Читать книгу Passion's Law - Ruth Langan, Ruth Ryan Langan - Страница 11

The normally blue sky had turned to dull gunmetal gray. The sun had taken refuge behind dark clouds that gathered and thickened.

The family began drifting into the dining room. Heather stood with nine-year-old Joe, Jr., and seven-year-old Teddy, teasing them about the gloomy weather.

“Don’t worry,” Heather laughed. “You know what the song says. The sun’ll come out tomorrow.”

Both boys groaned and gave matching pained expressions before dissolving in laughter.

Their laughter faded when their mother entered. It was clear to see that she was already well on her way to throwing a full-blown temper tantrum. Her eyes were as stormy as the clouds outside the windows. Her mouth a thin, tight line of anger.

As always she found fault with the way the table was set, with the flowers that had been carefully arranged as a centerpiece. She even found fault with the way Heather was dressed.

“This isn’t a barn.” Meredith looked her up and down without bothering to hide her contempt. “Save your denims and boots for the horses. I expect you to dress for dinner while you’re a guest in my home.”

It was on the tip of Heather’s tongue to remind her aunt that this wasn’t the White House, but one look at her two young cousins, and she felt a wave of sympathy. It must be terrible to have to live with so much seething anger and resentment. There seemed to be no love left in this home.

“If you’d like me to change…” she began.

“If I’d like?” Meredith’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Are you so thick-headed you have to ask? Get this straight. I don’t want to see you in this room until you’re wearing what you’d wear to one of your fancy country club dinners. Is that understood?”

Before Heather could reply Meredith slammed out of the room, leaving her sons staring after her in disbelief.

Hoping to calm them, Heather put an arm around each of them and gave them her brightest smile. “Looks like this is your lucky day. You’re about to see me looking the way I look at a glamorous dinner party. I’ll be right back after I change.”

They all looked up at the sound of a loud report, followed by the shattering of glass.

“What was that?” Teddy’s eyes went wide with fear.

Even as he cried out the question, they all knew what they’d heard. It was unmistakably a gunshot. The sound was eerily like the sound they’d heard another time, at Joe’s party.

For the space of a heartbeat they all went perfectly still, absorbing the shock.

Heather was the first to recover her senses. She was already rushing through the open doorway and toward the stairs, a scream lodged in her throat, when the boys started after her. Seeing them, she stopped and held out her hands.

“You don’t want to come up here,” she said insistently. “Not until I see what’s happened.”

The thought of these two little boys finding their father lying in a pool of blood, dead or wounded, was too terrible to contemplate. As they rushed toward her she caught them and held them back, then glanced over their heads to where Inez stood in the doorway, staring in stunned silence. “Take the boys with you into the dining room and keep them there.”

The poor woman was too frightened to respond.

Just then her aunt hurried into the hallway.

The woman who had for years pretended to be Meredith paused at the scene before her. Her mind couldn’t seem to take in what her heart already knew. The gunshot. The eerie silence. It was so much like the previous time. But that time she’d been prepared. It had all been carefully choreographed by her, Patsy Portman. This time the gunshot had caught her completely by surprise. What was going on here? This hadn’t been part of her plan. In fact, she’d been so busy trying to do away with Emily, she hadn’t given any more thought to getting rid of Joe.

“Aunt Meredith.” Seeing her aunt’s apparent confusion, Heather adopted a tone she’d used as a camp counselor whenever she was dealing with an errant child. “You don’t want your boys to go up here. Please see that they stay downstairs, out of harm’s way.”

For a few more seconds Patsy’s mind seemed to be somewhere else, mulling this strange twist. Then, with great effort, she pulled herself back from her thoughts and called sternly, “You heard Heather. Come down here and wait with me.”

Heather turned away, relieved, and started up. Just then Joe Colton appeared at the head of the stairs. In his eyes was a look of dazed fury.

In a voice that sounded deadly calm he said, “Heather, call the police.”

“Are you all right? Was it a gunshot?”

He nodded. “I’m fine. Call now. And, Heather…”

She paused.

“Keep everyone downstairs and in one place until the police detectives have had a chance to gather evidence. We know the routine by now. I don’t want anyone messing up footprints or other signs this madman may have left behind.”

She was so grateful to see that her uncle was alive and unharmed, she could hardly speak. She gave a quick nod of her head, then raced toward the phone. After speaking with the police, she realized that she was trembling. Joining the others in the dining room she sank down onto a chair and waited for the tremors to pass.

Thad Law was out of his car and striding across the yard within minutes of the call. He was thankful that he’d been in the vicinity. Otherwise there was no telling how long it might have taken him.

