Nighthawk & The Return of Luke McGuire (15 page)

Nate turned to Velma. “Give Jake a call, will you? Tell him I need Esther for a little while so she’ll be late. If that’s a problem, I can send a deputy to get the dog. Whichever is better for him.”

Then he turned back to Esther. “Now you come back to my office. I’ll get you some paper and pencils and we’ll see what you can do to help us find this guy, okay?”

She smiled then, feeling a whole lot better. “Okay.”

As she sat at Nate’s desk with the blank sheet of paper before her, she found herself wishing she had taken a better look at the guy. Now she had only the vaguest recollection, broad brush strokes of impression that her mind was undoubtedly going to try to fill in.

Closing her eyes briefly, she reached for the snapshot that her brain had taken in the first instant she had seen the man. Then, working swiftly, she began to make pencil strokes on the paper before her.

Twenty minutes later she handed the paper to Nate. He studied it intently, then nodded.

“We’ll be able to identify him from this,” he told her. “But you have to understand, legally I can’t touch the guy. I can have my men keep an eye out for him, and I can have them keep a sharper eye on you, but I can’t do anything about this man until he does something illegal. Fact is, I can’t even ask him what he’s doing in these parts. Well, I can ask, but he doesn’t have to answer. Legally, my hands are tied until he actually does something wrong.”

Esther nodded, feeling apprehensive again.

“Of course,” Nate continued, “I could always have a personal word with him, something to the effect that he’d better hope you don’t stumble and sprain your ankle while he’s around, because if anything, however minor, happens to you, we’re going to be looking really hard at him.”

“Thank you.” It wasn’t all that she could have wished for, but even Richard Jackson might take pause if Nate Tate spoke to him that way. Most mortals would.

“Now,” Nate said, perching on the corner of his desk and looking down at her, “why don’t you consider coming to stay with Marge and me? Just until this guy moves on. We’ve got a spare room and you’d be more than welcome.”

The offer touched Esther deeply. Tears prickled her eyes and she had to blink rapidly. “Thank you, Nate. I appreciate that more than I can say.”

“Nothing to thank me for. What good is a neighbor if he’s not willing to help out when you need him?”

“Well, I thank you anyway, but I’m afraid I can’t accept. I’ve got so much work to do to prepare for my next exhibition. I can’t afford to let my father interfere with it, Nate.”

He cocked his head to one side and frowned. “Your life is the important thing.”

“My career
is
my life. Without it, I’m nothing. I’m not going to let him destroy me through fear.”

The sheriff nodded, managing to look at once resigned and understanding. “Sounds exactly like some damn fool thing I’d say myself. Okay, have it your way. I’ll just make sure the patrols run by your place more frequently now, and that everybody’s on the lookout for this man.”

Rising, Esther looked at the sketch he was still holding. “The more I look at it, the more convinced I am that it’s my father.”

“Well, it’s sure not anyone local. I’d recognize him if he were.”

That sent another chill skittering along her spine. That was when she realized just how much she’d been hoping she’d mistaken someone local for her father. “I’d better go get Guin,” she said finally.

“Check with Velma first. Somebody may have already gone to get her.”

When she stopped at the dispatcher’s desk, Velma shook her head. “Jake said you come by whenever. It’s no problem. He also said to tell you Guin’s just fine.”

“Thanks, Velma.”

“No problem. Anything else I can do, you just holler, hear?”

When Esther stepped back out onto the sunny street, she felt considerably better, as if discovering how much support she had strengthened her somehow. Her head was up and her step was light. And quite consciously, she refused to look around to see if she saw the man again. She didn’t want to know if he was there. Sooner or later, it seemed she was going to have to deal with him. Until that time she wasn’t going to cower.

Her newfound courage lasted all the way to the vet’s where Jake told her that Guin was just fine.

“I don’t know what was wrong,” he told her. “She vomited once more after you left her, but she didn’t go into acidosis. When she woke up this morning she was bright-eyed and energetic. She ate a full breakfast and pretty much downed a whole bowl of water. Since then she’s been sleeping, but that’s her normal schedule, isn’t it?”

