“Oh, my goodness, Ellie,” Winnie exclaimed. “That would be hard to do all the time. When do you relax, my dear?”
“When I’m not working.”
“I noticed you slept outside my bedroom again last night. You can’t be getting rest.”
Ellie looked back at Winnie. “Now that the security system is totally functioning and someone is monitoring it at night, I can go back to my room. But I’m a light sleeper on the job whether in a bed or on the floor in front of a door.” After checking behind the SUV, she rotated forward. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Oh, but, my dear, I do. How do you think I’d feel if anything happened to you because of me?”
Again Colt and Ellie exchanged glances. She’d never had a client worry about her. If Harold hadn’t hired her, she doubted Winnie would have, even knowing about the threatening letters. That thought chilled her. The woman would have been an easy target for anyone.
As the SUV approached the next S-curve, the one where Winnie’s husband went off the cliff, Colt took it slow, leaning forward, intent on the road.
When they made it through without any problem, Winnie blew out a breath. “I hate that part of the road. If I could avoid it and get down the mountain, I would. That’s a particularly dangerous curve.”
“It’s not much farther. Which is good since they’re predicting snow tonight.” Colt took the next curve.
Halfway through it Ellie saw the car parked across both lanes of the road. With no place to maneuver around it, Colt slammed on his brakes and Ellie braced for impact.
SEVEN
Ellie gasped as the brakes screamed and Colt struggled to keep the vehicle from swerving. She muttered a silent prayer just before they collided with the car across the road. The crashing sound reverberated through the SUV. The impact with the side of the Ford Focus jerked Ellie forward then threw her back. The safety belt cut into her chest, holding her against the seat.
“Are you okay?” Ellie fumbled with her buckle, released it and shoved open the door.
“Yes.” Colt swiveled around to look at his grandmother.
“I’m fine,” she said from the backseat.
Ellie panned the crash site as she hurried toward the car. She couldn’t get to the driver’s door because of the SUV so she rounded the back of the vehicle and opened the front passenger’s door to look inside. Emptiness mocked her.
She straightened and turned to Colt. “Have Winnie stay inside.”
Standing by his car, Colt nodded and went around to Winnie’s side.
“No one is in the car. Call it in.” Keeping vigilant, Ellie scanned the landscape and then made her way back to the SUV. She stood outside the vehicle.
“He said he was fifteen minutes away,” Colt told her from the backseat where he sat next to his grandmother.
“Winnie, would you please get down,” Ellie chided. “No sense giving anyone a target to shoot at.”
“You think he’s out there waiting to shoot me?”
Ellie looked around. “Could be. Someone drove this car here and left it across the road in just the right place for anyone coming around the curve to hit it. If this had been car trouble, where is the driver?”
“Walking to get help?” Winnie’s voice quavered.
“But there’s no reason to have it stalled across the road like this and not to leave the hazard lights flashing.”
When Winnie scooted down on the floor, Colt hovered over her like a human shield.
“No, I’m not going to let you do that. I won’t let you be killed in my place. Colt, sit back up.”
“No. I won’t make it easy for them.”
“You’re going back to your ship tomorrow.” Anger weaved through Winnie’s voice.
“We’ll talk about this when we’re safe at the house.”
“Don’t placate me. I’m your elder.”
Ellie heard the back-and-forth between them and knew the fear they both were experiencing. She had a good douse of it herself. But she planted herself beside the back door, her gun raised against her chest. “Shh, you two. I need to listen.”
Not another word came from inside the SUV. Ellie focused on the quiet, occasionally broken by a sound—something scurrying in the underbrush on the side of the road, a sizzling noise from under the hood, an owl’s hoot. Finally a siren pierced the night. Its blare grew closer. Ellie smiled. She liked how Sheriff Quinn thought. Let whoever might be out here know that help was nearby. Through the trees on the cliff side, Ellie caught snatches of the red flashing lights as two patrol cars sped up the winding highway toward them. Help would be there in less than two minutes.
Even when the sheriff arrived at the wreck site, Ellie concentrated on her surroundings, not the patrol cars screeching to a halt and the doors slamming shut. Finally she slid a glance toward Sheriff Quinn marching toward her while three of his deputies fanned out.
“Is everyone all right?” The sheriff stopped, reaching out to open the back door.
“Yes, but I need to get Winnie to the estate.” Ellie backed up against the SUV. “I don’t think anyone is going to do anything now, but she isn’t safe out here.”
The sheriff pointed to his deputies. “One of you get behind that car. Let’s see if we can push it out of the way. Wear gloves. We’ll want to pull fingerprints off the steering wheel if possible. Someone left this baby out here.” He waved his hand toward the car. “And I intend to find out who did this.”
Colt climbed from the backseat, closing his grandmother inside and positioning his body at the door.
While the deputies moved the car off to the side of the road, the sheriff switched on his spotlight, sweeping the area. Ellie followed the beam, delving into the shadows for any sign of someone still hanging around.
