A Promise to Protect (Logan Point Book #2): A Novel (16 page)

“You’re kidding.” Leigh’s brow furrowed. “Why? Do you know who did it?”

“I don’t know why, and I don’t know who. What I do know is a ball field isn’t a natural habitat for copperheads. Not five, anyway.” Ben had seen female copperheads congregate when about to give birth, but never in a populated area like the park. They preferred a quieter, more rural setting. “I think someone captured them and turned them loose. Maybe someone who handles snakes on a regular basis. Have you treated anyone else for a snakebite?”

“A garter bite a couple of weeks ago, but that was a young boy. You may want to check with the makers of antivenom. I know if I were handling poisonous snakes, I’d keep some on hand.”

“Good idea. Do you mind if I ask Martin a couple of questions before the boys see him?”

“Sure. He’s in room 6. His parents are with him.”

Ben walked down the corridor and rapped lightly on the door to the room. When he heard a muffled “Come in,” he pushed the door open.

“Howdy, folks,” he said, nodding at the Stones. “Andre will be here soon to check on Martin. Right now, he’s taking the dead
snakes to a local vet for examination.” He turned to Martin. “How are you feeling, buddy?”

“My foot hurts, and I want to go home. Do you think Andre will let me play Saturday?”

Ben glanced at Martin’s dad. “Maybe you can cheer them on.”

“But I want to play!”

Sam rubbed the top of his son’s head. “You want your team to win, don’t you?” After Martin nodded, he continued, “Then you want to feel 100 percent so you can play well.”

The boy sighed. “First I can’t play because I cut my arm and now this. Andre won’t ever let me play again.”

“Martin,” Ben said. “Did you see anyone out by the center field fence? Maybe with a bag?”

Sam startled. “You don’t think—”

“I don’t know. Just asking questions.” He turned back to the boy. “Did you see anyone?”

“There were lots of people walking by, going to the other ball fields.”

“Did anyone stop?”

Martin wrinkled his nose as he considered Ben’s question, then he hunched his shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t remember. What about TJ? Did you ask him?”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t remember, either. Tell me exactly what happened. TJ said you two were picking up trash. What did you pick up?”

“A bag. A big one—you know, like a garbage bag.”

Ben paused. Was it possible the bag had blown against the fence and the snakes congregated under it? His gut said no, but it was a possibility. “Did you see any other snakes?”

Martin shook his head. “That one was enough.”

Ben chuckled. “I imagine it was. Think about it, and if you remember something, tell your brother.” Ben stopped at the door. “Oh, and you have a few friends out in the waiting room who want to see you.”

“Really? Cool.” The grin that spread across Martin’s face lit up the room.

Sam Stone followed Ben into the hallway. “Are you thinking someone put those snakes there deliberately?”

“Like I said before, I don’t know. But if someone did, I’ll find them and bring them to justice.”

“Not if I find them first.”

Ben grabbed his arm. “Don’t do anything rash, Sam. Let me and Andre handle it.”

“Then you two better do something pretty quick, because I know where to start looking.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There are only a few people in this county crazy enough to fool with snakes.”

Ben knew Sam was referring to Jonas Gresham and a few of his cronies. “Let it be. At least until we know for sure someone collected them and turned them loose on the ball field.”

Sam slid his hands in his pockets, jingling change. “Takes a sick person to do something like that.”

“Well, let’s just hope it was a freak occurrence.”

“Yeah, right.”

Ben left Sam at the door and walked back to the nurses’ station, where Leigh stood talking to her son and one of the twins. The light shone down on her hair, reminding him of rich mahogany. There was something different about Leigh tonight. A sparkle in her eye he hadn’t seen before, and her cheeks were full of color—she emitted excitement.

She smiled as he approached. “Would you show TJ and Josh which room is Martin’s?”

“Sure.” Dutifully, Ben turned around and escorted the boys to the room he’d just left and ushered them inside. “Here are your friends. We can only stay a minute, but the boys wanted to see for themselves you’re okay.”

TJ and Josh crowded around the bed, wanting to see where the snake bit Martin. “Wow. Your foot’s big.”

“Hurts too. But your mom fixed me up.”

TJ grinned. “She’s good.”

Josh cocked his head. “How come you got bit and we didn’t?”

“Good question,” Ben said. “Did either of you see the snakes?”

Josh shook his head, but TJ said, “I just saw the one that bit Martin. Where’d they come from, anyway?”

After a few minutes of talk, the blood pressure cuff on Martin’s arm activated and the boy became still. He looked a little peaked. “I think it’s time to go,” Ben said and herded the two boys toward the door. “They’ll come see you once you get home.”

