by Aimée Thurlo
Lucas pondered the problem as he hung up. If anything, this new information raised more questions that it answered.
He went to his room, showered and got ready to go to the clinic. Hearing a knock at the front door, and hoping he could get there before it woke Marlee, he quickly went to answer it. Gabriel stood there, looking ashen and worried.
“You don’t look so good, Fuzz. How are you feeling?”
“I’ll live, but that’s not why I’m here. You and I have to talk.”
“Come in.”
“Where’s Marlee?”
“Asleep.”
“Can you come over to my office now? I’d like to talk to you in private.”
“Let me get a few things, and then we can be on our way.”
As he headed down the hall, he saw Marlee come out of her room. “My brother’s here. I’m going with him to take care of a few things.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later, then.”
He knew by the noncommittal tone of her voice that Marlee was drawing into herself again, and pulling away from him. He understood, because he knew all about fear. She’d opened her heart and soul to him, and now the full import of what she’d done had hit her. She was vulnerable again, and that was the last thing she’d wanted. Most painful of all was the realization that he might not be able to help her through this. Four Winds needed him now more than ever, and he had a responsibility to the people here, a duty that went above and beyond anything in his personal life.
Lucas fought a stab of loneliness as he accepted the fact that he might lose the woman he loved because of that responsibility.
Not knowing what he could say, he turned without a word and joined his brother.
They arrived at the sheriff’s office a short time later. “First the good news. I spoke to Jake last night. He’s out of intensive, and he’s going to be okay. But you were right, he doesn’t have a clue as to who shot him.”
“He was checking the water, right?”
“Yeah, he figured that it was worth testing it at the source, but he never expected to be ambushed and never saw what hit him.” Gabriel stared at the file in front of him in pensive silence.
Lucas knew his brother well enough to realize that something else was eating at him. His guess was that Gabriel had uncovered bad news, and intuition told him that it was something he wouldn’t want to hear at all.
Gabriel regarded Lucas thoughtfully. “Are you getting serious about Marlee, or am I misreading things?”
Lucas didn’t answer right away. “It depends how you want to define serious. If you’re asking me if I’ve made permanent plans for the future, then the answer is no.”
Gabriel let out his breath in a slow hiss. “I’ve got something hard to tell you. If it turns out that you already know about this, then I’m going to wring you out good. But if you don’t, then it’s going to broadside you badly.”
“Just spit it out.”
“I was doing a background check on Earl Larrabee, as you know. I kept at it until I found out his real name, then I stumbled onto something else. It turns out that Marlee and Earl come from the same town, and neither is using the same name they had back then. Marlee Smith is her legal name now, but it used to be Marla Samuels.”
The news hit Lucas hard. He’d thought there were no more secrets between him and Marlee—or was it Marla? He silently cursed the way Gabriel had to think everything through before speaking.
“Does she have a record or something?” Lucas pressed.
“No. What I found is an article that had come out in their local paper. Earl had filed charges against Marla Samuels for wrongful death, but then the charges were thrown out of court.” Gabriel pushed a computerized copy of the article that he’d downloaded across the table. “You can keep that one. I have another one for my files here.”
Lucas studied the photo of Marlee before the accident. Her hair was longer back then, but to him, she looked nearly the same. In another frame was a photo of Earl Lar-rabee and his wife.
“It appears the mother had complications after delivering her first child. Marlee had been the midwife, and the father went off the deep end. He threatened her at first, then later charged her with negligence.” Gabriel pulled out a bottle of water from a cardboard carton and fixed himself a cup of instant coffee in the microwave.
“She told me some of this recently, but she never men-tioned Earl by name.”
“Earl looked a lot different back then. Look at that photo. His hair was darker, and he had a beard and mustache. He also weighed about thirty pounds more. What I’m thinking is that he tracked her here, and he’s the one responsible for the things that have been happening to her. The writing on the note, the one attached to the rock that smashed her window, is similar to Earl’s.”
The news of the note took him by surprise. Another secret. He was about to ask his brother about it, but it wasn’t necessary.
“It was a simple note, just your basic get-out-of-town threat, and there were no prints on it, so it’s pure conjecture. I’m certainly not qualified to make any kind of official handwriting comparison.”
Lucas struggled to keep his expression neutral. “I can’t tell you anything that you don’t already know. But I don’t believe that Marlee knows who Earl really is. She’s not that good at hiding her emotions, and certainly knowing this guy was around would upset her.”
Gabriel focused on his brother. After several long moments, he nodded. “I believe you didn’t know about this.” Gabriel allowed the moment to stretch. “You care for that woman—that’s plain enough. And something really worries you. Is it that she has secrets, or is it more? Are you worried that with a woman in your life you won’t be able to have the freedom to pursue the job you’ve chosen? You’ve always prided yourself on being a loner, and giving everything to your duties here.”
