Hidden Motive (16 page)

“I think…Otis Boswell. Oh, no, don't tell me Heidlage died.”

“He had complained about the number of mining accident victims presenting to the clinic. Then he attempted to standardize emergency procedures for mining accidents. He started researching the past accidents, even went so far as to visit one of the mines. He spoke to several of the ambulance personnel. Then, all of a sudden, he left.”

“He quit? Or are you saying he was frightened off?”

“He gave notice and was gone in two weeks. He never explained why he was leaving.”

“That was mentioned a couple of times in the office,” Sable said, “but I didn't think much about it, either.”

“Maybe it's something we need to think about,” he suggested, thumbing through the workers' comp copies. “Have you noticed that none of these reports are about anything serious? Anyone wishing to prevent an investigation by OSHA would want to keep reports to a minimum, particularly the minor ones that could be paid out of company coffers.”

“I haven't heard many complaints about the safety conditions,” Sable said. “But Boswell's miners get good pay, better than many other miners in the country. For that much money, they'll keep their mouths shut.”

“Someone at the clinic might even have been paid to pull the reports filed by the medical staff,” Murph said. “And Josiah found this out. Who knows, maybe Heidlage even revealed it to him, since Josiah was one of Boswell's partners. That could be when Josiah began to check things out a little more closely.”

Sable touched the lump on her head. “So we're in danger because Grandpa was trying to uphold the law, not break it.”

“Sounds likely. Still think you can handle a gun?”

“Yes.”

“Could you shoot someone if you had to?”

She hesitated. “Could you?”

“I worked as a medic for a mining company that had holdings in Colombia. They sent me there once, armed to protect myself against drug runners operating nearby. We…had a run-in. It was either shoot or be shot. I didn't kill, but I did maim. I'll never forget it, Sable. Believe me, shooting a human being isn't easy. What if our killer turns out to be Jerri? Or Craig?”

She closed her eyes.

He drew her closer. “We've found what we're looking for.”

“We'll never get out of here with it.”

“I'm the pessimist here, remember?”

“All of a sudden everything's changed.”

He felt the soft warmth of her breath against his cheek. “I know. I have even more reason to want to live now.”

She rested her forehead against his shoulder.

“This could become addictive,” Murph said.

“You mean the terror of running for our lives?”

“I mean learning to depend on each other.”

“Sable!” came a sharp female voice from below. “Sable Chamberlin? Are you okay?” It was Audry. Time to go.

T
hat evening, oil lamps flickered on the shelves of the upper hallway, and a scent of vanilla drifted through the air. Flames danced downstairs in the fireplace beneath a mantel decorated with three glowing candles. The house radiated warmth. Audry and Jerri had done a good job.

Sable walked down the stairway beside Murph. Except for a lingering headache, she felt physically well. The strange and frightening episode of blindness had not recurred.

Special Ops.

“I'm not hungry,” she muttered to Murph.

“You haven't eaten since breakfast. You'll feel better with something in your stomach, and Audry says there's a surprise for dinner.”

“Are we ready for another surprise?”
Mining accidents.

His hand tightened on her arm, and he stopped and turned to her. “Speaking of surprises, maybe Craig is right about telling the others. This situation is getting out of hand. It isn't right to withhold information from those who could be affected.”

“As you said, it's not right to endanger their lives.”
Unfiled workers' comp reports.

“Consider this. Your grandfather collected all the evidence against Boswell without telling you what he was up to. He wanted to protect you, but by trying to protect you, he ultimately placed you in more danger.”

“I understand what you're saying, but this is different. If we announce there's a stalker among us, we'll be alerting the stalker, as well. Let's see what happens tonight.”

They entered the kitchen, where Audry and Perry stood at the stove disagreeing amiably about the seasonings, while Bryce and Craig sat at the dining table discussing their excursion into the cave this morning. Simmons sat at the end of the table with his back to the wall, silent.

