Christmas Bodyguard (16 page)

“Dad, it's from him, isn't it?”

He focused on the trembling in his daughter's voice, not
the words on the screen. She needed him at the moment. Pivoting, he drew her against him. “Probably. But the good thing is that we might be able to track this email to its source.”

Abbey bent back and looked up at him. “You can do that?”

“I should be able to.”

“Why did he send it to me?”

“To terrify you. But he also thought the email would more likely get to you and you would read it—I've got too many filters up for it to get through to me.”

“I thought it was from someone I met online.”

“Honey, this really might be a good thing. Let me see what I can find out. Why don't you go downstairs and see if Gram wants any help with dinner? It should be ready soon.”

“I can't help you?”

“One day I'll show you some of my tricks, but I can work faster when I don't have anyone watching over my shoulder.”

Abbey grinned. “I'm gonna keep you to that promise when this is all over with.”

He clasped her upper arms and looked straight into his daughter's face, which now had a little color. “We'll be spending a lot more time together. I have to admit, not as much as we have these past few days, but I'll be cutting back on work. Lately, my company has functioned fine without my presence all the time.”

“You mean that?”

“Yep. You're the most important person to me.” And that was why the person had sent the message to Abbey. Another taunt. This had to end soon, one way or another.

As Abbey left the room, Elizabeth stayed behind. “I'll let
Joshua know what has happened. Once you get a location, the police can move on it.”

“I know I'm getting my hopes up, but he's got to make a mistake. I'm hoping this is it.”

 

Slade greeted the sheriff in the foyer late the next afternoon. “Thanks for coming out here. Let's go into my office.”

“Where is everyone?” Sheriff McCain followed Slade.

“In the kitchen making snacks for tonight.”

“Tonight?”

“Elizabeth had thought ‘the girls' should have a movie night with snacks and everything.”

“Girls?”

“Mary, Hilda, Cindy, Abbey and Elizabeth. I wasn't invited, so I dubbed it the girls' night in.”

“Probably a good thing you weren't invited. You should see some of the sappy movies my wife drags me to.”

In his office, Slade gestured toward two chairs. “So what have you all been able to track down?”

“We went through the videotapes of the internet café where the email you received was sent. Using the time on the email, we were able to narrow the suspects down to three people. Before we interview them, I wanted to show you their pictures to see if you know one of them.” The sheriff slid three photos out of a manila envelope and passed them to Slade.

He flipped through them. Two were young men, at the most only a few years older than Abbey. The last one was a balding man of about forty. “I don't know them. What are their names?”

“On the backs of the photos.”

Slade examined each picture and then turned them over
to see what the names were. “Still don't mean anything to me. Are you sure these were the only people in the café at that time?”

“Yes, the owner said it had been a slow night. A couple of ladies came in, got some coffee and left. That was all.”

“I think we should show these to Abbey to see if she knows one of them.”

“Good suggestion.”

Slade pushed to his feet and headed toward where Abbey, Elizabeth, Cindy, Mary and Hilda were.

“I saw Joshua when I arrived,” the sheriff said as they came to the entrance into the kitchen.

“Yeah, he's checking the grounds. He likes to periodically make sure the cameras are working and there are no breaches in the perimeter.”

“What are they making? It smells delicious.”

“Smells like cookies. Mary said something about Christmas ones they could decorate.”

“And she got your sixteen-year-old to go along with it?”

Slade chuckled. “Yes, which shows you the depth of my daughter's boredom. Maybe with Elizabeth and Cindy here tonight she won't feel totally surrounded by us old fogies.”

Abbey, with flour on her green sweater, peered toward him and the sheriff when they entered the room. Butter knife in hand, Elizabeth finished icing a snowman cookie and put it on the waxed paper for Abbey to decorate. The scene before Slade, the air laced with the aroma of sugar cookies and hot apple cider on the stove, made him wish the lawman was only at the ranch for a social visit.

“What's up, Dad?”

