Stalking Season

by Sandra Robbins

  Having said that, he turned and walked out of the barn area to the parking lot, where he’d left his truck. He could hear the excited cries and applause of the audience as the show continued. He’d come tonight just to see the young woman he’d met earlier today perform. Now he was on his way to the hospital to take a statement from her once again.

  He had no idea how she would react when she found out that her horse had sustained an injury that would put him out of commission for several months. But that wasn’t the worst news he had. It looked like she’d been right. Her stalker had returned, and he had delivered a life-threatening blow tonight.

  With few clues to follow at this point, Luke had no idea where to start looking for him. But he did know one thing. He had to find Cheyenne’s stalker before she ended up dead.

  FIVE

  Cheyenne shivered and pulled the covers up to her neck as she stared up at the ceiling from the bed where she lay. In the hallway outside the cubicle where she’d been deposited when Joe and his partner wheeled her through the emergency room door, she could hear the swishing of the nurses’ shoes on the tiled hallway as they moved from one room to another. Christmas music, no doubt to put patients at ease, played softly over a sound system and drifted through the partially open door to her room.

  However, it was going to take more than some holiday tunes to make her relax. All she could think about was feeling herself slip down Patches’s side and knowing that they were going to fall. In those terrifying moments she had believed she would die with her beloved horse crushing her to death. She still couldn’t figure out how she’d been able to free herself.

  Finding out the answers was going to have to wait until she got out of here, and she needed to quit thinking about it for now. After being pricked, probed and delivered back from the X-ray department, she had nothing to do but be patient and await the final word from the doctor. She was eager to get back to Patches, make sure that he was all right and get them both home.

  She heard heavier footsteps in the hallway and looked toward the door expecting to see the doctor. Instead she heard a soft tapping and a voice she immediately recognized. “Cheyenne, it’s Luke. May I come in?”

  “Yes, come in.”

  The door swung all the way open, and Luke stepped inside. Her gaze swept over his lanky figure as he walked toward her, and she smiled. Tonight he didn’t have on his uniform but wore jeans and a Western-style shirt that was open at the neck. He held a Stetson in his hand and he smiled as he approached her bed.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine,” she answered. She motioned to a chair beside the bed as she pushed the button to raise the headrest. “Have a seat and keep me company until the doctor comes back.”

  He did so, placing his hat on the floor next to the chair, and leaned forward. He didn’t say anything as she rearranged the pillows at her back and sat up straighter. When she looked back at him, he was studying her with an intense expression on his face. “Are you really all right?” he asked.

  She laughed and finger-combed her hair. “I probably look a mess, but I’m okay. I just wish the doctor would come back and dismiss me. I’m ready to go get Patches and get home.”

  “That’s one of the things I came to talk to you about.”

  The solemn look on his face frightened her, and her breath hitched in her throat. “Is something wrong with my horse?”

  “I’m afraid it is.”

  She listened as he told her what the vet had said about the injury and the kind of care that the horse would need to have over the next few months. By the time he’d finished, tears were forming in her eyes. “This is all my fault. I must have done something to cause him to fall.”

  Luke’s hand snaked out and covered hers. “No. It wasn’t anything you did. In fact it wasn’t an accident at all.”

  The way he said it shocked her, and she felt her eyes grow wide. “What do you mean?”

  “It wasn’t your fault. Someone cut the drag strap, causing it to slip two notches.”

  It took a moment for his words to sink in, then her heartbeat accelerated. “Two notches? That means it wasn’t adjusted for my height. When I slipped, I wasn’t balanced, and I pulled Patches down.”

  Luke nodded. “Yes. If you hadn’t kicked free of that strap somehow, you’d probably be dead by now.”

  She began to shake as her toes started to tingle with an icy feeling that slowly crept up her legs until it spread throughout her body. As the tremor increased, she felt the pressure from Luke’s hand grow tighter.

  “He’s back. He’s really back,” she said with a sob. “I wanted to deny it, but I can’t anymore. The police didn’t find my parents’ killer because he’s still out there. And now he’s determined that I’m going to be next.”

  “Cheyenne,” Luke said, “our department will do everything we can to find him. Until we do, you have to be careful. You won’t be able to perform because Patches is going to be out of commission for a few months, so you need to make sure that you stay close to someone at all times.”

  Tears rolled down her face, and she covered Luke’s hand that still held hers with her free one. “If I could just make some sense out of it, maybe it would be different. But I don’t know anything I’ve ever done to anybody that would make them do something like this.”

  He shook his head. “It’s the same for all victims of a stalker. It’s impossible to know what makes one person pick out another one to target. When they do, though, they make life miserable for their victim.”

  Cheyenne frowned and chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before she gazed back at Luke. “This afternoon at your office when I told you about my room being trashed, you mentioned something about how stalkers escalate through different stages. How would you categorize his actions now?”

  Luke looked down at the floor as if he couldn’t look her directly in the eye and shook his head. “Cheyenne, there’s no need...”

  She squeezed his hand tighter. “Tell me, Luke. I want to know.”

