AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He combed his fingers through her long hair. “What did he want? Did he say anything?”
“He told me I’d been warned and to leave it alone. He obviously meant the Timberline Trio case.”
He took her by the shoulders. “Do you want me to try to go after him?”
“No.” She grabbed his jacket. “He had a head start, and he might...”
“I’m not afraid of him, Scarlett. He’s a coward.”
“You’re not going to find him, Jim. Don’t leave me here.”
Cupping her face with one hand, he drew his thumb across her cheek. “I’m not going anywhere, but we need to call the sheriff’s department.”
“The man was wearing gloves. The cops aren’t going to find anything.”
“Let them worry about that. If he took off through the woods, he might’ve left evidence behind. Besides, didn’t I tell you it’s important to document all of these incidents?”
“The sheriff’s department is going to deem me a public nuisance.”
“Let ’em. They don’t seem to be doing their jobs—murder, arson, vandalism. Where does it stop?”
“It stops when people give up on investigating the Timberline Trio.”
He lifted the piece of wood on the ground with the toe of his boot and let it fall. “How does this person or people know you’re looking into the case? I’m thinking it has to do with your association with me.”
“My association with you? How do they know we’re not just old friends, or...?”
“Something more?” His blood stirred at the thought of something more with Scarlett.
“Probably because we found a dead body together and visited your grandmother together.”
“Maybe—” she twirled a strand of hair around her finger “—we should make people believe we’re not just together to investigate the Timberline Trio.”
He snapped his fingers. “Dinner tonight? In public?”
“That might do it. Of course,” she said, and looked up at him through her dark lashes, “we have to make it look like more than just a business meeting.”
He swallowed. “I can do that, but first let’s get the cops out here.”
Deputy Stevens came out to investigate and he and another deputy canvassed the woods but came up empty-handed.
They seemed to dismiss the connection to the Timberline Trio case and asked Scarlett a lot of questions about her known enemies—the hunters in the area, as she’d been known to sabotage their traps and protest expanded hunting areas.
When they left, she rolled her eyes at Jim. “Law enforcement in this town seems to think I deserve these attacks because of my stance against hunting. I don’t like hunters, but even I’ll admit they’re not violent types—against humans, anyway. We’ve exchanged words and heated arguments, but not one of them has ever attacked me.”
“Could be a first.”
“I’ve been too busy to protest much lately. Why would they turn violent on me now? No, this all started happening when I stepped in to help that reporter, Beth St. Regis, who was planning to do a segment on the Timberline Trio for her Cold Case Chronicles show.”
“I thought you told me that was a cover for her own investigation into her past.”
“It was, but nobody else knew that, except the FBI agent who was out here—Duke Harper.”
Folding his arms, Jim wedged his hip against the post on the porch. “Do you think he’d talk to me about his findings when he was out here? Did you make that kind of connection with him?”
“I got friendly with him and Beth. They knew each other from before and are still together, as far as I know.”
“Would you mind calling him for me or giving me his number?”
“Sure. I’ll do that.” She rubbed her throat, where an angry red mark remained as the only evidence of the attack she’d suffered. “Do you want to install those locks now?”
“Yeah, but I think you should upgrade to security cameras. If you’d had one, right now we’d be looking at the tape of the guy who assaulted you.”
While he worked on the new locks, Scarlett retreated to her studio. When he poked his head into the room, she looked up from a laptop.
