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“I won’t call him unless I have to.” He let the threat sink in for a moment. “All right, let’s walk the property and then we’ll go inside and you’ll tell me exactly what you’ve been up to for the past week. It’s possible this was an aborted theft, but my instincts say it was personal, so I don’t want you editing yourself, understand?”
Lori thought of the alley behind Andalucia and lied her ass off. “You got it, Chief.”
But it turned out that Ben didn’t need that information anyway. When he left an hour later, he was convinced that if the vandalism had, in fact, been personal, it had something to do with the phone calls Lori had made earlier in the day. Lori wasn’t so sure. Why would a developer do something so petty?
Ben’s expression told her he didn’t think it was petty at all. “No more phone calls about the land. If someone is trying to intimidate you, it could be the same person who assaulted your father. And why didn’t you tell me about these developers in the first place?”
“I just thought of it today.”
“Well, callmenext time, not your Realtor.”
“It seemed like a long shot. It still does. I don’t see why you think this was anything more than a couple of drunk teenagers looking for trouble.”
Ben scowled. “If you’ve been watching enough cop shows to think we have a tech department, then you should know that cops don’t believe in coincidences. I reopened the investigation into your dad’s assault. You made a few inquiring phone calls, and suddenly your shop looks like the front end of my first car. No more phone calls, understand?”
Well, she’d been done anyway. “Fine.”
“Now what else are you hiding?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Did you find any more information about the sale?”
Ben nodded. “Your dad bought it at auction. It was foreclosed on just as you suspected. The previous owner was Hector Dillon. Did you know him?”
“Hector?” Lori frowned. “Actually, I think I did. Didn’t he own the gravel pit? I think my dad bought sand from him for the plows.”
“Yeah, he owned the gravel pit and had a pretty good-sized ranch he and his brother had inherited from his dad.”
“The land my dad bought?”
“Yeah,” Ben said, “That was part of it. The bank broke it up into a few parcels.”
Could that have made Hector mad enough to come after her dad, just because he’d bought a parcel? “You’re using the past tense. Is Hector dead?”
“I don’t think so. But he moved to New Mexico about five years ago. I haven’t tracked him down yet.”
“You really think he had something to do with my dad’s injury?”
Ben took off his hat and ran a hand over his hair. “I don’t know. It’s another long shot, but it bears looking at.”
“Okay.”
“As for tonight—” his voice lowered “—will you please let me drop you at Molly’s?”
“No.” She didn’t like being fawned over or taken care of, didn’t like to feel more vulnerable than she really was.
Ben didn’t approve of her answer, but he left after eyeing her locks with suspicion.
Lori collapsed onto the couch with a sigh. Crapola, this was going to cost her a bundle. One door could be banged out and made serviceable, but the other was a lost cause. Five of the wheels had popped off and the framework was twisted beyond repair. So they’d be using one bay until insurance came through, and even then…Her deductible was somewhere in the twenty-five-hundred-dollar range.
“Shit.”
And the truck lights…those would be out of pocket, too, and she couldn’t afford to wait. As it was, she’d have to refer all of tonight’s calls to Grand Valley. She’d sold the old hook and chain truck a few years ago to pay off some bills and that meant no backup, so tonight’s towing fees were gone.
She was seriously beginning to regret the new dress she’d bought. Shit, it was probably snagged in the back from being rubbed against cement.
Gazing longingly at the fridge, picturing the cold beers inside, Lori tugged the throw off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her.
A full day of work, an evening of dirty sex, and a night of being victimized had all teamed up to exhaust her. She’d figure out what the hell was going on in the morning. Right now she just wanted to curl up and sleep, right here on the couch.
