So the sheriff had at least come out and talked to her. That was progress. Jake didn’t like the angry glint in her eyes. She might be as dangerous as Skye suspected. “We’re trying to figure out who tried to hurt Skye.”
“You got no call to talk to me like I’m some kind of criminal. I haven’t hurt anyone.”
“I heard you tried to shake Skye from a ladder a few weeks ago, attacked her, too. She said you threatened to kill her.”
“She’s a murderer,” Tallulah snapped. “With your mouth, maybe someone was trying to hurt you and not her. You seem the type to make enemies.”
He grinned wryly. “And you seem a good judge of character, ma’am.”
She regarded him soberly as if she thought he was making fun of her, but her wary expression didn’t fade.
“We don’t want to keep you from your work,” Skye said. “Did we disturb you?”
Her placating tone seemed to work a bit. Tallulah looked eager. “You want to see my babies?”
Jake assumed she meant baby chickens or goats. “Sure.” Feeling magnanimous, he touched Skye’s waist and guided her ahead of him. They followed Tallulah to a shed behind the house. The door had a shiny padlock on it, and Tallulah fished out a key from the pocket of her jeans.
She unlocked it and pushed open the door. “Go ahead,” she said.
Jake felt Skye stiffen and stop in the doorway. She uttered a small sound, like a strangled scream. He glanced over her shoulder.
A counter held glass cages in rows. Snakes coiled one on top of each other. The nearest cage held a huge snake that rattled and struck at them from the other side of the glass.
Skye gasped and rushed past Jake. He followed her and found her with her hands over her eyes. She was shaking.
“I hate snakes,” she said, turning and burying her face against his chest.
He held her until her trembling began to subside.
Tallulah laughed. “You don’t like my babies? How interesting.” Her eyes had a derisive gleam as if she’d known all along how Skye would react.
“What are you doing with all those snakes?” Jake demanded. He softened his tone. “You must have a hundred timber rattlers in there.”
“Aren’t you afraid of getting bit?” Skye asked.
“I know how to handle them,” the other woman said. “But they can be dangerous. They like to bite.” Her dark gaze stayed on Skye’s face.
“Could Robert have been bitten?” Jake asked.
An expression of horror crossed Tallulah’s face. “He knew better than to mess with them snakes. Besides, he would have told me.”
“Maybe he was afraid because he knew he wasn’t supposed to handle them.” Jake knew he wouldn’t have told his mom. Kids that age thought they were invincable. Robert might have thought he’d just be sick a while, then get over it.
Tallulah was shaking her head. “Don’t you go trying to confuse me,” she muttered. “It was Skye. She gave me bad herbs.” She took her hat off and rubbed her forehead. “Just get out of here,” she growled. “And don’t come back.” Her back stiff, she turned around and went back into the snake shack. She pulled the door shut behind her with a slam.
“I guess we’ve been dismissed,” Jake said. “Still sure it wasn’t her?”
“She still seems a little—deranged.”
“She gives me the willies.”
Skye nodded. “I guess we should talk to the sheriff again.”
“We could tell him what Wilson said, but he probably can’t do anything. There’s no proof it’s Tallulah.”
“Let’s get come coffee. My head hurts from thinking about it.”
They drove toward town. Rounding a curve, she saw a flash of movement.
“It’s Wilson!” Skye pulled the truck to a stop and jumped out. “Wilson, I want to talk to you.”
The big man froze where he was picking berries. “I wasn’t doing nothing, Skye.”
“I know.”
Jake followed her as she approached the man. He was filthy and his clothes hung on him as though he’d lost a lot of weight.
“I went to see Tallulah,” Skye said. “Have you seen her lately?”
“She has some of my planes,” Wilson said.
“Is she the Spider Woman?” Skye asked.
Wilson pointed a finger at Skye. “You stay away.” He turned and plunged into the forest.