“Sheriff McCain has some photos to show you. Where's Hilda?”

Mary dried her hands on a towel. “She wasn't feeling very well and went to her room to lie down. She's coming down with a cold.”

With Bosco planted at her feet, Abbey rose and joined Slade. “Let me see. Is this the person who sent me the email?”

Sheriff McCain gave her the envelope, and she went through the pictures. Tiny lines wrinkled her forehead.

“Do you know one of them?” Slade spied the photo his daughter lingered over—the middle-aged man.

“I've seen him somewhere.” Abbey held up the picture for her grandmother to see. “Gram, doesn't he go to our church?”

Mary retrieved her reading glasses from the chain around her neck and studied the photo of the balding man. “Yes, I think he does. He doesn't come regularly, but I remember him being at the late service a month ago, right before Thanksgiving.”

Hope flared in Slade. This was the break they needed. “Do you all recognize either of the young men?”

“Nope,” Abbey immediately said, while Mary and Cindy examined each picture for a long moment.

“I don't, either,” his mother-in-law finally said.

“This one looks familiar, but I can't place where I've seen him.” Cindy pointed to the young man named Matt Alton. “Maybe I saw him with Brody. He looks about the same age.”

“Thanks, ladies. This is a big help,” the sheriff said, taking the pictures back from Cindy.

“I'll walk you out.” In the foyer Slade opened the front door. “Let me know what you find out after you interview them. It's about time he made a mistake.”

“Will do.” Sheriff McCain rubbed the back of his neck.

“But just because the man goes to the same church doesn't mean anything really. There are only so many churches in the area.”

“But at least it's something. According to the Dallas police, the smoke bomb didn't lead anywhere. Nothing has panned out there yet.”

“I just didn't want you to get your hopes up too much. I'll call you later.”

Slade closed the door and leaned back against it, his eyes sliding shut.
Lord, is this the beginning of the end of this ordeal? Please, I hope so.

“What did the sheriff say?” Elizabeth's soft voice curled around him as if it were a blanket warming him in the cold.

He lifted his eyelids and saw her beautiful features not three feet away. He wanted to kiss her again, but he wasn't going to until this was over. He needed to stay focused on the person after him and Abbey. And yet the sight of her full lips mocked that decision.

“He'll call me after he's interviewed the guys. Maybe I'll crash your ‘girls only' party tonight.”

“Feeling left out?”

“Yeah, but if Abbey is happy—and safe—that's all I care about.” Slade shoved away from the front door.

“I'm glad to see you two have been getting along lately. She hasn't whined nearly as much as she did the week before.”

“I think Brody has something to do with that,” Slade said. “His tutoring sessions with Abbey have been extra long. I know math isn't her forte, but really, three hours Monday and Wednesday nights.”

“What I want to know is what happened to Tuesday and Thursday?”

“Basketball games. He's on the squad.”

“Look on the bright side. She didn't bug you about going to the games.”

“But how long can I keep this up? Abbey is like her mother. Very social.”

Elizabeth laid her hand on his arm. “As long as necessary. Something will give. I don't see this person waiting too much longer.”

The touch of her fingers momentarily centered his attention on Elizabeth, her expression full of compassion that drew him to her. “And that's what I'm worried about the most,” Slade finally said.

 

The screen in the theater room went dark as the movie ended. Why had she watched
It's a Wonderful Life?
The last time she had, she'd cried and Bryan had made fun of her. She'd thought she'd stamped out all softness in the years since her marriage broke up. But there was something about being at the ranch with Slade's family at Christmas that was making her emotional. Bryan had always said her tears were a sign of weakness. While she told herself she didn't really believe him, deep down there was a part that did.

Then she remembered the call she'd finally placed to her father before dinner hours ago. He hadn't been home, but she'd left him a message that she wanted to talk to him. Relief that she'd finally made the call mingled with dread that her father would call back when she wasn't mentally prepared to talk to him.