As he drew near the front door he saw a shadowy figure and drew his gun.

“Police. Hold it right there.” He saw the figure pause and dart a look toward him. At that same moment he took careful aim. “I wouldn’t move if I were you, unless you’d like this to be your last minute on earth.”

The voice was low and deep and slightly out of breath. “What the hell is this about?”

“I’ll ask the questions.” Thad could see the man clearly outlined in the spill of light from the glass panels on either side of the door. His shrewd cop’s mind was already memorizing every detail. A hair over six feet. Strong, rugged build. Jet black hair. Dressed casually enough, in charcoal slacks and sweater. To blend into the darkness? Thad wondered.

He stepped closer and spun the man around, forcing his face to the door, while he searched for a weapon. Seeing that he wasn’t armed, Thad stepped back, allowing the man to turn.

Thad’s tone was sharp. “Now tell me who you are and what you’re doing here.”

The man looked startled by the questions before saying, “My name’s Jackson Colton. I’m here to see my uncle.”

“You got a beef with Joe Colton?”

“A beef? Of course not. I’m Joe’s nephew, and I’m here for a visit.”

“Did Joe know you were coming?”

There was a slight hesitation before Jackson said quietly, “No. I didn’t call and tell him I was coming. With Joe it isn’t necessary. His family is always welcome. Now I’d like to know what right you have to hold me at gunpoint and ask me these questions.”

“I have every right. There were shots fired here.” Thad gave a sharp rap on the door and waited until it was opened by a trembling Inez. Shoving Jackson ahead of him, he headed toward Joe Colton’s office. As he stepped inside he heard the high-pitched wail of sirens signaling the arrival of the rest of the squad. When a uniform rushed into the room, Thad nodded his head toward Jackson Colton.

“This guy claims to be a relative. He was outside when I got here. See that he sits in that chair and doesn’t move until I’ve had a chance to interview everyone here.” He gave Jackson a look that spoke, more than any words, what would happen if he dared to argue.

Then he was gone, his face as dark as a thunder-cloud.

Heather sat with Teddy and Joe, Jr., while uniformed men swarmed over the area, bagging everything that seemed the least bit suspicious. While one team went over every inch of the grounds directly surrounding the house, another team worked inside, checking doors, windows, locks. The master suite was sealed off while a team sifted through every shard of broken glass.

Inez had been ordered to stay until a statement could be taken from her. Joe and Meredith were closed in the great room with Thad Law and several detectives, answering questions.

“Heather.” Joe, Jr., looked grave in the lamplight. “Why does somebody want to kill my dad?”

“I don’t know, honey.” She wrapped her arm around the boy, offering him what comfort she could. “I wish I knew. I guess there will always be people in this world who want to hurt other people.”

“Why can’t the police arrest all the bad people?” Teddy’s blue eyes were troubled.

“They try, Teddy. They do the best they can. But before they can arrest somebody, they have to find out who he is. That’s why they’re talking to everybody who was here tonight. To see if any of us can help them find the bad people. And believe me, Teddy, if it’s at all possible, I believe the police will find the person who did this.”

“Heather’s right about that.”

At the sound of Thad Law’s voice, their heads came up.

Heather wondered just how long he’d been standing there, watching and listening. As a detective, he would have been trained to listen and observe. But this seemed to be more than training. It seemed almost second nature to him. As though he’d spent a lifetime looking into people’s minds and probing the secrets of their hearts.

Thad closed the door and leaned against it. “If you boys don’t mind, I’d like to ask you a favor.”

The two boys’ fears were forgotten as they wondered what they could possibly do for this man, who was held in such high regard by their father.

He crossed to the two little boys and got down on his knees, so that his eyes were level with theirs. It occurred to Heather as she watched that he was doing everything possible to make himself less intimidating. He instinctively understood that his size, his bearing, and his status as a police detective, could be misinterpreted as menacing.

“I need to learn everything I can about the past couple of hours.” He turned to the older boy first. “What were you doing when you heard the sound of the gunshot, Joe?”

“That’s easy,” Joe, Jr., said solemnly. “We were in the dining room, waiting for our dad to join us for dinner.”

“Were you sitting at the table?” Thad turned to the younger boy.

Teddy shook his head. “We were standing.”

“Alone?”

The boy shook his head. “With Heather.” He glanced tentatively toward her and was relieved to see her smiling. His own smile returned. “She was teasing us.”

“Teasing you? What about?” He glanced over the boy’s head and saw the color rise to Heather’s cheeks.