They shouted after him but he didn’t stop. “That didn’t accomplish much,” Jake said. “Let’s go get some coffee.” They drove to town, and then sipped their java and talked. He found himself too engrossed in watching Skye’s face as she talked about her childhood.
His cell phone rang and he answered it. He glanced at his watch and was surprised to see they’d been at the coffee shop over an hour and a half. “Baxter.”
“Jake, you’d better get to the hospital.” Becca’s voice sounded strained. “Someone attacked Wynne out at the site.”
Skye drove at breakneck speed to town. She’d had a funny feeling about leaving Wynne at the site by herself. She should have listened to her intuition. This was all her fault. When would she learn not to involve other people in her problems?
“I’m sorry, Jake,” she said. “I shouldn’t have dragged you away from the site.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said. “I knew better than to leave her alone. I shouldn’t have left until some help got there. Your cousin found her. If we’d just waited a little while, this wouldn’t have happened. I was all set on playing the hero and didn’t use good sense.”
He sounded grim. Skye bit her lip. “Did Becca say how badly Wynne was hurt?”
“A broken leg for sure. She’s still with the doctor.”
Skye winced. “She won’t be much help on the dig. Would you let me take her place? You’re going to need someone.”
“I’m not sure I want you anywhere around,” he said. “You might be bad luck. Everywhere you go, trouble seems to follow.”
Skye didn’t blame him, but his words still stung. Her eyes burned, and she stared straight ahead.
“Hey, I was just joking.” Jake touched her arm. “You can help if you have time. I’d be glad for the company at least.”
He obviously didn’t think her much help and was trying to placate her. She didn’t reply. Maybe his joke was closer to the truth than he knew. Could God be trying to tell her not to pursue any friendship with Jake? Sparks seemed to fly whenever the two of them met and someone got hurt. That couldn’t be good.
“It could have been Tallulah,” she said. “Maybe we made her mad today. We were gone for over an hour and a half. That’s plenty of time for her to have attacked Wynne.”
Jake shook his head. “I’m more inclined to believe it’s Cameron.”
She pulled into the hospital parking lot and parked in the outpatient section. Jake was out of the truck almost before she had it stopped. He took off at a dead run toward the emergency room entrance.
Skye ran after him. She’d been praying for Wynne the whole time she’d been driving. If Wynne was seriously injured, Skye would never forgive herself.
The Baxter family was gathered in the waiting room. Becca stood in the circle of her husband Max’s arms. Gram sat on a love seat, and Jake’s cousin Tate paced the floor. Skye didn’t see Molly, Max’s young daughter.
“Jake!” Becca flew into her brother’s embrace.
He soothed her and led her to a sofa beside their grandmother. “What happened?”
Becca was still sobbing softly, so Max answered. “She was working when someone jumped her from above. Her leg broke from the guy’s weight.”
“Did she get a look at him?”
Max shrugged, his anxious gaze on his wife. “The guy had a nylon stocking over his face. She said it happened too fast to get more than an impression that it was a man. Once her leg broke, she passed out from the pain.”
“Any other injuries?” Skye put in. When everyone’s gaze turned to her, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut.
Maybe they all blamed her.
“Cuts and bruises. But the break is a bad one. They’ve taken her to surgery,” Gram said. She leaned over from her place on the love seat. “Sit here by me, Skye dear. You look distraught.”
Skye allowed the older woman to pull her down onto the love seat. “I like Wynne,” she said. “I shouldn’t have involved Jake in my problems.”
“Nonsense,” Gram said. “Jake is a good one to turn to in times of trouble. I’m sure he was only too happy to rescue a damsel in distress.”
Jake was paying no attention to them. Skye watched him pace the waiting room and knew he couldn’t wait to see his sister with his own eyes and question her about what happened. Skye pitied the man who had attacked Wynne. Once Jake discovered the attacker’s identity, the man would wish he’d never been born.
The sheriff entered the waiting room. “I hear there’s been another attack out at the mine,” he said. He took his notebook out of his pocket. “Anyone want to tell me what happened?”
