When he walked into the room, several workers were gathered around Josie. “Did I miss the meeting?” he asked.
Josie looked relieved. “We just finished. I waited but...they were anxious to hear what was going on.”
Dalton nodded to the half-dozen workers. “I’m sorry I’m late. I’m sure Josie has explained, but if you have any questions—”
Everyone starting talking at once, so Dalton tried to calm all of them, one question at a time. And then he asked them some questions of his own.
* * *
An hour later, Josie locked up and turned to Dalton. “You can’t keep escorting me home.”
“I don’t mind,” he said, his gaze moving over her in that way that left her both warm and chilled. “Part of the job.”
And he was all about doing his job, she reminded herself. She shouldn’t read anything else into this. He needed the extra training with his partner, Luna, and what better way than to find out who was harassing her?
But her need to remain independent kicked in. “I can make it home. It’s not that far.”
“It’s getting dark,” he said. “Don’t waste time arguing.”
“Right.” He wanted to get on with his day, too. Stubborn, meet stubborn. “Let’s go.”
“Are you eating with us again, Miss Josie?” Maisy asked from the patrol car, hope in her question.
“No, honey. Your daddy’s being a gentleman and making sure I get home okay.”
Maisy shrugged and gave her father a disappointed glare. “Why can’t she have dinner with us?”
Dalton looked heavenward and then tried to explain. “Because we have our house chores and homework, and Miss Josie is tired and she wants to go home to her house, alone.”
“Alone isn’t fun,” Maisy said with a pout.
“She has a point,” Dalton said to Josie.
“But we can’t do this,” Josie whispered to him. “She might get the wrong idea.”
“I know.” He did the visual thing, his sharp gaze roaming the street. “It’s kind of out of the blue, but I wouldn’t mind taking you out to dinner sometime.”
Josie blinked. “Did you just ask me on a date?”
He looked sheepish. “Maybe when...things settle down. You know, as friends.”
“You’ll be gone after Christmas, Dalton. It can’t happen. Even as friends.”
Giving her a resigned stare, he said, “Right. Forget I asked.” Whirling, he added in a gruff command, “Let’s get you home safely.”
Josie wished things could be different, but she hardly knew the man. Besides, she wanted to stay in Desert Valley, and Dalton planned to move back to Flagstaff.
But...he had asked. Probably felt bad that she was alone and being harassed. A shiver moved like a caught spiderweb against her skin. What did this person want from her?
She got in her car, her mind still on Dalton. But when she looked up and saw a red rose lying tucked into one of the windshield wipers, Josie jumped back out.
Parked across the lot, Dalton got out and hurried over. “What is it?”
She pointed to the rose.
His expression grim, Dalton took a pen out of his pocket and lifted the wilted flower from the wiper. It stood out in stark contrast against her white car.
“A card,” he said, motioning to the cream-colored square attached to the flower. He flipped the card over.
’Tis the season. Soon, I’ll be sending you something special.
“That’s definitely a threat,” Dalton said. “Josie, I think it’s time we question everyone you know here.”
Before she could answer, a shot rang out and Dalton tugged her down against the truck and shielded her as glass from her car’s windshield exploded all around them.
* * *
Josie shook all the way home.
She kept glancing at Dalton. When they got to her place, he got out with Luna and Maisy at his side. He’d called for backup after someone had shot at her, but the police hadn’t found anyone. The shooter had gotten away, and even though they’d scoured the parking lot, they hadn’t found any bullets. Josie’s car couldn’t be driven until she had a new windshield.
“Do you think your aunt would mind if Maisy stays with her while I check your house?”
The girl stared her down. “Daddy told me you’re getting an alarm system. I don’t mind staying with Miss Marilyn. You need to be safe.”
Amazed at Maisy’s calm acceptance, Josie said, “You’re so patient. A real trooper.” The girl had barely flinched when Dalton had hurried to check on her after Josie’s windshield had been shot out. But Luna barked incessantly, anxious to do her job.
“Comes with the territory,” Maisy said in a mature tone. “Can Luna go with me?”
“I need Luna to work,” Dalton said. “She’s good at sniffing out trouble spots.”
Josie tried to sound animated. “Did my aunt tell you about her dog? He’s a tiny Chihuahua named Boo. You’ll love him.”
Maisy grinned. “I can hold him?”
“Sure.” Josie’s chuckle was ringed with a frazzled edge. “Let’s walk over there.”
“She has boys,” Maisy pointed out, her nose in the air.
“True, they’re not girls for you to play with, but they’re fun kids,” Josie replied, her gaze hitting on Dalton while she tried to keep things light for Maisy’s sake. She noticed Dalton checking the immediate area to make sure no one was lying in wait.
Soon, she had Maisy settled with her aunt, the sound of boys boasting and little Boo barking giving her hope that her world wasn’t about to cave in.
“Thank you,” she mouthed to Marilyn. Her aunt nodded and held her hands together, prayer style. Her aunt was a good prayer warrior. “We’ll talk later.”