“About the clouds. She told us the sun’ll come out tomorrow.”

Thad grinned. “Did she say it? Or sing it?”

“She said it. But in a singsong voice.” The little boy was clearly enjoying himself now that he’d discovered that the policeman had a sense of humor.

“Okay. As long as she didn’t burst into song.” Thad kept his tone light. “Then what happened?”

“Our mom came in and yelled at Heather.” Teddy saw the look of disapproval on his brother’s face and clapped a hand to his mouth. “Maybe I wasn’t supposed to tell.”

“That’s all right,” Thad said easily. “My mom used to yell sometimes, too. Moms do that. What did she yell about?”

“She told Heather not to come to the table in jeans. And Heather was just going to go and change when we heard the bang.”

“Were you all together when you heard the sound?”

The boy nodded, then paused. “Well, I guess our mom wasn’t here.” He turned to his brother for confirmation. “She ran out of the room a minute or so before Heather.”

“So there were only the three of you?”

Teddy nodded. “And Inez.”

“All right.” Thad kept his tone easy. “After your mother left, what did you say and do?”

Teddy grinned, remembering. “Heather said we were lucky, ’cause she was going upstairs to make herself glamorous.”

“And did she?”

Teddy shook his head. “Before she could go we heard the shot. Bam. Then Heather ran out of the room and started up the stairs. And when Joe and I tried to follow, she told us to stay downstairs.”

Thad nodded. “That was very wise of her. And then what happened next?”

“Heather called to Inez to take us back to the dining room. But she was too scared. And then our mom came along, but before she could take us away, our dad came to the top of the stairs and told Heather to call the police. And he told us all to stay out of the way while the police did their job.”

“Good.” Thad patted both boys on the shoulders. “You all did the right thing.”

As he got to his feet Joe, Jr., tipped up his head. “Did you find the man who fired the shot?”

“I can’t say, son.”

“But you’ll catch him, won’t you?”

Thad touched a hand to the boy’s shoulder, hearing so much more than the mere question. It was the underlying fear. A fear that would dog all of them until the shooter was identified and arrested. Whether awake or asleep, the little nagging thought would always be in the back of their minds. They weren’t safe. Even in their own home, they could find no refuge from this stalker until he was taken into custody and locked behind bars for his crime.

“You can count on it, son.”

At that both boys looked greatly relieved.

Teddy asked, “Are you going to stay here with us until he’s caught?”

Thad shook his head. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. But I’ll see that you get all the security that’s available.”

Joe, Jr., dropped an arm around his younger brother’s shoulders. “Can we go up to our rooms now?”

Thad nodded. “Yeah. Your mom will be right with you.”

The two boys hurried away, leaving Thad and Heather alone.

She took a deep breath. “Tell me what you’ve found.”

He shook his head. “First tell me what you saw, what you heard, and anything that the boys might have left out.”

“Basically, what the boys told you is all there was.”

“They didn’t leave anything out?”

She shook her head. “It caught us all by surprise. I think we’re still a little stunned by it.” She clutched her hands together tightly to control the shaking. Now that the danger was past, she was suffering from the shock of what might have been. “Is my uncle all right?”

“He’s fine. The window in his bedroom is shattered. Apparently the shooter was down below, saw him by the window, and took his shot, not knowing that in that instant Joe was reaching for his shoes. If he hadn’t bent down at that very moment, we might be investigating a murder instead of just an attempted murder.”

He saw the way her face drained of color. Though he wanted to offer her some comfort, he knew better. He was a detective investigating a serious crime. He couldn’t afford to lose his concentration. Or his objectivity. And this woman was capable of robbing him of both with a single touch.

“What can you tell me about Jackson Colton?”

Her eyes widened. “Jackson? He’s Joe’s nephew. His brother’s son. Why do you want to know about Jackson?”

“He was here at the time of the shooting. I came upon him just as I arrived.”

“Jackson is here?” She glanced toward the door. “Where is he?”

“Being questioned.”

“But why?”

Thad struggled to remain patient. “Because he arrived unannounced at the precise time that shots were fired by an unknown gunman. He’s alone, and has no one who can provide him with an alibi for the time of the shooting.”

“You think that Jackson…?” She couldn’t bring herself to speak the words. “No. This is insane.”

Thad gave a sigh of impatience. “Do you know of anyone who would want Joe Colton dead?”

Heather closed her eyes a moment as the enormity of the situation washed over her. Then she opened them and shook her head. “No. I’m sure he’s made a few enemies during his lifetime. But for a man to want another man dead?” She let out a long, slow sigh. “I can’t even conceive of such a thing.”