Only By Your Touch (39 page)

“No, you never mentioned that. Come to think of it, I do have a crick.”

“In your neck?”

He shook his head.

“Your shoulder?”

His mouth twitched. “Guess again.”

“Hmm. Maybe it’s my turn to make you tingle,” she murmured.

“You’re on.”

Ben was hauling Chloe behind him up the hall when the doorbell rang. He threw her a worried look. “Uh-oh. Now what?” He smoothed a hand over his hair. “I’ll get it. You hide Methuselah. Okay?”

Chloe nodded, went in search of the cat, and found him napping on her bed. She smiled, gave the cougar a loving pat, and stepped back out into the hall, closing the door behind her.

En route to the entryway, she heard Ben say, “What the hell for?”

“I’m sorry, Ben. I know it seems like a strange request.”

Chloe recognized Frank Bower’s voice. She moved to stand beside Ben in the open doorway. “Chloe,” the deputy said by way of greeting.

“Hello, Frank.” Chloe’s first thought was that Bobby Lee had finally managed to get a search warrant. “What brings you here?”

“You’ll remember I told you that Jimmy Suitor went missing, and a hiker found his bloody hat?” At Ben’s nod, he went on, “We’ve been combing the area up behind this place with dogs, and now they’re wanting to cross over onto Longtree land. There’s a section up there”—he swung a hand to indicate the woods behind him—“where the barbed wire is down. The hounds are baying like they’ve treed a coon. I was just asking Ben for permission to bring the dogs in to search his property.”

Ben considered the request. Finally, he said, “I’ve got wild creatures that hang around up here, Frank. I allow no hunting, and they feel safe here. I don’t want a pack of dogs running loose.”

Diablo brushed against Chloe’s leg. She rested a hand on the wolf’s regal head to let him know everything was okay.

“We’ll keep the dogs on leads,” Frank assured Ben. “They won’t go chasing any of the animals.”

Ben nodded. “All right, then. Bring them on.”

Frank tipped his hat. “Thanks, Ben. You’re welcome to come along, if you like. It is your land.”

Ben glanced at Chloe. “I think I’ll do that.”

Chloe kept a hold on Diablo’s collar as Ben left the house. “No, sweetie,” she told the wolf. “Somehow I
don’t think you’d mix very well with a pack of hounds.”

Nan came into the entry hall; her eyes were wide with concern. “What’s happening?”

Not wishing to alarm the older woman, Chloe pasted on a smile, closed the door, and patted Nan’s arm. “Nothing to worry over. A hiker is lost. Some searchers just asked Ben’s permission to come onto your land to have a look around.”

Chloe had a bad feeling. She couldn’t say why. After comforting Nan, she stared out the glass beside the front door. Though the sound was faint, she could hear the frenetic baying of the hounds. Frank was absolutely right; the dogs sounded as if they were hot on the trail of something.

Ben was surprised that a section of his barbed wire fence was down. He had checked the property line just that spring, and all the wire had been taut. Now it lay in a limp heap between two posts. The strands had been snipped.

Disturbed, he turned to follow the searchers into the woods. Sheriff Lang, who’d never made a secret of his dislike for Ben, kept sending him suspicious looks. The dogs strained at their leashes and barked with a whining shrillness. Ben had no idea what might have happened to Jimmy Suitor, and he wanted the young man to be found. He just hoped it wasn’t on his land.

About a hundred yards onto Ben’s property, they reached the crest of Cinnamon Ridge and started down a steep slope on the east side. Midway in the descent, the hounds came to a dense thicket of manzanita and began circling and sniffing at the earth. The men crouched in a circle around the spot. Beneath bits of rock, pine needles, and branches, the
soil had been disturbed. Ben rubbed a pinch of dirt between his fingers. He guessed that the earth had indeed been turned, but not recently, maybe a month or more ago.

The sheriff radioed two deputies parked on a forestry road above the ridge to bring down some shovels. He gave Ben a burning look. “It would appear that we’ve found Jimmy,” he said grimly.

Ben couldn’t think what to say. He stared dumbly at the earth, greatly fearing that the sheriff might be right. Dogs didn’t behave this way unless they were onto a strong scent.

