Hostage Midwife

by Intrigue Romance

  “Isn’t it?” Kelly figured that Dora’s life revolved around the television set. Though she’d turned down the volume, she’d left the picture on. “It’s just like those crime shows. We’re looking for a murderer, and we need to know everything you can tell us about Samuel Spencer.”

  “This is about the woman, isn’t it? He met her at the tavern. When I saw them together, I thought he was old enough to be her father, but she came closer, and she had plenty of lines on her pretty face. I think they were lovers.”

  Kelly was tempted to turn around and give Nick a big, fat “I told you so.” She’d seen the signs of trouble in Samuel and Julia’s relationship, and she was becoming a bit of an expert on infidelity. Keeping her focus on Dora, she asked, “Did you happen to get her name?”

  “Not the first time she met him,” Dora said. “On another time, she was the first to arrive and made the room reservation. If it’ll help, I can go through my records and dig up her credit card information.”

  “We’d appreciate it,” Nick said.

  Dora took a metal file box from her lower desk drawer, opened it and started thumbing through receipts. In less than a minute, she found what she was looking for. She read the name. “Virginia L. Hancock.”

  Kelly thanked her warmly. Chatty little Dora had given them a real lead to follow. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

  “You aren’t the first people who came looking for information about Mr. Spencer. A couple of weeks ago, there was a private investigator. He had pure white hair.”

  “Trask.”

  * * *

  AFTER PROMISING DORA that they would come back for the room and paying her another hundred, they went back to the SUV. Kelly was beside herself with excitement. “Do you think Dora is right? Did Samuel have a lover?”

  “He was close to seventy,” Nick said. “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t still interested in the ladies. I still can’t see him doing this to Julia.”

  Kelly decided that saying “I told you so” would be mean. Nick wanted to keep a good opinion of his uncle. “Do you think we can find Ms. Hancock?”

  He took his laptop from his overnight bag. After about five minutes of searching, he had an address and phone number for Virginia L. Hancock. She lived near Silverton, about twenty miles away from Hearthstone.

  “She doesn’t have a website,” he said, “but there’s a brief bio. She’s a professor, retired. And she used to work at the Colorado School of Mines.”

  While they drove, she realized that she was doing most of the talking. Nick seemed withdrawn, as though he was rethinking his opinion of the uncle he’d loved and trusted. Finally, he said, “I can’t believe Samuel cheated.”

  “Technically,” she said, “he and Julia were never married.”

  “But he made a commitment to her. He built her that incredible house.”

  She liked that he had strong feelings about standing by his commitments. One of the first things he’d said to her was that she needed to be honest with him. She had to tell him the truth to earn his trust. “You’re a puzzling man, Nick Spencer. People keep saying that you’re irresponsible, but it’s the opposite. You never break your word.”

  “Yeah, I’m a real Boy Scout.”

  “You’d look cute in one of those uniforms with the short pants.”

  “Cute?” He scoffed. “No man likes being described as cute.”

  “If I said what I really thought about you, we’d have to pull over and make love right now.”

  “You know I’d like that, but not right now. We’re so close to finding out why my uncle was murdered. Let’s hope Virginia L. Hancock has the answers we need.”

  The GPS navigational system proved invaluable in locating Ms. Hancock’s secluded cabin in the forest. Her name on the mailbox told them they’d come to the right place, but not at the right time. All the lights were off. It didn’t look as if anybody was home.

  The fact that she wasn’t here didn’t stop Nick. As soon as he parked by her front door, he was out of the SUV and climbing the four stairs to a covered porch that wrapped around the front and one of the sides of the cedar structure. He rapped on the door. “Ms. Hancock? Are you here?”

  Kelly crept up the stairs behind him. This felt like an intrusion, even more so when Nick turned the handle and walked into the house. She stopped short at the door. “You can’t do this. It’s breaking and entering.”

  “It’s entering,” he clarified. “The door was unlocked so I didn’t have to break anything.”

  “We’re going to be in so much trouble.”

  Still, she followed him inside, turning on lights as she went. The front room of the house was half sitting area and half office, with a huge, cluttered desk and files spilling in every direction. Whatever Ms. Hancock’s talents were, housekeeping wasn’t one of them. In the kitchen, her dishes were washed and stacked in a dish rack but not put away in the cabinets. In the large bedroom, clothes were tossed across chairs and several pairs of shoes looked as though they’d been left where she walked out of them. The clutter extended to more than dirty laundry. “Nick, come in here.”

  He appeared in the doorway. “What did you find?”

  She pointed to a table by the dresser where it appeared that Ms. Hancock had been cleaning her rifle, make that two rifles. There were three other handguns. “I don’t think we want to make this woman angry.”

  “But we might want to be prepared to meet her.” He picked up a .45 caliber automatic and checked the clip. “Fully loaded.”

  “Put that down.”

  But he carried the gun with him into the front room where he scooped a couple of magazines off the sofa before sprawling across it. “We don’t have a listing for her cell phone. It seems like the only thing we can do is wait for her to come home.”

  Kelly hated this plan. If the woman who lived here came home and found intruders, she’d be justified in blasting them into next week. Colorado had the “Make My Day” law that gave homeowners the right to shoot trespassers without fear of prosecution. “We should wait in the car.”