“How's the goose egg on your hand?” Craig asked Sable as she took a seat across from him.

“It's more of a hen egg than a goose egg now,” she said.

Audry came to the table with a huge covered platter. She set it on the table and stepped back. “You won't believe who cooked tonight's dinner.” She gestured grandly toward Perry Chadwick, who stood beside the kitchen counter. “Our water carrier. He's a chef, complete with cookbooks! He was on his way to a chef's challenge cook-off at Big Cedar.”

“Big Cedar, huh?” Jerri leaned back to get a better look at Perry, her red hair gleaming bronze in the candlelight. “Is there a cooking contest in a resort in the middle of winter?”

Perry nodded. “Covered live by Springfield's Channel 33. If I win, I travel to St. Louis for the regional next month.”

Jerri glanced at Simmons. “And you're on your way to Harrison, Arkansas?”

“Not by choice,” the man grumbled. “My mom's in Fayetteville, but my sister wants me to go to her house in Harrison, get her car and drive it to Fayetteville. That's how I got into this crazy situation in the first place.”

Sable exchanged glances with Murph. Simmons wasn't on the wrong bus.

Audry whisked the cover from the large platter of food. “Venison with mushroom sauce, garlic potato pancakes, green beans with herbed almonds, handmade croissants.”

Perry pulled off his apron and held a chair for Audry. “Time to dine.”

As the others passed the gourmet fare around the table, Sable sipped her water, studying her guests.

Audry beamed at Perry, as if he were her own chick just hatched. “You could have told me you were a chef.”

Perry chuckled. “I'm an amateur. I have a lot to learn.”

Jerri served herself and passed the platter. “An amateur is someone who does something simply for the love of it.”

Perry patted his belly. “Guilty as charged.”

“Now, Perry, don't be too hard on yourself,” Audry chided. “I bet you've built up some muscle carrying all that water.”

“Your coordination is improving, too,” Jerri observed. “I watched you carry wood in from the pile beside the front porch, and you didn't fall on the ice.”

Perry served himself small portions. “I'm not doing as well as Craig, though. He practically skated all the way to the bridge and back today.”

Simmons looked up from his food. “The bridge?”

“I thought we might have to get Sable to a hospital after her fall,” Craig said. “The ice is thick, and the bridge tilts dangerously. It would have to be cleared before we can leave.”

“We seldom used that bridge,” Sable said. “It's so much farther out that way.”

“But not as steep,” Craig said. “The bridge is the most dangerous part. I thought I might go out and try my hand at chopping after dinner.”

“Who said anything about leaving?” Simmons asked.

Craig gave Sable a pointed look. She held his gaze.

“I'm not going anywhere on this ice,” Audry announced. “I've had too many bad weather experiences in these Ozark hills. We simply can't afford any more emergencies.”

“Sable, are you sure you're doing okay?” Jerri asked. “If we need to get you to medical care—”

“It's a possibility,” she said. “I seemed to have some visual disturbances earlier, when I was in the cave.”

“Somebody else was down there,” Bryce said slowly. “I heard you, Murph. You told Craig somebody attacked you.”

The room fell into stunned silence.

“Attacked?” Audry cried.

There was a moment of cacophony as several voices were raised at once. The dinner was forgotten.

“Please, everyone calm down.” Murph's deep voice rose above the din. “We did have an extra spelunker down in the cave this morning.” He described the incident briefly. “It's possible someone was exploring the pit and didn't want to be disturbed. When we arrived, whoever it was might have felt it was necessary to jump us, to get away unseen.”

Perry set his water glass down with a clatter. “That's drastic action just to avoid being identified as a trespasser.”

Simmons looked from face to face around the table, eyes narrowed to slits, face paling.

“Is there another entrance to the cave?” Jerri asked. “Surely it couldn't have been one of us….”

“Tell them, Sable,” Craig said. “They know this much, they need to know it all.”

