“No, I never thought you would’ve. So who could be holding a grudge against your family?” Joel brushed his hand down her arm until he could grasp her fingers in his. He turned her away from the bloody sight on the porch. “Show me the rest of your operation.”
“Give me a minute.” She stepped inside the house through a side door. He heard her yell at the boys to finish the chores, and then she returned. “This way. I need to be back before Pip’s buyers arrive, Pip and Perci and my father will need help. And I want to be here when my father learns of this. His heart’s not the greatest.”
“I’m going to have to interview your sisters. That message is pretty distinct. Sluts generally implies female. And you are all four definitely little. Four of you have any boyfriends, ex or otherwise, who may be angry over something? Rivals for the same men, possibly?”
“We don’t date. None of us.”
Joel didn’t fully believe that. They were beautiful women in a county where women, in general, were out-numbered two-to-one. And no man had been interested in the four Tyler sisters? He found that a little hard to understand.
“Why is that? Look, somebody somewhere has a grudge against your family. Unless this is a prank. That’s a pretty sick prank. So unless one of your sisters or you have pissed off some guy, maybe spurned one unknowingly? Or some guy was to be more than what he currently is to one of you? I don’t have any answers. Yet. I will get them for you, honey.”
Big blue eyes looked up at him. For some reason, he didn’t think she had much faith in him. And that struck a chord in him somehow.
Before he could say anything, a black truck pulled in behind his Denali. One he recognized. She looked at it, too. “That has to be our buyers.”
“Possibly. I do know that it’s my brother Matt. That’s his truck. And probably my brother Levi—” The doors opened, and three tall men climbed out. “Well, looks like it’s all of us. Including Nate.”
“I see. I… What are you going to do about this? Anything? Or should we just carry our rifles with us everywhere we go? And how soon can I get this cleaned up? My family doesn’t need to see this anymore.”
Quiet as she seemed to be, Phoebe Tyler didn’t beat around the bush with things. She certainly didn’t pull her punches, and Joe appreciated that. “There really isn’t much we can do right now, honey. Nobody saw anything. Yes, it’s a threat. But at this point, I don’t have anything else to go on. I’ll talk to your sisters.”
He did take a few quick photos first. Just in case. He considered getting a forensic tech out there to dust for prints, but at this point, it would take weeks or months for everything to get processed at the state lab. As gruesome as it was, this wasn’t enough to warrant the expense to the county.
He didn’t have to like it, but it was just the way it was.
“I’ll see what I can do. That’s all I can say.”
“It’s better than nothing.” She told him, bluntly. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work. I need to check my goats. And be ready when my sisters get down with the horses. I need to make sure the boys are doing their chores. Thank you for coming out here today. I’ll let you know…if anything else we can’t handle ourselves happens.”
“I’m going to go talk to my brothers. Stick around to talk to your sisters. Your father.”
“Can I clean up the blood? It needs to be gone, and soon.”
“Let me take some more photos first. Listen, I can get someone out here to take prints. But to be honest, it’s a long shot. And I doubt it would yield any results, at least not quick enough to do much good here. Chances of getting a good print, and then matching that print to someone already in the system, next to nothing. I can already tell you that. But I’m willing to have someone do it. I’m not trying to brush this off, and I’m going to look into it myself. I’m going to keep you safe, honey. You and your family. I promise you that.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Right now I just need it gone.” Her voice broke, and Joel felt like a complete ass that he couldn’t promise her magic bullets and everything all pretty and neat again. “I got kids inside. They don’t need to see this. There’s too much work to do right now, anyway. Thanks again for coming out all this way, Sheriff. Have a good day.”
She left him there. Like he’d disappointed her.
Hell, of course he had.
He was the sheriff, she was supposed to be able to depend on him to keep her safe. He would try to find the person responsible, he made her a silent promise of that. In the meantime, he’d ramp up his patrols in this area. Just to be on the safe side. He stalked over to his brothers. “What are you three doing here?”
“Same could be asked of you. Tylers causing trouble again?” Nate asked. Joel got it, he did. Martin Tyler and Nate had despised each other for years. Unfortunately, it made Nate untrusting of every Tyler in the county.
Joel half felt sorry for the sister that worked with his brother. No doubt Nate was a little harder on her than he should’ve been.
“Not causing it, in it. Someone is harassing them. I’m going to find out who, and why.” Joel waved a hand to the porch. His brothers all cursed, seeing what was written there. Seeing the two small women busy with a mop and a bucket and a trashcan. When they saw the young boys coming around the edge of the house to where their sisters were. Phoebe waved the children away sharply, turning her body to block the grisly sight from those kids.
“Who are they?” Matt asked.
“Youngest brothers. The way I take it, the four sisters and the father are doing everything they can to keep this place going. And it’s not happening yet. You guys here to look at the horses? Well, if you buy today, it’s going toward the medical bill from the last time I was out here.”
“It’s that tight?” Nate asked.
“Apparently.”
