On Deadly Ground (7 page)

By the time they made it to their booth, eighteen-year-old bundle-of-energy Mitzi Abbott had cleared away the glasses and plates. The cute brunette flashed them a smile, spritzed water on the table and whisked a cloth over it.

“Hi, Rachel. Hi, Jake. Do you need menus? Our special’s chicken-fried steak with your choice of potato or green beans and either French onion soup or a side salad. Oh, cinnamon applesauce comes with it, too.”

“The special sounds good,” Jake said, smiling. “I’ll have the salad, baked potato and coffee. Rachel?”

“Same here,” she said, although she knew it was going to be too much food.

Mitzi was already on the move. “Great,” she called. “I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

Rachel slid into the booth, set her shoulder bag on the seat beside her, then met Jake’s eyes across the table. When she didn’t say anything for a full moment, he spoke.

“What?”

“Ninety minutes ago you were happy and upbeat. Now you’re distracted or disturbed about something.”

“It’s that obvious?”

“To me it is. Do you want to talk about it? Or should I mind my own business?”

He didn’t have time to respond—which might have been a good thing, Rachel decided. A tall, rack-of-bones man with pale blue eyes and rimless eyeglasses left his table and walked on stork legs to their booth. Elmer Fox’s red plaid flannel shirt was tucked into navy work pants, and his belt was cinched so tightly that it puckered his waistband. Closely clipped white hair showed under his red-and-black Woolrich cap.

Charity’s favorite outspoken octogenarian spoke in a hoarse voice that made people want to clear their throats. “Heard about the fire, Rachel. You doin’ all right?”

By now, her responses were all the same. “Yes, I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking.”

He folded his long, lanky frame into the booth beside her. “Dang shame. All them firemen working so hard
and unable to save your place. I hear you’re stayin’ at the Blackberry for now.”

“Yes. Jenna insisted.”

“That’s good of her. But you got a campground to run, and it’s gonna be hard to do it from town.” He paused. “I got a nice room at my place if you want it. It ain’t fancy like the Blackberry, but it’s clean and it’s a dang sight closer to your work.”

Rachel’s heart nearly melted. What a darling man he was. But there was no way she could accept his offer. Besides, she already had a plan of sorts. She reached over to squeeze his age-spotted hand. “Thank you, but I’m afraid tongues would wag if I moved in with you. I wouldn’t want to put you in that position.”

For a long moment, Elmer stared at her blankly as if trying to decipher what she meant. Then a light went on in his blue eyes, his jaw dropped and he hooted until he wheezed. “Now wouldn’t that be somethin'! Last time folks gossiped about me, Ike was in office.”

Laughing along with him, Rachel turned to Jake and made belated introductions. “Jake, do you know Elmer Fox?”

He reached across the table to shake Elmer’s hand. “Only by sight and reputation.” Which was considerable, Rachel thought. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Fox.”

Elmer’s expression soured. “You the new game warden?”

“Yep.” Technically, he was a W.C.O., but game warden worked.

“You read any of the signs outside my house?”

“Yes, sir, I have. I drive by your place almost daily.”

“Then you know I don’t like the way you fellas are managing the deer.”

Jake seemed to hold back a smile. “I do. Maybe we should talk sometime.”

“Maybe we should,” he agreed with a grumpy nod. Then he glanced at the table full of teenagers he’d left. Apparently, he’d been holding court. “Well, I gotta get back over there. None of ‘em knows a thing about World War II and they got finals coming up.”

He shook a finger at Rachel as he started away. “Remember, I got a nice room for you if you want it.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Elmer,” she called. “Have a nice evening.”

Then Mitzi arrived with their drinks and salads, more people stopped by their table to offer their sympathies and talk about the fire and the time for discussing Jake’s problem passed.

He surprised her by following her back to the Blackberry after they’d said goodbye at the diner—then thoroughly stunned her with an invitation.

“Feel like taking a drive?” he said when he’d parked and exited his vehicle.

A drive? Now? It would be dark in two hours. “Sure,” she said after a moment. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Heather called.”

P
ayton’s Rocks was the highest point in the area, filled with a craggy kind of beauty, its gigantic rock formations nearly scraping the sky. Jake’s tires crunched over dirt and gravel as they came to a stop and he shut off the motor.

