Harnessed Passions (31 page)

Perhaps Julia had wondered into the water on
accident. Perhaps she had fallen which could explain the water she
had ingested. She could have somehow managed to get back onto the
embankment, where she collapsed. But that didn’t explain the
position she was found in, the evidence of being dragged out of the
water, or the footprint. Nothing was making any sense and the
silence was beginning to grow on his nerves. Even the crickets were
still, leaving the rustle of leaves in the treetops as the only
interruption to the peace and eerie solitude.

"Daniel, look here," Jeremy called from the
bushes bringing the other man to his feet. Daniel stepped around
the footprints so not to disturb them and pushed his way between
the trees and thick brush. He found Jeremy kneeling on the ground
examining a piece of cloth, ripped or torn from the object it had
once been attached to. It was white silk, smooth and flawless with
a tiny smudge of blood tinting its edge.

"Where did that come from?" Daniel asked,
taking the cloth to examine it more closely.

"I found it next to this," Jeremy reported,
picking up a small piece of rope about two to three inches long.
"It could have been here for a while, but it seems unlikely," the
young man replied.

"I doubt it," Daniel answered cautiously.
"There's no sign of weather or wear, and see here," he said
pointing at the smooth ends. "It's been cut at both ends. I'd say
it's recent. It looks almost brand new."

"I don't understand any of this," Jeremy
sighed with disgust, running his hand through his hair. Nothing was
making any sense for either of them. "Did you find anything?" He
stood and brushed the dirt from his pants as he spoke.

"Only some imprints in the dirt, nothing you
can put any stock into except for one. I found a print that may
have been made by whoever attacked Julia. It's a barefoot print,
very distinctive."

"That's odd, unless perhaps Julia came up on
a drifter or one of those outlaws everyone's been talking
about."

"I don't know; I doubt it was either one.
There's no evidence of a camp, no fire pit, no burned timbers,
nothing to indicate someone hiding out here. I haven’t even seen
any signs of life outside of those bloody footprints.” Daniel drew
another deep breath, glancing back to the pond.

“
Until Julia wakes up
there's really nothing more we can do here," Jeremy said
reluctantly as they walked back to where they had tethered their
horses. They had spent nearly an hour here already and found
nothing more than a few prints and a torn piece of satin to offer
them aid. Daniel sighed deeply as he mounted Roustabout. Even what
little they had found, didn't add up to anything more than further
questions in need of answers.

"I want to check around on the other side of
the trees," he said, pulling the reigns of his horse in the
direction he indicated. "Perhaps we can find something to help
explain who was here last night."

“
But this is where Julia
entered. We’ve already found her footprints,” Jeremy said with a
frown.

“
It’s just a hunch,” Daniel
said, walking his stallion next to Jeremy’s around the thick
outline of trees and brush.

They inspected the area as closely as
possible for anything out of the ordinary. There were several hoof
prints made by horses and a pile of manure left behind by one of
the beasts, but nothing more conclusive. Daniel tucked the piece of
white silk Jeremy found into his shirt pocket along with the rope
and turned back toward home and his unconscious wife.

"Let's go talk to Dourn," he suggested. "He
may have seen something last night, we missed."

The next half hour was spent searching for
the Dourn, with no luck. Rally Overton and two other hands left
earlier to check the outer ridge of the property lines. The thought
of thieves and rustlers were feared by all who lived nearby, both
at Turner Stables as well as by neighboring ranches after news of
Julia’s attack filtered through the community. Although nobody
actually saw Dourn leave, several suspected he had gone out with
Rally and the others.

Daniel stifled his mounting anger and the
desperate urge to hit something hard and solid was growing stronger
with each passing moment. It was past eight o’clock and so far the
day had proven very frustrating and with little more than a few
footprints, a piece of rope and a torn piece of cloth to help them
piece together the mystery of Julia’s accident.

Still, Daniel intended to speak with Dourn,
though. There was something about the man he didn't trust, the
feeling he was more than he was claiming stuck in the back of
Daniel's mind, but until they could confront him they were going to
have to play a waiting game. Waiting for Dourn to show up, waiting
for Julia to awaken and possibly even waiting for another accident
to occur.