“Any idea who did that?” Matt asked, pointing at the house. “We’re here because we saw the ad in the paper for the quarter horses for sale. Terrence Jonson vouches for this Pip Tyler. I’ve never met the guy, but—”
“Girl. Pip is short for Philippa. She’s one of the twins. They’re identical; the other one is a nurse. She and Nate know each other.”
“Not my choice,” Nate said, quietly. “Mother hired her. But she does her job. And nurses are in such shortage around here, I don’t have any other choice but to keep her on. Even if she is a Tyler. Hell, she’s the first to volunteer for overtime.”
“Look, Nate, I know you have a problem with Tylers, but this branch of the family is different. They keep their heads down and do their jobs. They take care of each other. They’re not like Martin Tyler and the rest of his crew. Just keep that in mind.” Joel looked toward the east at the sound of horses. Two beautiful geldings came into sight, led by two equally beautiful young women.
Joel looked back at his brothers, not missing the sudden appreciation in their eyes. Phil Tyler’s daughters were a sight to behold, that was for certain. All four of them.
He frowned. Was that what it was?
Had their refusal to date caught one of them some of the wrong kind of attention? “Don’t judge them all just by their last name. This family’s barely hanging on. That overtime she volunteers for might very well be all the grocery money they get each week; understand what I’m saying? Don’t make it worse for them.”
A minute later the two geldings neared the back fence. And then the twins were there. All of the Tyler sisters greatly resembled each other. The twins were taller and a little heavier than Phoebe. By a few inches and fifteen pounds or so. Their hair was a little shorter than Phoebe’s.
One twin dismounted and approached the men. “Which one of you is Matt?”
“Which one are you?” Joel asked. He hadn’t quite figured out yet how to tell them apart. He thought this was the quieter one, though.
It was Nate who answered. “Not Perci. She has a small scar over her left eyebrow.”
The twin eyed Nate warily. “Yes. Hello, Dr. Masterson. Perci has a scar.
The only noticeable outward difference between us. How can I help you gentlemen today? Sheriff, why are you here?”
“We are here to see the horses. Well, Nate, Levi, and I are. Joel’s here for something else.” Matt said, holding out his hand to the young woman. She shook his hand solemnly. Pip, the quiet, shy one who’d sat next to Joel at dinner. He hadn’t quite figured her secrets out yet, either.
The same fear and distrust were in her blue eyes that had been in her older sister’s earlier. Maybe more. Joel looked over at her twin. The one he now knew was Perci was eyeing the four of them like they were snakes in the midst of a family of tiny mice. Especially Nate. So wary, so untrusting, these girls. He didn’t quite understand it.
“Where’re Phoebe and Pan?” Perci asked. “And the boys?”
“We’re here, Perci. Where’s Dad?” the youngest sister asked from behind Joel. He turned to look at her quickly. His gaze went past the two women toward the porch. They’d worked quickly.
“Sky Dancer wasn’t cooperating. Pete stayed behind to walk her back. Dad’s coming along with some cattle. I think Sky’s missing you today,” the other twin said. “What’s the sheriff doing here? Is Phoenix all right?”
“Everything’s fine,” Phoebe said, firmly. “We’ll talk later, the four of us. Something’s happened. We’ll deal with it later.”
Something significant passed between the sisters. Joel wondered just how often they dealt with things just the four of them. Something about this family… struck a chord in him. Made him wonder.
Made him want to help. To protect. And not just Phoebe.
Her sisters were too young to be facing the wolves of life out there. Not to mention those kids staring at them all from the porch.
He stuck around and watched as the sisters put the two young horses through their paces, demonstrating some serious skill and training. The animals were well worth the asking price. He knew Matt, who ran his own small cattle and horse operation off the property he’d inherited from one of their great-grandfathers, was seriously impressed. When the demonstration was done the twin girls dismounted and walked over to the fence where Joel and his brothers, as well as their two sisters, waited.
“You sure you want to see these horses go?” Levi asked. Joel knew what he meant. These horses were younger than what he’d expected. If they waited a year or so to sell them, they could probably command a much higher price.
There was a sadness on Pip’s pretty face. “Yes. It needs to be done.”
Joel understood what she wasn’t saying. Money was just that tight, and all of them knew it. Phoebe, behind him, let out a curse so low he doubted anyone else heard. He looked over his shoulder at her, saw the guilt and pain on her face.
She was blaming herself, and he knew it. But they were resolute, and he watched as Matt agreed. As Matt and quiet little Pip shook on the deal. She’d handle the paperwork, she said. And then it was done.
Nate hadn’t said much, but his eyes had followed the other twin as she rode the horse. As she dismounted the horse. As she stood there, letting her sister talk.
In fact, Joel didn’t think Nate had looked away from her since the moment she’d rode in. Interesting. Matt set up a time to come back to pick up the horses. And then Joel’s brothers took off, after shooting significant looks at Joel.
They weren’t the only ones that looked at him. Phoebe stared at him, for a long moment. “Don’t you have other places to be now, Sheriff?”
One of the twins said her name. Chastising. But she didn’t look away from him. He had to admit, he liked that she didn’t back down. That she quietly challenged him when she could.