“There was a time in my life when everything was sim-pler, when nothing was more important to me than my duties here,” Lucas admitted. “But everything’s changing. No, I’m changing. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not. I’m not even sure what, if anything, I should do about it. Whatever happens, I won’t neglect my duties here. That’s the only thing I can say with complete conviction.” He felt as if a great weight were slowly crushing him. It was disappointment, in himself and in Marlee for not fully trusting him. But he couldn’t get over what a gray and ugly feeling disappointment was.
“I’m probably talking out of turn, but I need to say something. For a long time, I’ve seen you hiding behind that air of professionalism. Nothing touched you, even the occasional death of a patient. You always quickly put it into perspective and went on. That distancing enabled you to do your job, but your way of coping with the demands of your profession left you with no room for compassion. Logic and reason alone don’t allow for that, and it’s a quality that’s very much needed in the medical profession. I realize it comes at a cost to you, but without compassion, you can’t reach the heart of the patient.”
“Treating the whole, as the Navajo way teaches…” Lucas acknowledged. “Joshua does that.”
“You’re learning that there’s a price to pay if you allow yourself to become vulnerable,” Gabriel observed. “But what you now have to decide for yourself is whether the cost is worth what you’re trying to attain.”
Gabriel stood up, swayed back and forth like a willow in a breeze and then fell back down into his seat.
Lucas was at his brother’s side instantly. “It looks like your work day is over, Fuzz.” He reached for his medical bag. “Just relax, and let me do what I do best.”
AFTER TAKING GABRIEL back home, Lucas returned to the sheriff’s office. Gabriel had assured him that he’d drunk only the coffee that had been made with bottled water, yet the symptoms had been ones Lucas had recognized. He hadn’t said anything to Lanie or Gabriel, uncertain of his own theory, but he’d made sure he’d administered the necessary treatment for corn-cockle poisoning.
If he was right, Gabriel�
�s throat would be raw for a long time, and the nausea would also persist until the poison was completely out of his system. There were other symptoms that they’d have to stay on the alert for, but Tree had come over to help. Gabriel would have round-the-clock care, and the best of both worlds—the Navajo Way and medical science.
He walked to the carton filled with water bottles and inspected each container. All were intact. Next he opened the can of instant coffee. Corn-cockle seeds were black and, ground up, would be undetectable in the coffee.
Without hesitation, he hurried out of his brother’s office and went directly to the clinic. He would make arrangements for the private service that was coming into town to deliver emergency supplies to also pick up the coffee and take it to the lab for testing. It would mean another rush job for the lab, but he had to know if someone had deliberately poisoned his brother. After that was taken care of, he’d go see Marlee. Her lack of trust, even after the closeness they’d known, knifed at him.
He’d made the arrangements to have the coffee tested, and was hanging up the phone when Marlee came in the door.
“I need to talk to you,” she said.
“What a coincidence. I need to talk to you, too,” he said, his voice low and very controlled. He wanted to shout at her, or kiss her until she melted in his arms, and then demand that she tell him why she didn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, trust him.
“Me first. It’s very important. I went by your brother’s house, and I know he’s been poisoned.”
“He’s going to be fine.”
“I gathered that, but I don’t understand how this happened. Gabriel wouldn’t have drunk or eaten anything that wasn’t prepackaged.”
Lucas didn’t look directly at her, not wanting her to see the pain raging inside him. Instead, he stared at the dust motes floating lazily in the faint rays of the sun that trickled in through the window. “I don’t know how for sure yet, but I think it’s corn-cockle poisoning. That’s the same herb that showed up in the water.”
“But how could that happen? Gabriel only drank bottled water.”
“I suspect the instant coffee,” he said.
“Corn cockle doesn’t grow around here, you know. The flowers are quite attractive, but you can only get the seeds from specialty catalogs.”
He sat up slowly, his eyes never leaving her face. “How do you know this?”
She hesitated. “I’d ordered some myself along with a dozen or so other packets from the mail-order company. It was that same shipment, by the way, that someone took from my mailbox and replaced with dead bugs.” She shook her head slowly. “If those seeds were taken from an order I placed, and then used against Gabriel, I’ll never be able to convince anyone that I had nothing to do with what’s happening.” Her voice broke, but she cleared her throat and turned around to face him. “What about you, Shadow. Do you still trust me?”
“If you’re asking me whether I believe you poisoned my brother, the answer is no. But do I completely trust you?” He shook his head. “No more than you do me.”
Her eyes widened as she turned around. “I don’t understand.”
“I thought there were no more secrets between us.” He took out the article Gabriel had given him. “My brother found this when he was looking into Earl Larrabee’s past.”
She stared at the photo. “What has this got to do with Earl Larrabee?” she asked, staring at the photo. As she saw the woman in the picture with Larrabee, the light of recognition and understanding changed her expression. “Now I know who my enemy is.” She looked up and held Lucas’s gaze. “But the real question is, can you believe me when I tell you that I didn’t realize who he was?” Her gaze stayed on him. Then, when he didn’t answer right away, she looked away. “How much harm has this man done to my life this time?” she added in a tortured whisper.
“My guess is that he’s the one who marked up your mirrors and photos, and maybe did some of the other things that have been happening to you. He probably also wrote the note attached to that rock. The one you never told me about.”