“I stumbled onto this place shortly after I transferred,” he said as they exited the vehicle. “I’m always surprised that there aren’t more people using the resources up here.”

“I’m not,” Rachel returned as they walked, single file, over the narrow path to the rocks. She didn’t mind their small talk. When he was ready to discuss that phone call, he would. “I think it’s fairly common for people to miss the beauty in their own backyards. My dad calls it ‘the grass is greener syndrome.’”

He spoke from behind her. “How’s your dad doing?”

“Getting stronger every day, and I’m so thankful.”

“Did you tell your mom and dad about the fire?”

“No, and I hope no one else does, either, until I have something positive to add.”

“Rebuilding is positive.”

“I know, but that won’t happen for a while.” Contractors
would have their work lined up by now, probably into the fall.

The path opened wide enough for them to walk side-by-side, then wider still until they were finally staring at centuries-old rock behemoths. They strolled among the giants for a while, marveling at the size and mass of the rocks, then finally settled on a low, sun-warmed boulder surrounded by blue sky. Far below, cutting through the heavily forested hillside, the state route they’d traveled was a winding gray ribbon.

“About Heather …” he said when he’d been silent for a while. “I still can’t believe she called. After the way we left it, I didn’t think I’d ever hear from her again.”

“Your parting wasn’t friendly.”

He blew out a short laugh. “Not even a little bit. I probably should have changed my cell phone number.”

“What did she want?” It was hardly her place to ask, but that question had been burning in her mind since he’d uttered Heather’s name twenty minutes ago.

“She says she wants to visit.”

Rachel’s pulse stepped up its pace, and glancing down, she zipped Jenna’s blue fleece jacket, suddenly needing to do something with her hands. “How do you feel about that?”

“Not great.” He scooped up a few pebbles, then stood and arced one after another over the precipice to the forest below. “Did I tell you she worked for a travel agency?”

“No,” she replied quietly. “You never even mentioned her name until a few minutes ago.”

“Well, that’s how we met. My parents were taking another cruise, and my dad asked me to pick up the
tickets. He’d booked with Heather several times and really liked her. Somewhere along the line, I guess he decided that if we met …”

He didn’t finish, so she finished for him. “The two of you would click?”

“Something like that.” He scooped up a few more pebbles, then sent them flying, as well. “Long story short, it worked for a while. Then her boss divorced his wife, and Heather decided Mark was more exciting than a guy who wanted to live and work in the woods. According to her, a guy who had no desire to live up to his potential.”

Stunned that any woman would leave Jake for any reason—particularly when she knew who and what he was when they met—Rachel took a moment to reply. “I’m not sure I understand,” she said.

“My family’s half owner of Prestige Communications. You’ve probably heard of it.”

Who hadn’t? Rachel thought, startled. Prestige wasn’t as big as AT&T or Comcast, but it was sizable.

“Prestige supplies broadband service to several hundred thousand customers. Maybe more now. I don’t ask. Anyway … Heather wanted me to take a position in the company—which would have made my dad ecstatic, too. But that’s not who I am, or who I ever wanted to be. She didn’t get it.”

“Did your dad ‘get it'?”

“If you mean, was he upset when I didn’t come aboard after college, no.” Jake tossed the last pebble, then dusted his hands and turned back to her. “He understood that I needed to do what made me happy—although that’s probably because he does have a son at
the business. My brother, Greg, and his wife both work at Prestige.”

Rachel remained silent, still trying to wrap her mind around Jake’s life. They’d known each other for six months and he’d never mentioned that his family was wealthy—and by extension, that he was, too. She wouldn’t have guessed that from the simple way he lived.

“When Heather finally realized where we’d be living, who our friends would be and, more importantly, that we wouldn’t be jetting off to Europe or the Bahamas a dozen times a year, her interest shifted. Mark—her boss—had always had a thing for her. But I trusted her, and he was married.” He shrugged. “I guess she got tired of living vicariously through her clients. She slept with Mark, he bought her a black Corvette and I said adios.”

Rachel spoke softly. “Oh, Jake, I’m sorry.”

