by Debra Cowan
Her modest brick building stood alone, surrounded by trees and honeysuckle bushes. The potted red geraniums on the porch had wilted from lack of water, but still sturdily survived.
From the outside, the dark brick structure resembled a small house. Jenna liked that; she’d had it built to be welcoming and comfortable.
Reaching across to open the door with her left hand, she hopped out. She deliberately kept her gaze from the spot just behind her, under the floodlight. She didn’t have to look to remember in full, grisly detail what had happened the last time she was here. What Ramsey had done to Wilbur. And her.
“Ah, Dr. West. I wasn’t sure who you were.” The barrelchested policeman strode forward, his gait smooth and strong.
Jenna smiled at him and indicated Linc with her free hand. “This is Dr. Garrett, Mace Garrett’s brother. He’s been helping me.”
The older man reached out to shake Linc’s hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Officer Sikes.”
“Yes, I remember.” Linc smiled, his gaze moving around Jenna’s property.
Officer Sikes walked with them to the front door. “Just got here a couple of hours ago myself, about six. I’ve been on the last two nights. So far, there’s been no signs of disturbance.”
“Good.” It should’ve reassured Jenna, but she knew Ramsey was just biding his time. Still, she refused to think about him anymore today.
Slipping her key from her jeans pocket, she unlocked the front door and walked inside.
“I’ll be right outside if you need anything,” the policeman called behind her.
“Thanks.” She walked to the opposite wall and flipped on the light switch. Fluorescent lights flickered then illuminated the room.
She turned in a half circle, her gaze skipping over Linc as she scanned the windowless front room of her office. Her desk was to the left of the door. The waiting area was roomy enough to accommodate six chairs along the far wall, her filing cabinets and across from her desk, medicine cabinets.
The trash cans were empty. The tile floor gleamed spotlessly, indicating the cleaning woman still followed her regular routine.
Steve had left things in perfect order. Several files were stacked neatly on the desk and Jenna’s calendar had been flipped to today’s date.
The filing cabinets were closed. Her undergraduate and veterinary diplomas were framed in blue velvet, giving a splash of color to the sterile environment. More color glowed from the bulletin board behind her desk, where pictures of animals crowded the cork surface.
Everything was just as she’d left it. Still a heavy foreboding pressed down on her.
She shook it off. After what had happened at the cemetery and with the photo, her nerves were understandably rattled. But Ramsey wouldn’t be fool enough to show up with a policeman and Linc both here.
Moving to her desk, she sank down in the chair and opened the first chart. Steve had delivered the foal for the Campbells just this morning. He would probably call her about that later tonight.
His notes were neat and easy to read. He detailed his procedure in the same way she did and she smiled. After about ten minutes, she had looked through the charts and made a few notes about one of her horses with cancer. She wanted him to check the mare tomorrow, make sure the tumor hadn’t grown any larger.
Linc sat quietly in a chair across from Jenna. “Can I do anything to help? Need anything moved or want me to get something for you?”
“I think I have everything I need.” She rose from behind her desk and moved to the door adjacent to Linc, which led to the exam room, lab and kennel area. “I want to check the temperature back here, make sure my instruments are where Steve can find them if he needs to.”
“All right.” Linc rose, his gaze following her as she reached the door beside him. “Would you like me to put up those files for you?”
“You don’t have to—”
“I’ll just do it,” he said tightly.
Evidently, he was still annoyed by their conversation in the truck. Jenna stepped into the back room, flipping on the light switch. “Thanks.”
“Do I file by the animal’s name or the owner?”
“Owner.” Both metal examining tables gleamed. On the waist-high cabinet behind the tables sat the heavy autoclave used for sterilizing instruments. Her stethoscope, otoscope, and ophthalmoscope lay beside it. Packets of gloves and syringes were stacked neatly in one corner of the counter. Pills, medicine and antiseptic were hidden behind the cabinet doors.
