The Deputy's Proof

by Carla Cassidy

  She nodded and continued to weep, her shoulders shaking and her body trembling against his. He kept his arms around her tightly, not asking any more questions and holding up a hand to stop Donnie from speaking.

  It was obvious that at the moment, Savannah needed comfort, not questions. As he once again looked around at the damage, he tightened his arms around her, wishing he could take away the obvious trauma she’d suffered and pull it into himself.

  She finally managed to gain some control and stepped away from him. She wiped her tears from her face but appeared unable to talk.

  “I found this mess when I came in,” Donnie said. “She was hiding in the treasure chest. She crawled out when I called her name. I was scared I’d find her dead somewhere.”

  It was the first time in all the years Josh had known Donnie that the older man appeared shaken up. “Somebody made a mess in here. Thank God whoever it was didn’t hurt Savannah.”

  “He wanted to kill me.” Savannah finally found her voice. “I was at the desk, and it was about three fifteen or so and all the lights went out.” She paused and visibly trembled.

  Donnie walked over to one of the light switches and turned it on. Nothing happened. “The electricity is still off.”

  “At first I thought it was a blown fuse or something like that. I was just about to call Donnie when I heard the thumping of somebody walking the upstairs hallway.”

  “Old Peg Leg,” Donnie said.

  “It was no ghost,” Savannah replied, her voice a little stronger now. “It was a living, breathing person, and he was definitely after me. He whispered my name and told me he was going to kill me.”

  A new chill worked through Josh. “He actually said your name?” he asked.

  She nodded and wrapped her arms around herself as she began to tremble once again. Josh pulled out his cell phone and called Trey. This was definitely something the sheriff needed to know about.

  With the call completed, he dropped his phone back into his pocket, placed an arm around Savannah’s shoulder and led her to one of the two sofas.

  He pulled her down next to him as Donnie disappeared into a back room and returned a few minutes later with a broom. “Donnie, you shouldn’t do any cleanup yet. I’m sure the sheriff will want some of his men to process this as a crime scene,” Josh said.

  Donnie leaned the broom against a wall and sat on the sofa opposite them. “I can’t figure out how anyone got inside. The front door was locked when I got here, and so was the back door. The only door that wasn’t locked was the one in my office that leads down to the basement. And there are no windows to break into down there.”

  That didn’t mean there wasn’t another way into the inn. Josh thought of the tunnel system and wondered if there was some way into the basement that Donnie wasn’t aware of.

  He’d check it out once Trey arrived. “I’m not going to ask you questions now,” he told Savannah. “Trey will want to question you, and there’s no need for you to go through the details twice.”

  “I’ll just say I’ve never been so grateful to hear Donnie’s voice,” she replied and looked at her boss fondly.

  “After walking in and seeing the mess, I was just glad to see you alive and well,” Donnie said gruffly.

  The attacker had called her by name, Josh thought. There was no denying that whoever had been in here last night had been here specifically to hurt or kill Savannah.

  Josh had thought the attack in the tunnel might have just been an accident of strange circumstances, but this changed everything. This attack had been personal, and she was the intended target.

  It didn’t take long for Trey and his favorite deputy, Ray McClure, to arrive, along with Deputy Daniel Carson, who said he’d heard the official dispatch and had decided to stop in at the end of his shift.

  Josh was grateful to see his friend, who he knew was a better investigator than Trey and Ray put together.

  “Jeez, it looks like a bomb exploded in here,” Ray exclaimed. He walked around, shards of broken pottery crunching beneath his feet.

  “Stand still,” Trey said irritably to Ray as he sat next to Savannah on the sofa. “Let’s hear what happened, and then we’ll proceed from there.”

  Savannah recounted the night from the moment she arrived to when she went into the restroom and then returned to her desk and the lights went out.

  As she spoke about the thumping noise and then the whisper of her name as the person came down the stairs, Josh wanted to wrap her in his arms once again and carry her far away from here.

  She explained that she had hidden behind a plant pot and listened while the intruder had raged, smashing things and promising to kill her when he found her.

  “And you didn’t recognize his voice?” Trey asked.

  “I felt like I should know it, but no, I couldn’t identify it. It was gruff, like he was trying to disguise it,” she said. She went on to talk about the flashlight he clicked on. She had known her hiding place behind a plant wouldn’t keep her safe. That was when she decided to climb into the treasure chest and bury herself deep inside.

  “Did you see him at all?” Trey asked in a concerned tone.

  She shook her head. “He was just a dark shadow, and I think he was wearing a ski mask.” She looked at Donnie and gave him a tense smile. “I’ve joked about that treasure chest being a monstrosity forever, but last night it definitely saved my life.”

  “It is a monstrosity, but I figure once the amusement park opens, tourists will want their pictures taken in front of it,” Donnie replied.

  “Unfortunately, if you want to try to pull fingerprints, I’m not sure he touched anything except with whatever bat or wooden stake he used to smash everything,” she said to Trey.

  “If he touched anything upstairs or the stairway itself, you should be able to pull some prints. I had Dorothy dust everything yesterday,” Donnie added.