Recent events were beginning to wear thin on
Daniel's raging nerves. He was frustrated for not having found
anything substantial to help them, and irritated with the waiting
game they had been playing. Twice now Julia had been attacked. In
Daniel’s mind, that was two too many times.

He cursed under his breath as he led
Roustabout into his stall then walked back to the main house beside
Jeremy. He knew there was something missing, he could feel it; he
just couldn’t find it. But he promised to the silent night, he was
going to get to the bottom of this, even if it killed him.

Daniel once again had returned to his wife’s
side after washing his hands and face and pouring a large brandy.
She remained asleep in the hot, steamy room. The dim lights
bouncing around the portrait lined walls. The crackle of the
fireplace made for a relaxing, intimate feeling, though it was by
far too hot for comfort. Daniel had just removed his shirt and
shoes when the sound of the doorknob turning caused him to turn to
look at the door.

"You haven’t told me what you found out,"
Louise whispered softly, stepping quietly into the room so not to
disturb her daughter's rest.

"There wasn’t much to find,” he said in a
hushed whisper. “A number of footprints, two sets mainly, a pile of
horse shit and a single barefoot print in the dried mud.”

“
Barefoot?” Louise gasped a
little louder than she had anticipated.

“
It doesn’t make much sense
to me either,” Daniel said with a heavy sigh. “We also found
these." Daniel showed her the piece of cloth and the cut section of
rope. The older woman frowned, taking the items and examined
them.

"I wonder where they came from?" she
asked.

"I'm beginning to wonder if Julia didn't
come upon a drifter after all, someone who was afraid she'd turn
him into the sheriff," Jeremy suggested in a hushed whisper as he
joined the two in the quiet room. "He may have panicked and did the
quickest thing he could think of and hit her. It's possible they
struggled and Julia ripped this from his shirt," he lifted the torn
piece of cloth from the woman's hand. "She may have stumbled into
the water and thinking she was dead, the man ran off."

“
Really Jeremy; a drifter
who wears silk shirts?” Louise looked scornfully at the two men.
"You don't honestly believe that, do you?"

"I don't know what to believe," Daniel
replied, his tone laced with irritation as he frowned. He hadn't
spent much time considering the expense of the cloth or the
implications it offered. "Until we get some answers, the only thing
we can do is speculate."

A soft moan escaped the woman in the bed
next to them and the three turned. Daniel watched Julia with a
hopeful expression, but she didn’t wake; she just continued to
sleep soundly. It was the first real sign of hope since her
mindless talking a few hours ago. He looked up to Jeremy who nudged
his arm and nodded his head toward the door. The three quietly
slipped out into the hallway shutting closing the wooden barrier
securely behind them.

"You two go downstairs and talk," Jeremy
offered. "I'll sit with Julia for a while." Daniel gazed back to
the closed door and reluctantly agreed. Over the past three days,
he had relented his vigilant watch over his wife, allowing her
mother or brother to stay with her from time to time while he
rested or relieved himself.

Louise led her son-in-law to the library and
closed the door behind them, blocking any nosy spectators out.

"Daniel, why do you think Julia was calling
for Heather?"

"Was she talking in her sleep?" he asked,
uncertain if he had mentioned Julia's outburst earlier or not.

"She was begging for Heather to forgive
her," Louise said with a nod, choking back the tears as she
recalled the soft pleas her daughter had uttered while Daniel and
Jeremy were out at the pond. "I can't bear to think of Julia going
through all of that again."

"Tell me about Heather, Louise. How did she
die?" Daniel's own curiosity had gotten the better of him. He was
determined to learn every deep dark secret his wife hid away from
him, even if he didn’t like the story behind them. Louise drew a
deep breath to steady her nerves, than began relaying the story as
she paced slowly toward the liquor cabinet.

"It was summertime; the girls were out of
school and spent nearly every waking moment together, as they had
since they were small children. Julia wanted to meet Heather at the
swimming hole just as they always did." The old woman began pouring
herself a glass of cherry and lifted the brandy sifter toward
Daniel who nodded silently.