In the back part of the room, recessed lighting was dim, leaving a darker, more soothing atmosphere for the sick animals she sometimes kept here. At the moment, there were just a few dogs that Steve was watching over.
Her stainless steel refrigerator, which held antibiotics and other medicines, gleamed dully in the light. Its motor emitted a light hum.
Everything appeared in order, yet Jenna couldn’t dismiss the tension stretching across her shoulders. She listened. closely, hearing only the scrape of file cabinet drawers as Linc put away her files.
They were the only two in here. Steve had been here earlier, but that didn’t explain the sense that something dark, something vicious lingered in the air. No doubt it was due to the last incident. But she was safe. Ramsey wasn’t here now.
She turned around, her gaze passing the anatomy chart she’d framed and hung over the first exam table. Next to the chart hung a framed, enlarged photo of her and Steve on the day they’d graduated from vet school. But something was stuck over the picture. A paper of some sort.
She stepped toward the wall, reaching up to see what it was. She froze, a scream welling inside her.
Cold sweat slicked her body. She trembled, her muscles clenching as if for a blow and a low moan ripped out of her.
“Jenna, I think that’s the last of them. Anything else you want me to do?”
Linc’s voice sounded strained and small, as though he were deep in a cave. Fear wrapped tight fingers around her throat and she couldn’t speak, couldn’t draw a breath. She could only stare. In some part of her brain, she was aware that he had walked into the room.
“Jenna?” Alarm roughened his voice. “What is it?”
Shock rippled through her body. Her vision blurred. Then she was aware that Linc stood in front of her and her gaze finally focused on him.
“He’s been here,” she said woodenly.
Linc turned and cursed violently as he saw what she had.
There, plastered over the picture, was a certificate of death. Filled out with her name.
Chapter 9
Fury ripped through him and Linc shook with the force of it.
He and Jenna sat in the waiting area of her office. Mace and Officer Sikes were in the exam room. Linc had gotten Jenna out of the other room and though he’d wanted to tear that paper from the wall, he’d known enough, even in his rage, not to touch it.
As soon as he’d settled her in a chair, he’d called Mace, then yelled out the door for Officer Sikes.
Less than fifteen minutes later, his brother had arrived and gone into the back room with the patrol cop.
Jenna sat quietly unmoving beside Linc, staring straight ahead. Her hands lay limply in her lap. Her features were sucked dry of color, her eyes wide and startlingly bright in her face. There were no tears, no hysterics. Linc could find no trace of emotion at all.
It was as if she’d closed down. He kept a close watch on her, watching to see if her teeth chattered or if she began to tremble, but she didn’t. Nor did she exhibit any other signs of shock.
He wanted to comfort her and didn’t know how. He wondered if he should put his arm around her or leave her alone. Pure rage swelled inside him and he stuffed down a roar.
Linc had seen gang violence. He’d seen brutal stab and gunshot wounds, heard of demented murderers, psychologically twisted sickos. But he’d never been face-to-face with live evil like Ramsey.
Mace and Officer Sikes walked into the room. Mace, his tired face drawn in grim lin
es, closed the door to the exam room softly behind him.
Officer Sikes halted in front of the door, murmuring to Mace, “I’ll call Captain Price and let her know what’s going on.”
“Would you let my partner know, too?”
“Sure.” Officer Sikes let himself out, closing the steel door behind him.
Rubbing a hand over his face, Mace turned, still gripping the plastic bag containing the death certificate. His gaze settled on Jenna.
At the sight of Ramsey’s handiwork, Linc surged out of the chair. “How did that bastard get in here?”
Mace’s gaze, hard with a warning, sliced to him, but Jenna didn’t move. Didn’t speak or even acknowledge that she’d heard Linc’s venomous outburst.
“How?”
His brother shook his head, shoving a hand through his wavy hair. “Hell if I know. Obviously—”
“What’s the good of putting a man outside if he can’t protect her?” Rage boiled inside him, searching for a release. Linc battled the urge to ram his fist into the wall, through a window, something.
