Deception

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“You’ve been injured, Jewel.” He reclaimed his hand, leaving a cold spot where warmth had been. “You’ve had a knock on the head. Think about what you’re saying.”

She wanted to tell him that his words upset her. But then she’d be admitting out loud that his opinion was important. Meral watched her, sympathy carved into her beautiful features. Did she think Jewel had imagined it, too?

“But we were all here. How could someone have been in the house without us knowing about it?” Meral asked.

“How could he have hidden in the attic all this time?” Katy joined the doubters. “We would have heard the noise.”

“You did hear noise,” David said.

“Yes, but only for a minute or so before we heard the crash.”

“I thought I heard you scream.” Meral pressed her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “You think...you believe...he was here?”

Jewel grabbed her forehead and slowly sat up, ignoring Chief Winters’s protests, along with those of Katy and Meral.

“I don’t think. I don’t believe. I know what I’m saying. I know what I saw. I know that I fought an attacker. I know what I experienced before I was knocked out. This time, he tried to strangle me. I got free for a second, only he tackled me before I could reach the door. But I think Meral and Katy scared him off when they responded to my scream and the noise. Maybe he thought he’d killed me. He could have done just that. I should be dead right now.”

She turned her eyes to her sister and Katy. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Chief Winters lifted her chin, his touch light and gentle. He looked at her neck and his frowned deepened. Then his eyes shot back up to hers, the scolding in them well and alive. “You walked right into that attic without being suspicious or careful. You were told not to go anywhere alone.”

She knew he was right, but she couldn’t help defending herself. “I’m not accustomed to sitting around and doing nothing. I don’t like others waiting on me. I have work to do. Besides, it’s the middle of the day and this is my home. I wasn’t expecting to find an intruder in the attic.”

“You weren’t expecting someone to push you into the falls either.” He crossed his arms, leveling his gaze.

She turned away, but avoided that stupid mirror. “At least my guests are still out and about. This didn’t happen with any of them here.”

“And maybe that’s the exact reason he thought he could attack you in the middle of the day here in the B and B. That could be the reason he thought he wouldn’t get caught. But at least you got a look at him this time. Do you know who did this?”

“He attacked from behind. The attic was dimly lit, and the small window doesn’t give much light. I fought him, but he was strong and finally I had to head butt him to get free. I didn’t have time to look back—I just ran, but he toppled me.”

She eyed the nightstand drawer, wanting to pull out her Glock and hold it, keep it close, but she didn’t want to scare the others. Jewel shook her head and stared at the floor, remembering how it felt to fight for her life. Her breath caught. What good was self-defense if she couldn’t win that fight? She fully expected Chief Winters to give her some lecture on the correct moves, what she had and hadn’t done right.

Instead, his voice was gentle. “You did well, Jewel, using what you’ve learned to escape. You can’t expect the real experience to be like what we practice in class, though we can try. So take comfort in the fact you’re likely alive at this moment because you were able to fight back.”

She nodded. It gave her a measure of relief, though not much.

“You called your attacker a he,” Chief Winters said. “So you know it’s a male this time.”

“Yes. Of that I have no doubt.”

“Height, weight?”

“Taller than me by half a head or more. Strong, but not muscle-bound. Heavier than me.”

Chief Winters resisted the urge to hang his head. Her description wouldn’t do them much good, but it was more than they’d had before.

“Just one more question, Jewel.”

She rubbed her arms. Doc Harland appeared in the doorway, his brows furrowed.

“What’s that?” Jewel directed her question to Chief Winters but stared at that good doctor, wishing he would come in and save her from an interrogation.

“Why did you go to the attic?”

Why indeed.

She must have blanched, because Doc came all the way into the room, looking concerned. “Any more questions can wait until later. If everyone wants to give us some space, and Jewel some privacy, that would be appreciated.”

Everyone left except Chief Winters.

Doc gave him a stern nod. “And you, Chief. Can I see my patient alone?”

Chief Winters complied with a frown, but the look he gave Jewel told her she wasn’t off the hook. He expected an answer to the question. Jewel didn’t have one she felt comfortable delivering.

When he left the room she sighed with relief. Doc Harland paused, stethoscope midair, and looked at her. “It can’t be that bad, Jewel. You just relax. This has been too much stress on you. Falling into the river and now taking a tumble in the attic.”

How much did Doc Harland actually know?

Jewel nodded as he rambled.

“Tell me where you hurt the most.”

How could she possibly explain? More than physical pain, the emotional pain of being assaulted in her own home overwhelmed her. There were no words.