“Come over for dinner,” Aunt Marilyn said. “And bring Dalton with you. We’ve got a big pot of stew going.”
“Thanks,” Josie said, thinking it wasn’t such a good idea to invite Dalton and Maisy for another meal.
Hurrying back to Dalton, she said, “Aunt Marilyn said we need to come and have dinner with them. No arguments, unless we find something we need to deal with.”
His eyes centered on her. “We’ll go over every inch of your house and yard. But before dinner, I need you to level with me about your past.”
* * *
“The yard is clear,” he told her a few minutes later.
Josie nodded. In her mind, she’d gone over all the details of her marriage, Douglas’s death and the days following. Could that have something to do with this?
“I’ll check the bedrooms,” he said as they headed inside her house.
Full official mode. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, but she wasn’t sure what he expected her to say. That her past had finally caught up with her? That her life in Texas had not been a pleasant one?
“All clear,” he said when he came back.
She turned on the Christmas-tree lights. “It doesn’t feel like a holiday around here.”
“Someone threatening you can certainly ruin the joy.”
“I won’t let them do that,” she replied on a determined note. “I’ve worked too hard for this.”
He crowded the small space with a comforting presence that made her feel safe. “Then you’d better tell me why you had to start over here in the first place.”
He ordered Luna to heel, and then he walked into the kitchen. And immediately filled it with enough man power to make her want to shrink back.
But she held her ground. “I won’t let you steal my joy, either.”
“I have to know everything about you so I can figure this out,” he said, his eyes moving over her face like a laser. “It’s standard procedure. And it could save your life.”
He was right. Instead of being aggra
vated, she should be thankful. She handed him a cup of coffee and then said, “My husband’s family resented me even before he died. I was never good enough for them, and I didn’t produce grandchildren right away, so they pretty much treated me like the enemy. And after his death, they blamed me for him being distracted the day of the accident. Somehow, they knew we’d had a bad fight that morning before he left for work. After he died, I received a large amount of life insurance money, which my mother-in-law seemed to think I should share with her.”
Dalton’s eyes held hers in a way that stripped her soul.
“Enough money for one of them to come after you?”
“More than enough,” she said in a low whisper. “But I didn’t tell them I was coming here. I sold most of my belongings and I left. No one back there could possibly know where I am now.”
He gave her a sympathetic stare. “Josie, finding a person is easy with the available technology these days. They might have put a GPS on your car or phone. Or someone could have seen you leaving and tipped them off. If they know you have a relative here, it’d be the first place they’d look.”
“I tried to be careful,” she said. “I never dreamed someone might come after me. But...no matter who’s doing this, we have to stop them.”
“We’ll keep working on it,” Dalton replied. “Sooner or later, they’ll either slip up or we’ll get a solid lead.”
Placing her coffee cup on the counter, she asked, “Dalton, what if it is one of my in-laws? What if they’ve found me?”
SIX
Dalton tried to be honest. “I can’t say for sure until I do some investigating, but they’re on the list. Why would they come after you in such a strange way? Cryptic notes, and now shooting at you? Why wouldn’t they show up at your door and tell you what they want?”
She finished her coffee and put her cup in the sink. “After we got married, Douglas changed. He became moody and mean, and nothing I did pleased him. I soon figured out he’d married me so he’d have someone to wait on him and pamper him the way his mother did. They blamed me for his bad moods and spread it around that they didn’t like that their son married a girl from the trailer park.”
Casting her gaze downward, she said, “My mother worked as a maid at the local hotel. She wasn’t the best mother ever, and she died not long after I got married. My father left when I was a baby. So I was pretty much a pushover. I wanted to please everyone, but I always failed.”
Dalton’s heart burned with anger. This kind, gentle woman had been through a lot more than he’d imagined. “So do you blame yourself for your marriage going bad?”
“I did at first. But I grew stronger as I matured. Going to church helped with that. Aunt Marilyn helped me, too. She’d come and visit and bring me things. I owe her a lot.”
She lifted her head up as if to shake away the bad memories. “Anyway, that’s my past and so here we are.”
“Tell me a little more about your in-laws,” he said, wishing he could wipe away the sadness in her eyes.
“While they weren’t rich, my in-laws were straitlaced pillars of the community. My father-in-law worked in upper management at the refinery, and he got Douglas a job there after Douglas quit college. Douglas Senior passed away a few months after Douglas died. Janine, my mother-in-law, kept saying Douglas’s death had killed her husband, too. My father-in-law was never the same after Douglas died. They quit speaking to me.”
“You mentioned more than one in-law. Any other children?”
“Yes. My brother-in-law, Randall, is estranged from his mother now, but he and Douglas stayed close. He was pretty upset when Douglas was killed in that accident. He hated the refinery and refused to work there. He studied to become an electrician, but I don’t know if he ever finished school. He worked for a cable company last I heard.”
She shook her head. “He pretty much kept to himself, and he had a girlfriend who kept him busy, but right before I left they got married and moved to Louisiana.” She wiped at a speck on the counter. “Janine was all alone and she didn’t have a lot of money, and she suddenly decided I should share the money I’d received with her.”