  “Why not be comfortable?”

  She went back through the house, turning off lights. When she got to the living room, she flipped the switch and darkness fell around them. “Come on, Nick. I’m serious about this. A woman living alone with lots of guns isn’t somebody to mess around with.”

  He grumbled as he got to his feet. “The SUV isn’t comfortable enough to sleep in. What if she doesn’t come back until morning?”

  “For a Boy Scout, you have a real bad attitude.”

  When she opened the front door, she thought she saw someone near the SUV. “Ms. Hancock? Is that you?”

  Nick grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside. Half a second later, she heard a blast of gunfire. Her worst fear had been realized.

  Crouched on the floor beside him, she asked, “What do we do now?”

  He moved to the window, stood and peeked around the edge. In a low voice, he said, “Bring me the rifles and the other handgun.”

  “You can’t shoot at her. She thinks she’s defending her property.”

  He ducked in time to avoid being hit by several bullets that shattered the window. Rising, he poked the automatic through the broken pane and returned fire.

  Staying away from the window, Kelly shouted, “Hold your fire, Ms. Hancock. We don’t mean you any harm.”

  “Save your breath,” Nick said. “I can see the shooter, and it’s not a woman. Kelly, get the guns.”

  She darted through the house to the bedroom and armed herself. She hadn’t fired a rifle in a long time, so she figured she’d be better off using one of the handguns.

  There was more gunfire at the front of the house. She went toward Nick, who was standing beside the window, trying to look out. “He’s behind the SUV. I don’t want to disable our vehicle.”

  She passed him the rifle. “Are you any good with one of these?”

  “I’m better with a bow, but I might make th
is shot.”

  “What should I do?”

  “Go to the other window and lay down some fire to attract his attention.”

  She scooted across the room and got into position. On the other side of the room, she saw Nick take a knee and sight through the lower part of the window. “Now,” he said.

  Shooting blindly, she blasted through the window and pulled her hand back. Nick got off two shots.

  “Did you hit him?” she asked.

  “I can’t tell.”

  There was more gunfire outside, an exchange of gunfire. Kelly heard the distinct sound of two different guns. But no shots were being fired at the house. And then, there was silence.

  A woman’s voice called out, “People in my house, identify yourself.”

  “I’m Nick Spencer. You knew my uncle.”

  “Stay where you are. I’m coming in.”

  The door opened and a woman stepped through. She had a gun in each hand. “Sorry about your uncle, Nick.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Friday, 7:15 p.m.

  The first thing Nick noticed about Virginia Hancock was that she looked nothing like Julia. If his uncle had a type of woman who appealed to him, it wasn’t Virginia, who was short, buxom and bursting with energy. She yanked the cap off her head, and thick auburn hair cascaded to her shoulders.

  “I chased that bastard off,” she said. “He hightailed it out of here in his car. I guess he didn’t want to take a chance on fighting off three of us.”

  Kelly stepped forward and introduced herself. “I’m really sorry for coming into your house uninvited.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve already called the sheriff, but I don’t intend to press charges. If you hadn’t been here, that guy might have gotten the drop on me.”

  “Did you get a look at him?” Nick asked.

  “It’s pretty dark out there, and he was dressed head to toe in black.”

  Kelly said, “He was wearing a cap so you couldn’t tell if he had white hair. Does the name Y. E. Trask mean anything to you?”

  “I wish I could help you, but no.” She crossed the room, set her handguns on the desk and sat behind it. “I’ve been expecting to see you, Nick. Did your uncle have a chance to explain what we’ve been up to before he died?”

  Nick wasn’t sure he wanted to hear this confession. “He didn’t tell me anything.”

  She clasped her hands behind her neck and leaned back in the swivel chair. “Samuel and I have been busy beavers for the past couple of months. Sometimes, he’d come here. Sometimes, I’d meet him in that cheesy little motel in Hearthstone. We had a heck of a good time putting together our plans. Sometimes, we’d talk all night.”

  “Plans?” Nick still didn’t know what she was talking about.

  “Old Samuel really kept you in the dark.” She looked over at Kelly. “Would you like something to drink? I’ve got some beer in the fridge.”

  “A beer sounds great. I’d like to drink until I forget what just happened. This is the first time I’ve been shot at.”

  “You haven’t really lived until you face death.”

  “About those plans,” Nick said.

  “I’ve been retired from teaching for two years, and I was getting a little bored out here. When Samuel offered me a chance to take part in the reopening of the Valiant Mine, I jumped at it.”

  Nick had been right. His uncle hadn’t been sneaking off to the Hearthstone Motel for an affair. He wanted to reopen the mine. “Is it a feasible project?” he asked.

  “It could very well be,” she said. “I’ve taken ore samples and had them tested with an assayer. We’ve studied the old maps of the mine, and we’ve gone in there several times.”

  That explained the opening in the boarded-up entrance. “How expensive would it be to get the mine operational?”

  “Very expensive, make no mistake about that. The old support beams are insufficient to handle the weight of new and improved equipment. And mine safety standards are quite a bit more stringent than they were before World War II. But Samuel had an idea for how he’d pay for it. Let me show you.”