Twenty minutes later, Ben stood solemnly to one side while three men worked to unearth Jimmy Suitor’s remains. Ben felt numb. Something kept tugging at his memory. Finally he glanced downhill, and there, about fifty feet below the thicket, was the log deck that marked his mother’s turnaround point when she went for walks. He remembered the morning Nan had come racing back to the house claiming to have seen a man burying a body.
Dear God.
Maybe she actually had.

The diggers finally exposed the decomposing remains of what had once been a healthy young man. Ben stared at the grisly sight in horror. He blinked when the sheriff began reading him his rights.

“Wait a minute,” he interrupted. “Wait just a damned minute. You can’t believe I had anything—”

“You have the right to remain silent,” Lang began again.

Ben couldn’t focus on the words.
Dear God.
He was being arrested for the murder of Jimmy Suitor.

“What happened?” the sheriff asked as he slipped the card inscribed with the Miranda rule back into his wallet. “Did Jimmy come onto your land to do a little poaching? It’s a serious offense, Ben, but it’s not
punishable by death. That boy didn’t deserve to be bludgeoned.”

“I didn’t do this. What are you saying, Lang? You’ve got no proof. I own a large amount of land. Anyone could have buried that body here. What makes you so cocksure it was me?”

Lang drew Ben’s arms behind him and cuffed his wrists. “Tell it to your attorney, son.”

“You damn well know I will.”

Ben craned his neck to look back at the makeshift grave as he was led away. Who had killed Jimmy Suitor, and why? Ben only knew that he was innocent.

Chloe listened in shocked silence as Sheriff Lang informed Nan of her son’s arrest. White as a sheet, Nan stood in the open doorway, shaking her head and whispering, “No.”

“I’m sorry, Nan,” Sheriff Lang said gruffly. He glanced at Chloe. “She shouldn’t be left alone. Are you going to be around, or should I notify her daughter?”

Nan cupped a hand over her eyes and began sobbing softly. “This is a mistake, a terrible mistake.”

“I’ll be available to stay with Mrs. Longtree,” Chloe said, “but I’m sure Ben’s sister will want to be notified. It might be better if you do that. She doesn’t know me, and Nan may be—indisposed.”

The sheriff nodded. He patted Nan’s frail shoulder. “I’m sorry about this, Nan. Please try to understand, I’m only doing my job.”

As the sheriff turned to leave, Chloe followed him out onto the porch. She drew the door shut behind her. “May I speak with Ben for a moment, Sheriff?”

Lang sighed. “I can’t let you do that, Chloe. It’s against procedure.”

Anger burned through her. “What? Do you think
I’m an accomplice or something? I only want to tell him I love him and that I know he’s innocent.”

“I’m sure he knows that.”

Chloe grabbed his shirtsleeve. “Sheriff Lang, please.”

The officer scrubbed a hand over his mouth. “Damn it, Chloe. Oh, all right.”

Chloe hurried out to the county car, a white Crown Victoria with a county sheriff insignia emblazoned over the doors. Ben sat in the backseat behind a security screen.

“Two minutes,” the sheriff told her as he opened the door.

Chloe crouched down, touching a hand to Ben’s shoulder. He looked at her with his heart in his eyes. “I swear to you, Chloe, I didn’t do it.”

“I know, I know. How can you believe I might think you did?”

She leaned in to kiss him. He tugged against the restraints, clearly frustrated that he couldn’t embrace her. Chloe put everything she had into the kiss, trying to show him how very much she loved him.

When she drew away, he held her gaze. “Get that scared look off your face,” he said. “I’ll call my lawyer. He’ll have me out before Lang knows what hit him. They have nothing concrete on me. They can question me, but they can’t hold me, not legally. As for making anything stick, not a chance. I’m not guilty, and they can’t possibly prove I am.”

Chloe couldn’t help but worry. Ben’s reputation in Jack Pine wasn’t the best, and the distrust was bound to work against him. “Isn’t your lawyer in another town?”