Marlee never flinched. “I told your brother. He’s the sheriff. I figured you had enough on your mind.”
“The real problem is that you don’t know how to trust. Until you can come to terms with that, we don’t really have much we can give each other.” He saw the hurt that flashed in her eyes, and knew that it went as deep as his own.
Marlee took a halting step back, then another, then turned and strode toward the door. “I’m going to confront Earl right now. He’s destroyed enough in my life. It’s got to stop.” She ran out before he could catch her.
Lucas muttered an oath, then went after her, but she was already driving off in her car by the time he reached his Blazer.
Without hesitation, Lucas jumped behind the wheel of his vehicle and sped after her.
Chapter Seventeen
Catching up to her was more difficult than he’d expected. Although the roads were better today than yesterday, the Blazer skidded on the icy patches as he pressed down on the accelerator. Marlee was driving much too fast for the conditions of the road, and he hoped her old tires would still grip the surface.
Anger filled him as he thought of what had happened. He shouldn’t have been so rough on her, but she’d hurt him far more than he’d ever dreamed anyone could. He finally reached her as she slid to a stop at one of the town’s two stoplights. Lucas threw open his door and strode up to her car.
“This is crazy—you can’t face Earl alone. There’s no way you can predict his reaction. He may have been the one trying to kill you. As a matter of fact, it’s a good bet. But you don’t have any real proof against him, you know.”
“So you’re telling me to do nothing?”
“All I’m advising is that you postpone going to see him for a little while. We’re going to need proof before we can make any public accusations. There’s something else I think should be checked out first, and with Gabriel sick, I need your help to do it.”
A HALF HOUR LATER, Marlee was riding with Lucas to the water tower. He was right. They’d all wanted to check out that place for a long time, but nobody had been able to get up there because of the weather. This was the first time the trip had seemed even remotely possible.
“If Earl is behind this, I’m going to do everything in my power to put him in jail or an institution. I won’t allow him to run me out of this town. My life is here now—I don’t want to start over again someplace new,” Marlee said, her voice shaking with the strength of her conviction.
“You won’t have to. My family and I will stand by you. We’ll all do whatever is necessary to protect you.”
“In honor of Flinthawk and his legacy?” she asked.
“Yes, but it’s more than that. In this case, it’s personal.”
The implications of that took her breath away. “I don’t know what to say. I never wanted to endanger anyone, nor did I ever expect to have such loyal allies.”
“You don’t see the good that is all around you because you’re too intent on protecting yourself from the bad.”
Marlee started to protest, but something else caught her attention as they approached the water facility. “Look over there,” she said. “Jake may have broken the lock on that gate, but somehow I doubt it, since he has a key. My guess is that someone else came through here with a pair of bolt cutters, and this is exactly how Jake found it.”
“Let’s check out the water tower itself first. If someone tampered with things up there, we should be able to see evidence of it plainly enough.”
When they reached the water tower, Lucas crouched down and began to carefully remove the layer of snow that had accumulated around the base of the ladder. “This is interesting,” he said. “Right below the newly fallen snow there are tracks frozen in the mud. Help me brush aside more of the snow.”
“These tracks may be Jake’s.”
“One set probably is, but there are two sets,” Lucas said, continuing to work. “Jake’s is
the larger size boot, I’d be willing to bet on that, but this other person’s footprints…there’s something odd about them.” Lucas brushed away more of the snow, finding more prints frozen into the earth. “This man has an unusual stride.”
Marlee studied the footprints carefully, crouching beside Lucas. “How can you tell?”
“This person walks with a limp. See how one foot goes in deeper than the other?”
“I can’t think of anyone around here who walks with a limp, can you?”
Lucas considered it. “There’s Mrs. Carey, but she’s in her nineties. I can’t imagine her coming out here for a walk, much less anything as athletic as climbing the water-tower ladder.” He stood up slowly. “And this isn’t someone who walks with a cane, but rather someone with a disability that leaves one leg slightly weaker.”
Marlee touched her scar. She’d left the small carving beneath her pillow, and for the first time since she’d started carrying it, her scar was now beginning to ache. Brushing the thought aside as coincidence, she continued. “Maybe it’s not something that’s a constant problem.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Good point. I know Alex hurt his foot a long time ago. He used to limp during the cold months, if I remember right. He never came to me with the problem, but maybe because of the damp weather, he’s having problems again.”
“I’ve never noticed him limping, but then again, it may be that it’s only a problem in cases of extreme physical duress—which is how I’d qualify a trek up here. Interestingly enough, Earl doesn’t have a limp. Maybe I was too quick to condemn him. It’s possible he has nothing to do with any of the threats to me.”
“The problem is, we could be dealing with two separate things here. What’s happening to the town, and what has been done to you, might not be connected in any way.”
They checked the water tower and, finding nothing out of the ordinary, proceeded to the pump house. Marlee and Lucas walked inside to look around. After looking under and around the machinery, Marlee saw something on the floor, and crouched down. “These could be corn-cockle seeds. But it would take an awful lot more than these to poison the town’s entire water supply.”