  “Ray and Daniel, why don’t you start in the guest rooms and see what prints you can pull off furniture or door frames?” Trey instructed. “I’ll call in Deputies Bream and Stiller to help.”

  Trey got up from the sofa and took several steps away to make his calls. Donnie also got up and stood next to the treasure chest, surveying the surroundings.

  Josh scooted closer to Savannah, his heart filled with the terror she must have felt through the long ordeal. “Thank God you were able to hide,” he said softly.

  “I don’t understand why this happened,” she said, and he was grateful to see that her trembling had finally stopped, although her eyes still retained a depth of darkness that he knew was trauma.

  “Let’s talk about that,” Trey said as he resumed his seat next to her. “You said you can’t imagine why this happened? Can you think of anyone who might have a reason to want you dead?”

  “No. I don’t have anything to do with anyone. I haven’t had any interaction, good or bad, with anyone for a long time. The only person I see on a regular basis is Chad Wilson, who delivers my groceries to me once a week.”

  “Has he ever had any issue with you?” Trey asked.

  “No, although last time he came by, he asked me out and I turned him down, but he seemed to understand that the problem wasn’t him, that I just didn’t date at all. He stayed and visited for a while after that, so I thought everything was fine. I can’t imagine Chad doing something like this.”

  Trey wrote for a moment in a small notepad he’d pulled from his pocket and then looked back at her. “We’ll check Chad’s whereabouts last night.”

  Deputy Derrick Bream and Deputy Wes Stiller arrived with their fingerprinting kits and were sent upstairs to join the other two deputies.

  “What about Bo McBride? Have you had any interaction with him since he’s been back in town?” Trey asked.

  “No, but why would Bo want to hurt me?” she asked with a frown.

  “Maybe he thinks you know something about your sister’s death that could put him behind bars,” Trey replied.

  “So he
’s waited two years to attack me?” Savannah scoffed. “You know I don’t believe Bo killed Shelly, and I’m sure he’s not behind any plan to kill me now.”

  “I think a good question is how the perp got into the building,” Josh said, knowing Bo McBride and the murder of Shelly was a touchy subject with Savannah. “According to Donnie, all of the outside doors were locked when he arrived this morning.”

  “You think a tunnel?” Trey asked.

  “I think it’s not only possible but probable,” Josh replied.

  “But Savannah said he came from upstairs,” Trey said.

  “And she was also in the restroom right before things went down. It’s possible he came up from the basement and went upstairs while she was in the bathroom.”

  “Then how did he turn out the lights from upstairs?” Savannah asked.

  “We’ll figure out the answers, but right now I’d like to get a look in the basement,” Trey said.

  “I’m coming with you,” Josh replied.

  “And so am I.” Savannah stood, a resolute expression on her face.

  “Donnie,” Trey called to the man who had remained standing next to the treasure chest. “Is there something strange in your basement?”

  Donnie frowned. “I’ve got lots of what most people would consider strange down in the basement. I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “We need to go down there and check things out,” Trey said.

  Donnie shrugged. “Fine with me.” He led them through the lobby to his private office, a small room with a desk, a computer and paperwork stacked on several file cabinets. He opened a door and turned on a light that illuminated a set of stairs leading down.

  “I’m not sure what you’re looking for, but feel free to snoop around,” he said.

  Trey led the way, with Savannah behind him and Josh following. The stairs were narrow, and once they reached the bottom, it was obvious Donnie had more than a few hoarding tendencies.

  “I hope we don’t have to move all these boxes and crap to find a tunnel in the floor,” Trey said.

  “If there is a tunnel and that’s how the perp got in, then he wouldn’t have had a way to stack anything back on top of the entrance once he left,” Josh said. “We’re going to find a place either in the wall or on the floor that’s bare.”

  They fell silent as they searched. Josh was positive that there was a tunnel entrance somewhere that had allowed the perp to sneak in.

  The fuse box showed nothing to indicate that the fuses had been blown, so the perp had obviously manipulated the electricity another way. They would have to call somebody from the electric company to find the issue and fix it.

  The walls were made of concrete blocks, and it was Savannah who found the first loose one. She called the men over, and by the time five blocks had been removed, a tunnel entrance was revealed.

  “So now we know how he got inside,” Trey said. He pulled a flashlight from his belt and shone it down into the tunnel. “I’ll have to get some equipment before I go in.”

  Josh nodded. He understood the reluctance of anyone to go into an unknown tunnel without the proper items to mark an exit out.

  “If you’ve gotten all you need from Savannah, I’m going to follow her home,” Josh said.

  “Yeah, if I need to ask any more questions I know where she lives,” Trey said absently, his light still focused into the darkness beyond the blocks.

  “Oh, and if you don’t mind, I’m officially taking vacation time as of right now,” Josh said. “I have plenty of time coming to me.”

  Trey straightened up and looked at Savannah and then at Josh. “Are you planning on pulling some sort of private bodyguard duty?”

  “Something like that,” Josh replied. He touched Savannah’s elbow. “I’d say your night here has been long enough. Let’s head out.”

  He followed her up the stairs, his thoughts racing. When they reached the lobby, once again he was struck by the rage that had been unleashed...a killing rage.

