“It’s a little too wet to play outside.”
“I could throw a ball for him in the hall. I promise to be careful.”
His golden eyes looked exactly like his father’s, except she’d never seen Dillon plead for a favor. He hadn’t needed to. Her teeth clenched. “I don’t know if that’s such a great idea.”
June glanced up from her puzzle. “Let him do it, Brooke. There isn’t anything in the hall for him to break, and it’ll take his mind off the itching.”
She summoned a smile. “I think Otis’s ball is in the front parlor.”
Zack ran off with the dog at his heels, and she dropped onto a chair across from her grandmother. “He’s miserable.”
“Having chickenpox isn’t fun. I remember how uncomfortable it was, and it’s been seventy years.” She filled in another row of boxes in the puzzle. “He’ll get over it.” She looked up, her blue eyes bright with curiosity. “What’s your excuse for being so glum?”
Brooke picked at a spot on the tabletop. “Men. I knew it was a mistake to get involved again, but I just couldn’t stop myself.”
June covered Brooke’s hand with her own. Her grandmother’s skin was paper thin and freckled with age spots.
“What happened between you and Dillon?”
“I don’t know. Last night was—great. But this morning he acted like my mere presence was an inconvenience even though I was offering to help him with Zack.” She clenched her fist, and her fingernails dug into her palm. “Truthfully, I felt like smacking him.”
“Dillon is a proud man. He likes to think he can manage everything on his own, and he gets testy when he has to ask for help.”
“You help him out with Zack all the time. Anyway, he didn’t ask. I offered.”
“It’s different with me. Though I wasn’t thrilled with the idea at first, he pays me to watch Zack. And I’ll admit having the extra money these last few months has been a Godsend. With you, his feelings are more personal.”
She grimaced. “I really would slug him if he offered me cash. At least he didn’t make that mistake.”
Her grandmother’s eyes glimmered with amusement behind the lenses of her glasses. “The man has some common sense.”
“Not much, but some.” Brooke stood. “It’s time for lunch. What do you feel like having?”
June stared out the window at the pouring rain. “I think it’s a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup sort of day.”
Smiling, Brooke went to make their lunch.
****
Two hours later Brooke stomped through the forest and swore loudly when a tree branch unloaded a shower of water droplets onto her head. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, feeling her blood pressure dropping. Unclenching her fists, she stared into Otis’s quizzical eyes and smiled ruefully. “Sorry about that, boy. You must think I’m a raving lunatic.”
The dog whined and licked her hand.
“Maybe I am being less than rational, but Dillon makes me want to scream.”
The dog barked once, turned, and trotted up the trail. She followed, shoving her hands in her pockets. The rain had subsided, but the air was still damp and chilly. She breathed in the scent of wet earth and told herself she wasn’t the biggest idiot on the planet for falling a little in love with Dillon. Clearly she’d been even more deluded when it came to judging Gavin’s sexual preferences. It was painfully obvious she was a complete failure at interpreting what men wanted.
Maybe not a complete failure. She knew exactly what Dillon wanted—sex, pure and simple, without any emotional strings attached. And if the hunted look on his face when he picked up Zack was any indication, he was afraid she expected a whole lot more. Brooke kicked a fir cone, sending it sailing into a clump of ferns. Up ahead a squirrel ran across the trail, and Otis crashed through a huckleberry bush, giving chase.
Maybe Dillon was right. Maybe she was kidding herself, thinking she didn’t want to get involved. If all she needed was a fling to help recover from her broken engagement, she could have chosen a man less likely to give her a new case of heartache. She could have picked someone she wasn’t going to fall for.
“I really am an idiot.”
“Who’s there?”
Brooke jumped, whirling around to face Jesse’s shotgun. She pressed her hand to her pounding heart. “You scared me to death.”
He lowered the gun. “Sorry, Brooke. I didn’t recognize you from behind.”
“What are you doing out here with your gun?”