She could have cut a hole through Craig with her glare, but he wouldn't drop his gaze.

“Sable?” Jerri said. “Is there something else going on?”

“Someone also pushed Sable over the side of the cliff the other night,” Craig said. “She didn't slip on the ice. And that ‘accident' Murph had in the woods yesterday was no accident. Sable saw someone throw a log at him.”

“Sable?” Audry said. “Why didn't you say anything earlier?”

“Sable and I didn't want to alarm everyone,” Murph said. “And we knew someone was dangerous, but we didn't know who.”

“And you do now?” Audry asked, glancing around the table.

“No, we don't.” Sable tucked her napkin beneath the edge of her plate. “It could be anyone here. We can't go into great detail now, but it seems someone followed us here to stop us from finding evidence about crimes committed in Freemont.”

“Murders,” Craig added.

“Stop it!” Sable told him. “You're making it worse.”

“There's been too much covered up already,” Craig said.

“Murders!” Audry exclaimed. “Are you saying Josiah was murdered?”

Sable's glare found a new target. The woman used Grandpa's name with far too much familiarity.

“Please,” Murph said, “if you've seen anything that might help, tell Sable or me. Tell all of us, in fact, right now. From here on out, now that the danger is known, we must take every precaution until we leave here.”

“We should all stay close to one another,” Sable said. “And we should lock our bedroom doors at night.”

“Oh, that's just great,” Perry spluttered. “We're stuck in the middle of the woods, possibly with a murderer. Where am I supposed to sleep? There's no lock on my door, remember? I'm alone in the sewing room. What am I supposed to do?”

“Stay in the room with Simmons and me,” Murph said.

Dinner ended on that note.

S
able picked up a glowing oil lamp from a mirrored shelf in the dining room. “Audry, may I speak with you for a moment?” Without waiting for a reply, she led the way across the hall and into the cozy family room, where bookcases lined the walls and the darkened television hovered in a far corner. She placed the lamp on a table along the wall and closed the door behind the slender, gray-haired woman…the woman with suddenly watchful eyes.

Sable pulled the old photograph of Audry, Grandpa and Otis Boswell from the pocket of her jeans and held it out. “You never told me you knew my grandfather. I'm curious why.”

Audry slowly took the snapshot from Sable's fingers and studied it. She closed her eyes for a second, then opened them and met Sable's gaze. “I'm sorry, honey. I'm…it seems you've caught me off guard.”

“How?” By the expression on Audry's face, Sable could tell she wouldn't want to know the answer to her questions, and yet she couldn't
not
ask.

“Believe me,” Audry said, “if I knew anything that could help, I'd be the first to tell you.”

Sable waited.

Audry turned to gaze around the room. She stepped over to a game table between two chairs. “All these furnishings are different from how it looked years ago.”

“You were a friend of my grandparents?”

Audry shook her head. “I never knew your grandmother. I was here only once.” She turned again to face Sable. “Your grandfather was a wonderful man.”

“How well did you know him? I need to know. This could be very important.”

Audry stepped once more to the window. “Josiah and I were…good friends once. Can we leave it at that?”

For a long moment, Sable forgot to breathe. “No, we can't. I need to know as much as possible about my grandfather and Otis Boswell. Why were you photographed with them?”

Audry handed the photo back to Sable. “This was a fluke. I worked at a café in Cassville to supplement my teaching salary. I was a widow raising two teenagers. That picture of the three of us was probably taken after a high school ball game. I often saw both of them at the school athletics events.”

“So you didn't know Otis well?”

“He came to the café a couple of times when Josiah was there. Craig's father, Reuben Holt, frequented the café, as well.”

“You knew Reuben?”

“I knew many of the locals. It's a tight community, you know. The men would sit together many mornings at the café. I'd pour them coffee and try to interest them in breakfast to improve business. I taught their kids in school.”

“So you weren't all the best of friends?”

“Far from it.”

“But you and my grandfather were,” Sable said.