Esther nodded. “She sleeps through most of the day while I work. Her most active time is in the evening.”

“Well, then, she’s just fine. I can only speculate that she ate something she shouldn’t have, something that was a little toxic to her.”

Guin was thrilled to see her, wagging her entire body with delight and clearly resisting the urge to jump up on Esther only with the greatest difficulty. She leapt into her transport case with undisguised eagerness, and woofed a friendly farewell to Jake Llewellyn.

Jake waved as they drove away. He was, Esther thought, a remarkably warm and friendly man. In fact, now that she thought about it, she’d met a number of very nice, very friendly men since moving here. Back in Seattle she’d avoided men completely, talking to them only when business demanded it. Since coming here, though, she hadn’t been able to get away with that. The men of the sheriff’s department were rather persistent about looking after her, and now her neighbor was thrusting himself into her affairs with all the determination of a knight-errant.

Isolated? Had she really believed herself to be isolated? She suddenly felt an urge to laugh out loud. Since coming to Conard County she was less isolated than she had been at any time in her life. The people here just wouldn’t let her be, and she apparently hadn’t felt any desperate need to insist upon it. The daily visits from deputies had become a welcome part of her life, along with Verna’s arrival with the mail. And it felt damn good to be headed home knowing that deputies would be stopping by frequently, and that in a few hours Craig would arrive.

No, her isolation had been a state of mind, and now that it was shattered, she was incredibly relieved. How absolutely appallingly awful this situation would have been without all this support!

When she pulled up to her house and saw that a deputy was already waiting, she could almost have kissed Nate. Micah Parish stepped down from her porch and came around to speak to her through the driver’s window.

“Nate didn’t want you arriving home alone,” he told her. “Seems you saw your father in town?”

“I think so.”

He nodded. “Well, then, just give me the house key. I’ll go inside and check things out. On the off chance there’s someone in there, you and Guinevere stay right here. If I’m not back out in five minutes, get the hell out of here, okay?”

Just like that, all the sunshine was gone from the world again. The threat had never seemed more real or more hideous. There was something so stark about his order for her to drive away if he didn’t come back out.

Another shiver trickled down her spine and she looked away from the house, out over the prairie toward the mountains. They were late-afternoon dark now, almost slate gray. The air was still so crystalline from the night’s rain that the mountains seemed almost magnified, with every detail standing out clearly. She wondered if she could accomplish that effect with her watercolors.

Guin groaned a happy sound from the back, as if she knew she was home and that at any moment she was going to be allowed to run free. Which, of course, she wouldn’t until she was out of heat.

God, had five minutes ever dragged so slowly? Esther found herself drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and tapping her toe. If something happened to Micah Parish…

But nothing did. He stepped out the front door eons later—or so it seemed—and waved that it was all clear. Then he headed toward the barn. Esther considered getting out of the Jimmy, then decided to wait. Someone could be hiding in the barn just as well.

But no one was. When Micah came striding back across the hard-packed earth toward her, she climbed down from the Jimmy and went around back to let Guinevere out.

Guin was apparently waiting for this opportunity. Rather than sit patiently to be leashed as she usually did, she leapt right by Esther, nearly knocking her over, and ran for the open fields.

“Guin! No! Guin, come!”

But the dog barely halted to glance back at her before she dashed even farther away. Esther stared after her in despair, knowing there was no way on earth she could catch the Saint Bernard.

Micah came up beside her. “She’ll come back, Esther. She always has.”

“But she’s in heat!”

“Well, hell.” He looked after the rapidly vanishing dog, then chuckled. “Guess my kids’ll get those pups sooner than I thought.”

Almost in spite of herself, Esther felt her natural good humor reasserting itself. “They’ll be mutts. Most likely half komondor.”

He arched a dark brow. “She’s got a thing for Nighthawk’s dog, huh?”

Esther chuckled. “The two of them appear to be madly in love. For the moment at least.”

Micah shook his head. “Well, that ought to make one hell of an interesting cross. Then again, maybe the two of them won’t get together.”