“Did you?”
“I gave Janine some money, but I explained to her I wanted to use the rest to start my own day care. I’d worked in child care since high school, so I could pay for college, course by course, through the years until I finally got my degree. She laughed at me and told me I’d never succeed.”
He watched her face, wondering if one of her in-laws might have come looking for her. But money could bring out the worst in people. “Did they ever threaten you before?”
“No.” Then she paused. “But...after Douglas’s death, she turned on me. They didn’t like me, anyway. After he died, his parents seemed to shift into true hatred for me. They implied if I’d been a better wife, Douglas might still be alive. Then when Douglas Senior had a heart attack, Janine poured out her angst on me. She believed the stress of her son’s death contributed to my father-in-law’s death. And I think she was right.”
She inhaled a shaky breath. “She started spreading rumors about me. I quit my job, since my boss kept hearing the rumors and questioned me daily. I knew what would happen next. I’d be fired for not being a fit child care provider. So I took the easy way out. I left.” She looked into Dalton’s eyes. “I came here with a clean record, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“But you mentioned the insurance money.”
“His father never knew about it,” she said. “I was so shocked that Douglas had taken out a policy and left it to me that I didn’t tell anyone for weeks. But after his dad died, I went to Janine and blurted it out. That’s when things got ugly. Janine demanded that I turn over the money to her. Told me she was broke, and that Douglas Senior hadn’t left her much of anything.”
Dalton saw the apprehension in her eyes.
“I’ve never seen anyone so angry,” she said. “I know she was hurting. She’d lost her son and her husband in a matter of months.”
“So you gave her money to appease her?”
She looked surprised and then resolved. “I gave her part of the money, but I’d had enough of Texas and the family, so after I talked to Aunt Marilyn she suggested I should come here for a while. When she told me she’d help me start a day care, I jumped at the chance.” She wiped at her eyes. “And here I am. I’ve been here getting the day care up and running. Why would they wait so long to confront me?”
“They found a way to track you,” Dalton said. “But the notes and even being shot at could be coming from a man or a woman. The brother maybe, if she put him up to it.”
She started around him, her frown full of doubt. “I don’t think it’s either of them. My mother-in-law is frail and sickly, so I can’t see her doing it,” she said. “Randall’s trying to improve his life, so why would he try something like this?”
Dalton touched a hand to her arm. “Josie, people who are desperate will do anything, especially when it involves money. Your mother-in-law might be frail and unable to travel, but she could have sent someone to find you.”
“And what will they do? Kill me and try to get what’s left in my bank account? They can’t do that.”
“No, but they could take you and force you to get the money out of the bank and then kill you. Is there any of the money left?”
Ignoring the crouching fear his words provoked, she said, “I have a small savings account and a modest checking account. My aunt and uncle cosigned on the loan and put up a share of the front money. They did that to protect me and because they own some other real estate, including this house.”
Dalton could see how much she had riding on this venture. “Maybe they’re threatening you, thinking you’ll leave and go back to Texas. Then they could work on getting their hands on what they consider to be a fortune.”
“Or maybe they want to torment me.” She stopped and gasped, her fingers digging into his shirtsleeve. “Dalton, that has to be it. If they keep at this, the parents will remove their children from the day care. I could lose everything. What if this isn’t about getting to the money? What if they want to ruin me?”
* * *
An hour later, Josie sat with her aunt and uncle in their den. The boys and Maisy were in another part of the house, watching a movie. They’d had a quiet dinner, but Josie could barely eat.
“I’m sorry,” she said now. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Now don’t go jumping ahead,” her uncle Jack said. “Let Dalton do his job.”
“He’s right, honey,” Marilyn said. “This doesn’t mean someone is out to do you in. I know your life with Douglas was hard, but he’s gone now. He can’t hurt you anymore. Nor can his mama or his brother. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
Josie whirled from her aunt to Dalton. “Douglas was cruel and irrational, and he didn’t trust me at all. Our marriage was over long before he died. I just didn’t have the courage to leave him.”
“Did he abuse you?” Dalton asked, an edge in his voice that made her uncle sit up and take notice.
“No,” she said. “He didn’t love me. He drank too much and flirted with other women and complained about his job. He was careless and cynical and...he didn’t trust anyone. And because of that, I cowered and became some kind of passive person that I didn’t even recognize.”
“But you’re okay,” he reminded her, the admiration in his eyes warming her. “You’re doing great. Use your strength to keep your head clear. We’ve had three messages and now a near-shooting, so this is serious. And it’ll probably get worse. You told me you’d changed, and I believe you.”
“She sure has changed,” Marilyn said with a chuckle, her dark curls bobbing around her face. “She stared down contractors and inspectors and town council members to get our business up and running, and she worked hard on finding a good team to take care of our children. I’m very proud of her and I know if my sister was alive, she’d be proud of her, too.”
Rookie K-9 Unit Christmas Page 14