He looked at her, his gaze grim. “Yeah. For a while, I was one flat tire and an old dog shy of a country song. Now she wants to visit me.”

“Does she …?” Rachel drew a breath, startled by the sudden racing of her heart. “Does she want you back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want her back?”

He couldn’t have sounded more certain. “Absolutely not.”

Still … he’d been thrown by that phone call, and when she’d asked how he felt about Heather visiting, he’d been vague.

Late that night, once again unable to sleep, Rachel stared at the ceiling from her bed at the Blackberry. And
she and her fluttering stomach wondered if there was still unfinished business between Jake and the woman who’d betrayed him.

Her stomach didn’t feel much better after the fire marshal visited her the next day. He stayed only long enough to deliver disturbing news that no one should hear on a sunny Sunday morning. Then he left her in Chief Lon Perris’s hands.

Rachel sank to the sofa on Jenna’s porch, her knees suddenly weak. Behind her, Jenna squeezed Rachel’s shoulder.

“Arson?” Rachel said in a barely audible voice. She met Chief Perris’s steely gaze. “You’re absolutely certain?”

Perris glanced beyond the Blackberry’s porch to the parking area where a state police cruiser was just pulling out. In Pennsylvania, the fire marshal was a state police officer. “It’s not my job or expertise to be certain.” He nodded at the car. “But it is his, and he says it was an accelerant fire. We need to talk about that because it’s obvious from the circumstances that someone wants you dead.”

Chills drizzled through her. “Who?”

“That’s what we have to figure out. Do you know of anyone who might want to do you harm? Enemies—past or present—who have a problem with you?”

“No,” she said numbly. “I—I don’t have enemies.”

Perris pressed on. “A disgruntled campground guest? A vendor? Someone you turned away because of prior bad behavior?”

Rachel shook her head. She got along with everyone,
and she’d never had occasion to ask any of her campers to leave. “No. No, there’s no one.”

“There has to be. Think. Even the most innocent remark or trivial occurrence could set off the wrong person.”

Rachel released a shaky sigh. “Look, would you like me to make up something? Because that’s the only way you’re going to get a name from me.”

Jenna moved around the sofa to face Perris, her brow lining. “You need to know something about Rachel. She’s the closest thing we have in Charity to a saint.”

“Jen, please.”

“Hush. It’s the truth.” She spoke to the chief again. “She goes to church, she helps out at the nursing home—despite the fact that she has more than enough work of her own to do—and she’s the first in line to volunteer when a friend or neighbor needs a hand. If someone wants to hurt her—”

“There is no
if,”
Perris said. “It’s a sure thing.”

“Then it’s someone neither of us knows,” Jenna stated emphatically. “Maybe the fire was random. Maybe—”

“That’s highly unlikely, but I’m not ruling anything out.” He directed his remarks to Rachel again. “In the meantime, it would be best if you kept your stay here a secret.”

She would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so grave. “A secret in Charity? There
are
no secrets in Charity. I suspect Hector at the post office has already filled out a change of address card for me to sign.”

“Then I suggest that you limit your wanderings and keep thinking about people you might have offended, because there is someone out there.”

Rachel got to her feet. “I can’t stay here forever. My campground will be opening soon, and there’s still work to be done.”

Perris responded sharply. “Then you’d better hire some security because we don’t know who this monkey is or what motivates him. If the person who torched your house is the same man you saw last Sunday night, he’s got an agenda and he’s dedicated. Do you know what I mean by
dedicated?”

She nodded. “He won’t stop.”

“That’s right.”

Jenna touched her arm. “I think hiring a couple of men to keep an eye on the campground is a very good idea. In fact, Joe Reston came by yesterday to see if I needed help. He and a few others were laid off at the lumber mill Friday, and he’s looking for work until things pick up.” She paused to make a point. “He’s big and he’s intimidating.”

True, Rachel thought. He was also the first man she’d considered while trying to put a face on her intruder.

A dark blue Ram truck sped up the drive and parked next to Perris’s prowl car. Seconds later, Jake got out and walked toward the porch. Rachel’s thankful heart leaped. The cavalry had arrived. Not a whole troop. Just one man in jeans, boots and a chambray shirt with the sleeves rolled back over his muscular forearms. A man who made her feel safe just by being here.

