Midnight Exposure (30 page)

“No idea. That looks like a spiral.”

“How about this one?” Doug indicated a spot nearly worn smooth. The shape was barely visible.

“I didn’t see that one.” Reed squinted at the faint mark and reached for his reading glasses. He glanced over at Jayne. She was focused on the computer screen, her chin rested in her hand. “Jayne, what do you think?”

She looked up from the laptop. Her eyes darted to Reed, then Doug. “What?”

“Take a look at this symbol,” Reed prodded. “What do you think it is?”

Jayne adjusted the light over the table. Dull gold gleamed. “Could it be a pentagram?”

Doug’s brow wrinkled. “And it had the mistletoe wrapped around it with the feathers and cake when you found it in your tree?”

“Yeah. I have pictures.” Reed braced himself for the criticism.

“You shouldn’t have moved it.” And there it was.

“I didn’t know what it was.”

“You knew it didn’t belong there.”

Reed swallowed his irritation. “This thing reminds me of the ancient Celtic coin found under that teenager’s body.”

“Shit. I hope you’re wrong.” Doug lifted a tired shoulder. His eyes shifted to the metal circle and worry creased his face. “I don’t like this at all. Looks like some freaky occult thing. I’m going to send this to the state lab. Maybe they have experts who can make some sense of it. I don’t even have a friggin’ office. At minimum they can tell us what it is and take prints from it.”

Jayne reached for a piece of toast. “Any word on what started the fire?”

Doug’s mouth went tight. “Point of origin was Hugh’s space heater. So far it looks accidental.”

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Reed asked.

“I won’t believe anything until I get the final report.” Doug’s head shot up. His face was flushed with red spots. “But if it looks like a horse and smells like a horse, I don’t have time to go lookin’ for a zebra.”

A bonfire flared in Reed’s gut. “Jayne was attacked twice. Her photographic equipment and purse were in Hugh’s office. Don’t you think the fire was a pretty big coincidence?”

“Coincidences do happen.”

My ass, thought Reed. “You’re going to blow off the similarity between this thing”—he nodded at the gold object—“and an artifact recently found under a corpse?”

“I will not ignore it once it’s been corroborated by an expert. Look, I’ll pass your concerns on to the fire marshal, Reed. But there isn’t much else I can do if there’s no evidence of arson.” Doug folded the pillowcase over the objects and slid the whole package into a paper evidence bag. He stopped and turned toward Reed with a tight-ass frown. “Look. If you want to do some research, there’s this occult store down on Route 31 in Greenville. Maybe the lady who runs it would know what this all means.” He waved a hand over the bag. “I don’t have the time.”

Reed drew back in surprise. Doug offering information? Was there hope for him? “Jayne and I can run down there this morning.”

Doug nodded stiffly. “Let me know if you come up with anything. If I hear anything on the prints, I’ll give you a call. Are
you going home, Miss Sullivan? Or shacking up with Reed indefinitely?”

Jayne bristled. Reed touched her shoulder. Any hope that Doug’s attitude could change went down the drain.

“My brothers are coming to get me later today.” Although her jaw was clenched, Jayne’s tone was miraculously civil. “Have you found the farmhouse where I was held?”

“No. With the fire and Hugh’s death, I haven’t had two minutes to spare.” Doug stood. “Well, I guess that’s that. I’ll contact you if we get any leads on your case.”

But don’t hold your breath.

“You know, Doug.” Reed pointed at the evidence bag. “Crow feathers were found at the crime scene with that teenager’s body.”

Doug’s face flushed. “Don’t go into that again. That kid died of exposure unless I get an official statement from the medical examiner saying otherwise. And it’s hardly unusual to find bird feathers outside. If and when the ME tells me the cases are related, I’ll treat them like they’re related.”

Reed didn’t reply as Doug stomped out the front door.

Doug didn’t even want to give Jayne’s case five minutes, let alone enough time to uncover any leads. Plus, the cop was determined to ignore any link between the crimes. In Reed’s experience, coincidences weren’t all that common. The kid’s death, Jayne’s abduction, and the fire were all related. Reed just didn’t know how or why. But Doug was right. Occult cases were disturbing.