He scratched his chin through his beard. “I heard someone making a ruckus and came to check it out.”
“You probably heard Otis.”
“Could be, but after last night, I wanted to make certain.”
She touched the sleeve of his old canvas jacket. “What happened last night?”
Jesse lowered his gaze and kicked at a clump of moss in the path. “I don’t know if I should talk about it. People already think I’m crazy for living out here the way I do. If word got out, they’d lock me up in one of those homes for senile old people.”
“If you don’t want to tell me, maybe you should talk to Dillon. He’s worried about you.”
“I know he is, and I don’t want to burden him further. He has enough to think about with Zack and those spots he’s come down with.”
She frowned. “Chickenpox isn’t that big a deal. If you saw something important, you need to tell someone about it. There are women missing, Jesse.”
“I know. I know.” He took a deep breath. “Zack was restless last night, so I got up to get him a drink of water. When I was standing at the sink, I heard a scream.” His eyes flashed. “It wasn’t a damned rabbit, either. I gave Zack the water and went out into the yard to listen. After a long while I heard the sound again, closer this time, a high pitched keening. I tell you the hair rose on the back of my neck. Then I saw flashes of white in the forest, like a ghost sliding through the trees.”
Brooke shuddered and looked over her shoulder. Rain dripped off the trees, and the ferns shook as Otis trotted through the underbrush to her side. She buried her hands in his warm fur. “What did you do?”
“I called out, but no one answered. I couldn’t leave Zack alone in the cabin, so I stood there for maybe another fifteen minutes. I didn’t hear or see anything else, and finally I went back to bed.”
“Jesse, you really should talk to Harley. If one of the missing women was out in the woods last night, the police have to search for her.”
“We looked before and didn’t find anything. I hunted around this morning after I dropped off Zack, and all I saw were a few broken branches. The worst of the disturbance was maybe a quarter-mile from the cabin.”
“Ghosts don’t break branches. Will you come into town with me and tell Harley what you heard?”
His brows lowered. “Can’t you tell him?”
“He’ll want to hear it from you.” She smiled encouragingly. “I’ll back you up. I heard a scream one night, too. I know you aren’t imagining things.”
“I suppose I could go, if you don’t mind coming with me. I’d better put away my gun first. Harley wouldn’t be happy if I brought it into town.”
Brooke tucked her hand through his arm, and they headed up the trail toward his cabin. “Crazy like a fox, that’s what you are,” she said. He chuckled, and she squeezed his arm. “Do you want to stop at the house and fill Dillon in on the details? He’s home with Zack.”
“I don’t see any reason to bother him about it, not if you’ll drive me to the sheriff’s office.”
“I’d be happy to.”
Jesse left his shotgun in the cabin, and they hurried back down the trail. Before they reached the house, the rain began again in earnest.
She dashed up onto the front porch and pushed back her dripping hood. “I’ll go get the car keys. Would you like to come inside?”
“There’s no point in me getting June’s floor wet. I’ll wait out here.”
Brooke stared at he
r dog. Rivulets of water ran off his fur and formed a puddle on the porch. “With Otis around, we don’t worry too much about the floors. I’ll be right back.”
She pulled off her muddy boots and padded across the entry toward the kitchen. “Grandma, I’m going to run into town,” she called.
June’s voice floated down the stairs. “Do you mind picking up a gallon of milk at the market? Zack drank the last of it at lunch.”
“No problem.” She pulled the car keys off the hook by the kitchen door and slipped on a pair of loafers. “I should be home before dinner time.”
“That’s fine, dear.”
Taking an oversized towel from the stack in the laundry room, Brooke went back to the front porch. After a five minute battle with Otis, she dropped the sopping towel in a heap by the door and let the marginally drier dog into the house.
Jesse grinned. “That mutt’s more trouble than he’s worth.”
“He’s a pain, but I love him. Ready?”
He nodded, and they ran around the side of the house to the Volkswagen bus parked in the driveway. Rain drummed on the roof while she cranked the engine. Finally it caught.