"Victor wouldn't allow Julia to go out that
day. He told her she'd been spending far too much time with
Heather, neglecting her chores and taking time away from her
family. We planned on sending Julia to Boston to finish her
schooling and he thought she should be with her family while she
still had the chance. Julia somehow managed to sneak out anyway and
went to the swimming hole. She was always a stubborn, disobedient
child when she wanted to have her own way. Takes after her father’s
English blood,” she smiled taking the glass to Daniel and sitting
in her favorite chair.

"Heather wasn't anywhere around and Julia
thought she'd missed her. From what she told us at the time, she
was just about to leave when she saw a piece of fabric floating in
the water. She pulled on it and found it attached to what she
believed to be a log, but the more she pulled the more it revealed
until she saw the dress she had given Heather. She thought Heather
might have thrown it in the pond in anger when Julia hadn’t kept
her promise to meet her. When she tried to pull the dress out of
the water she found Heather's hadn’t disposed of it at all. She was
still wearing it.”

“
You mean…” Daniel began,
almost afraid to speak the words.

“
The sheriff said it was an
accident, but Julia has always blamed herself for Heather's death.
I think she blamed Victor as well. She said if she had met Heather
when she promised she would, none of that would have happened.
Heather wasn't a very good swimmer and the sheriff felt she slipped
and hit her head falling in the water and thus
drowning."

"It's possible the same thing could have
happened to Julia," Daniel summarized.

"Never; Julia's an excellent swimmer. She
used to out swim anybody who challenged her. There's no way she
could have fallen in and she would never have tripped or stumbled;
she knows that pond like the back of her hand."

"There's evidence Julia wasn't alone. I
wonder if she did come upon a drifter or perhaps some kids fooling
around where they weren't supposed to be. She may have seen
something someone didn't want her to know about."

"What could possibly be so important that
the payment would be a young girl's life?"

"I honestly don't know, but I'll tell you
one thing, we're never going to get any answers until Julia wakes
up. I just don't understand how somebody would know she was going
to be there, especially at night, and I can't figure out how
Heather fits into all of this."

Louise sipped her cherry, watching him play
with the amber colored liquor in his glass. She felt he should know
more about his wife and her old habits and perhaps help him
understand more about what may have happened to her.

"Julia used to ride out to the pond just
before dark when she was younger,” Louise began. “She used to say
the swimming hole was the only place where she could think; it was
an old habit. Most everybody around here knew about Julia's love
for the water, but very few knew that after Heather's body was
found she never went back there. Even my sister Lena said Julia
refused to go near water, even when they were on holiday at the
seaside."

"It's possible whoever is behind this,
didn't know about Julia's resignation for the sport. Perhaps
whoever it was didn't know Julia had been away for so long
either."

"Daniel," Louise began, "do you really think
there's someone out to harm Julia? Is it possible someone besides
Sharon blames Julia for Heather's death?"

"What do you mean besides Sharon? Who's
Sharon?"

"Sharon Farnsworth, Heather's younger
sister. Julia and I met her on our way to town the other day. Julia
wanted to stop at the cemetery and Sharon was there."

"What reason would she have to blame Julia
for Heather's death?"

"When Heather's body was found, Sharon went
around town telling everybody it was Julia's fault; she's always
been very good at spreading gossip. Sharon insisted Julia was
jealous of Heather and they had argued. She claimed Julia had
struck Heather, who fell into the water and drowned."

"Why would Julia be jealous of Heather?"

"She wasn't. If anything, it was the other
way around. Heather didn't have a very good relationship with her
family and would spend as much time here as she possibly could. Her
father and mother didn't get along very well; they both had secret
lovers in town and Sharon was too busy sleeping with every man
within fifty miles of Mayfield. There were two brothers, but the
oldest died from small pox the winter before Heather; Peter is the
only one left living last I heard. Julia was more of a sister to
Heather than a friend. They shared everything, dreams, stories,
fantasies, everything."