Outside in the hallway, TJ looked up at him. “Is Martin going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Ben said. “Your mom says it’ll just take some time to heal. You two go to the waiting room, and I’ll be out in a minute. Tell the other boys that he’s okay, and they can see him later, after he gets home.”

Ben stopped at the nurses’ station, where Leigh was putting away a chart. “Thanks for letting them in to visit Martin.”

“I’m sure it did him a world of good.” She looked past Ben. “Is Ian here? At the ball field, he said he’d take care of getting TJ to your folks, and then he’d drop by the hospital and take me home.”

Ben squared his shoulders. “I informed him I’d take care of getting you home.”

Leigh blinked and took a step back. “Okay. That’ll work too. After transport moves Martin to ICU.”

“I’ll have Emily take the boys home, and I’ll wait for you.”

A few minutes later, an orderly approached the desk.

“Got an order to move a patient.” He glanced at his clipboard. “Martin Stone.”

“Room 6,” Leigh said. She cocked her head toward Ben. “Be right back.”

Ben leaned against the counter. Even in their high school biology lab, Leigh had been compassionate. When he’d learned she wanted to be a doctor, he’d known she’d make a good one. Seeing her in action confirmed it. A few minutes later, the door opened and Leigh exited, followed by Martin in his bed.

“I’ll check on you in the morning,” Leigh said as she bent over and hugged the boy. Then she shook hands with the Stones. “He’s going to be fine. And let’s quit meeting this way.”

“I’ll gladly do that, Doctor,” Adrian replied.

Ben waited while Leigh walked to the elevator with them, then when she returned to him, he held out his arm to escort her. She hesitated briefly and then took his arm. “Thank you, gallant sir.”

“You seem awfully chipper tonight,” he said.

She stopped, and when he turned around, she beamed at him. “I have to tell someone. Dr. Meriwether at Johns Hopkins called tonight and offered me a position, starting the first of October. We’ll be leaving the middle of September so we can get settled in.”

Words escaped him as he stared at her. She was leaving in six weeks? Just like that, she was leaving?

W
hen are you going to tell TJ he’s moving and leaving his friends behind?”

Leigh jerked her head toward Ben. His disapproval had ridden with them for the last five miles, and now he wanted to lay a guilt trip on her.

“He’ll make new friends. Baltimore will be a great experience for him. Museums, the Orioles. There’ll be so much more for him to do there. And at least there, no one will be trying to kill his mother. Have you heard from the fire marshal?”

“No. If I don’t hear anything today, it’ll be Monday before he’ll be back in his office. If I don’t hear by the afternoon, I’ll give him a call to see what the holdup is.” Ben rubbed his finger around the steering wheel. “Why don’t you want to stay in Logan Point? TJ is happy here.”

“How about my dreams? My dad always wanted to practice at Johns Hopkins, and it’s all I’ve ever wanted too. He would be proud of me.”

“But is it what you really want, Leigh? I’ve seen the way you love the people here, and the way they love you. This town needs you. Take Martin—”

“Any doctor at Bradford General could have done what I did.”

“But he trusts you. You fixed his arm. And how about my sister. She needs you at the clinic when Dr. Hazelit leaves.”

“I’m not leaving until the middle of September, so I can easily fill in for him.”

“But Hazelit is retiring next year. You could be her full-time physician at the clinic.”

Leigh tried to shut out his words. She had nothing and no one in Logan Point to stay for.
What about TJ? He has family here who would
love him . . . if they knew.
She swayed as Ben made the turn onto Logan Road.

Why did he have to bring up these things now? Sure, she was beginning to love her work at Bradford General, and she was sure she’d love working at Emily’s clinic, but Johns Hopkins . . . it’d always been her dream, her goal. The way to prove her value
.
“I don’t want my dream to end up like yours.”

Ben turned into the Logan drive and keyed in the code on the gate. “What are you talking about?”

“The dream you had ten years ago of becoming a U.S. Marshal. Didn’t you tell me that’s why you changed from law to criminal justice? Seems to me like you’ve settled for acting sheriff.”

“I’m not settling.” Ben pulled through the gate, and it closed behind his truck. Without a word, he drove the short distance to the back of his parents’ house and put the gear in park. Finally he spoke. “I have a different dream now. I want to protect the people of Bradford County. That’s why I’ve qualified for the election.”

“That sounds like a canned answer. At least I’m being honest.”

“Are you? Why is Johns Hopkins so important?”