He gave her that slow, lopsided grin that had made her heart skip beats ever since she’d first gotten to know him. “He has a long reach,” he whispered.
“Trust me, I’ll be home before the day is out. He’ll make some phone calls, rattle a few cages, and before you know it, this will all be over.”

Sheriff Lang stepped forward. “Time’s up, Chloe.”

Tears filled Chloe’s eyes as she backed away. She was still standing there, long after the vehicle vanished from sight.

Chloe had her hands full when she went back inside the house. Jeremy was awake and crying. Diablo and Methuselah looked at her pathetically, clearly understanding on some level that their master had been taken away. Nan sat at the kitchen table, rocking back and forth, her voice a monotonous chant as she wailed, “I told him. I told him I saw a man burying a body. Why didn’t he listen? Why didn’t he listen?”

A chill washed over Chloe. She remembered that morning so clearly now. Nan had come home, frantic with fear, saying she’d seen a man burying a dead body, but neither Ben nor Chloe had believed her.

Chloe believed her now. She sat across from Nan and started bombarding her with questions. “The man you saw, Nan, the one burying the body. What did he look like?”

Nan’s eyes became unfocused. Chloe realized that the older woman had lost connection with reality. She waited a moment, but when Nan didn’t resurface, she finally rose to prepare Jeremy’s lunch—anything to keep her hands busy.

“He was tall and dark,” Nan suddenly said, as if Chloe had just asked the question.

Chloe swung around to stare at her. “Tall and dark. What else, Nan? Do you remember anything else?”

“He was wearing a ball cap with the bill turned down to shadow his face. And sunglasses. He was wearing sunglasses like Hap used to wear.”

“Did you know him?” Chloe asked.

“No,” Nan whispered, shaking her head. “At that distance, I couldn’t see his face very clearly. During my marriage, I never went to town much, so maybe I’ve never seen him.” Mouth trembling, she fixed Chloe with a pleading look. “My Ben, they’ve taken my Ben. Oh, God, Chloe. Even if I tell the police what I saw, they aren’t going to believe me. Who’s going to believe a crazy woman?”

“Oh, Nan, you’re not crazy,” Chloe soothed.

Nan buried her face in her hands. “I
hate
being like this. You think I don’t realize, but I do sometimes. The other morning I couldn’t remember my granddaughter’s name. I love her so, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember her name.”

Chloe could barely comprehend how awful that must be for her. She sat back down at the table and tried to think of something to make the other woman feel better. Inspiration finally struck.

“Your illness brought Ben back home,” Chloe pointed out. She stared out the window for a moment. “Not just to the ridge, though I know he loves it, but home to who he really is, Nan. If not for your illness, he might still be out there somewhere, denying his heritage and his gift, with no hope of ever finding himself and true happiness.”

A hopeful light entered Nan’s eyes and she smiled through her tears. “That’s true, I guess. He did come back to take care of me.”

Chloe gave the older woman’s hands a squeeze. “And because he did, he and I met. When you stand back and really look at all those puzzle pieces you call life, sometimes there’s a beautiful picture that you can’t see when you’re standing close. A meaning to it all, as if everything that happens, even illness, may be part of God’s plan.”

“I never thought of it like that.”

Chloe forced a smile, praying that Nan could remain lucid long enough to give her the information she needed. “And it’s not true that no one will listen to you. I’m listening. I’m sorry I didn’t take you seriously before, but I definitely am now. Is there anything else you can remember about that morning? Anything at all? The slightest detail may help clear Ben of the murder.”

“I saw that man carrying the body down the hill and digging the grave.”

“Is there anything else you saw?” Chloe asked. “Think very carefully.”

Nan stared blankly at the table. Then she cried, “
Yes!
That man—the killer? Right before he dragged the body down the slope, I saw him bury a pack of some kind. Isn’t it possible he was burying evidence? The murder weapon, maybe?”

Chloe pushed to her feet and started to pace. “Could you lead me to the spot, do you think? Not to where he buried the body, but to the first hole.”

Nan nodded. “What are you thinking about doing?”

Chloe stopped midstep. “Going on an excavation detail. Where does Ben keep the shovel?”