“Reed,” Jayne called from the kitchen.

“Did you get it to work?”

“No. I’m going to e-mail it to a friend of mine and see if she can do something with it. She’s a whiz with editing photos and
has all the latest software.” Jayne tapped the keys much harder than necessary.

Reed stopped next to her chair. He itched to lean down and rest his forehead against her temple. But he didn’t. Space was what he needed. And a clear head. Besides, it was going to be hard enough when she walked out his door later that day. If he let her get any more entrenched in his heart, it would crack in two the moment she left. “You OK?”

“Yeah.” She breathed out a long sigh. “I don’t want to go home without knowing who is after me. It’ll never be over.”

Reed inhaled the scent of her. He didn’t want her to go home period. But, putting his selfishness aside, she’d be safer at home. Even if she could stay, her family ties to Philadelphia were strong. He doubted she’d leave her brothers to live out in the middle of nowhere with him. She’d be miserable. Jayne was a city girl. She’d miss her family, and he couldn’t ask that kind of sacrifice from someone he’d known for a weekend.

No matter how much his chest ached at the thought of never seeing her again.

The least he could do was ensure she was safe. Doug could kiss his ass. Reed would continue to work on Jayne’s case after she left. With Doug determined to wait on official reports, the case was going stale fast.

Careful not to touch her, Reed reached over and Googled the occult store in Greenville. “Wiccan Ways is about forty minutes away. If we leave now, we can be there when the store opens and get back here well before your brothers arrive.”

“OK. Pat said he’d call my cell when they were a couple hours away.” Jayne stood and stretched her long, lean body. Reed’s hand twitched to stroke her torso, but he resisted. He could make love to her every day and never be sated. Better to make a clean break.

She was leaving in a matter of hours.

A few minutes later Jayne stepped out onto the salt-dusted stoop. The sky was a clear winter blue, the air thin and brisk as it chilled her nose and cheeks. Reed followed a few feet behind her as they walked on the path to the truck.

As Jayne reached for the car door, Reed slipped on a patch of ice. The loud crack of a rifle shot snapped through the air. Splinters of wood exploded from the cedar siding behind him.

Jayne’s heart vaulted into her throat. Before the shot’s echo faded into the woods, Reed launched his body at her. The air hissed out of her lungs as his shoulder slammed into her midsection. Her martial arts training kicked in and she executed a sloppy forward fall, slapping the frozen ground and spreading the impact evenly from her hands to her elbows. The move saved her from broken wrists, but her forearms still stung.

Reed crawled up her body and pressed her down next to the driveway.

“What was that?” she breathed over her shoulder. His breath warmed her ear as cold seeped into her body from underneath.

“Rifle shot.” Reed’s weight on her back shifted.

Black metal flashed in Jayne’s peripheral vision
. Reed is armed
.

He whispered in her ear. “We’re in a bad spot here. I can’t see anything over those banks. We’re going to move forward so we’re between the truck and the house. Stay low.” Reed lifted himself into a crouch. “Get behind the engine block.”

Jayne crawled to the paved drive. Reed followed closely, his back pressed to hers, obviously using his own body as a human shield. Annoyance warred with gratitude at the gesture. Jayne knelt behind the front end of the Yukon. Reed rose on his knees and peered over the hood.

Another shot rang out. The bullet hit the house behind his head with a spray of cedar chips.

Reed ducked. “Son of a bitch!”

He leveled his gun over the hood and squeezed off two rounds into the woods. Though she knew it was coming, the quick
pop pop
, loud as firecrackers, still made Jayne flinch.

“See how the bastard likes return fire.”

They listened for several long minutes. No sound came from the woods except the occasional plop of melting snow dropping from sun-warmed tree limbs. Then the distant whir of an engine turning over broke the silence. The rumbling faded fast.