“You’re a good girl, Brooke, coming to stay with your grandma. June’s been lonely since Eli passed. I talk to her out in the woods every now and then.”
She glanced over at Jesse. He stared straight ahead through the windshield, apparently intent on watching the wipers slap away the rain. “What about you? Seems to me you’d want to live with Dillon and Zack.”
“I like my cabin. I was never as sociable as June.” He turned to stare at her, his brows beetling across his forehead. “You’re not going to nag me about it, are you?”
“Heaven forbid I should push a Tremayne man into making a decision.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Nothing. I’m a little irritated with Dillon at the moment. I promise I won’t nag you.” She pulled up in front of the sheriff’s office and killed the engine. “Let’s go talk to Harley.”
The dispatch officer sent them through the outer office to the sheriff’s inner sanctum. Harley looked up from the papers strewn across his desk, his gaze shifting from Brooke to Jesse and back. “Have a seat.” He gestured toward a pair of battered chairs upholstered in tan vinyl. “What can I do for you?”
When Jesse remained silent, she nudged his arm. He let out a huff of breath and rubbed his gnarled hands over the knees of his overalls. “I heard a woman in the woods last night, and I saw something white through the trees.”
Harley set down his coffee mug with a thud. “Hell, Jesse, you couldn’t have told me sooner? It’s dark out now. I can’t set up any kind of decent search until morning.”
“It wouldn’t do any good. I spent most of the day out looking for signs of her and found nothing. I wouldn’t have mentioned it at all, but Brooke told me I should.”
“She was right.” Harley’s brows lowered. “Have there been other times you heard someone and failed to report it.”
Jesse’s golden eyes flared. “What if there was. I’m just a crazy old coot, not someone to be taken seriously. I’d look like a fool running to the sheriff every time a raccoon rustled through the bushes.”
“You said you heard a woman.”
“Last night was different. I heard a scream. The other times it was just snapping branches, that sort of thing. I couldn’t be certain it wasn’t an animal.”
Harley leaned back in his chair. “Can you tell me where the sounds came from?”
“They were fairly close. The flashes of white I saw were to the east. The times before the noises were farther away, to the north one night and the south another. I searched thoroughly each time and never found anything more ominous than a few broken branches and some bent ferns.”
The sheriff rubbed his hand along the side of his jaw. “So by morning whoever was out there is long gone.”
Jesse jumped up from his seat. “What do you take me for, a coward afraid of the dark? I spent the whole night out searching those woods the first time I heard noises after Marnie Palmer disappeared. There’re two women missing, for God’s sake, and another one dead. I didn’t wait until morning.”
Brooke touched his sleeve. “Harley knows you did everything you could.”
His shoulders sagged. “Maybe I could have found the woman who screamed last night, but I had Zack with me. I couldn’t leave him alone in the cabin, not when there’s a murderer on the loose.”
“Of course you couldn’t.”
“Sit down, Jesse,” Harley said. “I’m not accusing you of cowardice or anything else for that matter, but I do want a little more information. Do you hear noises every night?”
Jesse lowered himself to the edge of the chair. “Just once in a while.”
“Can you tell me which nights you heard unusual activity?”
“Christ all mighty, Harley. How am I supposed to remember a thing like that? The first time was back in January. Of course I didn’t think anything of it, not until I found that poor girl, Cybil, weeks later. I’ve heard noises off and on since then, but not always on the same nights. There’s no real pattern to it.”
Harley’s face was red to the edges of his ears. He snapped a pencil between his fingers. “So the night you heard Cybil scream and found her body wasn’t the first time you heard someone in the forest?”
“Looking back, I guess it had been going on for about a month. The noises weren’t anything to disturb a person until I heard her scream. There are always sounds in the woods at night.”
Harley gritted his teeth. “Yes there are, but do they usually wake you up?”