Then the sheriff moved his car up along the SUV, rolled down the windows and said, “Winnie needs to get out on this side and into my car. If anyone was here, they’d be along the mountainside, not the cliff side of the highway. It’s a sheer drop to the bottom.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Ellie said to Colt. “When Winnie and I are in the sheriff’s car, take the front seat.”
Colt stepped to the side as Ellie slipped inside the backseat of the SUV, then he shut the door and resumed his position.
“Winnie, did you hear the sheriff?”
“It’s hard not to. He was shouting.”
“I’m going to follow you out of this car. We’ll sit in the back of the patrol car.”
“Do I hunch down in there, too?”
“It wouldn’t hurt. We don’t know what we’re up against. Caution is always the best policy.”
Winnie crawled across the floor to the other side of the backseat. She gripped the handle and pulled it down. “Here goes.” The older woman scrambled out of the SUV and into the patrol car two feet away.
Ellie followed suit, and Colt jumped into the front.
The sheriff gunned his engine, maneuvering up the road with expert precision. “We had a report of a stolen Ford Focus from the parking lot near City Hall. A family came back from watching the tree lighting and found their car gone.”
So someone had been at the celebration and decided not to go after Winnie in a crowd. Instead, he chose a dark, lonely stretch of road to cause a wreck. Was that someone Steve Fairchild? He had been at the tree lighting and he’d made a point to see Winnie. Was that his way of taunting her before he made his move?
If Colt hadn’t been as alert as he had and his reflexes quick, the crash would have been a lot worse. Ellie peered at Winnie’s face. She couldn’t see the woman’s
expression, but she held her body rigid. Tension poured off Winnie.
Ellie felt a strong urge to comfort the woman. “You’re almost home.”
“Someone hates m
e that much. We could have gone off the road like...” Her voice melted into the silence.
“We’ll find the person.” Sheriff Quinn stopped at the main gate to the estate and peered back at Winnie. “This is my top priority. I’m leaving two deputies here, and I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
Ellie pushed the remote button to allow them inside. As they headed for the main house, the two dogs followed the car as trained.
“Fine, whatever you think is best,” Winnie said, the words laced with defeat.
Ellie covered Winnie’s clasped hands in her lap. “If someone was trying to stir memories of your husband’s wreck, then he would have picked the S-curve for it to happen. His intent would have been clear if he had done that. There still could be a logical explanation that has nothing to do with you. It could be kids joyriding who got scared and ditched the car.”
“Do you really believe that?” Winnie asked, her hands tightening beneath Ellie’s.
“It’s a possibility. That’s all I’m saying. Until I know for sure, I don’t rule out anything.” But something she said to Winnie nibbled at the edges of her mind. Was there a connection to Winnie’s husband somehow? What if he didn’t fall asleep at the wheel? What if it had been murder five years ago?
* * *
A couple of hours later, Ellie entered the kitchen where the sheriff and Colt sat at the table, drinking coffee and reviewing what had occurred.
“How’s Winnie?” Colt walked to the carafe and poured Ellie a cup of the black brew.
She took a deep breath of the aroma. “She’s bouncing back. I think the similarity to what happened to her husband is what got her more than anything.”
“I agree. It worries me, too. A few threatening letters and cut-up pictures aren’t nearly as menacing as trying to re-create the same kind of accident. My first instinct was to swerve and avoid the car. If I’d done that, we could have gone off the cliff.” Colt slumped into his chair, releasing a sigh.
Ellie sat beside him. “That has me thinking, Sheriff. Your department handled Thomas Winfield’s accident. Are you one hundred percent sure it was an accident?”
“Yes, as sure as you can be. When all this began with Winnie, I reviewed the file. Nothing to indicate he was forced off the road, no skid marks. The tire tracks on the shoulder of the road were from Thomas’s car. No one else’s. No stalled car like this evening. We checked for drinking and drugs, too. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system.”
“He shouldn’t have,” Colt said. “Granddad didn’t drink, and his medicine wouldn’t have made him sleepy.”
“I know, but there was a report of a car weaving over into the other lane a few miles from where the wreck occurred. The man who reported it honked and the driver of the other car swerved in time to miss him. That person watched that car drive off, and it was going straight, no more weaving. He called it in, anyway. His description wasn’t detailed, but what he said did fit your grandfather’s car.”
“So you’re saying in your opinion it was an accident?” Ellie took a large swallow of her coffee.
“Yes. Besides, nothing has happened in five years. Why something now? Why Winnie?”
Colt raked his fingers through his hair. “How in the world do you two sit calmly and talk about this kind of stuff?”
“Because it’s good to talk about all the possibilities. Brainstorm theories.” The sheriff stood. “Ellie, I’ll take another look at the file, but I don’t think there’s a connection. While you were checking on Winnie, two of my deputies arrived after processing the scene of the wreck. The Ford Focus was towed, and we’ll go over it, check for fingerprints in the front seat and door. Maybe something will turn up. Also the SUV was towed to the garage in town to be fixed. I’m posting one deputy inside at the front door and the other at the back. Don’t want the two new dogs to mistake them for an intruder.”
Ellie started to get up.
Sheriff Quinn waved her down. “I’ll send the deputy in here and see myself out.”