“Sounds like he doesn’t like it very much.” Reed scanned the trees. “I’m pretty sure he’s gone, but just in case, stay in front of me. We’ll run up to the house. Don’t run in a straight line.”

Jayne hoped he was gone, too. She estimated the distance from the truck to the house as approximately twenty feet, a flipping marathon if someone was pointing a rifle at you.

“Let’s go.” Reed shoved her in a jagged line toward the front door, keeping his body between Jayne and the threat in the woods. “Move.”

The few seconds it took them to run up the front walk seemed to pass in slow motion. Reed pinned her against the house and then behind the storm door until he unlocked the door, and they both stumbled across the threshold. He reached back and clicked the dead bolt into place.

“Stay down,” he ordered as he pushed her onto her hands and knees. They crawled into the kitchen and sat down with their backs against the refrigerator while Reed called the police.

Someone had shot at her!
Just when she thought she’d been through it all,
wham
, something new bulldozed into her life to scare the bejesus out of her.

Her lungs expanded in short, fast pants like a bellows. Her ears rang. Dark spots appeared around the edges of her vision. A few seconds later she was breathing into a paper bag Reed was holding over her nose and mouth.

“Slow breaths.” His hand moved in a circle between her shoulder blades.

It took several deep breaths into the bag before Jayne’s head cleared. She pushed it away from her face. “I’m sorry. That was the first time I’ve been shot at.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. Only an idiot wouldn’t be scared.”

Jayne’s stomach was still on the Tilt-A-Whirl, but her head had stopped spinning.

“What now?”

“Now we wait for Doug.” The cordless phone on the floor shrilled and they both jumped.

Reed picked up the handset. “Yeah.” His mouth went flat. “That’s exactly what happened. Yes, I’m sure. In the driveway. No, we didn’t see anybody. No, it’s not like the other times. This one came within a foot of my head.” He caught Jayne’s eye and sighed before he hung up. “Doug’ll be here in twenty.”

“This has happened before?” Jayne lived in the big bad city, and no one had ever shot at her.

“Not like this. We’ve had people hunting too close to the house,” Reed admitted. “But we’ve never had anyone shoot
at
the house.”

“Oh.” She sighed. Her chest collapsed as reality cut through hope like a serrated knife through a rare rib-eye. “For a second I thought maybe it was a coincidence.”

Reed took her hands. His palms heated her numb flesh as he spoke the words that needed to be said, the ones that clarified the situation to the last remaining shred of denial.

“Looks like your stalker’s changed his mind. He doesn’t want to kidnap you. He wants you dead.”

Jayne crossed her arms over her chest. “I still can’t believe Doug blew off the shooting.”

“He didn’t blow it off,” Reed corrected. “He dug the bullet out of the house. It’s not his fault there wasn’t any other evidence.”

“He could’ve done more.” She turned her head to watch the white landscape roll by the passenger window. They passed a green highway sign that indicated Exit 31 for Greenville was two miles ahead.

“Like?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a cop. But believing you would be a start.”

“The fact is I’ve had poacher problems for years.” A heavy sigh escaped Reed’s broad chest. “Doesn’t really matter. The ground in the woods was frozen solid. No tire tracks or footprints.” He glanced over at her for a second before returning his gaze to the windshield. “I know you’re frustrated, and I can’t stand the guy either. But honestly, there isn’t much else Doug could’ve done. The shooter was long gone before he arrived, and we didn’t see a thing.”

“I know.” Didn’t mean she wasn’t annoyed, though. She did not want to go home with this threat hanging over her head. How would she live? Her brothers would escort her everywhere. She’d escaped her kidnapper only to be a virtual prisoner. Unless this guy abducted someone else and was caught, something she couldn’t wish for with a clear conscience, she was SOL.

She already knew what it was like to have this kind of threat hanging over her head for an extended period. The six months she’d waited to testify had been brutal. She’d been unable to let her guard down for a second. She’d given up her apartment, her independence, and her privacy to move in with Pat. With his wife and three kids, Jayne was lucky to sneak into the bathroom alone.