And now she could only think of one reason someone had attacked her. Jewel wished she had a confidante. Someone she could trust enough to share her secret. If she’d trusted Silas enough those twenty years ago, then maybe this wouldn’t be happening to her now. Maybe someone wouldn’t be trying to kill her.

FIVE (#ulink_9d83cb52-134e-5adc-8d32-590e2b125784)

Frustration roiled inside as Colin crept up to the attic with a flashlight. He’d have to wait for answers from Jewel, so he’d use the time to see if the attacker had left behind any evidence.

What had Jewel been doing up here? What had been so pressing to drag her out of bed when she’d been through so much already?

Downstairs, Meral had gone to see Katy out. A nurturer, Katy had wanted to stay and help Jewel, but David insisted on taking his grandmother home. Evidently, she was already booked as a babysitter, thanks to Heidi and Isaiah Callahan.

Mountain Cove had some good people, and that encouraged Colin, kept him going when so much else seemed to be deteriorating into chaos and crime. Katy Warren and her entire family were pillars in the community and they had proven themselves to be his friends. He could always count on them.

Katy had that glow about her—loving the great-grandmother years now that they had finally arrived. For too long she hadn’t been sure any of her grandchildren would marry. But they were all happily settled now, growing their families with healthy, happy babies for her to spoil. Little wonder she was a spry one for her age.

He only hoped he could be as active when that time came. But if love and family were what kept someone young, then his prospects looked bleak.

He’d never fallen in love and gotten married after losing Katelyn, and he had no legacy. No children. He hadn’t allowed himself to think on those things. How did Jewel feel about children? She and her husband had never had them. Had they agreed not to, or was there some other reason? Or had Silas’s life been taken from him too soon? That seemed the most probable explanation. As if it was any of Colin’s business.

He shoved away the errant thoughts and focused on his investigation and protecting Jewel. He couldn’t think of anything that was more important to him at this moment.

In the attic, he flipped on the soft lighting, then added to it as he shined the flashlight beam around where Jewel had fallen. Where the attacker had possibly stood to strangle her. The dusty floor was too disturbed in the scuffle to get any footprints.

Colin wished he had gotten an answer to his question. Why had Jewel come to the attic? Had she heard a noise and come up to investigate? He couldn’t believe she would have done that alone after what had happened. Unless she thought it was that raccoon that kept nesting.

That had to be it. She hadn’t been thinking about a possible intruder, only about protecting her investment. She needed to start thinking about her safety now. The B and B was secondary. Or was it tertiary now that her sister was back in her life?

Meral held a special place in Jewel’s heart, and from a family who had hurt her, too. Disinheriting, disowning someone had to have cut Jewel in a way Colin couldn’t fathom. And now the sister and husband had suddenly shown up. Why now, after twenty years? And why was Jewel’s life in danger right after they arrived?

He didn’t want to rely on instinct, but neither did he believe in coincidence.

Why would the attacker have come to the attic? To hide? Or was there some other reason? Making assumptions was never a good idea. Colin walked around shining the light on boxes and old luggage, trunks, furniture, toys, knickknacks—some of which he’d seen decorating the B and B over the years. She could have come up here to think on moving some things down. One fact he had—he wouldn’t solve this until Jewel answered some very pointed questions. He wished he had a crime-scene division to gather fingerprints. But Mountain Cove had no budget for that. Investigating this would take good, old-fashioned police work. And anyway, gathering prints didn’t always give an answer or paint the correct picture.

Colin made his way back downstairs to look around the rest of the house for clues. He was torn between hoping that Doc Harland would give him the free and clear to question Jewel further and hoping he’d be told to leave her alone for a while longer. Every time he looked at her, asked her a question, he felt as though he was beating her up. She needed to recover fully, and Colin wasn’t helping.

But she would keep getting hurt until he found the person attacking her. And to track down the culprit, he needed answers.

He heard voices downstairs. A male voice that didn’t belong to David. Maybe one of the guests had returned? Or had Meral’s husband, Buck, finally shown up?

Colin made his way to the first floor and found Meral in the kitchen in the arms of a man nearing fifty, a good ten if not fifteen years older than Meral, around the same age as Jewel and Colin. They both tensed when they saw him. Meral stepped out of the man’s arms.

“Hello, Chief Winters,” she said. “This is my husband, Buck Cambridge.”

Stepping forward, Colin held out his hand to shake Buck’s. The man had a strong grip in return. Well-groomed, graying chestnut-brown hair and a beard framed his mostly square, tanned face. About the same height as Colin—five foot eleven. Stocky but solid. Brown eyes stared back at him, measuring. Gauging.