When he left, Colt looked at her. “Let’s go into the den.”
Too wired to go to sleep yet, she nodded, topped off her coffee and trailed after Colt.
In the den, he stoked the fire he’d made when they had first come home. Winnie had been cold and sat by it until she’d gone to bed. Ellie observed the strong breadth of his shoulders: his movements were precise, efficient, like the man. She liked what she saw.
When he sank onto the couch next to her, he picked up his mug and sipped his coffee. “I never thought my brief vacation was going to turn out like this.”
“I can imagine. No one plans for this.”
He angled so he faced her, his arm slung along the back of the couch. “What if Harold hadn’t acted quickly on those letters? What if Winnie’s assistant hadn’t alerted Harold about the threats? I know Winnie. She would have dismissed it. She wants to think the best of everyone. This could have been totally different, especially tonight.”
“We can’t think about the what-ifs. It’s wasted energy.”
“Which is precious right now. At least the house and grounds are secure. Winnie won’t be happy seeing the deputies here tomorrow morning. She’s worried the press will get hold of the fact that she’s been threatened and make a big deal out of it. That could jeopardize the company going public. So far the people involved have remained quiet. That won’t last long. I know Harold will have to notify certain people if nothing is solved by Christmas. Maybe that is the point of all of this.”
“If the news does go public, that might actually help Winnie. Most of the people in this town love Winnie and will want to help her. Someone might come forward with information they don’t realize could help the police find who is behind this.”
“But rumors get started and get blown all out of portion, twisted around. It happened years ago when Granddad divorced his first wife. Not long after that he married Winnie. For a while people thought she had taken him away from his first wife, but that wasn’t the case. It took years for her to correct those impressions. People had to get to know her to understand she would never come between a man and his wife. It hurt her enough that when I asked her about something I’d heard, she told me what happened.”
“I know. I’ve seen similar cases on the national level, even ones I worked behind the scenes over in the Middle East. The truth often is twisted and blatantly altered.”
His hand brushed against her shoulder. “So you see why she’s trying to keep all this quiet. Already too many people know about it. I’m afraid she won’t be able to. Which brings me to our next problem.”
The feel of his fingertips touching her lightly sent her heart racing. His nearness robbed her of coherent thought for a few seconds until she forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying. “I’m afraid to ask what.”
“You afraid? All I’ve seen is a woman cool under pressure.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. It keeps me on my toes.”
“This Friday night is Glamour Sensations’ Christmas Gala. I know my grandmother. Even with what happened tonight, she’ll insist on going. She’s supposed to introduce Christy as the face of Endless Youth and tease the press with what’s going to come in February and the rest of next year.”
“I was hoping she would decide not to go and let Harold take care of it.”
“My grandmother has always been the spokesperson for the company. Any change will fuel speculation. Glamour Sensations will need the infusion of money by going public if we’re to launch and produce the new line the way it should be. If she doesn’t show up, some people will think she was badly injured in the wreck.”
“Do you think that could be the reason for the wreck? Some competitor wanted to damage what the company is planning to do?”
“Could be.” Colt scrubbed his hands down his face.
“I wish I knew what was going on. It would make it easier to fight.”
“Let me think about what we can do. I certainly don’t want to drive to the gala.”
“I doubt Winnie would, either, especially with the reminder of Granddad’s accident. It took a long while to get over his death. Her heart attack didn’t disrupt her life like his dying.” He took her hands. “When this is all over with, Harold needs a raise for hiring you. Winnie trusts you. Maybe she’ll listen to you about the gala.”
“I’ll do what I can. Meanwhile I have an idea about how to get her down this mountain without driving.”
“How?”
“Use a helicopter. There’s plenty of room for it to land in front of the house.”
His eyes brightened and he squeezed her hands. “I like that. Winnie should agree, especially given the alternatives.”
“I can talk to the sheriff tomorrow to see about who to hire in the area.” Then she would have to vet the person in only a few days. But it could be done with her employer’s assistance. “If there is no one in the area he’d recommend, we could check Denver or Colorado Springs.”
Colt lifted one hand and cupped her face. “You’re fantastic.”
The gleam in his eyes nearly unraveled her resolve to keep her distance. When this was over with, she would move on to another job and he would return to his research vessel. She needed to remember that. But when his thumb caressed her cheek and he bent toward her, all determination fled in the wake of the soft look in his eyes, as though he saw her as a woman like no other. Special. To be cherished.
His lips whispered across hers before settling over them. He wound one arm around her and brought her close. Her stomach fluttered. Then he enveloped her in an embrace, plastering her against him as he deepened the kiss. Her world tilted. She could taste the coffee on his lips. She could smell his lime-scented aftershave. She could feel the hammering of his heartbeat. Heady sensations overwhelmed her, tempting her to disregard anything logical and totally give in to the feelings he stirred in her.
The realization frightened her more than facing a gunman. She wedged her hands up between them and pushed away from him. The second their mouths parted she missed the feel of his lips on hers. But common sense prevailed. She moved back, putting several feet between them.
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