“It was a
mistake having another child.”
Her mother’s words rang in her ears. If she could work at a hospital like Johns Hopkins, it would prove she wasn’t the mistake her mother talked about. “You wouldn’t understand. Just like I don’t understand why you’re content to stay in Logan Point.”

In the moonlight filtering into the cab of the truck, she could see he was formulating a reply. He took a deep breath.

“I’ve finally realized it’s where I belong. I love Logan Point, and
I do want to protect it. We both know something crazy is going on. First Tony is killed, and then you’re shot at. Your house is burned down, and now snakes at the ball field. These are not coincidences. Someone is taunting me, saying I can’t protect the people of this town. After tonight, I need you to be really careful.”

“Why? The snakes had nothing to do with me.” She put her hand on his arm. “You’re doing a good job, Ben. Protecting me and this county. And this evening you were where you were supposed to be. I thought you were only dropping the twins and TJ off on the way back to your office.”

He turned to her, and she caught the desperation in his eyes. “I didn’t want to stay, but it didn’t seem right to leave Andre high and dry after Wade didn’t show up.”

She remembered how he’d turned TJ down when he’d asked him to come watch him play ball. Maybe there was more to his reluctance than she knew. “Why don’t you like to be around kids? You’re uncomfortable even around your nephews.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and shifted his gaze away from her. “It’s a nice night out. Want to take a walk to the lake?”

Leigh caught her breath. She hadn’t been to the lake since . . .

He opened his truck door, the interior light scattering her thoughts. “Maybe a short walk, just past the barn,” she heard herself saying.

In the dim light, his eyes appeared almost black, unreadable. Was he remembering their last time at the lake? He shut the door and came around to the other side and helped her out of the truck. She willed her legs to carry her away from the magnetic pull Ben seemed to have on her.

The August full moon lit their path as they walked in comfortable silence, soon passing the barn. Her steps slowed as they rounded the curve in the grassy road and moonlight spilled onto the water.

“Want to walk out on the pier?” Ben’s husky voice broke the silence.

She followed his lead to the end of the dock and sat beside him, their feet dangling over the water. In the distance, a whip-poor-will called to its mate, the sound haunting and lonely. Beside her, Ben sighed.

“What happened to us?” he asked.

She froze. “You had your dreams, I had mine,” she said when she finally found her voice.

“That could’ve been worked out. I thought we had something special.”

Leigh had thought that as well. Especially after . . . But it’d been the next day that Tom Logan had offered her the deal.
“I’ll
drop all charges against Tony. All you have to do
is end this summer romance.”
Leigh hadn’t considered it a summer romance. It’d been for keeps with her. Not that it would have ever worked out—Sheriff Tom had big plans for his son, and Leigh Jackson—the girl with the spiked hair who worked at a questionable dance club—was not a suitable wife for a future sheriff. Between love for her brother and Tom Logan’s pressure, she made her choice, and after she discovered she was pregnant, it was too late to undo it. Ben had moved on to someone else, not that she really blamed him. His voice, hesitant and unsure, broke into her thoughts.

“I, ah, I’m sorry for pressuring you that night. I’ve always thought what happened is why you broke up with me and then didn’t take my calls.”

Even now her cheeks flamed in the darkness as she remembered waking the next morning, the shame and regret that washed over her. She’d always planned to save herself for the man she married, for her wedding night, and with one rash decision, she’d altered her life forever. But it hadn’t been all Ben’s fault. “I was as responsible for what happened as you were.”

“Was it the reason?”

If only she could tell him what really happened, but then he’d be angry at his father, and Tom Logan needed his son. “You never said what makes you so uncomfortable around kids,” she said. Beside her, he shifted, and Leigh felt his gaze on her.

“I didn’t, did I,” he said. A few small rocks lay scattered on the pier, and he picked up one and skipped it across the inlet. Neither spoke as the water rippled in circles. “The way bad things happen when I’m around, it’s probably a good thing. Like Tommy Ray Gresham. Like tonight. First time I ever hang around, and Martin gets snake bit.”

“That wasn’t your fault. And from what I’ve heard, neither was Tommy Ray’s death.”

“If I hadn’t let go of Tom—”

“You both could’ve died.”

“I saved myself instead of him.” Ben had never shared the depth of his guilt with another living soul, and usually didn’t even let himself acknowledge it. But somehow tonight, here at the lake with Leigh, the words just came out. “I should have kept holding on to him, but I couldn’t breathe, and Tommy Ray was a big kid, a tackle for the junior football team. He pulled me deeper.”

The memory of the water closing in on him, his lungs bursting, Tommy Ray fighting him, grabbing him and pulling him down . . . Sweat beaded his upper lip, and he curled his fingers into balls.