  He heaved a deep sigh and nodded. “The most dangerous stage is the last one. Once inanimate objects have been destroyed, the stalker only sees he has one option left. That’s when he escalates to violence against a person. He’s already killed your parents, but that didn’t satisfy him. Now he thinks he’s not going to be free until you are gone, too.”

  The longer Luke talked, the more frightened she became. “What am I going to do?” she whispered.

  “The thing you can’t do is panic. You have to keep control of yourself if we’re going to catch this guy. Our sheriff has been in a meeting today over at Asheville, but he’ll be back tomorrow. I’ve taken the drag strap, and I’ll send it off to the state lab to see if there are any fingerprints on it, but I don’t expect to hear from them anytime soon. They stay so backed up that it may be weeks. I’ll talk to Sheriff Whitman when he gets home and see how he wants to proceed with this case. For now, though, let’s just sit tight until the doctor dismisses you.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth when a knock on the door sounded, and the doctor walked into the room. Cheyenne had seen him earlier, and he had introduced himself as Dr. Wilson. He smiled as he stopped beside her bed. “Hello, Luke. I didn’t know you were here.”

  Luke nodded. “I came to check on Cheyenne and to drive her home when you dismiss her.”

  The doctor held a medical chart in one hand, and he looked down at it before he responded. “Well, I don’t think that’s going to be tonight.”

  Cheyenne sat up straight in the bed. “What? I thought I’d go home when all the tests were done. Is something wrong?”

  Dr. Wilson peered over the glasses that were perched on the end of his nose and smiled. “I don’t think there’s anything to get upset about, but you’ve had a hard fall. There’s evidence of a concussion, and I would
like to keep you in the hospital for observation overnight. If you appear to be doing well in the morning, you can go home. But there will be no trick riding or other strenuous activities for a while. Rest and medication are what you need.”

  “How long will my activities be curtailed?”

  Dr. Wilson shrugged. “We’ll just have to wait and see how you progress. It’s in your best interests to follow my instructions.”

  Cheyenne started to object, but Luke spoke up first. “You need to listen to Dr. Wilson, Cheyenne. I’ve known him for years, and he’s very cautious with his patients. That’s why everybody around here trusts him. You need to do that, too.”

  She settled back on her pillow and gave a sigh. “I know. I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s just that this night has been very upsetting.”

  Dr. Wilson reached out and patted her hand. “I understand. Now just be patient, and the orderlies will be here in a few minutes to move you to a regular room. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Wait a minute,” Luke said before the doctor could leave the room. “There’s evidence that Cheyenne’s accident was a deliberate attempt by someone to sabotage her ride tonight. I want to make sure she’s safe in the hospital. Do I need to have a deputy come sit outside her door, or can you get hospital security to take care of that?”

  “I can do that. I’ll contact our head of security, and he can assign one of his men to her floor for the night.”

  “Thanks, Doc. That makes me feel better.”

  Luke turned back to Cheyenne. “I’ll stay with you until you’re in a room and the security guy is outside. You’d better call Gwen and Dean and tell them you won’t be coming home tonight.”

  The words were barely out of his mouth before he appeared to remember that he’d kept Cheyenne’s phone earlier. His face flushed, and he reached in his pocket. He pulled it out and held it up. “Oops, sorry about that. I brought this with me tonight so I could return it to you.”

  She stared at the phone a moment, remembering how scared she’d been earlier today when she received the texts and the phone call. “Could your tech people tell where today’s messages came from?”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry. They were sent from a burner phone, and they’re impossible to trace.”

  She nodded, took the phone from his hand and tried to steady her shaking fingers as she scrolled to find the number, but it was no use. She had only begun to feel safe again, and now her stalker was back to get his revenge for what she had done. If she could only go back and undo the past.

  Then suddenly a thought hit her, and she inhaled a quick breath. It wasn’t the past she needed to worry about. It was the future and whether or not she would live to see it.

  * * *

  Luke waited until the nurses had gotten Cheyenne settled before he entered the room. She was on her cell phone talking to Gwen, and he tried to be quiet as he laid her wallet on the nightstand beside her bed. Then he walked to the closet and hung her coat inside. He’d just finished when he heard her end her conversation. He turned and walked back to the bed.

  “What did Gwen say?”

  “Nothing much. She was glad I was staying overnight and that Dean was at the barn. He and Emmett, his foreman, are trying to get Patches settled.” Suddenly tears pooled in her eyes, and he couldn’t help but notice how pale she looked lying there with her long hair spread out on her pillow.

  He sat down in the chair beside her bed, reached over and squeezed the hand that lay on top of the covers. “Don’t worry. The vet said Patches will be fine. It’s just going to take some time.”

  A skeptical look crossed her face. “I’ve been around horses all my life, and I know his injury could prove to be very serious.”

  Luke smiled. “Only time will tell. For now, though, you need to think about yourself. Are you hungry or maybe want a soft drink? I can get you something from the vending machine. It’s in a room just around the corner at the end of the hall.”

  She shook her head, pulled the covers up and glanced at her watch. “It’s late, and you’ve had a long day. Go on home. I’ll be okay.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll wait until the security officer gets here.”

  “Really, Luke,” she insisted, “I’m fine. Go on and get to bed.”