Max explained the circumstances. Jake glanced at Skye with a question in his eyes, and she nodded her head. The sheriff might as well be informed of everything, though she didn’t think Wynne’s attack was related to Wilson’s warning.
Jake plunged into the story as soon as Max finished.
“I’ll see if I can find Wilson,” the sheriff said, putting away his pen and paper.
Molly, Max’s daughter, came from the direction of the bathroom. Her face brightened when she saw Skye and she ran to her.
“Did you bring anything with you for making dreamcatchers?” she asked hopefully. “I’ve been practicing since you showed me how.”
Skye smiled. “I might have some thread in the truck,” she said. It might help them all pass the time. “I’ll get it.” She went to the truck and got her basket of materials from behind the truck seat.
By the time she got back inside, Jake had disappeared.
Becca saw her quick glance. “Jake went back to see Wynne. They wheeled her by on the way to surgery, and you know Jake. He insisted on accompanying her so he could talk to her. Wynne looked too out of it to be much help in explaining anything.” Her frown was troubled. “The doctor says she’ll be fine though.”
A flood of relief washed over Skye. “Thank God.”
“Amen,” Becca said. She smiled at Skye. “Are you going to teach us all how to make a dreamcatcher?”
“Sure, if you want to learn.” She set her small basket on the coffee table in front of an empty sofa. Molly crowded beside her on the sofa while Becca got on the other side.
Skye explained the knots. “Tell us about dreamcatchers,” Molly demanded.
“You’ve already heard the story.” Skye smiled at the child’s eagerness.
“Tell me again. Becca doesn’t know about them. I tried to tell her but I forgot part of it.”
Skye smiled. “The Spider Women, Asibikaashi, built dreamcatchers over the heads of children to catch the good dreams in the night. When the Ojibwa Nation dispersed to the four corners of North America, to fill a prophecy, Asibikaashi had a difficult time making her journey to all those cradle boards, so the mothers, sisters and grandmothers took up the practice of weaving the magical webs for the new babies. We traditionally use willow hoops and sinew made from plants.”
“Why is it in a circle?” Molly wanted to know.
“The circle represents how giizis, the sun, travels each day across the sky. The dreamcatcher will filter out all the bad bawedjigewin, or dreams, and allow only good thoughts to enter into our minds.”
“And all the circles?” Becca asked.
“As the dreams travel through the web, good dreams are permitted to pass through and flow to the feather’s tip, to the owner of the web. Bad dreams become so lost among the maze that when the morning sun comes up, still lost in the web, they are destroyed by the strongest of the early morning light.”
Molly was practically bouncing with excitement. “I want one for over my bed.”
“And you shall have one. This one will be yours,” Skye promised. “But you know it is only a legend. Jesus keeps us safe. Bad dreams can’t harm us.”
“I know.” Molly nodded.
Jake came back looking disgruntled as Skye finished the legend. “She doesn’t remember anything else.”
“I tried to tell you.” Becca stood and went to the coffee station. She handed her brother a cup. “Sit down. It’s going to be at least a couple of hours, the doctor said.”
He accepted the cup. His gaze collided with Skye’s, and she wished she could ease the frustrated fear she saw in his face. She smiled, and his face cleared. He joined her on the sofa. “That’s a pretty pattern,” he said.
Skye had been continuing her dreamcatcher knots without even noticing she was working. “Thanks.”
The sheriff’s cell phone rang. He answered it and listened for a few moments then clicked it off. He looked at Skye. “You’d better get home, Skye. Your mamma called and someone broke into your shop. There’s been quite a bit of destruction.”
Chapter Eight
The front door of The Sleeping Turtle hung ajar. Bits of shattered glass crunched beneath Skye’s sneakers as she entered the shop. She felt as though someone had rifled through her journal or her private desk, and the violation made her feel physically sick. Jake’s fingers pressing reassuringly against her arm was the only thing that kept her moving forward through the vandalism.