  While Virginia pulled open her desk drawers and rooted through them, Kelly handed him a cold beer. He chugged half the bottle in a single gulp. His adrenaline was already running high from the gun battle, and he was starting to get excited about the prospect—no pun intended—of reopening the mine.

  “Here it is.” She held up an envelope with a big green dollar sign on it. “I have here a check for a million dollars. All those zeros are real impressive.”

  Kelly gasped. “You kept it in your desk? And you don’t even lock your front door?”

  “The best place to hide things is in plain sight.”

  Nick took the envelope from her and opened it. “The check was never cashed.”

  “At first, Samuel made the loan because he thought we might run into some big expenses up front, but he was able to pay for everything out of his own pocket. And then, he figured that man who gave him this money might be willing to invest a lot more.”

  Nick had a similar impression of Radcliff. “He likes gold.”

  “Most people do,” she said. “But there’s significant uranium in that mine, too.”

  “Stop,” Kelly said, holding up her hand. “You’re moving too fast for me. How were you going to get him to invest?”

  “When it came time for Samuel to pay back the loan, he was going to bring his investor up, show him around and offer him the opportunity to become the next gold baron of Colorado.”

  Nick finished his beer and sank down onto the sofa. From outside the shattered windows, he heard the approaching sirens of the local sheriff. This felt like one of those moments that could change his life forever. He was standing on the tightrope, not sure if he wanted to take the next step. He looked to Kelly and asked, “Should I?”

  “Do it.”

  A couple of hours ago, his brother said he might be crazy, and Nick wondered if that was true. He was about to take business advice from a midwife. Not exactly the most educated source. But he trusted her more than anyone else, and he’d never felt so sure that he was doing the right thing.

  He looked across the room at Virginia. “I like where Samuel was going, and I want to stay on the same path.”

  He was about to become a gold miner.

  Saturday, 4:45 p.m.

  NICK SPENT LAST NIGHT and most of the day on Saturday going over maps and plans with Virginia. When he’d pegged her as Julia’s opposite, he’d been 100 percent correct. Julia was cautious and neat and never would have encouraged Samuel to take a huge risk like this, while Virginia was infuriatingly chaotic and completely unafraid. She and Kelly had rapidly become the best of friends.

  Getting started with the mining operation was a matter of logistics. He was accustomed to setting up job sites in the mountains and arranged for a double-wide trailer that would be used as a mobile office on property the Spencers owned near Hearthstone. He told Virginia to hire a staff using her former students at the School of Mines. For now, everybody was required to carry a gun and know how to use it. Until Nick figured out what Trask was up to and who he worked for, they needed to be cautious.

  On Saturday evening, he sat on a rocky cliff outside the mine to watch the sunset. Kelly joined him, slipping into the crook of his arm. Tonight, he’d make love to her, and he hoped it wouldn’t be the last time. Their budding relationship was about to run into a snag.

  As the sun dipped lower and the sky blazed with rich oranges, reds and pinks, he held her chin and kissed her lightly. “It looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time up here.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s a long way from Serena’s practice.”

  “Geographically challenging,” she said. “That’s what they call it when two people want to be together but are separated by miles. It doesn’t really worry me.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You have a chopper service on speed dial.” She grinned. “It’s probably b
est that we’re not in each others’ pocket. When we have a little time apart, we can really appreciate when we’re together. And there are reasons for you to see me. We have to be a couple to take that Tantric Yoga class.”

  He caressed the slender line of her waist and the flare of her hips. “I’d fly in for that.”

  “Speaking of classes,” she said, “I need to get back tomorrow for my Lamaze group.”

  “I’m coming with you. There’s a conversation I need to have with my brother.” A talk he wasn’t looking forward to. “I don’t need to think about that now.”

  She rested her hand on his jaw and looked him in the eye. “I wish we’d gotten all the answers we came here looking for.”

  The most important question remained a mystery. He didn’t know who killed Samuel or why. Trask was part of that equation, but Nick couldn’t figure how the white-haired man fit into the picture. Sooner or later, it would all make sense.

  Sunday, 5:12 p.m.

  TONIGHT, FOR THE FIRST TIME, Jared would be attending Kelly’s Lamaze class with his wife. Nick decided to take advantage of the situation and meet with Jared at the Spencer Building, which was neutral ground for both of them. In Nick’s office on the tenth floor, the two brothers squared off.

  “I’ll go first,” Jared said. “I have bad news. The Singapore deal fell through.”

  His brother wasn’t accustomed to failure, and Nick could see the pain in his eyes. “I know you worked hard to put that together.”

  “If we had that deal, Spencer Enterprises would be okay. We’d be able to carry through with existing projects and new start-ups. But that’s not going to happen. We’ll be tightening our belts for a while, and that includes your business in the mountain division. I need to see what you’ve got on the books.”

  “You want more oversight,” Nick said.

  “That’s right. Everything will have to be evaluated and approved.”

  Until now, he’d been trying to figure out a way he could work the mine and keep his Spencer Enterprises projects intact. It wasn’t going to happen. No way could Nick live with constant supervision.