that make sense? “For me?”

  “I thought I could get her to keep you on—”

  “Hold it. You knew long enough in advance what was going to happen and you didn’t tell me? You had time to go behind my back and sleep with Beth. But you couldn’t find a minute to tell me my work and my career were about to be trashed?” I couldn’t believe the lengths this man would go to, to get what he wanted. “I was told you were the one responsible for getting me blacklisted.”

  Silence. It was a long time before he said, “I did. But when I realized what it would do to you, I went to Beth hoping to stop it. She had the power to make it all go away including saving your job. I know now, it was all a mistake. She said you deserved what you got. What did you do to her to make her hate you so much?”