The overhead lighting flicked on, and Elizabeth twisted around in the lounge chair before the big screen. Slade stood inside the entrance.

“I didn't know anyone was in here. I thought you all went upstairs a while ago.”

“Cindy left. Abbey went to bed. I decided to come back here and watch another movie.” Elizabeth averted her head and wiped the remnants of her tears away.

Slade moved in front of her. “Have you been crying? What's wrong?” He sank into the chair next to hers.

Flitting her hand in the air between them, she murmured, “Nothing.”

“Did your dad return your call?”

“No.” She could tell he wouldn't give up until she told him why she'd been crying. “We watched some Christmas movies, and after escorting Abbey to her bedroom, I came back to see
It's a Wonderful Life.
I saw it in your movie collection and remembered as a child watching it every Christmas. It always made me cry.”

“But the message is hopeful.”

“I know. I guess I always hoped someday my father would declare his love and how important I am in his life.”

“It's his—” The ringing of Slade's cell interrupted the rest of his sentence. He answered his phone and listened intently before saying, “A woman? That changes everything. I'll tell Joshua and Elizabeth. I'll have to rethink a few things.”

Elizabeth pushed her sad thoughts from her mind and sat up straight. “What is it?” she asked when Slade hung up.

“That was the sheriff. They focused on the man from the church but couldn't tie him to anything. He had an alibi for Saturday night, and when your brakes were cut, he was out of town on business. Matt Alton also had an alibi for Saturday night. He'd been on a hunting trip with his dad and some friends. But the third interview panned out. Faced with the sheriff and deputy in his house, Ben James admitted to being paid to send that email. He was
instructed to send it from the public library, but he forgot it closed at five on Thursdays so he used the internet café to send the message.”

“Who paid him?”

“He doesn't know who she is, but he's positive it was a woman. Curious who would pay him a hundred dollars to send an email, he staked out the drop-off site for the person who contacted him by phone. He said the voice over the phone could have been either a man or woman.”

“Was it mechanical sounding like the call to you?”

“No, just disguised. But it was definitely a woman who left the money, although he didn't see her face. It was covered by a hoodie.”

“How convenient. How did this Ben know it was a woman?”

“The sheriff said he described the body as petite, slight.”

“Now the question is, was the woman the actual person or sent by the person?”

Slade slipped his cell back in his pocket. “I don't know. But if it's a woman, who could that be? Paula Addison is in prison and everyone else on that list is male.”

“Maybe we're looking at it wrong. For instance, Jay Wilson committed suicide, and we have only been able to find one of his children—the youngest daughter—but not his son or other daughter. And what if the person Ben saw was a young teenage boy like Kevin Sharpe? Kevin isn't tall or heavily built. From a distance he might look like a female.” But Elizabeth remembered Abbey's conviction that it wasn't Kevin, and she'd had some good points.

“All I know is that I'm glad you and Joshua are here. I feel like I have a chance against this phantom person, whether female or male.” He took Elizabeth's hand, his touch compelling her to look into his eyes.

“That's our job. To make your life safer and hopefully easier.” Her words rushed together because the expression in his gray depths unnerved her.

“I know a lot has happened in a short time, but having you here has made it bearable, not just for me but for Abbey, too. She responds to you and for that, I'm thankful.” He tugged her closer, only the arms of the two chairs between them. Reaching out, he framed her face with his hands. “I'm not sure I have words to tell you how grateful I am.”

“I'm only doing my job.” But her fast pulse rate belied that declaration. There was much more between her and Slade than an assignment, which was what frightened her. Her heart had been wounded twice. She didn't want to go through it again, and she and Slade were from two different worlds.

He leaned over the arms of the chairs and brushed his mouth over hers. “I never thought I would take off my wedding ring. I didn't think I ever would find someone else who I could love. I thought I'd had my one love and it wasn't possible to have another, but this feeling I have for you isn't going away. It grows each day I'm with you. I'm in love with you and want to continue seeing you even after your job is over. You don't have to say anything now, but think about it.”