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Dani shrugged. “Sure. But next time maybe you’d better ask first, don’t ya think?”

“I guess so. He said I could come over about four.”

“Good. I’ve got to run into town for some groceries anyway. I’ll drop you off then. Okay?”

“Great!” With that, Cody was up the stairs, packing a change of clothes and his treasures into his bag. Dani watched him take off with a trace of sadness. He was growing up so fast and slipping away from her.

With a philosophical frown, she got up and cleared the table. Little boys grow up and if their mothers are smart, they let them, she told herself. Wondering why it had to hurt so much, she set the pans on the counter and turned on the hot water. As the sink filled, Dani glanced through the steam and out the window. Work had picked up on the Johnson place again. Men were digging and heavy machinery was placing logs and boulders in strategic positions along the creek.

Two men she didn’t recognize were planting saplings along the bank, but nowhere did she see Chase. No big loss, she told herself, but felt that same dull pain in her heart. “You’re a fool,” she muttered. “A first-class fool.” Then she attacked the dishes as if her life depended upon it.

* * *

Chase didn’t stop fuming all the way to Johnson’s house. He’d spent the last four hours with the manager of an independent chemical laboratory and his blood was boiling. As he’d suspected, the drum that Ben had found in the creek had held dioxin. There were still traces of the herbicide in the empty can. Although more tests were to be run and eventually the county agriculture agent would have to be notified, Chase was convinced that someone had intentionally put the drum of dioxin in the creek to poison the water. But why? To kill the fish? Ruin the plant life? Get rid of the illegal toxin? Not likely.

No doubt, Caleb Johnson would know.

Though he ached to have it out with Caleb, for the time being Chase had to sit tight. Or as tight as his temper would let him.

Parking his Jeep near the barn, he cut the engine and hopped out of the cab. Trying to control his anger, he strode through the front door of Caleb’s home. Aside from Caleb’s housekeeper, who was humming and rattling around in the kitchen, the house seemed to be deserted.

Chase hesitated only a second before walking into Caleb’s study, pulling out the files and finding the documents he wanted. His jaw working in agitation, he read the appraisal reports, geographic studies, mortgage information and every other scrap of paper dealing with Dani’s farm. When he’d finished with the file he replaced it and the anger in his blood had heated all over again.

“You miserable son of a bitch,” he muttered as he slammed the file drawer shut and walked down the short hallway to the back of the house and the kitchen where Jenna was working and humming to herself.

“Hasn’t Johnson shown up?” Chase asked the elderly woman as he grabbed a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.

“He came in ’bout twelve-thirty,” Jenna replied as she continued rolling out pie dough.

Chase could barely control himself. “He didn’t bother showing up at the creek.”

“Oh, no, he’s too busy working with some new quarter horses.”

“At the stables?”

Jenna shook her gray head and wiped her hands on her flour-dusted apron. “I’m not sure. He took off for the stables but he said something about taking the horses over to the track.”

Chase started for the door but paused and took a long swallow of his beer. “You’ve known him for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Since we were kids,” Jenna replied.

Leaning against the door, Chase looked directly at the plump woman with the unlined face and pink cheeks. Jenna Peterson was the only person on the whole damned Johnson spread that Chase felt he could trust. “And would you say he’s trustworthy?”

She seemed surprised and turned quickly from the marble counter. “Oh, yes,” she said. “When he was younger, while we were in school, he was straight as an arrow, don’t you know?” She smiled as she stared out the kitchen window. “But that was years ago.”

“What about now?”

“Still the same man . . . but—”

“But?”

“Oh, well, nothin’ really. He’s different, of course. But we all grew up. After school, I lost track of him, got married myself and had the kids. I didn’t think much about Caleb, only what I heard from the town gossip mill. It wasn’t much. But several years later, after his folks had passed away, I heard that he was marrying some girl from another town.”

Chase’s eyes grew sharp. “I didn’t know he had a wife.”

“Oh, he didn’t. Seems this woman wouldn’t marry him for some reason or another; no one really knows for sure. He came back here and threw himself into this farm, hell-bent on expanding it and making it the best in the state. Worked at it for years.”

“So why the resort? Why is it so important to him?”

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