Mace leveled a flat stare on him. “As I was saying, obviously Ramsey got here before Sikes did. I’m sorry, Linc. We just don’t have the manpower to put someone out here twenty-four hours a day. The thing to concentrate on is she’s safe. No one was here during Ramsey’s little visit. No one was hurt.”
“This time! You saw him this morning at the cemetery. You know what he wants to do to her!”
“Keep your voice down,” Mace growled, glancing at Jenna. “You’re not helping her.”
“Nothing can help her,” Linc said bitterly, running a hand through his tousled hair.
Since he’d called his brother, he’d been divided over whether to tear up the countryside looking for Ramsey or to stay here and offer solace to Jenna. From where he stood, he wasn’t doing a damn thing about either one.
He took some comfort in the fact that he had his rifle behind the seat of the truck, but a fat lot of good that had done. Ramsey had come in here, violated Jenna’s space and left a blaring message. I’ll get you when I’m ready.
He turned to his brother, noting the stubble on Mace’s jaw, the exhaustion lining his features. No doubt he’d been working around the clock. Linc reined in his anger. “Of course it’s not your fault, or Sikes’s, that Ramsey was here. I just feel so damn helpless.”
“Well, you can help. You’ve got to be strong for her, be there for her.” He frowned and tugged Linc a few feet away from Jenna.
“Is she in shock?”
Linc’s gaze moved to her and his heart clenched at the sight of her sitting in that chair, solitary and stoic. “No. But I’m afraid she’s giving up.”
Mace looked at him sharply. “On what?”
“That you’ll ever get the guy. That she’ll ever be free of him.”
Mace rubbed at his red-rimmed eyes. “We got a lead from someone who’s seen him in a convenience store. And now we might have someone who’s seen him in a bar.”
“What good is that!” Linc exploded. “Here is where he’s been. The cemetery—”
“We can start tracing his steps, maybe find where he’s holed up.” The impatience in his brother’s voice softened. “We will get him, but it’s going to take some time.”
“I hope it’s soon.” Linc watched Jenna, unable to look away. What was she thinking? What was she feeling? Why wouldn’t she say something? “If not, I don’t know what will happen to her. I think she’s hanging on by a thread.”
“Can’t you help her?”
“Not if she won’t let me.” Sadness crowded through him. He ached at the sight of her perched stiffly in that chair, fighting off invisible demons. Alone.
Mace turned to him, concern darkening his eyes. “Don’t let Ramsey take control of your life, Linc. That’s what he wants.”
“He’s already got Jenna’s,” Linc noted bleakly.
“Isn’t that what matters?”
Mace paused, then lowered his voice. “Did you check her out? She hasn’t said a word since I got here.”
“She hasn’t said a word since we found that damn piece of paper and she told me Ramsey had been here.” Linc exhaled loudly. “I don’t know how to reach her. I don’t know what to do for her.”
“I need to get a statement. Can you help me do that?”
Resigned, but knowing it was necessary, Linc nodded. He walked over to Jenna and knelt in front of her. Careful not to touch her, he said her name softly.
Her gaze, vacant and dull, dropped to him. “What?”
A wealth of leashed pain ached in the word; restrained fear shaded her voice. Linc didn’t want to be the one who broke the dam on her control, but he didn’t think it was good for her to shut down this way.
He shook from head to toe. She sat calmly in the chair. Rage poured through him, throbbing in a wake of helplessness. Her features were pale, yet serene. He wished she would get angry. Wished something would crack that marble facade. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to, or should, be the one to instigate it.
“Mace needs a statement. Do you think you’re up to it?”
“Of course, Detective.” Her voice, smooth as cream, rippled from her throat. In flat, hollow words, she said, “I arrived just after eight o’clock with your brother. After going over some charts, I went into the exam room to double-check medical supplies, but before I could, I saw the paper covering my picture. Then, Linc... you—” She faltered, her gaze going to Linc’s. “How did Mace know to come here?”