Audry didn't meet her gaze. She sighed. “I'll tell you this only because of the current extreme circumstances. I apologize first, because this is going to hurt like fire, but I…I guess you should know.” She looked at Sable, then turned away. “I was a lonely widow who had been married too long to an abusive alcoholic. I knew your grandmother worked long hours at her restaurant in Eureka Springs, and Josiah was lonely. Our friendship became intimate one afternoon.”

Sable thought she'd been prepared, but she hadn't. The pain of her grandfather's betrayal shot through her like a hot knife. For a moment, she squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her teeth together to keep from crying out. How much more was she going to discover before this whole, ugly episode ended?

Audry continued, her voice soft, filled with sorrow. “Only once, Sable. Afterward, we were both remorseful. It never happened again. As I told you, your grandfather was a good man, and he regretted his one lapse. He loved your grandmother, and he loved your mother very much.”

“Obviously not enough to resist temptation.” Sable couldn't keep the bitterness from her voice. She bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Otis Boswell found out, somehow,” Audry said. “I don't know how. But I do know Josiah was always afraid Otis would use that knowledge to his own advantage.”

“Did he?” Sable asked.

Audry spread her hands. “I never knew. I got a teaching job in Sedalia the following year, and left the area, because I knew my own weakness. You see, honey, I loved Josiah more than I've ever loved another man. It was too painful to stay.”

There was a sharp rap on the door and Audry fell silent.

It was Craig. “Did Jerri come in here with you two? Murph and I can't find her.”

 

It was decided that while Murph searched for Jerri, everyone else would congregate in the family room, an uncomfortable arrangement for all, but the safest.

Audry distracted Bryce with a game of Scrabble while Simmons, Perry and Craig eyed each other with suspicion.

Sable stood at the window, overlooking the bridge that Craig had inspected for crossing. Her pain over Grandpa's infidelity converged with her fear that was foremost over all.

Was Audry telling the truth? Sable had already jumped to too many conclusions about Grandpa's transgressions. Should she believe he cheated on his wife just because a woman—who had been a stranger two days ago—claimed an affair with him?

But what motive would Audry have for lying?

Sable's every nerve attuned to the sounds in the room, hearing each inflection of voice as the men speculated about Jerri's whereabouts.

“She was going to the basement to add wood to the heating stove,” Perry said. “She left the basement door open.”

“She wasn't there when I looked,” Craig said.

“So you say.” Simmons growled aggressively, perhaps to disguise his fear.

Sable continued to listen for any note of falseness, aware that her reading of their voices could be colored by her own fear. They were all trapped. The stalker who had followed her and Murph had boxed them all in.

Conversely, their stalker was also cornered, and cornered predators could be dangerous.

She desperately needed some time alone.

 

Murph could accurately say that he'd been developing a much closer relationship with God in the past couple of days. He prayed with every step he took.

The lamps still burned in the upstairs hallway, so Murph didn't need a flashlight. He would feel better as soon as he found Jerri. There was no sign of her in the basement, and he knew she wouldn't set foot in the cave.

He expected to find her sleeping somewhere, but so far he hadn't come upon her. He'd seen her conked out on the sofa twice today, and she'd barely stayed awake during their meals. The woman seemed to be so thoroughly sleep-deprived and she could snooze through a tornado. In spite of the danger she'd just learned about, it was possible she had come upstairs for a nap. After all, she probably concluded that she wasn't being stalked.

He stepped to Sable's door, knocked, opened it. Empty. Methodically, he checked the other rooms. Dillon followed his every step.

When Murph returned to the hallway, inspection completed, he noticed the attic door standing ajar. Dillon's ears perked forward, and he whined. He walked up to Murph and nosed his hand, then whined again.

“What is it?”

The dog led the way up the attic steps, scratched at the door, opening it further with his nose.

Moments later, Murph found Jerri. How he wished she'd just been sleeping.