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I shook my head, still unable to make any damn sense of the new information we had. “No. Once all of his personal time ran out, he just… resigned.”
“I don’t get it,” Cole repeated. “I don’t understand how it all fits together.”
That made two of us.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, either.” I nodded toward the door. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We need to write down everything we know, everything we can remember plus all of this shit we’ve found out today. We’ll make a timeline and then see if anything stands out.”
It was the best we could do under the circumstances, but I could tell exactly what Cole was thinking from the way his frown deepened as we turned toward the door.
We still don’t know enough.We still don’t have a case.
Chapter 14
Daisy Lynn
Ilooked around the crowded dinner table and couldn’t help but smile. Janessa had insisted on inviting Prescott and Cole over for dinner—an invitation I was more than happy to extend to my guys. I’d worried that my friends might not approve of my decision to take things more seriously with both men, but Janessa seemed eager to try and help move things along in the right direction.
Even Becca, who had been more than a little skeptical of the whole situation at first, seemed interested in hearing about how well they both treated me and how sweet and tender they were when it was just the three of us together.
And now that we were all sitting around the table together—Prescott, Cole, Becca, Janessa, Cade, Boone, and Justin Thoreson all talking together and over each other—it felt like some kind of weird reunion.
The men all knew each other already through business connections and the fact that my two guys were the entire local police force. Then Janessa, Becca, and I were still playing catch-up from all the time I’d spent recovering at Cole’s house.
At any given moment, there were at least four or five different conversations going on around the table.
Until the topic turned to the poisonings that had been happening. That got everyone’s attention.
“Do you have any new leads, sheriff?” Justin asked from the other side of the table.
Next to me, Prescott sighed. “Nothing we’ve been able to make sense of, unfortunately. We did come across some interesting bits of information earlier today, though.”
“Anything you can share with us?” Boone asked.
As far as I knew, Boone and Cade’s ranch hadn’t been targeted by the person doing the poisoning yet, but they still seemed on edge and were still splitting their time between their own place and the Triple J Ranch to make sure Janessa stayed safe.
“There’s something going on between Nora Statler and the guy who was supposedly from the USGS—the one who came out here to take water samples not too long ago,” Prescott said.
“Something going on… romantically?” Janessa asked.
“That isn’t really my business, but I suspect there’s a romantic element involved. She was awfully distraught this morning.” Prescott grimaced, and I wondered if he was trying to decide just how much information he wanted to share over the dinner table. “But there’s also some sort of business connection. Something we haven’t been able to figure out yet.”
“I could go and talk to her again if you think it might help,” Janessa offered.
“Again?” Prescott and Cole both said at the same time as all eyes turned to Janessa.
“Well… I, um…” Janessa looked uncharacteristically nervous for a moment, then sat up straight and put her shoulders back. I knew that look. She was going to stand by whatever she was about to say. “I just went to check on her, to ask how she was doing when I heard her horse was poisoned. It was the neighborly thing to do.”
On the other side of Janessa, both her guys exchanged looks. One of them—Cade—was grinning so widely it was obvious what he thought about Janessa’s neighborly intentions. Even her own uncle snorted.
Prescott wasn’t smiling, though. He gave her a stern look that made me glad I wasn’t on the receiving end of what he was about to say. “I appreciate your offer to help. I really do. And I understand you have a particular interest in finding out who is behind these poisonings.” He paused and took a deep breath. “But it isn’t safe for you to get involved. People are starting to get hurt, and I don’t want anything to happen to you—or anyone else at this table.”
He gave me a pointed look. Message received. Don’t get involved.
“Thankfully none of us have gotten hurt,” Janessa said. “I pray it stays that way. But you don’t have to worry about me, sheriff. I’ll be okay.”
I could tell that Prescott wanted to say more, but I also knew he liked Janessa’s family and probably didn’t want to offend anyone, since he was here as their guest.
“Just stay safe,” Cole said, following up where Prescott had left off. “That’s all we can ask. We’re taking all of our leads seriously, and we’re investigating as thoroughly as we possibly can. You’ll have to trust us.”