“No, I’m accustomed to raccoons and possums, even the occasional bear.” His voice rose. “I certainly had no reason to suspect there was a madman running loose in the forest.”
Brooke glared at Harley. “You didn’t do a thing wrong, Jesse.”
The sheriff let out his breath. “Hindsight’s a bitch. Why didn’t you tell me about all this sooner?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Jesus, I’m asking now. Is there anything else I should know, anything at all?”
“I can’t think what it would be. Can we go home now?”
“In a minute. First I want you to swear you’ll call me the next time you hear anything unusual. This is important, Jesse.”
“Fine, I give you my word.”
Harley stood, and Jesse made a beeline toward the door. The sheriff touched Brooke’s arm. “Thanks for bringing him in. I know he wouldn’t have come on his own.”
She stared after Jesse’s retreating back. “I don’t imagine he would have.”
“Why didn’t Dillon drive him?”
She met his gaze. “Dillon doesn’t know about this latest incident.”
“Tell him, Brooke. Jesse thinks he’s invincible, but he’s well past eighty. I worry about him out there alone, tromping through the woods at night.”
“I’ll tell him just as soon as we get home.” She rolled her eyes. “Though I’m certain neither one of them will thank me for it.”
****
Dillon glanced through the kitchen window when the old Volkswagen bus pulled into June’s driveway. Jesse climbed out of the passenger side and walked around the back of the vehicle to speak to Brooke. She patted his arm, and a moment later he headed through the yard toward the trail leading to his cabin.
He dropped the hot pad he was holding on the counter next to the steaming casserole dish and hurried toward the entry, grabbing his jacket off the rack by the front door as he passed. “I’m going outside for a minute, Zack. I’ll be right back.”
“I thought you said dinner was ready,” his son yelled from the living room. “I’m starving.”
“You’ll have to wait a few more minutes.” He shut the door behind him and walked quickly down the driveway.
Brooke stood on the front porch, juggling a bag of groceries and a gallon of milk. She glanced over her shoulder at his ap
proach.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked, taking the milk jug out of her hand and setting it on the porch swing.
She set the bag of groceries next to it and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sure. I was going to stop by later, anyway.”
He inclined his head toward the forest. “About why Jesse went into town with you? I saw him heading home.”
She nodded. “I convinced him to talk to the sheriff. Jesse saw someone out in the woods last night. Apparently he’s been hearing things on a regular basis and investigating on his own. Harley thought you’d want to know.”
He stared at her, noting the droop to her shoulders and the tight line of her lips. She looked tired. And angry. Guilt settled in his chest like a bad case of heartburn.
“Of course I want to know. Jesse is a stubborn fool not to have told me about it himself.”
“He didn’t want to worry you.” Her voice held an edge. “He doesn’t want you to consider him a burden.”
Dillon wondered if she was still talking about his grandfather. “Jesse isn’t a burden, but he is my responsibility. I’m concerned for his welfare. I don’t like the idea of him roaming around in the woods at night. If he fell and broke his leg—”
“He could die before anyone found him,” she said bluntly. “Harley was worried, too, once he got past wanting to throttle him for not speaking up sooner.”
“Jesse doesn’t need Harley badgering him. I’ll talk to both of them about it tomorrow.”
She sat on the edge of the porch swing and stuck her hands in her jacket pockets. “How’s Zack?”
“Itchy and cranky.” He paused for a moment. “Brooke, about last night—”
“Last night we both needed a little comfort. Don’t get your shorts in a knot thinking I expect anything from you.” She bit her lip. “I don’t.”
He grinned. “My shorts in a knot?”
Her brows lowered. “You know what I mean. We had fun. No more and no less.”
Zack’s voice echoed across the yard. “Daaaad, dinner’s getting cold. What’s taking so long?”
“See what I mean, cranky.”
Brooke stood. “Go take care of your son. He’s the only one you need to worry about right now.” She picked up the grocery bag and milk and opened the front door. “Goodnight Dillon.”
A Deadly Love Page 10