For wanton vandalism was what it surely was. There was a viciousness in the way her dreamcatchers had been ripped apart. Bundles of herbs looked as though they had been stomped on with deliberate and destructive glee. Glass lay smashed and papers from their files were tossed around like confetti.
“Who would do this?” Skye whispered. “Does someone hate me that much?”
“I know it looks bad, Skye,” Sheriff Mitchell said. “But it was likely just kids having a spree.”
“You can say that after the way she was attacked?” Jake’s voice rose, and he shot the sheriff a look of incredulity.
The sheriff raised his eyebrows. “I doubt it’s related. We’ve seen this sort of thing before. School is almost out for the summer, and we often see kids vandalizing store windows and cars.”
“This goes beyond mere vandalism.”
Skye could hear the anger rising in Jake’s voice. She managed a smile and pressed his hand. “It’s okay, maybe he’s right, Jake. Everything isn’t necessarily connected.”
The skeptical look he gave her proclaimed his opinion on the matter, but he didn’t say anything. “Can I clean it up?” she asked the sheriff.
“Let me check it out first. You can clean it up tomorrow.”
Meaning he didn’t intend to look very hard. Skye suppressed a sigh. Maybe she and Jake could find some clues in the mess. Glancing at her watch, she nodded briskly. Jake needed to be back at the hospital when Wynne came out of surgery. Besides, if she stayed here, she was likely to throttle the sheriff and land in jail herself.
Her mother came rushing in the door. Peter followed her. Skye turned with a glad cry. “Mother!” She felt like a little girl who wanted her mommy to kiss the boo-boos and make it all better.
Her mother rushed to Skye and hugged her. “Oh, Skye, I’m so sorry. Look at this mess.” She sounded near tears.
“I know.” Skye tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it kept bounding back. “All our work. This will take months to replace.”
“Oh honey, I wish I could fix it,” Peter said. He put a meaty arm around each woman.
Skye felt her burden ease with her stepfather’s appearance. He would move heaven and earth to get them the supplies necessary to replace what had been destroyed. She could always count on him, unlike her real father. A fierce longing for her father swept over her at the thought, which made no sense. Peter had always been here for her.
She returned his hug with more enthusiasm than usual. He did so much, and she hardly ever thanked him for it.
“We’ll see about getting you a loan to get back on your feet,” he said. “Minimal interest, too.”
“Thanks, Peter, but I don’t think I’ll need it. Surely insurance will cover it.”
“That’s true,” he conceded. “I just want to do something to help.”
“Just being here for me helps in ways you can’t imagine,” she said.
He patted her shoulder. “I’m glad.” He turned and saw Jake wandering through the rubble. “What’s he doing here?” he whispered. “Have you been seeing him?”
“He was with me when I heard the news and came along to see if he could help out. We both seem to be targets lately.”
“I doubt it’s related, though, unless someone is trying to warn you to stay away from him.”
“It looks more like it might be the other way around. Someone attacked me in the mine. The rocks were probably from the same person.”
Her mother chewed on her lip. “I’m worried, Skye. Maybe you should go stay with your aunt Margaret on the mainland for a while. It will take weeks for the insurance to release the money to repair the damage here. You could spend the time looking through stores to replace stock, go on a buying trip to New York, maybe.”
What her mother said made sense, but Skye shook her head. “I’m not running away. I want to find out who’s doing this and why. None of it makes sense.” A thought occurred to her and she glanced up at Peter. “You said you would be willing to give me a loan. Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”
She couldn’t tell him what she would use it for just yet. A smile played at the corners of her lips.
“You look like you’re up to something,” her mother said.
“I’m just excited about the future. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise,” Skye said, gaining control of her features.
She wanted to rush her mother and Peter out of the shop and call James. He would be thrilled at her idea.
He would be the only one in approval.
She brushed away the thought like a worrisome black fly. She knew it would work, too. James and Michael would make sure it worked. They were driven to turn the mine around. They’d throw everything they had into the plan.
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