  “Tomorrow’s my day off, so don’t worry.”

  She started to say something else, but before she could someone knocked at the door and it swung open. Bill and Trace Johnson, along with three of the wranglers from the Wild West show, surged into the room. They circled her bed and stood there staring at her. “What are you doing here?” Cheyenne asked as she looked at the faces gawking at her.

  “We wanted to see how you’re doing,” Trace answered.

  Her gaze darted from one to the other, and Luke wondered if she remembered the names of the three cowboys with Bill and Trace. After all, tonight was her first time with the full cast. “Thank you for coming, but I’m all right. Just a little shaken up.”

  Luke stood up from his chair and shook hands with Bill and Trace. Then he stuck out his hand and moved to each of the cowboys. “Pete,” he said. His handshake earned him a slight nod from Pete.

  He turned to the next one. “Good to see you, Slim.” He heard a grunt, and he almost smiled. Slim was known as having an ornery disposition, but Luke knew he had a strong protective streak when it came to the employees at the show where he’d worked for years.

  When he got to the third one and shook his hand, the man flinched. Luke looked down at their clasped hands. “What’s the matter, Virgil? You hurt your hand?”

  Virgil’s gaze dropped to his hand, and he tried to pull free. “It’s nothing. I was trying to cut open a two-string hay bale, and my knife slipped. Nicked myself.”

  Luke studied the cut for a moment and then released Virgil’s hand. “Better get that seen about. You don’t want it to get infected.”

  Virgil nodded and stuck his hand in his pocket. “I’ll put something on it when I get home.”

  “And home is where we all need to be, especially Trace. He’s got a two a.m. flight out of Knoxville, and he needs to get on the road to the airport,” Bill Johnson said. “They told us down in the ER you were being kept overnight, and we just wanted to see how you’re doing or if you need anything.”

  “I’m fine,” Cheyenne answered. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow and let you know what the doctor said.” She looked at Trace. “You’re going somewhere?”

  He nodded. “I’m going to Denver to look at some stock for sale that we may buy for the show. I booked a flight in the wee hours so I could work the show tonight. I have my bag in the truck, so I’m heading out as soon as we leave the hospital. I’ll check on you while I’m gone.”

  She glanced at the clock on the wall. “I think you need to get on the road now so you won’t miss your flight.”

  He grinned down at her. “Some things never change. You’re still bossing me around.” He bent over the bed and pressed his lips against Cheyenne’s forehead, before he pulled back and looked into her eyes. “You call me if you need anything, little sister.”

  She smiled up at Trace. “I will.”

  With that, the five men turned and shuffled from the room. When they’d closed the door behind them, Luke turned back to Cheyenne. “Little sister? What’s that all about?”

  Cheyenne wiggled back down under the covers. “I’ve known Trace for a long time. I think I told you he was on the rodeo team my father coached. At the time I was in high school, and I was kind of the mascot for the team. We became close friends and have remained that way through the years. Trace always teased me that I was like a bossy little sister that he’d always wanted, and the nickname stuck.”

  “I see.” He didn’t mean for the words to sound gruff, but he knew they did. There was no reason he should have a momentary
jolt of jealousy at Trace Johnson’s easy banter with Cheyenne. After all, they’d known each other for years, and he’d only met her today. Their time together ever since had been anything but easy. It had all centered around her fear of a killer who was stalking her.

  “You’re tired, and you’ve played nursemaid to me long enough today,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “Go on home and get some rest.”

  “Like I said, I don’t want to leave until I know the security guard is on the floor. Let me check in the hallway and see if he’s arrived.”

  Luke opened the door and looked out into the hallway. A man in a hospital security uniform leaned on the side of the nurses’ desk as he stared down at a pretty RN sitting there. The nurse was laughing as if the man had just said something funny.

  “Excuse me,” Luke said. When neither one of them noticed him, he raised his voice. “Excuse me.”

  The guard turned around, and his eyebrows arched as he studied Luke. “Yes. Can I help you with something.”

  Luke pointed back to Cheyenne’s room. “I’m Deputy Luke Conrad, and there’s a patient in there who I want guarded all night. Are you the one who’s supposed to do it?”

  The man straightened and walked over to where Luke stood. “Yeah, I’m on all night. So I’ll be right outside her door.”

  Luke tried not to frown as his gaze traveled over the young man. He’d heard that the hospital hired college students to work at night, and he suspected he was one of them. At the moment he seemed more interested in the attention of the pretty nurse at the desk than he did in protecting a woman who’d survived an attempted murder tonight.

  “You’re going to sit outside her door?” Luke asked.

  “Yeah. Housekeeping is going to send a chair up in a few minutes. I was just hanging here until it arrives. So you don’t have to worry. You can go on home. Your victim is safe with me.”

  Luke hesitated a moment. He wasn’t sure about leaving Cheyenne in the care of someone who gave the appearance of not taking his job too seriously. If he’d been trained better, he would have come in the room and assured Cheyenne that she had nothing to worry about instead of standing in the hallway flirting with a nurse. However, it would only strain relations between his department and the hospital administration if it looked like he was telling the man how to do his job.