“I called him,” he said quietly, his heart clenching at her stoic restraint. He wished she would cry or scream or throw something, just to release the fear he knew she had to feel.
“Linc called you and here we are.” There was nothing in the husky tone to hint at the hysteria Linc could sense bubbling inside her.
Feeling totally impotent and incompetent, frustration razored through him. He turned and looked at Mace, shaking his head.
Mace scribbled the last of his notes, then asked Jenna if she would be willing to come downtown and sign the statement.
“Of course.”
Linc rose, clenching his fists in an effort to keep from gathering Jenna to him. Certainly after what Ramsey had just done, Linc didn’t want to frighten her. Hell, she’d let him help at the cemetery. What had changed?
He knew what it was. He’d said he wouldn’t try to challenge her idea that she was frigid, but in the truck, he hadn’t been able to keep his hands off her. Was that why she wanted no support from him?
Jenna rose from the chair and Linc saw her chin tremble. Instead of looking at him, she turned to Mace. “Would you like me to come to the station now? I’d just as soon get it over with.”
“That would be great.” Mace frowned in concern over Jenna’s shoulder and Linc shrugged, shaking his head.
Mace wanted to know if she was all right and Linc had no idea. “I’ll take you to the station, then if you want to go by your house—”
“Maybe tomorrow. Not tonight.” Her voice was tight and thin with unvoiced emotion.
Linc knew it, he felt it, but he could do nothing about it. “Sure. Whatever you want.”
“Good.” Mace walked to the door. “I’ll meet you there.”
Jenna moved around Linc to follow Mace, but Linc gently touched her arm. “Jenna?”
She stopped, but wouldn’t look at him.
Linc shot a glance at Mace, silently requesting to be left alone. Mace acknowledged him with a small nod and walked outside, closing the door noiselessly.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
Did he detect a slight wobble in her voice? He peered closely at her. “I’m worried about you. You haven’t said anything, except to answer Mace’s questions.”
“What would you like me to say?” she asked blandly.
He frowned, moving in front of her so he could see her face, look into her eyes. “You don’t have to say anything, but aren’t you angry? Don’t you want t
o kill him?”
“What would that accomplish?”
Her voice was eerily calm, and if he had blinked, he would’ve missed the sheen of moisture in her eyes. But he saw it. She wasn’t unaffected. She was trying with everything in her to hold it together, not break down.
“You don’t have to handle this alone, Jenna. I’m here. I can help you.”
“You can’t do anything, Linc.”
“Jenna, you’re frightened.” He refused to feel slighted at her words. “You’ve a right to be. You’ve also got to be mad as hell—”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Her voice was steady, stubbornly so, but her body shook. He noticed the trembling in her hands, her shoulders. Then he saw the light sheen of perspiration on her face. “I’m here, Jenna. Let me help you.”
“I’m fine. I am.”
“That’s why you’re shaking as if you have pneumonia.” He couldn’t hide the anger in his voice. He wondered if he should forget all common sense and pull her into his arms. “Why won’t you let me help you? There’s nothing wrong with needing help, with asking for it.”
She shook her head, looking away from him. She swallowed hard and he saw a tear seep out of her eye.
His heart clenched with pain. “You let me help you this morning. We can get through this together, Jenna.”
“I don’t want...I can’t—” She broke off, choking back a sob.
Linc moved reflexively, intent on wrapping her in his arms, only forcing them down to his sides at the last minute.
“I can’t think straight.” She covered her face with her hands. Frustration roughened her voice. “I can’t see things clearly.”
“Let me see them for you, Jenna. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Let me help you.”
“Don’t get close to me!” She dropped her hands and whirled away from him. “Why can’t you understand I have nothing to give? I can’t be what you want!”
Her impassioned declaration caught him totally off guard. Desperate to hold her despite what he’d just said, to have her look at him, he said quietly, “I only want you to be safe.”