Oh, he knew that he scared her. It was in the way she pulled away from him whenever he got too close. It was in the way he remembered her looking at him the night he’d arrested her brother. But there was something else there, something he had yet to put his finger on.
He suspected that she was just as attracted to him as he was her. She wasn’t about to let him make the move that he wanted to, nor was she about to make a move of her own. As far as she was concerned, the Sheriff of Masterson County was her enemy, and she wanted nothing to do with him. His inability to wave that magic wand around and erase what had brought him out there in the first place wasn’t exactly helping him convince her otherwise.
Still, he’d been rejected before. If she didn’t want him to pursue, then he’d be a man about it and take off. Give her exactly what she apparently wanted.
Chapter 14
Easier said than done. The message weighed on his mind long into the nights as the week progressed. Between the drug bust, the second round of approaching floods—the county had yet to recover from the first round, and the petty bullshit that all small rural communities face on a regular basis, he wasn’t able to get much figured out about who could be screwing with the Tylers like that.
He wasn’t certain it was a prank. Someone had specifically came onto their property—as isolated as it was—with the intent to terrorize.
Not exactly something some teenager would do for a prank. Even one with a serious grudge. But to be honest, he didn’t have any other leads.
He’d made a point the day after the message to track down each sister individually and ask about possible culprits. All had confirmed what Phoebe had told them. They didn’t date, though several had been asked out recently. They just focused on their family as much as possible. None had any arguments with anyone—except Perci with his brother Nate. But he ruled Nate out pretty quickly. Matt and Levi were a pretty tight alibi, and his brother had been with them from the early morning hours.
The three youngest Tyler brothers weren’t even old enough to drive. They didn’t do much with the people in Masterson—the Tylers preferred to cross county lines and socialize there, rather than in Masterson. So that left only one potential lead.
The teenager with a grudge.
It seems like his best bet would be to start interviewing, and the first one he wanted to speak with was none other than Phoenix Tyler himself.
The high school beckoned. Phoenix Tyler was supposed to be there right now.
Chapter 15
Phoenix Tyler hadn’t been to school in two days. That concerned him. Made him wonder. Had the kid gone off the deep end, wanted to frighten his family for banishing him? Had he done it, then regretted it, so was now hiding?
A bit strange, considering it had been close to a week since it had happened.
He had to juggle looking into the threat with the biggest drug bust in Masterson County history, but he did his best. No one had seen anyone who didn’t belong near the Tyler Ranch. No one in town had anything bad to say about Phil Tyler and his pretty daughters. In fact, most people didn’t even know the man had more than two children—Phoenix and Perci. The rest…kept to themselves so much that half their neighbors didn’t even realize they existed.
Why did he find that so odd? He doubted they’d been kept isolated at that ranch. Far from it; Perci had attended college somewhere. As had Phoebe for a while. The youngest sister Pandora had mentioned having her own Associate’s degree from the small community college in the county directly south of the Tylers’ ranch. That was probably it. They lived in Masterson County but didn’t act a part of it.
He’d made a point of stopping out there every day, just to do a security check—and always on his own way home. It was being a good sheriff; that’s what he told himself.
He knew the truth. He needed to check on her for himself. Whether she welcomed his attention or not.
The problem was finding her, at times. The woman worked like a mule, and her sisters were just as bad. Perci left every afternoon at two to clock in at the hospital by three. She’d work her twelve hours—then drive home alone at three a.m. Joel wasn’t too fond of that idea, at all. It made at least one Tyler pretty damned vulnerable. Before Perci would leave each day, she’d be doing twice a single person’s chores around the ranch. Pan was also out quite a bit, building her own clean
ing service. He understood she also worked online for people needing a secretary. Not to mention her own share of the ranch chores. Pip was most often outside, right alongside her father. Dawn to dusk.
Not a one of those women slouched off in any way. Joel found, in the hour or so Phoebe permitted him to hang around the ranch, that he liked each and every one of them. They didn’t seem to stop for anything.
They were going to have to eventually. Before they wore themselves clear down to the bone.
He stopped off five days after the message first appeared. He’d found nothing in all of that time. Other than the fact that Phoenix Tyler wasn’t exactly where he was supposed to be.
And his name had just come up as a person of strong interest in Joel’s drug bust case.
Time to find out why.
Chapter 16
She heard an SUV pull up, and Phoebe paused in her weaving to look out the window of the little shed that was all hers. For some reason, it didn’t surprise her to see the familiar SUV pulling in. Other than Perci and Pan’s cars, and their father’s old truck, no other vehicles had been down their drive since the day the sheriff’s brothers had purchased Pip’s horses. Phoebe liked it that way.
Although she half expected his brothers to show up today, too. Matt Masterson was set to pick up the two horses he’d purchased from Pip in less than an hour.
She walked outside to meet the sheriff, after making sure the boys were still sitting at the table working on their math assignments like she had ordered them. They were good boys. They worked hard, obeyed, and didn’t ruffle any feathers. They cared about each other.
Seeking the Sheriff (Masterson County Book 1) Page 5