Jenna spoke quietly. “He asked me to call him as soon as you heard the fire marshal’s findings. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

Rachel nodded. She didn’t mind at all.

Jake took the steps to the wide wraparound porch, his expression lined. After nodding to Perris, he thanked
Jenna for calling and met Rachel’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

“As okay as anyone would be after making a firebug’s hit list.”

Mouth thinning, Perris turned to Jake. “Convince her to lay low for a while. I can have an officer drive by here more often, but the department’s too small for much more than that.” He cut a look at Rachel. “Call the station if anything unusual happens or if you come up with a name for me. I’ll contact you when I have something to report.”

Rachel nodded and expressed her thanks, glad to be on friendlier terms with the man. Well … if not friendlier, at least tolerable terms.

When the chief had gone and Jenna had stepped inside to dress for church, Jake spoke somberly. “I hope you’re not taking this as lightly as it sounded—or as lightly as Perris thinks you are.”

“I’m not. I’m scared. I just don’t see much value in running around, wringing my hands.”

“Good. Then you
will
sit tight?”

Rachel hesitated. She’d been turning things around in her mind ever since the fire marshal had given her the verdict, and she’d come up with several undeniable facts. None of which allowed her to “sit tight,” no matter how frightened she was. She indicated the sweat pants and T-shirt she wore, clothes she’d pulled from her dryer the night of the fire. “Can we talk about this later? I need to get dressed for church.”

His jaw dropped. “You’re going to church?”

“It’s Sunday. I go to church on Sundays.”

“This isn’t about your faith, Rachel,” he said, his frustration evident. “It’s about your safety.”

She swallowed, believing the words she was about to say, though she wasn’t crazy about the prospect. “None of us leaves this world until God says it’s time to go. If He decides it’s my time, locking doors and hiding here at Jenna’s won’t do me any good.”

Jake’s mood didn’t improve with her rationale. “That doesn’t mean you have to deliberately put yourself in harm’s way. I thought the Lord helped those who help themselves. Or don’t you agree?”

“I do, but I need to be in church today, Jake. I need to. No one’s going to hurt me there.”

He seemed to consider that for a long moment, then nodded. But his stoic look and the gravity in his eyes told her he didn’t like her decision. “What time’s the service?”

“Eleven o’clock.”

“Then you’d better get moving,” he said, glancing at his wristwatch. “It’s already ten-twenty-five.”

An hour and a half later, Rachel shook hands with Reverend Landers and followed Jenna and a friend of hers out of St. John’s Church. Dressed in his collar and Sunday blacks, Landers was a warm, elderly man with white hair, a bit of a potbelly and kind blue eyes behind rimless bifocals. Inside, Emma Lucille Bridger was still pounding on the organ, the last swelling strains of “Amazing Grace” rolling into the street.

“The service was lovely,” Rachel said, smiling. “It was exactly what I needed today.”

He took her hand in both of his. “I’m glad. I wasn’t sure we’d see you this morning. How are you holding up? Is there anything more we can do for you—other than prayer?”

“Probably not,” she replied, wondering if she should mention the fire marshal’s findings before it became common knowledge. “Just keep the prayers coming and I’ll be fine.”

The tall man behind her begged to differ. “She’d be a lot finer if she took the advice the police gave her.”

Landers’s curious glance slid between them, and Rachel shot Jake a look. The “wondering” was over. She didn’t want to talk about the fire. Not after the music, the lesson and the hymns had managed to dull her fears a little. “Reverend Landers,” she said, “I’d like you to meet my friend and neighbor Jake Campbell. Jake’s a wildlife conservation officer.”

Jake gripped the hand Landers extended. “Nice to meet you, Reverend.”

“Likewise. Actually, I believe I saw you talking with Rachel the night of the fire. I hope you enjoyed the service today, Mr. Campbell.”

“I did. And it’s Jake.”

“Good. Then maybe we’ll see you again, Jake?”

He hesitated. “Maybe.” He glanced at Rachel’s dress, then took in the attire of a few of the congregation who were talking a short distance away. “I hope you’ll forgive the way I’m dressed, Reverend. Attending was a last-minute decision.”