“Do you think it would’ve been better if you’d drowned with him? Ben, it was an accident.”

“Then why can’t I let it go? Why do I feel so guilty?”

“Ian said Jonas Gresham keeps throwing it up to you. Maybe that’s why. Does anyone else in town blame you?”

Electricity shot up his arm as she grabbed it and pulled him around until he was looking into her jade eyes. The moonlight bathed her in a soft glow. Why did he ever let Leigh get away?

“Ben Logan, look at how you saved TJ. You are the strongest, bravest man I know. If you don’t believe me, you’re just plain stupid, and I can’t help you.”

He licked his lips, wishing he could accept what she said. But all he could think of was how beautiful she was, how close her lips were to his. Her breath halted as he caught her gaze and held it. He leaned toward her.

His cell rang, and he groaned. Maybe he should just let it ring. But the spell was broken, and he slipped the phone from his shirt pocket. “Logan.”

“Ben!” Wade sounded breathless. “Somebody set fire to the jail.”

He scrambled to his feet. “What? Never mind, I heard you. Did you get the prisoners out?”

“They’re out. Logan Point PD is on the way to relocate them to the city jail. I hear the fire department sirens now.”

“How bad is it?”

“Just the roof right now, but as old as this building is, we might have a problem if the fire truck doesn’t hurry up and get here.”

“I’ll be there in ten.” He pulled Leigh up. “The jail is on fire.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I wish. Can you jog? I have to get back to my truck, but I don’t want to leave you here alone.”

“Let’s go.”

Ben saw Leigh safely into the house before jumping into his truck and speeding to town. At least there hadn’t been any dangerous criminals in the cells. But who would want to set fire to the county jail?

The same person who put snakes on the ball field, and burned Leigh’s house down, and shot at them, and maybe killed Tony. The same person who wanted to make him look incompetent. And he seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it.

He gripped the steering wheel. But whoever it was would make
a mistake, or someone would see him. Ben was going to catch him if he had to put every deputy he had on overtime and pay the cost out of his own pocket.

When he pulled into the jail parking lot, two fire engines and a host of other vehicles filled it. Firemen appeared to have the blaze under control. “What do we have?” he asked as he neared his chief deputy.

“Looks like it’s only the roof and the two offices in the front part of the building,” Wade said. “Just lucky Andre pulled into the parking lot when he did and saw the fire when it first started. He radioed me, then moved the prisoners, and when I got here, I used a water hose to wet down the back side where the cells and our offices are.”

“Anybody see anything?”

Wade shook his head. “Jenkins was manning the dispatch and thought he heard something, then five or six 911 calls came in at once. All of them hang-ups.”

“Did he get numbers?”

“Said two were from a pay phone, the others were probably from throwaway phones.”

“Ben!”

He turned. Andre was walking toward him with old Mr. Gordon. The eighty-something store owner still opened and closed his hardware store every day.

“Been canvassing the buildings,” Andre said. “Mr. Gordon here saw something.”

“Yeah.” Gordon’s voice rasped the word out. “I was locking up and saw this flaming torch fly through the air, so I looked to see where it came from, and about that time another one flew over.” He lifted his arm and pointed. “It was right there—between the drugstore and that new lawyer’s office. And there was somebody standing there. I yelled, and they disappeared.”

“Can you identify the person?”

Mr. Gordon took out a handkerchief and mopped his face. “Naw.” He stuck the handkerchief in his back pocket. “It was too dark. Couldn’t even tell if it was a man or woman.”

Ben turned to Wade. “Secure that area. We’ll see what we can find tonight, then in the morning when there’s light we’ll go over it again. Maybe the person left something behind.”

Wade pulled him aside. “Ben, mind if I pass on this? I have a hunch, and I want to play it out.”

“You want to share this hunch? And where were you earlier? I thought you were going to help Andre with that ball team.”

Wade rested his hand on his Glock. “I got a tip that I wanted to follow up on.”

Ben stared at his chief deputy. Wade liked to work alone, but right now, Ben needed his help. “Did you hear we killed five copperheads on the ball field tonight? After one bit Andre’s brother?”

Wade’s head jerked up. “What? Is Martin okay?”

“He will be, but thank goodness Leigh was there. She rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.”

“Why would anyone turn poisonous snakes loose on a ball field?”

“So, your first reaction is someone deliberately did it?”

“Copperheads wouldn’t go to an open place like that.”

“Not even females about to give birth? All five snakes had babies ready to be born. And evidently they were under a black garbage bag. Martin just happened to be the one who picked up the bag and disturbed them.”