  The fact that it had been directed at Savannah chilled him to his very soul. There was only one way he knew to keep her safe, and that was why he intended to take charge of things whether she liked it or not.

  “Donnie, Savannah is officially on an undetermined leave of absence as of right now,” he said to the owner. Savannah looked at him in surprise but didn’t argue with him.

  Donnie nodded as if he’d expected it. “I’ll call in some of my other gals to take up the slack. Besides, it’s going to take me a couple of days to get things cleaned up.”

  “I hope you have insurance,” Savannah said.

  Donnie smiled gently at her. “Those pots were cheap enough, and I’ve probably got extra ones in the basement somewhere. I won’t be making an insurance claim. A little elbow grease and things will be good as new. You just stay safe, Savannah.”

  “She will. I’m going to see to it,” Josh replied. He turned to look at her. “I’ll follow you home.”

  She nodded. “I just need to get my purse from the drawer in the desk.” She retrieved her purse, and then together they left the inn.

  The sun was up, and it was almost ten. Josh followed her car as they drove to her house. She had to be not only exhausted but also still experiencing some kind of posttraumatic stress from the horrifying night she’d just survived.

  Making sure she got home safely from the inn was just the first part of his plan to assure her safety. She probably wasn’t going to like the next stage of his plan, but he couldn’t get past the knowledge that whoever had been in the inn last night had been filled with rage, and he’d named Savannah as his victim.

  Josh had let down Savannah years ago when it came to pushing for an intensive, clean investigation into Shelly’s death. He wasn’t about to let her down now.

  Chapter Eight

  Savannah found herself alternately flashing with warmth and shivering with chills as she drove home. She tried not to replay the events of the night anymore in her mind.

  It was over. The sun was up and she’d survived the long, terrifying night. As she glanced in her rearview mirror, the sight of Josh’s car just behind hers reassured her. All she had to do was get home and lock the windows and doors and she’d be fine. Maybe she’d get a security system installed, and then she’d never leave her house again.

  She had enough money saved up that would see her through a couple of months jobless, and surely by then Trey and his men would be able to figure out who was after her and why.

  She tightened her fingers on the steering wheel. Who had been in the inn last night? Who wanted her dead? Whoever it was had been so violently angry. No matter how long she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with an answer.

  Punching the button that would open her garage door, she tried to shove away any thoughts of the night, tried to reach the same level of numbness that had been such a constant friend of hers since Shelly’s death.

  She drove into the garage and got out of her car and then walked back to where Josh had parked in the driveway. “Get in,” he said.

  She frowned in confusion. “Why?”

  “Because we’re going to my place. I’m going to pack a bag, and you’re going to have a houseguest until we get all this sorted out. So, get in.”

  Her initial reaction was to protest, but her lingering fear was greater than her pride or her desire to be alone. She got into his car.

  “I expected an argument,” he said as he backed out of her driveway.

  “To be honest, I’m scared. I’ll let you stay with me until I can get a security system installed. Then I’ll be fine alone.”

  He cast her a doubtful glance. “Do you have any idea how easy it is to get around a security system if you know what you’re doing?”

  “Don’t tell me,” she replied. The idea of a houseguest wasn’t particularly pleasant. The idea of Josh as a houseguest was even less desirable. He bothered her in ways she didn’t like with just short contact with him. The idea of him living in
her house felt very wrong.

  But the idea of him being with her day and night also made her feel safe, and right now she needed that more than anything else. She didn’t even want to acknowledge that a hint of excitement also filled her as she thought of spending time with him.

  She could put her discomfort at sharing her space aside for a feeling of safety. She needed sleep after the long night, and she had a feeling that without Josh nearby, and knowing there was a tunnel entrance right in her own backyard, she’d never really sleep again.

  They arrived at Josh’s house, and he followed her to the front door. He unlocked it and they stepped inside. “Just hang tight. It shouldn’t take me long.” He disappeared down the hallway to the master bedroom.

  Savannah knew that the tight control she’d had on her life had flown away. Things were happening spontaneously, without her control, and that was more than a little frightening in and of itself.

  True to his word, Josh took only a few minutes and then reappeared with a large duffel bag in hand. Savannah frowned. “That looks like enough clothes to stay a long time.”

  “I intend to stay until the danger is over. Savannah, I know this isn’t the way you want to live your life. I know the last thing you want is anyone staying in your house. But you have to face the fact that somebody wants you dead and this isn’t the time for you to be alone.”

  “I know.” She released a deep sigh. “Let’s just get back to my place and you can get settled in.”

  “And hopefully you can get some sleep.” They stepped back outside.

  “I imagine you could use some of that yourself. You’ve been up working all night, too.”

  “I’ll catch some snooze time. Don’t worry about me.”

  Within minutes they were back at her house. She led him to Mac’s old bedroom, the first one in the hallway. Josh set his duffel bag on the bed. “And you have the master suite?” he asked.

  “No, I’m in the bedroom next door. The master suite has been empty since Mom and Dad moved away. I’ve stayed in the room I shared with Shelly since childhood.”