“I’ve got my fingers crossed, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.”

Micah reached inside the Jimmy and pulled out the grocery bags. “I’ll carry these inside for you, then I’ve got to be heading home. Faith always worries when I’m late. Say, would you like to come have dinner with us?”

Again she felt tempted, a desire that surprised her.

Ordinarily she backed away from such invitations without the least regret. “Thank you. May I have a rain check? I need to be here when Guin gets back.”

Ten minutes later she watched from the front porch as Micah Parish drove away. With his departure, her unease returned, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it except go inside and lock the door behind her.

Come home, Guin, she thought. Come home soon. I don’t need to be worrying about you, too.

“Oh, hell!” Craig looked at the two dogs out by the shearing barn and wanted to groan. Esther was going to be furious.

“Where’d that Saint Bernard come from?” Enoch asked.

“She belongs to Esther Jackson.”

“The woman you’re spending the night with?”

“The
lady
on whose porch I’m sleeping,” Craig corrected him quickly.

Enoch flashed a very male grin. “Yeah. Right.”

“Believe what you want. But I know better than to get mixed up with another white woman. They’re nothing but trouble.”

Enoch’s smile faded. “Yeah,” he said finally. “It can be a real pain.” Craig suddenly remembered how badly beaten Enoch had been in high school when he dared to ask a white girl out. Her brother and his friends had made sure that Enoch never got so far above himself again.

Craig looked at the two dogs who were quite happily mating and wondered what the hell he was going to tell Esther. Not that there was much he could have done. Mop was plainly in his own yard, and Guin was just as plainly trespassing.

“Oh, hell,” he said again as it struck him that something might be wrong with Esther. The dog had gotten away from her somehow. What if she was hurt? “I need to get over to Esther’s place pronto. If Guin’s running loose something’s wrong.”

Enoch gave him another irritating smile. “Yeah. Okay, go see what’s up. I’ll bring her dog over when they’re done.”

Craig hesitated, knowing that if the dog had merely gotten away from Esther somehow, she was probably going to be upset with him for not bringing Guin. On the other hand, given what the two dogs were doing right now, it might be forty-five minutes before they could be separated. And, damn, didn’t the two of them look pleased as punch? He nodded to Enoch. “Thanks.”

He trotted across the yard to his pickup, then took off like a bat out of hell. It was entirely possible he was overreacting, he knew, but he was suddenly unable to think of anything except the note that had been on her door last night. That fluttering white sheet of paper saying the bastard had been there in the dead of night.

And for all he passed it off as nothing unusual to Esther, he felt every bit as disturbed by the timing of that note as she did. He just hadn’t wanted to add to her anxiety by agreeing with her—although in retrospect maybe he had been treating her like a child. Esther certainly didn’t deserve that from him.

The long summer evening was just drawing to a close as he pulled up in front of her house. The Jimmy was parked out front where she usually left it, and lights were blazing throughout the first floor of the house. She was growing uneasy as night descended, he realized. She didn’t even have Guinevere to keep her company now.

Unless something was wrong. Fear gripped him by the throat as he trotted up the steps and hammered on her door.

A minute crept by, and then another. He hammered again, shouting her name, and wondering if he ought to break the door down.

“Craig?”

He swung around and found Esther standing in the yard to his left.

“Craig, what on earth…?”

He bounded down the porch, leapt the rail, and picked her right up off her feet. “God, woman, you scared me half to death! Your dog is over at my place, all your lights are on but you didn’t answer your door….”

“I was out looking for Guin.” She sounded breathless and was looking at him uncertainly. Her hands were braced on his shoulders as she dangled helplessly in his arms. “Craig, I don’t like to be…picked up….”

He could hear the note of panic beginning to rise in her voice, and he quickly set her on her feet. “Sorry,” he said swiftly, stepping back. “Sorry. I was just so glad to see you okay….” He didn’t want to admit any more than that, either to himself or her. “I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.”

She astonished him with a wry smile. “I think you’re overwhelming by nature. So Guin is at your place? Can one hope she isn’t busy making herself a mommy?”